Backyard Poultry Forum

A little bit off topic i know, but reading this thread got me interested.

This pic was posted by Booth some time ago, standard Saxony drakes with yellow bills, as per APS2 requirements.
I would guess by adding a drake such as this into a bloodline, bill colour could be improved? Some of the saxony drakes i've seen at shows (mostly bantam saxony) have the claret bleeding down the flanks and backs - i notice these boys have the clear cut bib as per the mallard colouring.


They're stunning birds anyway..

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http://koljash.webs.com

Very handsome.

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Lucy C and The Blue Mountains Menagerie
1 God, 1 husband, 2 Teens, 2 Dogs, 7 Sussex, 3 Wyandottes, 11 Silkies, 1 Barnevelder, 3 Budgies & 3 Goats

PS Mine definitely have green bills. They look quite different with the yellow.

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Lucy C and The Blue Mountains Menagerie
1 God, 1 husband, 2 Teens, 2 Dogs, 7 Sussex, 3 Wyandottes, 11 Silkies, 1 Barnevelder, 3 Budgies & 3 Goats

Here's a photo taken this afternoon (Boxing Day)



Mum is in the foreground facing camera and bubs are behind.

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Lucy C and The Blue Mountains Menagerie
1 God, 1 husband, 2 Teens, 2 Dogs, 7 Sussex, 3 Wyandottes, 11 Silkies, 1 Barnevelder, 3 Budgies & 3 Goats

I have both Standard and bantam Saxonys and the standards I have have lovely orange bills, and my bantams have the "dirtier" orange/green bill. I have not had them very long, so I am still learning a lot about this breed. My bantam drakes claret colouring bleeds a bit too far back, but I think my girls are quite nicely coloured so I hope that they will produce a nicer cleaner coloured drake

My flock, the 3 adult bantams in the front with their "dirty" coloured beaks and the juvenille standards in the back.


Also for interests sake, the white boy on the side was a pure yellow duckling and has blue eyes. He's feathering up pure white and is definately pure bred I however won't be keeping him and will be rehoming as I can only have one standard drake and i'm going for the biggest nicest coloured boy so I won't know if he will produce more whites.

Your Bantam Saxony females do have very dark bills Katiea. According to Holderread, they would have genes that allow both yellow & dark pigments into the bill (different layers resulting in the ? dark green looking bills). You would need to remove the gene for dark bill (Sd), but retain the gene for yellow skin/bill colour if you wanted yellow/orange billed Saxony bantam females. I know that the females bill colour can change through the season, but I don't know that an otherwise genetically true Saxony females bill would ever be that extensively dark without having Sd?

The white bird is likely white due to your standard birds having the recessive white gene.

Lucy C, how has the sexing of your ducklings turned out? Any closer to being really confident that they are all females?

Lol. No closer. But this is a very interesting thread. So pleased that lots of people want to discuss Saxonys.

I'm still dubious but the ones I think are female all have yellow bills so maybe I am right. The drakes definitely have green bills. When it's not so hot I'll go out and photograph them again but that won't be for about a week I'm guessing.

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Lucy C and The Blue Mountains Menagerie
1 God, 1 husband, 2 Teens, 2 Dogs, 7 Sussex, 3 Wyandottes, 11 Silkies, 1 Barnevelder, 3 Budgies & 3 Goats

You should be able to tell the sex by the sound, my boys are SO quiet. The girls honk, and boys make a husky whaackwhaaack noise. The volume difference is really clear as well, especially my young standard girl, OMG she is bloody loud!

I went outside and tried to take some footage of my young girl and one of the young boys to try and show the difference in their voices.
This is my drake, I'me sorry the others are a bit loud in the background, he only quacks a couple of times. But you can hear how it's kind of raspy and quiet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PCfQa320ww

And this is my duck, she is LOUD. Absoloutely the loudest duck I have haha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOAbIap4BZY

Thanks. By voice they're definitely girls. There's just two that font look quite right.

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Lucy C and The Blue Mountains Menagerie
1 God, 1 husband, 2 Teens, 2 Dogs, 7 Sussex, 3 Wyandottes, 11 Silkies, 1 Barnevelder, 3 Budgies & 3 Goats

I'm thinking of rehoming my Saxonys. It's too difficult with my setup to keep them with the chooks. Is there anyone who might like them? I'm in the Blue Mountains in NSW. I don't want to list them anywhere just yet.

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Lucy C and The Blue Mountains Menagerie
1 God, 1 husband, 2 Teens, 2 Dogs, 7 Sussex, 3 Wyandottes, 11 Silkies, 1 Barnevelder, 3 Budgies & 3 Goats

I have a 3 week old i hatched out ... i still cant be sure of its sex

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