Everything Ancona in our Farm Store
These are all the products we carry that are derived from Ancona ducks.
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Heritage BreedRare!Pastured ForagersSoy-free Organically RaisedDuck Eggs Dozen Organic Soy-Free Pastured Heirloom/Heritage Unwashed for Counter Storage or Water Glassing$14$13 -
Heritage BreedRare!Pastured ForagersSoy-free Organically RaisedDuck Eggs Dozen Organic Soy-Free Pastured Heirloom/Heritage$15$14
Pollina Line
On May 2020, we drove to the Pollina Project in Leicester, NC and picked up 2 males and 3 females, one day old. The parents were Harry (a chocolate and blue tricolor, who we now have) and Ginny as well as Hermione and Ron, but we don’t know which ducklings came from which pair. The ducklings were: Drako, Remus, Minerva, Narcissa, and Delphini. Two of the 3 hens laid blue eggs. Everyone has been coyote dinner except Drako.
We later adopted Harry because he is a tricolor (they get culled in the APA project) and because he may carry a blue egg gene.
Worth It Line
On May 28, 2021, we drove to Worth It Farms in Chattahoochie Hills, GA and picked up 11 ducklings, a few weeks old. They explained to me that they were once part of the breeding efforts to get APA standardization for Ancona, but they pulled back from the efforts. Their birds came from Dave Holderread’s flock and they no longer sell to the public. The hen was coyote dinner along with a few males, so the remaining males, Remus II (chocolate) and Sirius II (black) were bred to a Welsh hen for meat purposes. The ducklings were crested, so we sold Remus II, Sirius II, and two stunning blue duckling hens expressing the crested gene to Jan Pelfery of Triple J Farms in Cave Spring, GA, who specializes in crested Ancona. We have since found that those hens lay green eggs! We no longer have any ducks from this line, but contact Jan if you want crested Ancona. I kinda wish we kept everyone, but for right now, we don’t have the capacity to have a crested and non-crested breeding pen. If we do, we will get some back from Jan!
Ancona Acres Line
During the fall of 2021, we acquired 2 drakes and 1 hen from a local farmer who got her ducklings from Ancona Acres. Sadly, one drake and the hen were attacked by weasels and died. Neville, a blue drake remains. Their site states that “crested . . . ducklings do pop up time to time”, so we have not bred Neville yet, however, he is SUCH a great papa to all the juveniles, teaching them how to evade and be aware of their surroundings, that we just might have to.
Various Lines
During the summer of 2022, we hatched several green eggs from: Vitoria Farms, Five Pine Farms, The Pollina Project, and “Amanda”. The following ducklings hatched.
Pollina Line
– Phineas Black, black drake
Vitoria Farms Line
– Luna Lovegood, white hen
Amanda
– Fleur Delacour, blue hen
– Lavender Brown, lilac/buff hen
– Helena Ravenclaw, lilac pied/tri-color hen
Five Pine Farms Line
In Spring of 2023, we got a beautiful chocolate
tri-color drake, named Cormac McLaggen.
Amanda
because we got such great hens from Amanda, we ordered more green eggs! They hatched on April 30, 2023. We will update duckling names once we can sex them and we decide who to keep.
Ancona Acres
We drove to St. Louis, MO, to visit a friend, and picked up eggs from Angie at Ancona Acres. We love, and want to preserve, the grey Ancona egg, which is mentioned as an Ancona color in Dave and Millie Holderread’s 1985 Ancona Duck #2 Bulletin. Because Ancona Acres can sometimes produce crested ducks, we will keep these ducks as part of their own line with Neville Longbottom, the drake we got in 2021. We will update duckling names once we can sex them and we decide who to keep.
Tess
Tess had two black hens, one who laid white eggs and one who laid cream. She got them from someone in Bostic, NC
Green Herbs Homestead
We drove to Marion, NC, on May 26, 2023, to meet Emily Rothrock to pick up 26 ducklings – 21 for us and 5 for Delaney at Westfarthing Ducks. Mary Ruby came to do another trade with Emily. Mary looked at our hatch and was very impressed. Mary told me she got her original ducks from Nancy Shirley at Nantahala Farm and from Duck Dance Farm (which we think no longer exists). Emily traded a tricolor duckling we hatched from Cormac and Helena Ravenclaw or Cho Chung (probably Helena) for one of her ducklings. We also picked up 1 drake and 3 hens that Emily hatched from Mary: Seamus Finnigan, Rita Skeeter, Mafalda Hopkirk, and Gabrielle Delacour. We will update duckling names once we can sex them and we decide who to keep.
Westfarthing Ducks
On May 29, 2023, we got a beautiful, wild-type, mallardy tricolor drake named Eustace from Delaney when she came to pick up her ducklings from Emily. Eustace was hatched from a drake and hen that Delaney hatched from Mary Ruby’s eggs. Eustace hatched from a white egg, but it is believed that his father carried the blue-egg gene.
Further Reading on Ancona Ducks
Please check out these resources on Ancona ducks. We have included resources that adhere to the Dave Holderread guidelines as well.