Breed Profile: Khaki Campbell Duck
The Most Prolific Layer of English Duck Breeds
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BREED: Designed to be a dual-purpose utility bird, the Khaki Campbell duck took the world by storm as a prolific egg layer.
ORIGIN: Developed in England in the late 1900s from the Penciled Indian Runner crossed with Rouen and mallard. Adah (aka Adale or Adele) Campbell started keeping poultry in Uley, Gloucestershire, England around 1887. Reportedly, her family was fond of roast duck; she had a prolific Penciled Runner female but wanted offspring of larger size, so she bred her with a Rouen drake. Later she crossed in a mallard drake. From this foundation, her dual-purpose ducks spread across the village and were advertised from 1898.
The History of the Campbell Duck
By 1901, the breed was known as having remarkable laying ability, averaging 200–250 eggs per year, and maturing quickly. Initially, the ducks were a pale mallard coloration, with both sexes having white-ringed necks. Apparently, customers were not keen on the color, so Mrs. Campbell attempted to develop a buff variety by crossing in Penciled Runners. The resulting tannish-brown ducks, reminiscent of British Army uniforms, came to be known as Khaki Campbells and became the most popular variety. Eventually, the original coloration died out.
Although she aimed for a utility bird, Mrs. Campbell drew up a standard. By 1910, she was a well-known breeder and exhibitor of her ducks, along with Silkie, Brahma, and other breeds of chicken.
The breed’s popularity spread to Europe, where it became the foundation of a new Dutch industry in the 1920s. Fishermen from Harderwijk, in the Netherlands, began to keep ducks when fishing on the Zuiderzee became less profitable. The bay was rich in small fish and crustaceans, sold cheaply as bycatch. Ducks thrived on this feed, and eggs were in high demand, especially from Germany and England. Entrepreneurs devised an intensive system of long barns and runs with drinking gullies, which brought economic efficiency on an industrial scale.
The Khaki Campbell had the ideal productivity and hardiness for their enterprise. Through careful selection and a controlled diet, ducks soon produced 250–300 eggs per year. These farms prospered throughout the economic crisis of the 1930s when most trades suffered unemployment. In particular, the Jansen duck breeding farm became well-known for its 50,000 Khaki Campbell ducks.
Economic restraint due to the impending war suppressed demand from Germany in 1939. After the war, the market moved in other directions and bycatch was no longer as plentiful. One entrepreneur, F. Kortlang, moved to England in the late fifties and set up a duck farm that became famous for its Kortlang Khaki Campbells, bred along Dutch utility lines.
The earliest import into the United States appears to be in 1929. The breed was recognized by the APA in 1941 but remained rather obscure until the late seventies. The seventies back-to-the-land revival movement, coupled with imports from Kortlang and the influx of Asian immigrants (who appreciated duck eggs), boosted their popularity among homesteaders.
Khaki Campbells have also been exported worldwide and are widely used in Asian countries to enhance productivity.
CONSERVATION STATUS: The Livestock Conservancy lists the Campbell duck as “Watch.” The 2021 McMurray National Poultry Census estimated the number of breeding ducks as 844 in private flocks and 2,434 in hatcheries. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) lists 17 countries raising the breed, with around 10,000 in the UK in 2002. Some Asian countries may have higher numbers in production. For example, The FAO recorded approximately 1.5 million in Malaysia in 2008, but only 100 females bred pure.
Characteristics of the Khaki Campbell Duck
DESCRIPTION: A medium-sized, light breed, with a slightly upright carriage (20–40° from horizontal), long body, slender neck, full and compact body with a broad well-rounded breast, and a well-developed abdomen. The plumage is sleek and tight in an even shade of warm khaki-brown, and the eyes are brown. The drake’s head, neck, lower back, wing speculum, and under-tail are dark brown with green luster. The neck lacks a white ring, and the breast is khaki rather than claret. His bill is greenish-yellow to green or blue. The legs and feet are orange. The female’s head is darker brown than her body, which is lightly penciled. She lacks eye stripes. Her bill is dark slate/green/brown, and her legs and feet are brown. Some offspring hatch with white plumage under the bill or at the front of the neck.
VARIETIES: Khaki is the most popular, but also White, Dark, and Pied have been bred from the Campbell gene pool. The Welsh Harlequin was also derived from a line of pale Campbells, and the Abacot Ranger from a cross back to the Runner.
The Khaki pattern results from a small genetic mutation of the wild mallard pattern. Firstly, two copies of the incompletely dominant “dusky pattern” gene result in the loss of eye stripes, neck-ring, and claret breast. Then, a sex-linked recessive “brown dilution” reduces all black markings to brown. Color varieties have arisen from within-breed variation: the White from a single recessive mutation suppressing all color; the Dark has the original black markings, rather than the recessive “brown dilution” gene; and the Pied derives its color from the ancestral Penciled Runner. The Welsh Harlequin arose from a new mutation that lightens the plumage.
POPULAR USE: Dual purpose, but most popular for eggs.
EGG COLOR: White to tinted.
EGG SIZE: Large, 2.6–3 ounces (75–85 g).
WEIGHT: Ducks 3.5–4.5 pounds; drakes 4.5–5.5 pounds.
TEMPERAMENT: High-strung and energetic, they need space to forage.
Reliant Qualities
BIODIVERSITY: A composite breed that combines productive traits with robustness and strength. The success of the breed is due to the hardiness of the birds in cold weather, their adaptability, their ability to forage well, their reduced reliance on swimming water, and their amazing laying ability. However, where Khaki Campbells are used to improve the performance of native production flocks, there is a risk that rare breeds’ unique traits may be diluted until they are lost.
PRODUCTIVITY: Very fertile and prolific. Females lay, on average, 165–340 eggs per year, starting from five to seven months old. Utility strains may continue to lay during winter given adequate feed and light. Males are ardent and may harm females due to frequent mating. Therefore, a one-to-six breeding ratio of males to females is recommended. Generally non-setters, but some females may brood and raise ducklings.
ADAPTABILITY: Agile ranging birds and active foragers. Cold-tolerant and adaptable to different climates if given sufficient space, a good diet, and a calm environment.
Sources
- Arends, G., 2008. The History of Duck Keeping in the Netherlands. Aviculture-Europe.
- Holderread, D., 2001, 2011. Storey’s Guide to Raising Ducks. Storey Publishing.
- Lewer, S.H., 1912. Wright’s Book of Poultry. Cassell.
- Roberts, V., 2008. British Poultry Standards. Blackwell Publishing.
- Thompson, J., 2012. The Doctor’s Wife. Aviculture-Europe.
- The Livestock Conservancy
- FAO Domestic Animal Diversity Information System
- McMurray Hatchery
Lead photo by Mayukh Karmakar/Pexels CC0.
Originally published in the April/May 2024 issue of Backyard Poultry and regularly vetted for accuracy.
