Swedish Yellow Duck: Facts, Uses, Origins & Characteristics | Pet Keen

The Swedish yellow duck is an intentional combination of three different domestic species. Even though these ducks are relatively rare, they are attractive to keep because of their calm disposition and triple-purpose use.

The Swedish yellow duck might be challenging to come by, depending on where you fall on the map. But if you are lucky enough to find a few of these beauties at a local hatchery or breeder, they are generally easy to keep and make fantastic pets. Let’s learn more.

Quick Facts about Swedish Yellow Ducks

Swedish Yellow Duck Origins

The Swedish Yellow Duck was developed in Skane province in Sweden by Mans Eriksson. There is a little debate on actual ducks used to form this yellow waterfowl, but it’s speculated that they have Blue Swedish, Khaki Campbells, and some local breed of white duck.

Swedish yellow ducks were surprisingly common in the 1930s. Developed in the 20th century, these purposeful waterfowl wound up filling folks’ farms across Sweden. It wasn’t until the 1950s that they started becoming what he would consider a rare duck breed.

Today, they have only been verified to still exist in their homeland of Sweden.

Swedish Yellow Duck Characteristics

Swedish yellow ducks are known for their wonderful dispositions, making fantastic pets for kids and adults alike. You could easily use them for school projects and other formulated activities because they’re effortless to handle and almost entirely flightless.

The Swedish yellow duck spends most of its day toddling about the barnyard. They love to have a water source nearby—as all waterfowl do. Males might show aggression toward other ducks during mating season but should be docile otherwise.

There is no denying that this duck is hearty and moderately active to promote excellent foraging capabilities.

Uses

You get the best of all worlds when choosing the Swedish yellow duck. These birds are good for any use you can imagine—ornamental, eggs, and meat production. They truly are a triple-purpose breed, making you wonder why they haven’t flourished again in popularity over the years.

Although they are a relatively rare breed, we recommend not using them for meat if you can help it. Plenty of other sizable meat ducks on the market would work better in the scenario. Although, they make a robust and tasty meat bird.

These ducks lay large white eggs, though sometimes they can have a bluish or grayish hue. Generally, they can lay up to 130 eggs annually.

Thanks to their Blue Swedish heritage, these ducks go broody often and make excellent mothers. Even if they don’t brood their own batch of eggs, they will be happy to mother other ducks—and even chicken eggs!

Appearance & Varieties

As the name would imply, most Swedish yellow ducks are yellow in color. Although, the males have brown heads, making them sexually dimorphic from females. Males slightly outweigh their female counterparts by a pound or two.

The term yellow is loosely used for this breed. If you look closely, you’ll notice they are more buff to yellowy-brown in color. The appearance was achieved by combining Swedish ducks, Khaki Campbells, and white ducks.

Population/Distribution/Habitat

Swedish yellow ducks have limited availability in today’s world.

Are Swedish Yellow Duck Good for Small-Scale Farming?

Swedish yellow ducks are wonderful for small-scale farming because of their wide range of uses. However, unless you live in the native land of Sweden, you won’t have access to the specific species.

Many other related ducks might be readily available, such as the Khaki Campbell and Swedish Blue. Also, other waterfowl resemble the Swedish Yellow, like the Buff Orpington duck.

Featured Image Credit: Dennis Jacobsen, Shutterstock