White Pekin + Khaki Campbell = Black Swedish?

[HIPAAnonymous]

The backstory: I had a white Pekin drake ("Poncho") who was absolutely obsessed with one of our lady ducks (possibly a dwarf Rouen?) named Banty Duck. It wasn't mutual, and when he pulled out a patch of feathers on her back, we had to separate him. After a couple of months, he showed us once again that he couldn't leave her alone for even a moment, so we found another home for him.

However, before he left, we took Banty Duck out of the pen and let Poncho mate with whichever of the other girls would allow it. That turned out to be a Khaki Campbell named Penny. We saved the next couple of days' eggs and put them under a broody chicken. Eventually, one of them turned out to be fertile. It finally hatched an extremely cute (but bizarre) little black and yellow duckling.


In case you can't tell from the picture, both wing tips are yellow.

At first, I was just kind of bemused. "Huh. Weird... A white duck and a light brown duck made a black and yellow duck. Cute, though."

Fast-forward to today. I got my new ducklings from Metzer, including a couple of Black Swedish girls. They look EXACTLY the same as this Pekin-KC mix!

How is this possible? It isn't as though I had anything with even a trace of Swedish duck. I had a white Pekin, a Khaki Campbell drake (kept separate from the girls at the time), a Khaki Campbell female, and an off-white female of unknown heritage (but she wouldn't have anything to do with Poncho, and I watched them for the whole 15-20 minutes he was in the pen).

SUMMARY: It's a white Pekin - Khaki Campbell mix, and it looks absolutely identical to the Black Swedish ducklings we got in the mail today.

Here are some more recent pictures, in case they help:



The two chicks in the last picture are his "peeps." He was hatched under a broody chicken, after all, so now he (or maybe "she") identifies as a chicken.

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[Pyxis]

You didn't make a real black swedish from that cross, since they're an actual breed with a standard and aren't just a hybrid of two other breeds. But you did get a duckling with the same coloring as one, which is very possible. A lot of pekin crosses look like that. One of my very first ducks was a pekin/rouen cross and looked just like that.

 

[Ducks4us]

Just wanted to say cute!!!!!

 

[HIPAAnonymous]

Thanks!

And yeah, I knew it wasn't a real Black Swedish. Just a Chinese knock-off (you know, because of the Pekin).

 

[Ducks4us]

What all did you order from metzer? I also ordered from metzer and got my ducklings wednesday. I ordered 10 female runner ducklings. All 4 colors i was so happy with how well they all shipped

 

[GoldenFlight]

He/she will probably look less and less like a black Swedish as it grows up. Very cute BTW!!!

 

[HIPAAnonymous]

What all did you order from metzer? I also ordered from metzer and got my ducklings wednesday. I ordered 10 female runner ducklings. All 4 colors i was so happy with how well they all shipped

I got 2 Black Swedish, 2 Rouens, 2 Golden 300, 2 Welsh Harlequins, and 3 Cayugas. All females (in theory). We hatched 6 of our Khaki Campbell eggs and ended up with 4 boys out of it, so we needed some girls to settle things down.

I just hope this bunch will be a bit calmer/friendlier than our other ducks. I'm mostly banking on their not being Khaki Campbells.

You know, it's hilarious the way this imitation Black Swedish bonded with the broody bantam chicken. It's nearly 3 weeks old and already bigger than she is, but since he doesn't try to peck at her face like his two "siblings" do, he's his mama's favorite. (Then she pecks them back, so they run and hide under the duck.)

He runs when he sees us coming, trampling the two chicks in the process. Then they try to run and hide under him. That's hilarious, too.

 

[HIPAAnonymous]

He/she will probably look less and less like a black Swedish as it grows up. Very cute BTW!!!

Thanks! We call him Nibbler, or Nibbles if he turns out to be a girl ("Nibs" for short either way). He's a very lazy duck when he doesn't think we're going to try to get near him. He sits down to eat or drink. My wife was worried that something might be wrong with him, but I demonstrated his health by extending my hand toward the brooder tank. Turns out he conserves his energy for just such an occasion.

My wife agrees that it acts like a boy. She somehow thinks a girl would be less crazy... I declined to comment.

 

[Ducks4us]

I got 2 Black Swedish, 2 Rouens, 2 Golden 300, 2 Welsh Harlequins, and 3 Cayugas. All females (in theory). We hatched 6 of our Khaki Campbell eggs and ended up with 4 boys out of it, so we needed some girls to settle things down.

I just hope this bunch will be a bit calmer/friendlier than our other ducks. I'm mostly banking on their not being Khaki Campbells.

You know, it's hilarious the way this imitation Black Swedish bonded with the broody bantam chicken. It's nearly 3 weeks old and already bigger than she is, but since he doesn't try to peck at her face like his two "siblings" do, he's his mama's favorite. (Then she pecks them back, so they run and hide under the duck.)

He runs when he sees us coming, trampling the two chicks in the process. Then they try to run and hide under him. That's hilarious, too.

Oh exciting! I also bought 3 khakis from tractor supply unsexed. They are so far the friendliest! and the runners are starting to copy the khakis and run to my hands as well

 

[Krazyquilts]

When my ducks were babies they would lie down to eat and drink, too. Just being lazy.