Ozark Bantams: Our Blog

Yesterday I ordered a pair of mandarin ducks from a reputable waterfowl breeder in Tennessee. The birds should arrive sometime next week. For those unfamiliar with mandarins (Aix Galericulata), they are considered by many to be the most beautiful of all ducks. These small ducks are native to Siberia, East China, and Japan. And although their appearance is quite exotic, they are closely related to our North American Wood Duck. In fact, the mandarin hen is almost indistinguishable from the wood duck hen. Unlike domesticated ducks, mandarins are wild waterfowl. Nonetheless, they are one of the easiest wild ducks to raise in captivity and can be kept with other small ducks such as our white call ducks and black east indies. Although most mandarins in the wild look like the one pictured below, there is a white variety that is bred in captivity. We will be carrying the white variety in 2010. The particular pair that I order are split-to-white mandarins. Split-to-white mandarins appear like normal mandarins but they can produce both normal colored offspring and white offspring. Needless to say, We are looking forward to receiving this pair of ducks. The mandarins will be kept with our call ducks until I can build an additional pen or aviary exclusively for these beautiful birds.

November 22th Update: I received my new pair of mandarins as expected. Unfortunately, the hen escaped not long after receiving the pair. So I decided to order a replacement hen, as well as a white mandarin hen and an additional split-to-white mandarin drake. In other words, I’ve now ended up with two pairs of mandarins: a split-to-white drake with a white hen and another split-to-white drake with a regular hen. I soon hope to acquire another regular hen and a white drake. This will give us two split-to-white pairs and one white pair from which to breed mandarins this coming spring.

Mandarin Drake