We love to have ducks around here. They are charming to listen to, lay a large number of large eggs, and can be raised just about anywhere because unlike chickens the males are the quiet one of the species. The Silver Appleyards are labeled "Critical" by The Livestock Conservancy. And being a heavy weight duck makes them even less popular. I don't necessarily know why, I find the heavier more appealing. I can only assume because we rather eat duck then duck eggs, as I have learned many are squeamish about eating their own animals and hold onto more of a pet outlook. Our ducks are beautiful, well cared for, loved, and found quite tasty when the time comes. We have two hens we purchased from Holderread Waterfowl. And have hatched four ducklings so far. One is above labeled Champion Heavy Duck, he was given that label at both A & B shows at the PNPA show last October. He is a vast improvement over his pet quality father. We feel quite blessed he turned out so well. We had trouble finding a SA drake to go with our girls for breeding season, so much so that we spent quite a bit of time trying for a Pekin drake to give us ducklings for at least the freezer. No such luck on that idea either. We used what we could and were surprised how well the first generation turned out that we decided to go ahead for at least one more year before we take another trip to Holderread for a show quality Silver Appleyard drake.