Ancona Color Genetics

[HHR Ranch]

Pardon the slow reply!

So, Chocolate is its own gene. To get chocolate, you must already have chocolate.

Your lilac/lavender hen is Chocolate - that's what those colors are, chocolate plus one or two copies of blue. So, her sons will all carry one copy of chocolate. None will express it.

You can use those sons to breed more chocolates. By breeding back to their mother, you could get chocolate/lilac/lavender ducklings in both genders.

If instead you breed them to an unrelated female that is not chocolate, half the female offspring from that breeding would be chocolate, and half the male offspring would be carrying chocolate.

On the buff front, buff is also its own gene. It too is sex linked, so it breeds just like chocolate.

I hatched Anconas for the first time this year. I only have black and 1 brown hen and 1 brown drake. Out of my batch I got 3 tricolors. And then I got this guy. What color Is he called? My Anconas are by themselves so they don’t intermingle with my other ducks.

 

[Duck-a-Dee]

I hatched Anconas for the first time this year. I only have black and 1 brown hen and 1 brown drake. Out of my batch I got 3 tricolors. And then I got this guy. What color Is he called? My Anconas are by themselves so they don’t intermingle with my other ducks.

He is stunning and his bill coloring is very nice That color is called harlequin. It is recessive which means your young drake had to of inherited the gene from both parents in order to express. I have one Ancona drake that has a harlequin patch on his shoulder. I don't know where the gene came from (possibly from their extinct ancestor the Belgian Huttegem) but regardless of where or if anyone really knows it looks really cool in my opinion. I have seen harlequin colored Anconas in other people's flocks. It is very rare but it happens. Personally if he was my duck I would keep him and breed from him because I love anything that is very rare or unusual.

 

[WhiteTreeOfGondor]

He is stunning and his bill coloring is very nice That color is called harlequin. It is recessive which means your young drake had to of inherited the gene from both parents in order to express. I have one Ancona drake that has a harlequin patch on his shoulder. I don't know where the gene came from (possibly from their extinct ancestor the Belgian Huttegem) but regardless of where or if anyone really knows it looks really cool in my opinion. I have seen harlequin colored Anconas in other people's flocks. It is very rare but it happens. Personally if he was my duck I would keep him and breed from him because I love anything that is very rare or unusual.

I agree, he's cool! I wouldn't personally breed him as a pure Ancona, though maybe in a separate flock as a project. I don't follow the proposed standard and I do love rare and unusual too, but I'm a little more cautious about traits like this because I can see the breed changing completely if there aren't any standards or guidelines at all.

 

[Mardomdi]

There is no such thing as a true "buff" Ancona but the Lilac Anconas and sun bleached Chocolate Anconas can look buff. Lavender + Lavender will get roughly 25% Lilacs and 25% Chocolates. A Lavender + a Lilac will get roughly 50% Lilacs and 50% Lavenders. Chocolate + Lilac = 100% Lavender. Many Black Ancona drakes out there are in fact Chocolate splits so you could get a Black drake from someone and you would have decent odds of plain Chocolate ducklings in both genders and not have to weed out other colors besides black and the occasional Tricolor. Even if the breeder flock doesn't have Chocolate or very many Chocolate ducks in their flock it is still possible their drakes are splits.
I don't recommend interbreeding at all. It really isn't necessary in order to get the colors you want. Some bird people out there do it but it does increase the odds of defects in the offspring and increases the prevalence of genetic defect carriers. Not worth the consequences.

Where can I get more info on genetics in plain terms?! I have a lavender boy, a duck labeled "tri" that actually has "grey" or mallard expression, and a b&w female. If I have other than what I described, please educate me! Thanks in advance!

 

[WhiteTreeOfGondor]

Where can I get more info on genetics in plain terms?! I have a lavender boy, a duck labeled "tri" that actually has "grey" or mallard expression, and a b&w female. If I have other than what I described, please educate me! Thanks in advance!

Have you read this website? Nantahala Farms Ancona Ducks
This one also might help: Worth It Farms Ancona Ducks, and I have some information on my website as well: Westfarthing Waterfowl Ancona Ducks.

Tricolors actually do have the "grey" mallard pattern show up because they lack the black gene which usually covers that. I think the term "tricolor" is a bit confusing, because they aren't an Ancona duck that got three colors. Their genetics are different. The eye stripes, though, are not a typical Ancona trait.

Your colors look accurate to me! The lavender boy looks almost blue in the picture, but I've found that males are darker than females and their color is more vibrant. Female lavenders are pretty easy to identify, but my male lavenders tend to have lots of chocolate bleed-through and a more saturated color than females, which can look blue at times.