Rouen Duck: A Mallard the Size of a Goose

The Rouen is a mallard the size of a goose: the wild duck’s colour pattern on a heavy, boat-shaped body that English breeders built out of French farm ducks two hundred years ago. It is slow to grow, a variable layer, a calm bird, and a popular one for decorating ponds.

Some people meeting a Rouen for the first time think they are looking at an enormous mallard, and in a sense they are. The breed keeps the drake’s green head, white collar and chestnut breast and the duck’s mottled brown, and adds what the Livestock Conservancy calls a “thickset boat shape”, a body that Metzer Farms says is at least three times the weight of a mallard. That combination — familiar colours, unfamiliar bulk — is much of the appeal, and it comes with trade-offs that the numbers below make plain.

Rouen duck at a glance

The two sets of figures describe two kinds of Rouen. Metzer says there are a show type and a non-show type, sells the non-show type, and gives its breeders’ weights during lay, which it controls for egg production; it says the show type does not lay nearly as many eggs. The Conservancy says the Production Rouen averages 2 pounds less than the Standard Rouen, with a trimmer body and more upright carriage. The chart with every Metzer breed is on the breed comparison tool.

Where the Rouen came from

The Livestock Conservancy’s account: French farmers raised large mallard-like ducks for centuries, and around 1800 some of them reached England (the Rare Breeds Survival Trust says some time in the eighteenth century), where they were renamed after the Normandy town of Rouen. English breeders then reshaped them — in the Conservancy’s words, they “doubled its size, transformed its sleek body into a thickset boat shape, and improved its colors”. The result crossed to the United States in 1850 as a colourful general-purpose farm duck, entered the American Poultry Association’s Standard of Perfection in 1874, and has since been considered by breeders, the Conservancy says, the ultimate exhibition duck.

Its slow growth counts against it as a commercial meat duck. Rouens mature slowly — the Conservancy gives six to eight months, which it says makes them impractical for commercial meat production — and eXtension says they are not as efficient for meat as Pekins, Muscovies or mule ducks, and its breed guide says commercial producers get a Pekin to 7 to 8 pounds in seven weeks. The British Waterfowl Association gives two years to full size and says that is why Rouens are now used more for showing, though Oklahoma State’s breed register says that in the US Rouens are raised primarily for the restaurant market. The Conservancy lists the breed’s uses as meat, exhibition, pets and ornamental, and ranks the non-industrial Rouen as Watch.

What a Rouen looks like

A mallard, magnified. The drake in breeding plumage has the glossy green head, the white neck ring, the deep claret breast and the grey body of a wild mallard, with a bill the Conservancy calls dark yellow; the duck is mottled brown with a dark bill marked orange, and both carry the blue speculum on the wing. After the breeding season the drake moults into the drab eclipse plumage that the mallard article describes — Metzer Farms sees the eclipse moult in all its breeds except the Muscovy — and for a few weeks he looks much like the duck: Metzer says males are typically heavier, with a thicker neck and larger head, and have the deeper, raspier voice, and that a curled tail feather can be lost in the moult. The standard-bred bird is deep-keeled and carries itself low and level — the Rare Breeds Survival Trust says its keel touches the ground when it stands at rest; the production type, the Conservancy says, is trimmer and more upright.

Because the colour pattern is the wild one, a Rouen is easily mistaken for a mallard — Metzer Farms says some people call Rouens Mallards, which it calls incorrect because “Mallards fly quite easily and Rouens do not”. Male vs female ducks covers the sexing signs, which for the Rouen are simply the mallard’s.

Eggs

Here the two types diverge most. Metzer’s hatchery Rouens lay 140–180 eggs a year — the upper figure with 17 hours of light — which is a respectable garden layer, on a par with a Cayuga. The Conservancy calls the breed a variable layer at 35 to 125 eggs a year and the University of Kentucky gives 40–60, while the British Waterfowl Association gives exhibition females 100–150. The eggs are large at 80–95 g on Metzer’s chart, about a third of them bluish, and Metzer rates the breed’s mothering good. The broody duck guide explains what she needs; the day-by-day timeline follows the 28 days.

Temperament and noise

The Conservancy calls the breed docile and Metzer scores it 4.5, on the calm side of the middle of its scale from 1 (very calm) to 9 (more nervous); Metzer’s Rouen page calls the breed “very calm”, and the British Waterfowl Association says Rouens are a docile breed that tames reasonably easily; the Conservancy also calls them easy to handle, though it says drakes occasionally guard a duck on her nest and chase anyone who comes near. On noise the Conservancy is measured: “This breed is not as noisy as some other breeds, but they can be talkative – especially the females.” As in other mallard-derived breeds, the loud quack is the duck’s; Metzer Farms says males have a deeper, raspier voice. Why ducks quack explains the calls.

Keeping Rouens

A heavy, slow-maturing duck needs what the RSPCA’s welfare standards ask for common ducks — litter kept dry and deep enough, and a ramp wherever the step into the house is more than 5 cm — and, while it is growing, enough niacin: Metzer Farms says waterfowl need two to three times as much as chickens during their initial growth period. The standard-bred bird carries its keel close to the ground, so check that its footing stays clean and that it can get in and out of its water without a scramble — duck water needs covers the tub and the ramp. Feed is the standard ration, per what to feed ducks; Metzer Farms’ consumption figures, which the feed calculator uses, are approximations that “will vary according to temperature, exercise, and genetics”.

Metzer’s chart rates the Rouen’s flight “Maybe”, but Metzer’s own Rouen page, the Conservancy, the British Waterfowl Association and eXtension all say Rouens do not fly, and the Conservancy draws the conclusion: “As they do not move quickly and do not fly, you need to be sure they are kept safe from predators.” eXtension’s advice is to have the flock roost in a secured place at night with all the doors closed and locked, and duck predators explains why. Space does not depend on the breed name: the RSPCA’s standards set indoor space by weight, at no more than 17 kg per square metre, so fewer heavy birds fit on a floor than light ones, and outdoor range per bird, at least 2.5 m² on good pasture; the space calculator works it out.

Is the Rouen right for you?

Yes, if you want the mallard’s colours on a calm, big, decorative bird for a pond or a small holding, a fair number of large eggs from hatchery stock, and a good mother. It is also, the Conservancy notes, a fine roasting duck with “abundant, delicately-flavored flesh”, whose meat “is said to have a lighter flavor than the meat of other duck breeds”, for those who keep ducks for that. Choose something else if you want a fast-growing meat duck (a Pekin), more eggs (a Khaki Campbell: 165–240 a year on Metzer’s chart), a quiet bird (a Muscovy, which Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology calls usually silent, or a Cayuga, which the Conservancy calls a quiet breed), or a small duck for a small garden. The beginner’s guide to duck breeds sets them side by side.