Ancona duckling hatched completely yellow, now changing color?

[Duck Diva]

Glad to read that my guide has been helpful And yes, that is correct. Black is dominant over the mallard base, so it does hide all mallard colors. Exception is dusky, because a black duck that is dusky will be self black, instead of black bibbed, so you can still tell the gene is there.

Thank you all for sharing your knowledge! I will definitely post more pictures as he/she gets older and the coloration and gender of this little one (named Goldie) become more apparent.

 

[Pyxis]

I was just coming back to edit my post, remembering the dusky.

What do you think about the sooty gene mentioned in Holderread's book? Does it exist?

I have no idea what that's supposed to be or what it theoretically does, and I can't find mention of it anywhere else, so at this point I'm inclined to believe that it's not really a thing.

Holderread also lists a separate dominant gene for bibbing and says that bibbed blacks have this gene and are also Dusky like a self black is, and lists the only difference between the two colors as being the lack of this supposed gene in the self ducks. Most other sources do not separate extended black bibbing out as its own gene and call it a linked effect, and say that dusky is what removes the bibbing. I'm more inclined to believe those sources, because if dominant bibbing was its own gene, you should be able to breed a dominant bibbed black to a mallard based duck and get bibbed mallards. But try that and you will find that you won't.

So that is to say, I don't really know that some of the genetics in Holderread's books are accurate.

 

[Duck Diva]

I don’t mean to be dense, but based on the assumption of two black/white Ancona parents, what are the possibilities for coloration?

Could a non-Ancona male parent (mallard or mottled duck) produce offspring looking anything like this?

 

[Pyxis]

I don’t mean to be dense, but based on the assumption of two black/white Ancona parents, what are the possibilities for coloration?

Could a non-Ancona male parent (mallard or mottled duck) produce offspring looking anything like this?

Ancona is a complicated color. It differs from Magpie in that the duck has only one copy of extended black, not two. So yes, two anconas bred together could produce a duck like this, if it does happen to be some kind of pied restricted mallard appleyard type thing, depending entirely on what genetics the parents are carrying that can't be seen due to the extended black.

Were the parents perfect anconas with the perfect expected genotype, they'd still be able to produce three colors - black ancona, black magpie, and 'tricolor' ancona which is a pied gray. Add in the fact that they might be carrying all manner of things like light phase or restricted mallard and yep, you can get some unexpected things.

 

[Duck Diva]

Update:

I’ve attached some new pictures of the mystery duckling, which to my untrained eyes, is looking like a drake. The wing feathers don’t look like the white wing feathers of his hatch-mates. His face also seems to be darkening around the bill and possibly across the eye (which I believe is atypical for Anconas). I also noticed that one of our ”black“ ancona drakes looks a little brownish. Any and all guesses about this little guy are appreciated!

 

[Pyxis]

I'm sticking with my previous guess for now - pied appleyard color

 

[Duck Diva]

Here are some updated pictures from today. They grow so fast!

 

[Duck Diva]

Ancona is a complicated color. It differs from Magpie in that the duck has only one copy of extended black, not two. So yes, two anconas bred together could produce a duck like this, if it does happen to be some kind of pied restricted mallard appleyard type thing, depending entirely on what genetics the parents are carrying that can't be seen due to the extended black.

Were the parents perfect anconas with the perfect expected genotype, they'd still be able to produce three colors - black ancona, black magpie, and 'tricolor' ancona which is a pied gray. Add in the fact that they might be carrying all manner of things like light phase or restricted mallard and yep, you can get some unexpected things.

Here is an update: he turned out nothing like I could ever have expected! Green head, pronounced blue wing bars, white with pencilled black and brown in the chest and back. Black tail.

Mallard male parent or two black and white Ancona? As you can see, he looks nothing like the others.

 

[FunQuail]

He looks super cool! He reminds me of my welsh harlequin drake, except for the head and bill.

 

[Pyxis]

He does look pied Appleyard now, like I thought he might turn out to be