Ancona Ducks

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Thank you for replies and views. I figure two will be culled from my breeders (eggs pen/meat). Other then the "marked/tri-colour", I also have one with a small, lopsided crest. Both are female
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but you gotta do what you gotta do if your goal is to improve flock, whatever your breeding. I am in my second year, and still small scale, but I do what to improve over time. Thank you for helping me get it right in the beginnings.
 
So here's a weird question: How would you tell the difference between an all white Ancona and a Pekin?

Why I ask?

I ordered 5 Ancona ducks from Sand Hill Preservation, apparently they were having issues with fertility and laying in their Ancona flock, so my order was continually pushed back. When the finally sent my order, they sent 4 ducks: 3 Anconas and 1 Pekin. That would be all fine and dandy except they sent me 3 all yellow ducklings, 1 of which passed almost immediately after arriving. Now I am stuck with one obviously Ancona duck and 2 white ducks that I am unsure of. I am pretty ****** that they would send me an all yellow Ancona, let alone 2 and then use another all yellow/white duckling as filler.

So any suggestions on how to tell if I have 2 Pekins or 2 Anconas or one of each?

Edited to remove my potty mouth language;)
 
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size at maturity. Pekins are big! some anconas do hatch all white (like 1% but it depends on the markings of your breeding flock - light marked birds breeding together would seem to increase the ratio.)

have your ducks feathered out? are you sure you haven't got some very light silvers?

I'd be furious :(
 
Chicken Crazy12 said:
This color does crop up in almost every bloodline I've found. It is due to their runner duck ancestry. In a technical standpoint it would be considered Tri-colored, but is not something you want to breed for or use in your breeding programs. He would be considered a cull, sorry. They make great pets and the hens are great for egg production for those selling duck eggs for baking, cooking etc....
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Yep there is mallard pattern and sometimes others (dusky, pencilled etc) underneath the extended black of any bird whose coloration requires the extended black gene. It will always be there! It is not a fault in the line when it shows up!

In most breeds that come in colors like black, blue, silver, chocolate and lavender, the ducks have 2 copies of the extended black gene (EE) for full, solid coverage and no rusting of the rich coloration. Anconas get wilder markings however if they have only ONE copy of the gene (Ee) --that's why it's not a fault for them to have rusting. So if you have Ee x Ee, you are sometimes going to get EE (I'm not sure how this presents - like magpie perhaps?) or ee - where there is NO extended black covering up a mallard pattern. It seems, though, that I get way less than 25% of either. I might get an oddball in a batch of 12 or so. They might be worth breeding to plainer birds to get back to Ee offspring. They'll still lay and forage and be awesome... just not have the desired look.
 
toadbriar said:
size at maturity. Pekins are big! some anconas do hatch all white (like 1% but it depends on the markings of your breeding flock - light marked birds breeding together would seem to increase the ratio.)

have your ducks feathered out? are you sure you haven't got some very light silvers?

I'd be furious :(
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Oh, I am pretty sure they are straight white, I had silver before and I could still see some sort of shading. It is possible that one single feather might come out a color, I am not holding my breath though. I would have rather had a refund then send me mostly all white Anconas. I figured I could tell by the size, but what if I got a tiny Pekin, how would I know!? Thanks for your input:)
 
Chicken Crazy12 said:
If what your explaining is anything like a couple of mine then yes it is tri-colored. They will often hatch out black and then get chocolate over the back, some black down the sides and black on the head. I can say for sure that mine are not chocolate and a true tri-colored because I've bred them to my chocolate girls only to produce black offspring. Right now i'm working with a little Tri-colored drake that should be a chocolate carrier in hopes of producing a true chocolate drake for my chocolate flock. Anyway to answer your question it very well could be a tri-color.
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This is exactly what he did. I thought he was black at first, then when his feathers started coming in, they were chocolate except on his head and chest.

I need to read up more on color genetics.
 
ChristineR said:
This is exactly what he did. I thought he was black at first, then when his feathers started coming in, they were chocolate except on his head and chest.

I need to read up more on color genetics.
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Maybe I've misunderstood waterfowl genetics, but I don't think chocolate (sex-linked) and black can show up on the same bird. Maybe as some sort of lacing, but not in patches in distant body parts. The color appears black, but is genetically chocolate. Hence the reason, I always check tail feathers to see their true color. It isn't affected by rusting or lacing and almost always shows some color. Again, I could be wrong - too pressed for time to pull out the book right now.
 
AuroraSprings said:
Maybe I've misunderstood waterfowl genetics, but I don't think chocolate (sex-linked) and black can show up on the same bird. Maybe as some sort of lacing, but not in patches in distant body parts. The color appears black, but is genetically chocolate. Hence the reason, I always check tail feathers to see their true color. It isn't affected by rusting or lacing and almost always shows some color. Again, I could be wrong - too pressed for time to pull out the book right now.
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I don't remember. It's been a really long time since I've looked at a genetics book. I'm going to go back and read tonight if I can remember.
 
Mine are not genetically chocolate. Done the test breeding there and when bred to chocolate hens no chocolate babies, when bred to black hens no chocolate babies. I now have one of these tri-colored males that should be a chocolate carrier, but he himself did not hatch out chocolate.
 

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