Silver Mallard Ducks

[raceyou1985]

I am not referring to Silver Appleyard ducks. These are the Silver Mallards. I would very much like to add this beautiful duck to my flock, but I hear so much about how difficult it is to hatch them in an incubator. Does anyone have first hand experience hatching this breed in an incubator? Any helpful tips are appreciated.

 

[Pyxis]

Hey! I've done them before. It is not easy. Of course, I also had the eggs shipped to me, which is never great on the eggs so that didn't help. I've tried I think three times now? I got two ducklings to hatch out of all the tries, and neither survived.

Now, all three of those tries were also from the same breeder, so you may have better luck with other stock.

I don't know why one color of bird would be harder to hatch than another though, so I think it might just be that the stock was very genetically inbred. If you could find a breeder who was outcrossing to regular mallards, and hatch yourself some splits, I would bet you'd have an easier time.