Uses: Utility - eggs, meat and as a good broody.
Eggs: Up to 200 per year.
Weight: Drake: 3 Kg, Duck: 2.5 Kg.
Classification: Light.
Useful to know: Autosexing at 8 weeks old.
The Abacot Ranger (also known as the Hooded Range in America, Streicherente in Germany and Eastern Europe and Le Canard Streicher in France) was created in Colchester in the County of Essex, UK from 1917 to 1922 by Oscar Gray of Abacot Duck Ranch. He used sports from Khaki Campbells and a White Indian Runner Drake to create the breed. They were a popular utility duck supplying meat and eggs but became less popular in the UK and if it wasn't for the work done in Germany by H. Lieker who stabilised the colour, they could have possibly been lost. The British Waterfowl Association standardised these ducks in 1987. They are a fairly large duck that rarely flies so can be kept in using a fairly low fence within the garden assuming the garden is safe from predators like foxes.
Eggs
Abacot Rangers are reasonable egg layers. They lay a fairly large white egg (about the size of an Indian Runner egg) weighing between 60 and 70g. Good utility strains lay around 180 to 200 eggs per year. During the 1922 egg laying trials at Wye College, they achieved from 4 ducks an average of 233.75 eggs per duck and came first in the trials.
Meat
Abacot Rangers look similar to Campbell ducks but are a bigger build so can be useful for the table. The live weight of a duck is around 2.5 kg and the drake 3 kg.
Breeding
Ducks are prone to broodiness and will sit on eggs given the opportunity. Ducklings are auto-sexing at about 8 weeks old, the drakes bill is Olive Green and the ducks bill is a dark slate colour, similar to Appleyard ducks.
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Domestic Duck Breeds