Duck Color Genetics Question: Fawn & White (drake) x Black Runner (duck) (PICS)

graypes

Songster
Jun 19, 2020
400
489
161
Hi All, making a thread because I hadn't seen this particular cross asked before and figured I can't be the only one who is curious!!

So I have a Fawn & White Runner Drake (male) and a Black Runner duck (female). all I know about their genetics is that the American f&w has the double blue dilution (I think?) and that black is a dominant "mask" so the duck could be hiding any sort of funny color genetics behind that extended black!

I used the eend calculator and got that the offspring would be blue, diluted blue, and lavender (all pied) for both male and female ducklings. Are there any sex-linked traits in this cross? where are the ones with this like even red tone coming from (they have areas of red where there doesn't seem to be any clear demarcation between yellow (white) fuzz and this rufous reddish tint)

So I went to hatch 10 eggs. all were fertile and only one didn't make it. I ended up with 9 chicks of varying colors, all pied from the runner gene, but not "runner pattern" per se. All ducks had splashes of black OR gray (!) on their legs and beaks, but in specific patterns: every duck had at least the middle toe black/gray and had some level of "pants" (meaning the black/gray looked like they were wearing capris lol).

For coloring, 3 ducklings appear to be dark gray (blue?), 3 appear to be a light gray (lavender? diluted blue?), and 3 are almost a dusky red/brown? They all look drastically different from their fawn &white father, who at their age was COMPLETELY yellow save for one small light mark on the top of his head! also their pied color pattern leaves them all with a distinct stripe of white down their belly, where a runner would have their fawn color on the abdomen, these have completely yellow (white) bellies that continues from their neck all the way down their underside!

I know this is probably a relatively standard cross that's pretty common, but since I had never seen anyone ask about the f&w male x black female I figured I'd put it out there!

ALSO the black duck mom isn't bibbed per se but does have a small patch of white right on her breast it is just like the smallest dot and she's had it since birth

Here are the babies:
tempImagegD2W62.png
tempImageMkISwH.png
tempImagerGQDCE.png

tempImage0RegPy.png

tempImagezdNOaR.png
tempImagetfSoDJ.png




Here's dear old mom and dad as babies and adults (the black duck's beak is now a deep blue/gray, she grew out of the olive green beak!):
IMG_3250.jpeg
IMG_3237.jpeg
IMG_9323.jpeg
 
Last edited:
ooo I'm so curious what they'll look like when they grow up! do you mind sharing pics?
Here are some of my Troopie. Shes on the left in the first pic. Our drake is on the right, but his legs have now turned orange this spring. The last 2 pics are my "blue" runner babes. They all have blue runner parents, but you can kind of see the differences in leg colors between the blue, lavender and black. The lavender has weird colored legs too. I'm interested to see what they look like as an adult
 

Attachments

  • 20201110_175302.jpg
    20201110_175302.jpg
    536.5 KB · Views: 44
  • 20210224_143606.jpg
    20210224_143606.jpg
    605.5 KB · Views: 41
  • 20210318_140619.jpg
    20210318_140619.jpg
    884.1 KB · Views: 38
  • 20210411_221022.jpg
    20210411_221022.jpg
    564.6 KB · Views: 37
  • 20210411_221054.jpg
    20210411_221054.jpg
    636.1 KB · Views: 41
UPDATE:

It seems as though this may be a sex-linked combo! Of the three that I kept, two of the light gray/lilac/lavender that have brownish hues in their down are GIRLS and have just learned to quack! The blue (dark color) is a BOY! I've asked the people I gave the rest of their siblings to to let me know which colors are honking! So we shall see if my half-baked theory works out woohoo

Obviously if you have a black runner duck, your offspring may/will be different because extended black is a mask and will cover up whats underneath so if someone has a similar pair and stumbled on this post, your clutch may/will turn out differently!
 
here they are today at almost 3 weeks! The boy (blue/darker color) is about 4 days older than the youngest girl (with the brownish head) BF24DD11-9E93-4347-BC24-379142EB9707.jpeg
Legs are all still pink/dusty pink with black and dark gray splash
F9FAFF93-1423-4FC5-B3AE-4E0671DC27D5.jpeg
59807CD1-3ED8-43A6-9D5D-8785E99D71DB.jpeg
and the boy’s are starting to yellow a bit
72B341CD-9AFF-4D45-A81F-D75C4EA0F98A.jpeg

tail feathers are still coming in with the boys blue and two black feathers poking out ahead of the rest! 83E816AB-B7A1-4019-B077-E6C448F113F9.jpeg
the girls you can barely see but they are like a light gray...ones is VERY light ...is that what silver looks like? I think they may be lilac or lavender (what ever those two colors actually look like 😂) 5BBCE42D-0A35-42C2-BF9A-BB88A357C935.jpeg 75DD8957-957A-48FB-AD9D-63D5A28F0B49.jpeg (this is the duck with the lightest tail feathers but u cant really tell because the natal feathers/down are blocking it)

ANYWHOOOO, thank you for coming to my ted talk... i doubt this will be interesting to anyone BUT i know how frustrated i was looking online for pics of what a f&w x black runner looked like so i figure its better to be superfluous if maybe it can satisfy someone’s curiosity down the line!
 
Last edited:
I think they all might be bibbed! thanks @CaliFarmsAR for the revelation lol

Side note: Just curious, anybody out there have ducks with gray legs? This is a first for me!
 
the legs are splashed with dark gray and sometimes black. The base color gray may be pink? not sure what the terminology is but they are definitely NOT orange lol curious what breeds people see this leg color in usually!
My blue runner hen has grey legs!! And my blue ducklings too 😊
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom