Crested ducks the whole Picture

[Jryan18]

I see it has been a while since anyone has posted but I had a question about crested ducks. I have four Perkins 3 females and a male, I hatched some of there eggs and one out of five that hatched had a crest, none of the adults have one. From my limited education should I just assume that it is that one in 100,000 to 1,000,000 genetic abnormalities or should I expect to see a lot of crested ducklings? or should I separate them and try and figure out which of the female carries a crested gene and cull her? or just cull ant crested that hatch?

 

[Jryan18]

I see it has been a while since anyone has posted but I had a question about crested ducks. I have four Perkins 3 females and a male, I hatched some of there eggs and one out of five that hatched had a crest, none of the adults have one. From my limited education should I just assume that it is that one in 100,000 to 1,000,000 genetic abnormalities or should I expect to see a lot of crested ducklings? or should I separate them and try and figure out which of the female carries a crested gene and cull her? or just cull ant crested that hatch?

 

[Jryan18]

I see it has been a while since anyone has posted but I had a question about crested ducks. I have four Perkins 3 females and a male, I hatched some of there eggs and one out of five that hatched had a crest, none of the adults have one. From my limited education should I just assume that it is that one in 100,000 to 1,000,000 genetic abnormalities or should I expect to see a lot of crested ducklings? or should I separate them and try and figure out which of the female carries a crested gene and cull her? or just cull ant crested that hatch?

 

[Kevin565]

Do you know the origins of your birds? It's not uncommon for recessive traits to show up down the line.

 

[Jryan18]

Not really we bought them from a hatchery, I think ideal, about a year ago but other than that no.

 

[Jryan18]

Not really we bought them from a hatchery, I think ideal, about a year ago but other than that no.

 

[aprille218]

Yes, at least one of your Pekins has a "hidden" crest. Sometimes the crests are just so small that they are missed (no easily seen). The crested gene is a dominant one so it will pass on to 50% of the offspring in some form from 1 parent that carries one copy of the gene. It could be any of your females or even your male (or possibly even rarely both). You can separate them out and hatch multiple eggs from everyone if you want to know who is the culprit for sure.
Aprille

 

[Jryan18]

If it was the male wouldn't more of them probably had a crest

 

[Miss Lydia]

If it was the male wouldn't more of them probably had a crest

Just seems so cruel to hatch ducklings just to see who is crested then cull the ducklings. Sorry just seems cruel.

 

[Jryan18]

I don't know if it makes it any less cruel but I don't plan on culling them immediately. My hopes would be they live long enough that they would be used for meat