Call Ducks for sale
These are Juvenile Assorted call ducks from Spring 2011 hatches. These are Straight Run which means that you could recieve any mixture of boys or girls. These are not pinioned. These will be hatchery choice of colors out of our assortment of Spotted, Grey and White.
Description Call Ducks are a bantam breed; that is, they are especially small. Mostly people keep them as pets because they are just so darn cute. People who are interested in raising poultry for competitive reasons often choose Call Ducks as well. They were originally used as "decoy" ducks Hunters used them to lure in wild ducks.
Production Call Ducks are notoriously difficult to breed and hatch. Some people report keeping quite a large flock, but only successfully hatching a duckling every few years. Usually Calls will begin laying eggs in February, and how many eggs they lay will depend on whether or not they are collected.
If you collect the eggs, one female may lay as many as 40 eggs in a season. If you leave the eggs hoping for natural incubation, the female will likely only lay 8-12 eggs. When multiple females are present, they may all lay eggs in the same nest.
The eggs are bigger than you might expect, and they are a bluish-green color. When placed in an incubator they usually take from 25-28 days to hatch, and hatching can take as long as 48 hours.
Temperament Some ducks are shy, some are aggressive. The Call Duck is funny. One of the many reasons people love their Call Ducks is because they have entertainment value. They tame easily and are real charmers.
One word of caution, though. Call Ducks are noisy. They chatter and quack and are generally "talkative." If you have close neighbors you might not want to raise Calls!
History There is a bit of mystery surrounding the Call Duck. Some things are certain: Calls were used by the Dutch for hunting. They were either trained or tethered on hunting expeditions and wild fowl were attracted by the vocalizations of the Calls. The name "Call" is derived from the Dutch word "kooi" which means "trap." Until the 1970s, Calls were fairly rare. That is not at all the case now, as they are one of the most popular ducks with competitive breeders. The mystery is the origination of the Call Duck. A well known writer, Van Gink, supposed in his book, The Feathered World, in 1932, that Calls may have been imported from Japan. Van Gink's opinion was based in part on the fact that Calls don't look like other European ducks and that other bantam breeds were imported to the Netherlands from the Far East in the 1600s, when Calls first appeared. Other than that, there is no real evidence that Calls originated in Japan, the East Indies or China.
Colors Calls come in a range of colors including: White, Gray, Blue, Buff, Pastel, Khaki, Butterscotch, Chocolate, Snowy, Spot and Black & White Magpie. Nonstandard colors include Blue Fawn, Nutmeg, Self Black, Cinnamon and Crested
Body Type Calls are small and round. In fact, the smaller and rounder, the better. Their bills are sometimes described as "tiny" and their bodies should look plump.
American Poultry Association Class: Bantam Duck Class
