It would be nice to see the breeds of ducks restored to the productive state they once were, many years ago. We have a long way to go. The emphasis of selection for the past 20 or more years has been on the exhibition qualities of the birds. This is extremely commendable for the show ring but usually results in poor productivity.
With the increasingly fashionable nature of poultry keeping there are also plenty of breeders who can sell all they produce without selecting for anything. The ducks make good pets but do not repay their feed bill well.

It is very difficult to find breeders who record egg production of their birds and select for productivity. Without active selection at every stage of breeding : -

from choosing which eggs to hatch

to choosing which birds to breed from
the ability of the birds to lay well and hatch well and make a decent table bird diminishes.
Selection for colouring is nice but, if this is the predominant criteria, it can soon reduce the egg numbers, and the table qualities of most breeds are very weak.
Many breeders do not even seem to have any selection criteria at all - which can be very frustrating when trying to find new blood lines.

If you have birds that lay lots of eggs - even if they may not seem feather perfect please record the eggs they lay. If you have ducks, however few, but you don't know how many eggs they lay each year please start recording - just a note in an old diary. It could well be that you have some important lines in the utility world.

Tim and Jill Bowis
Kintaline Mill Farm, Benderloch, OBAN Argyll PA37 1QS Scotland
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