Silver Appleyard Duck

Picture perfect plumage with characters to match!

They are real characters and most entertaining to watch. We love to hear the ducks quack. It sounds like a short, deep laugh. It is always the ducks and never the drakes and it makes us laugh to hear them laugh. Those girls must have a great sense of humour! So our backyard is full of lots of lovely, laughing quacks! We have found them quick to mature both sexes reaching a good size.They make a good all round utility bird. The silver appleyard was developed in Britain during the 1930s and '40s by Reginald Appleyard, a widely known breeder of domestic waterfowl. He was trying to produce the ideal duck.

A few seasons back our silver appleyards hatched out and grew eclipse plumage so we was totally confused as to what we had. They all looked the same. We then did the upside down test on them and discovered to our delight that half were drakes and the other half were ducks. The ducks quack loudly when hung upside down. Towards the end of the season they finally moulted into their stunning breeding plumage. The duck is silvery-white with a heavy flecking of fawn on her back. The drake has a beetle green head and neck and his throat is white with fawn markings. Add to this his silver-white neck ring, breast, wing coverts, and tail tip and you have a very handsome bird indeed. Beak should be yellow, legs and feet orange, and eyes dark hazel.