Breed Profile: Saxony Duck

Breed of the Month: Saxony duck

Origin: Albert Franz of Chemnitz (East Germany) began developing the Saxony duck in 1930. He used Rouen, German Pekin, and Blue Pomeranian ducks in his breeding program. He introduced this new creation at the Saxony Show of 1934. After World War II, few specimens survived, so Franz started his breeding program again. The Saxony was recognized as an official breed in Germany in 1957 and introduced to the United States in 1984 by Dave Holderread, a leading waterfowl expert.

Standard Description: The Saxony duck is a hardy all-purpose duck breed in the heavy size class. Through the efforts of Holderread, the Saxony duck was accepted to the American Poultry Association (APA) in 2000.

Conservation Status: Threatened

Size Class: Heavy

Size: The Saxony weighs between 8-9 pounds at maturity. The compact body is long, broad across the shoulders, and has a prominent chest that is smoothly rounded. This duck’s carriage is 10-20 degrees above horizontal when relaxed.

Egg Color, Size & Laying Habits:

•  White

• Large to extra large

• 200 or more per year

Temperament: Docile, excellent foragers  

Coloring: Eyes are brown; shanks and feet are orange.

Hen: Bill is yellowish to brownish orange; dark bean is permissible in mature birds. Head and neck are fawn-buff highlighted with bold creamy white stripes above the eyes and creamy white highlights on the throat and front of the neck. The body is fawn-buff with some blue shading. Wings are oatmeal highlighted with blue-gray, silver, and creamy white.  – Storey’s Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds

Drake: Bill is yellow to greenish yellow; dark bean is permissible in mature birds. Head and neck are powder blue with a white collar at the base of the neck. Breast is claret frosted with white. Upper back is silver darkening to blueish gray over the rump. The body is oatmeal shading to creamy white. The tail is in shades of blue-gray, oatmeal, and creamy white. Wings are oatmeal highlighted with claret, blue-gray, silver, and white.  – Storey’s Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds

Saxony Duck Owner Testimonial: 

“Saxony ducks are lively and active, can be mischievous and are always fun-loving. Like all drakes, male Saxony ducks don’t quack but instead have a soft, raspy sound they make when they get excited. Nonflying, they are a great all-around duck breed — fairly calm, relatively quiet, gentle and good layers. These ducks are good foragers, so should be afforded a nice large pen with regularly scheduled supervised free range time to keep them in tip-top shape, happy and healthy.”

 – Lisa Steele of FreshEggsDaily.com.

“They have exquisite plumage, are fast growers, produce gourmet quality meat, lay large quantities of top quality, white shelled eggs.” – Holderread Farms 

Popular Use: Eggs, meat

Sources:

Duck Eggs Daily

The Livestock Conservancy
Storey’s Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds

Storey’s Guide to Raising Ducks

See the Full List of Breed of the Month Features: 

Lisa Steele is the author of Fresh Eggs Daily: Raising Happy, Healthy Chickens…Naturally (St. Lynn’s Press, 2013). She lives on a small hobby farm in Virginia with her husband and their flock of chickens and ducks, plus horses, dogs and a barn cat. She is a fifth-generation chicken keeper and writes about her experiences on her award-winning blog at www.fresheggsdaily.com. In her free time she loves to garden, bake, knit and sip homebrewed herbal teas.