Silver Bantam Duck (Silver Appleyard)

The Silver Appleyard Duck is a breed of domestic duck. This breed is sometimes called the Large Appleyard in contrast to the diminutive form of this breed known as the Miniature Appleyard developed by Tom Bartlett of Folly Farm in the 1980s.

Description

The Silver Appleyard Duck is a “large, sturdily built duck” with a “blocky” physique and a prominent breast. When full grown it weighs between six and eight pounds.

Drakes of this breed have a yellow or greenish-colored bill which sometimes takes on a striated appearance when the duck is older. The drake has a chestnut red breast, flank, sides, and shoulders with white “frosting and lacing” and a “creamy or silvery white” underside. Drakes’ wings are gray and white with a cross-stripe of bright blue. Their tail feathers are a dark bronze color. Feet and legs are orange.

The Silver Appleyard Duck hen has a yellow or orange bill with a black “bean”. Plumage is whitish with markings in various shades of brown and gray. Her legs are yellow or orange with dark toenails and she, like the drake, also has wings marked with a blue cross-stripe.

The British Waterfowl Standards book lists criteria for an ideal example of this breed including (but not limited to) criteria such as:

A well-rounded head feathered in iridescent green over brown black
A slightly erect, alert and busy carriage
A rump which is brown black with a slight iridescence, laced with white
Legs that are set slightly back and well apart
A medium length bill that is not wedge-shaped and that rises in a gentle curve to the brow
Dark brown eyes

History

The Silver Appleyard is named after Reginald Appleyard, the breeder who developed it at his Priory Waterfowl Farm near Bury St Edmunds, England. As described in a farm brochure from the 1940s, Appleyard’s ambition was to create a very attractive breed of large duck that would also be a prolific producer of large, white eggs.

 

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