Welsh Harlequin

[Miss Lydia]

Congratulations to you both for you almost here ducklings, of course you know your going to have to send lots of pictures our way.

 

[Rosebud 18]

I got an e-mail from Holderreads last night to. They plan to ship my order on monday or tuesday the week of april 11th with the 18th and 24th being alternate shipping dates. I ordered 10 runners (4 white, 4 penciled and 2 fawn/white). I also ordered 3 welsh harlequin, 2 black swedish, 1 blue swedish 2 fawn/white runners and a pair of pilgrim geese from Metzer. I haven't heard from Metzers yet but I ask for the shipping date of april 4th. I had to order from both places to get what I wanted.

 

[jeaucamom]

YEAH!!!!! I placed my order with Holderreads... I ordered show quality 6 gold and 6 silver... I also ordered 4 runners for the kids, but the Harlequins are MINE!!!!!

I CANT WAIT!!! They said definitly by mid May and quite possibly sooner... I am so excited I can't even stand it ...

Praying for mostly females

 

[jeaucamom]

Speaking of Gold and Silver... I keep reading on here... gold phase... isn't the gold WH a seperate color in the species? Maybe I am just totally misunderstanding.. but there is a difference between the gold and silver right?

 

[Dances with Ducks]

You can get gold and silver ducklings out of the same hen, just like you can have kids with blue and brown eyes. The gold is just a recessive gene that has to be in both parents before it will show up in the offspring.

 

[jeaucamom]

ok.. that makes sense..

and if you mate gold with gold.. you will get all gold? And if you mate silver with silver, you will get all silver??

If not, then maybe I shouldn't have ordered 6 of each, maybe just 6 total if you can get both from each color.. hmmmm....

 

[Muggsmagee]

Quote:
I am also getting a order from Holderreads next month for four Welsh Harlequins and six Saxony ducklings. I was originally going to get four Cayugas but changed them to the Harlequins. I decided to just have two breeds of ducks rather than three. I can't wait!

X3!! I also have an order of Saxony and Welsh Harlequins coming from Holderreads. 8 of each to be exact. That's funny that you mention Cayuga because that was also my third choice. I actually got an email today from Holderreads saying that my ducklings were scheduled to be shipped the week of April 11th!! They also sent a helpful attachment of 12 suggestions once your ducklings arrive. Can't wait!!!

Wow! What is it about those two breeds??? That's awesome you guys! My third choice was Silver Appleyards and then I caved and said my first 2 picks were good enough. I ended up winning an auction for SA eggs...so as long as they are fertile, I'll end up with each anyway!

 

[Dances with Ducks]

Quote:
If you mate gold with gold you will get all gold.
If you mate silver with silver you will get all silver, except if the drake carries the recessive gold gene, then some of the female ducklings will be gold. You wouldn't know if your silver drake carried the recessive gene until he had offspring.
Getting a male gold duckling could only happen with a silver drake if the silver drake had the recessive gold gene and mated a gold hen.
It's easier to start with gold parents if you want to have gold ducklings, and silver parents for silver ducklings.

 

[jeaucamom]

Oh.. good.. that makes perfect sense.. ok.. feeling better about my decision to get both and keep them seperate.. or if I am really daring could start a third pen for gold drake and silver hen and have sex link eggs to sell.

 

[Dances with Ducks]

jeaucamom do you happen to know if the silvers ducklings you are getting are homogenous for the silver gene, meaning no recessive gold? I was breeding a silver Holderread drake last year and was suprised to get some female gold ducklings. I had got the drake third hand so I didn't have a chance to find out about this for sure, but I think because Holderread sells several categories of Welsh Harlequin, some of the categories may be pure for the color phase and others not.
This year my drakes are second hand from his Top Show Quality option so I am hoping for all silvers, except from my gold hens, so I will have a chance to test my theory.