Ancona
DuckUncommon breed
The Ancona is a broken-coloured, medium-sized duck developed in England in the early 1900s, probably out of Runner and Magpie stock, and it is one of the very few breeds where no two birds are marked alike — the white-and-colour patchwork lands differently on every duckling and never changes with age. It is among the best-laying non-Campbell ducks, often producing more than 200 eggs a year, and it lays them in white, cream, blue-green or spotted shells, sometimes varying within one hen's season. Anconas are calmer and steadier than the Runner-descended layers and are excellent slug and snail hunters, which is why market gardeners keep coming back to them. The Livestock Conservancy still lists the breed as at risk, so keeping them is itself a conservation act.
Weight
How to spot it
- Bill
- Yellow with dark green or black spotting — the spots are diagnostic
- Carriage
- About 20–30° above horizontal, medium build, a little stockier than a Runner
- Plumage
- Random broken white and colour (black, blue, chocolate, silver or lavender); every bird's pattern is unique
- Legs & feet
- Orange, usually mottled with dark spots
- Look for
- A patchwork duck with a spotted bill and spotted feet, in no repeating pattern
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