Guide to Ducklings!

Now that you’ve got one or more Duck Ponds teeming with ducks, what else can you do with them? Well, it’s time to start breeding some brand new ones!

Every time you harvest the Duck Pond (once every 24 hours), you have a chance of getting a Yellow or Brown Duckling out of it in addition to the general coin reward for harvesting. The color of the Duckling is determined by what kind of ducks are in your Duck Pond, and the color also determines what kind of ducks can be bred from it. If you just use previous ducks, like the Ugly Duckling or White Swan, you’ll almost always get a Yellow Duckling. If you use a mix of duck types, you may get a Brown Duckling.

You have the option to share this Duckling on your feed:

After this your Duckling will be placed in the Gift Box. You can then choose to place the Duckling on your farm or straight into your Duck Pond at any time from the Gift Box:

Placing the Duckling on your farm will start the breeding process. If you put the Duckling in your Duck Pond, it will stay a Duckling only and the breeding process will be on hold. Once you place the Duckling, a new window will appear (in this case, let’s assume it’s a Yellow Duckling):

Breeding ducks is a factor of both time and friendship. You can see a line of seven (7) Ducks here: the rarity of the Ducks increases as you go from left to right. However, the time you have to breed that kind of duck decreases while the number of friends you need to breed that duck increases (as you go from left to right). Over time you lose the ability to breed certain ducks for that particular Duckling.

Sounds complex? First, here’s a chart to map it all out:

For a Yellow Duckling, in order to get the valuable Indian Runner Duck I need seven (7) neighbors to help me over the next twenty-four (24) hours (the timer starts as soon as I put the Duckling on the farm).

If I only manage to get the help of five (5) neighbors, the best duck I can breed with the Yellow Duckling is the Goldeneye Duck for the next seventy-two (72) hours. However, if I don’t breed the duck within that period, I lose the ability to get the Goldeneye Duck and then the best duck I can get is the Red Billed Duck. A day later if I still don’t breed a duck, the best duck I can get is the Scoter Duck.

Alternatively, let’s say I get a Brown Duckling but can only get two (2) neighbors to help me out. I can only breed the Red Billed Duck or the Goldeneye Duck for the next six (6) days. But if a day passes and four (4) more neighbors help me out, I can still breed the Wood Duck.

To grow the Duck, just find the one you want and click on “Choose” beneath its picture. You’ll get the new duck in your Gift Box:

You can get help from your neighbors by just clicking on the “Ask For Help” button and choosing which neighbors you want to ask. This sends a standard request through the Zynga Message Center (ZMC) which the recipient can easily respond to. You can also choose to speed up the growth process by paying Farm Cash, which will let you breed whatever duck you want that hasn’t already been expired (if pay Farm Cash after two days, you can only breed five of the seven duck types).

After seven days the duck will just grow into the last available duck (the Ugly Duckling for the Yellow Duckling for example); if you’d rather keep the duckling as is you can close the window and you’ll be asked if you just want to keep the Duckling the way it is permanently.