Pekin experts- can a young Pekin fly?!!

[StephanieET]

Hi,
I have a young white drake (about 2.5 months). He was rescued from a pond as a baby, so I'm not positive on what his breed is, but I was pretty dang sure he was a Pekin until yesterday. He was allowed to run around our fenced yard for the first time, and to our surprise he took flight and flew about 60-70 feet, over the fence and out of our yard. We caught him and clipped his wings, so he won't be doing that again, but now I have to wonder if he is really a Pekin? I was under the impression that a Pekin duck wouldn't fly like that! I thought he may be a call duck, but he is a big boy and his beak looks a lot larger than a call duck's. Thanks for any information, this is my first post on BYC (have been reading for years, love the wealth of experience and info available here!).

 

[jdywntr]

If he was flying, he must be feathered and that will put him more in the 4-5 month old range. When you say "big boy" can you compare him to something or make a guess as to how much he weighs?

A 7-8 week old Pekin will be about the size of a large breed rooster and weigh 8-10 lbs. If he is smaller than that, he could be a snowy mallard, a muscovy, are you sure he is a he? These are the only 2 breeds I can think of off hand that are white and can fly.

My Pekin, even the girls, can't get 2 feet off of the ground. I don't think you can post a pic yet so maybe google, snowy mallard, white muscovy and pekin.

I hope you only clipped one wing. That keeps them off balance.

Again, welcome.

 

[Luminide]

Whoa..! Have to admit, reading that made me laugh. I can only comically imagine my pekins shooting off the ground! I hope you can treat us to some pics of this guy some time.

 

[Luckyduck2]

We have somewhere around 30 or so Pekins in the backyard right now. We have only had one adult "fly" before. She got a running start up the compost pile, ended up on the other side of the fence, and into another compost bin. (Also fenced in.) The fencing is about 5ft high.

 

[Luckyduck2]

Silver Appleyard might also be another possibility. Even though I thought they were a heavyweight breed.

 

[StephanieET]

I got him at the end of April (as a tiny yellow fuzzy duckling, no more than a couple days old) so he is maybe 10 or 11 weeks. I am pretty sure he is a boy, because his voice is very raspy and kind of wispery. He seems to be around 4 lbs when I pick him up. He was raised in the brooder with my silkie chicks who are 3 weeks older than him, and he is our only duck! The silkies are his buds, hahaha. We are going to be getting him some lady ducks soon, though. I did clip both his wings, but only 1-2 inches, and left the longest flight feathers. I know they can bleed a lot if you clip too much off of the pin feathers. I had noticed a couple days ago that when he gets out of his kiddie pool, he will kind of fly out, but I never thought he would be flying across the yard.

Here is a photo of him from today. To me, he looks most like a small Pekin. His feathers are pure white, and he doesn't have any red splotches on his face like the Muscovies.

 

[Luckyduck2]

Something about the body shape doesn't seem quite right for a Pekin, could it be a snowy mallard?

 

[ducklover87]

It looks like a white mallard. He's too small to be a Pekin and his bill is shaped like that of a mallard.

 

[Luckyduck2]

Yeah, he's missing some of the chunkiness found in the more "domestic" breeds.

 

[StephanieET]

It is interesting that you guys are saying he looks like a mallard. A customer brought him in to my work (I work at a farm store) and the story was that he was found in the pond at the Nike campus, and a mallard hen was trying to drown him. He had a little scrape on his head, but seemed fine otherwise. We tried to put him in with our Cayuga ducklings, but they picked on him, so I got to take him home Are white mallards something that occurs in nature, and could he be a wild duck then? I would feel kind of bad if that was the case. Also, this kind of explains how he has not been a super friendly duck, despite being handled often from an early age.