Black Swedish

I ordered some black Swedish ducklings a few years ago and they are great ducks to have. They are very calm and friendly. I allow mine to free range and they are great for foraging. Black Swedish ducks also get along with all the birds I keep them with (chickens, guineas, etc.) They rarely go broody, which is good or bad depending on what you want. Overall, they are a great bird and I recommend them to anyone!

My black Swedish duck is the alpha female and is somewhat loud. She knows when its time for the flock to inside or how to piss of the dog.

I actually ordered blue swedish an got 1 blue an one black. The black is the female an shes very nice an quiet an will eat out of my hand. hasnt started laying yet but I can't wait til she does!!

i had 2 black Swedish ducks last year, their names were Lydia and Skipper, i raised them with 2 other ducks and they all got along with each other just fine, my Swedish were both females and the only time they were really loud was when i would walk outside and i would say "good morning!" then they would start taking really loud for me to let them out side their coop, i lived in town and they free ranged, they never left our property, i think this breed is very nice.

The only purebred Black Swedish I have I received along with two Pekins from a lady who was moving and couldn't keep her ducks anymore. To an extent, this rehoming to an unknown person may be partially to blame for this group's exceedingly tiresome reluctance to share a yard with me. They're okay with other ducks (except the to-be-expected constant raping by the two competing drakes) and supposedly like turkeys because they were raised with one. So far okay with chickens.

But they hate me. This goes to the exponential level with the Black Swedish, who is pretty much always broody. Her first clutch was wildly unsuccessful and every one of the twenty or so eggs she'd horded went bad. At the turn of the year, she went broody again and hasn't stopped. First successful clutch hatched Easter weekend, but someone had been sneaking into her nest and laying eggs when she got up to do her business and so the clutch was staggered. Rather than watching her babies at all, she let several drown in a bowl of water inches from her face. She has been so intent on hatching all the eggs, that she refused to take care of the ones that hatched, so I've been forced to brood them inside. We've has three pseudo clutches hatch but because there has always been at least one under her, she's remained broody and refused to parent the babies.

This past week, three hatched, but now she is vicious and paranoid with me, seemingly determined that I'm always on the verge of stealing her offspring. In some ways this is preferable to having to brood a bunch inside again, but I hate the constant noise. If she's out, she's honking her head off and glaring at me. Oh, and hissing or flying out at me, or biting me and beating me with her wings.

As another note, Pekin drake over Black Swedish duck yields offspring which are pretty much identical to the mother. Some have more white than others, but none has so much that it's utterly outside the realm of Black Swedish. Some have less white on them than their mom even. Girls appear to have less white than boys. They grow quickly and are pretty well eating size now even though they're only two months old. Despite being right there when one of them hatched and handling this duckling very often, it's still terrified of me now. Must be somewhere in the genes, because ducks just aren't friendly creatures and the more ducky company I give them, the more terrified of me they seem to be. Not sure why ducks are so much more fearful and resentful of their human overlords than chickens.