In 2020 and 2021 USA Duck Team conducted a meat/egg production trial to find the most production duck breed in the Midwest. What we found is that Midwest conditions are very different than California conditions. At present, 99% of ducks in America come from Metzger Hatchery in California, so their statistics are the basis for most breed comparison charts online. The Midwest has far colder winters than California, and the summers are actually hotter when you take into account humidity and heat index. What we found is that the chocolate gene helped carry egg-laying deeper into the heat of the summer, and the black gene helped ducks be productive layers deep into winter.
