Blue Swedish... splash?

[CLovesDucks]

Hi friends! I’m a runner/mallard momma and decided to add two new female Blue Swedish and a female Black Runner to my family.

My newest ducklings are 3.5 weeks old and one of the Blue Swedish has spots.

This is my first time with Swedish ducks and I’m thinking she might be a splash. What do you guys think? Please excuse my dirty garage steps

 

[Table4Six]

View attachment 1834988

Hi friends! I’m a runner/mallard momma and decided to add two new female Blue Swedish and a female Black Runner to my family.

My newest ducklings are 3.5 weeks old and one of the Blue Swedish has spots.

This is my first time with Swedish ducks and I’m thinking she might be a splash. What do you guys think? Please excuse my dirty garage steps

What a cute duckling you have there! The darker spots is something commonly seen with Blue Swedish, however, this has no indication of whether a bird is splash or not, especially at your birds age. You’ll just have to wait and see as her adult feathers grow in.

My blue Swedish hen also came from metzer farms and after a little over a year with the molts in between she had gone from this to this:

With every molt, darker colors(such as blue, black, and chocolate) will continuously molt and grow in new white feathers as the bird ages. In this case it only took my hen a bit over a year to take on the splash coloring.

Here’s what my female looked like as a baby. She is now two years old.

 

[Kholts]

I have a blue Swedish that is 7 weeks old. She is not from a hatchery but a small hobby breeder.

She has a couple spots in her colouring like that when little and now they are even darker and still there.

Photos below.

I don’t really know much about the blue Swedish colouring. I’m sure the spots are considered unwanted colouring.



This is her now. Note the black feather spots.

 

[CLovesDucks]

I have a blue Swedish that is 7 weeks old. She is not from a hatchery but a small hobby breeder.

She has a couple spots in her colouring like that when little and now they are even darker and still there.

Photos below.

I don’t really know much about the blue Swedish colouring. I’m sure the spots are considered unwanted colouring.

View attachment 1835096 View attachment 1835097 View attachment 1835098 View attachment 1835099

This is her now. Note the black feather spots.
View attachment 1835105 View attachment 1835106

Oh, she’s beautiful! I honestly don’t care a bit about my ducks having unwanted coloring or marking as they’re treasured pets. Thank you so much for sharing! I love your duck’s spots

 

[Miss Lydia]

She’s beautiful @Table4Six

 

[Kholts]

What a cute duckling you have there! The darker spots is something commonly seen with Blue Swedish, however, this has no indication of whether a bird is splash or not, especially at your birds age. You’ll just have to wait and see as her adult feathers grow in.

My blue Swedish hen also came from metzer farms and after a little over a year with the molts in between she had gone from this to this:
View attachment 1835343
View attachment 1835344
With every molt, darker colors(such as blue, black, and chocolate) will continuously molt and grow in new white feathers as the bird ages. In this case it only took my hen a bit over a year to take on the splash coloring. View attachment 1835346
Here’s what my female looked like as a baby. She is now two years old.

Holy moly! I would have never thought those were the same ducks.

 

[CLovesDucks]

As a note, I ordered these as sexed ducklings from Metzer Farms (where we originally bought hatching eggs from).

They state this on their Blue Swedish page:

“So that we can produce 100% blue colored Blue Swedish, we have two breeder flocks. In one flock we have Black Swedish males and Silver females. In the other flock we have Silver males and Black Swedish females. All the progeny from these crosses will be the correct blue color. In June when we need breeders for next year, we switch the males so Black are on Black and Silver on Silver. We collect these eggs for about three weeks and hatch them for breeders. Then we switch the males and go back to producing the correctly colored Blue Swedish for the rest of the season. This is the reason we do not have Blue Swedish or Blue Runners available in July of each year.”
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Any thoughts, @Miss Lydia @WVduckchick ?

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[Miss Lydia]

I know nothing about Blue Swedish but I do know a few that do @Table4Six @MagpieDucks she sure is gorgeous!

 

[CLovesDucks]

I know nothing about Blue Swedish but I do know a few that do @Table4Six @MagpieDucks he sure is gorgeous!

Thank you! She’s healthy and happy, not much more I could ask for! I just am excited that I might have a little mutant duck

 

[Miss Lydia]

That’s very true!