Blue Swedish

Origin:  North-West Poland and north-east Germany

Category:  Heavy Duck

Egg Colour:  White, sometimes tinted blue, green or grey

Sitter:   No

The Swedish Blue or Blue Swedish is a Swedish breed of domestic duck. It emerged during the nineteenth century in what was then Swedish Pomerania, now divided between north-west Poland and north-east Germany.

The Swedish Blue is a medium-sized bird: the male weighs between 3–4 kg and the female usually weighs 2.5–3.5 kg. Swedish ducks are regularly compared to the body type of Cayugas and Orpingtons, however Swedish should have shorter bodies with more width compared to what is seen in those two breeds. Blue Swedish have medium, oval-sh' } aped heads.[11] Color should be a consistent blue-slate with darker lacing around the border of each feather. Drakes are generally darker than ducks.[11] The only part of the birds that is not some variety of blue is the white, heart-shaped bib found on the breast, extending up the front of the neck terminating towards the mandible of the bird.[11] It is distinguished from the Pomeranian Duck by its white primaries.[6]

The blue color is due to heterozygosity in a dilution gene. As in other blue poultry such as the Blue Andalusian breed of chicken, if a two blue birds are bred, the young are, in the usual Mendelian proportion:

25%: a homozygous form, black where the blue should be 50%: heterozygous, the typical blue 25%: the other homozygous form, splashed or silver with combinations of blue and black and white. Thus only 50% of the offspring of a blue-blue mating are blue. If the black and splash homozygous forms are bred together, the offspring are all heterozygous and thus the desired blue color.[

Ducks lay some 100–150 white or tinted eggs per year of 80–90 g weight.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

HEAD : Long, finely formed.

BILL : Of medium size; nearly straight in outline when viewed sidewise.

EYES: Full.

NECK : Long, slightly arched.

WINGS: Short, carried closely.

BACK : Long, broad, with slight slope from shoulders to tail.

TAIL: Slightly elevated; sex feathers of drake, hard, well curled.

BREAST: Full, deep.

BODY : Broad, of medium length; carriage, nearly horizontal, somewhat elevated in front.

LEGS AND TOES: Lower thighs, short, stout; shanks, stout; toes, straight, connected by web.

COLOUR

COLOR OF DRAKE AND DUCK

HEAD : Drake, dark blue, sometimes approaching black, with a green sheen. Duck, same as general body color.

BILL : Drake, greenish blue. Duck, smutty brown, with a dark brown blotch, similar to Rouen blotch, only larger.

EYES: Dark brown.

WINGS: Two flight feathers, pure white; balance of wing, uniform with general plumage.

BREAST: Front part, pure white, forming heart-shaped spot about three by four inches in size, often extending upward to lower mandible.

SHANKS AND TOEs: Reddish brown.

PLUMAGE: Uniform steel-blue throughout, except as noted.

WEIGHTS

• Male 2.70 - 3.60 kg

• Female 2.25 - 3.20 kg

SCALE OF POINTS

SERIOUS DEFECTS

• Yellow bills;

• Absence of white in breast;

• Feathers of any other color than blue forming one-fourth of plumage.

See Disqualifications

SOURCES

• The American standard of perfection, illustrated. A complete description of recognized varieties of fowls, as revised by [the Association at its 62d-67th annual meetings, 1937-42.] Public Domain accessed from: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009169004

• Australian Poultry Standards 2nd edition

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Blue