The Swedish Blue duck is a breed of domesticated duck

Domesticated duck

Domesticated ducks are ducks that are raised for meat, eggs and down. Many ducks are also kept for show, as pets or for their ornamental value...

. They are often simply called Swedish. It is a landrace

Landrace

A landrace is a local variety of a domesticated animal or plant species which has developed largely by natural processes, by adaptation to the natural and cultural environment in which it lives. It differs from a formal breed which has been bred deliberately to conform to a particular standard...

 originating in southern Sweden.

Description

The Swedish Blue duck is a medium sized bird, male weighs between 3-4 kg; the female usually weighs 2,5-3,5 kg. Swedish Blue ducks are very calm birds and make good beginner's ducks. They produces 100 eggs per year of 80-90 g weight. They love to free range and will go broody.

Genetics

The color of Swedish Blue ducks is due to heterozygosity in a color gene

Gene

A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...

. If a Swedish Blue duck and drake breed, the young are the usual 25% / 50% / 25% ratio in:

• 25%: A homozygous form, black where the blue should be.
• 50%: As the parents.
• 25%: The other homozygous form, splashed or silver with combinations of blue and black and white.

Distribution

Swedish Blue ducks are a relatively popular breed of duck. Swedish population of Swedish Blue duck consists of 163 breeding animals only. It is considered to be an endangered breed. This breed of duck is listed as watch by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy

American Livestock Breeds Conservancy

The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy is a nonprofit organization focused on preserving and promoting genetic diversity among rare breeds of livestock...

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