Ancona Ducks

[DxSOR25]

All straw inside.. The entire floor with wire.. I answered my own question as to how you would walk inside would be in he beams lol.. If you go to boondockers website and read the raising ducks they have the wire floor which gives good ventilation and the straw last longer and easier to work with

 

[JoyAnna]

Boyfriend for my two girls:
I will be receiving an Ancona drake this week. I so wanted to start a batch of ducklings this spring but could not get my set up ready to take care of them. I found a listing on Craigslist for three (3) Ancona drakes and have negotiated to take one of them. (The other two drakes still need homes if anyone in the near-Seattle area is looking). This seems the best solution even though it still won't give me the beginnings of a 'high quality' flock since my two girls are not top breeding quality. However, now there is a chance that one of them may go broody and give me some choices.

My only concern about all of this is bringing the drake into his new home. I have read here about keeping the birds separated at first, but that is nearly impossible right now. Can they get along well enough to spend the nights penned together? The girls are accustomed to being free during the days. I want to keep the new guy penned for at least a few days while he learns where home is.

 

[mgmb99]

Quote:


i have beautiful ancona ducks. you can see tons of pics at http://mason.hostei.com/photos and go to ducks.

 

[JoyAnna]

I followed your link to the pics of your Anconas. They truly are beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

I followed your link to the pics of your Anconas. They truly are beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

x2

 

[Poultry Friend]

Black is dominate, so yes, I was expecting some blacks. My drakes are blue and silver (I think). The only ones I hatched eggs from are the black hens and a blue hen. So either I beat the odds, or there is some color inheritance going on that I don't understand.

Kristy/AuroraSprings, your thoughts? All of these ducks came from you except for the black hens.

Black is dominate, but not over all genes.

Blue dilutes black, so even one copy of the gene will make the ducklings Blue (even grey color). Two copies of the gene will result in silver (light grey. Ducklings might have no markings visible at first).

You said you have two drakes- one Blue and one Silver. And you have two hens and black and a blue. The possibilities as far as duckling colors are below:

Blue drake with Black Hen: 25% Blue 75% Black
Blue Drake with Blue Hen: 25% Silver 25% Black 50% Blue

Silver Drake with Black Hen: 100% Blue
Silver Drake with Blue Hen: 75% Silver 25% Blue

Assuming your 'silver' drake is actually Lilac (two copies of blue and one copy of chocolate) you would get:

Lilac with Black Hen: 50% Lavander (One copy of Blue and one copy of Chocolate- these will also all be girls) 50% Blue (These would be all males) The percentages will be a bit off since this combo would be sex linked.

 

[ChristineR]

Black is dominate, but not over all genes.

Blue dilutes black, so even one copy of the gene will make the ducklings Blue (even grey color). Two copies of the gene will result in silver (light grey. Ducklings might have no markings visible at first).

You said you have two drakes- one Blue and one Silver. And you have two hens and black and a blue. The possibilities as far as duckling colors are below:

Blue drake with Black Hen: 25% Blue 75% Black
Blue Drake with Blue Hen: 25% Silver 25% Black 50% Blue

Silver Drake with Black Hen: 100% Blue
Silver Drake with Blue Hen: 75% Silver 25% Blue

Assuming your 'silver' drake is actually Lilac (two copies of blue and one copy of chocolate) you would get:

Lilac with Black Hen: 25% Chocolate (these would all be females) 25% Lavander (One copy of Blue and one copy of Chocolate- these will also all be girls) 50% Blue

Thank you.

I actually have four hens and two of them are black. I knew that they could produce blue, but I was really expecting some black. Definitely no black or chocolate, though.

I should seperate the "silver" drake with a black hen to see what I get.

 

[Poultry Friend]

It actually gets kinda complicated if your drake is Lilac since Chocolate is a sex linked gene (and my brain is not working very well right now)

Basically, a hen could only have one copy of the chocolate gene, and if she does, she is visibly chocolate. However, a drake can carry two copies. If he only has one copy of the gene, then he would not show chocolate. If we don't look at blue at all, then he would be black. If he is also carrying blue, then he would look blue even though he is has one chocolate gene.

So a Lilac is a silver with chocolate, but a drake would have to have two copies, so to get a Lilac drake he would have to have two copies of blue AND two copies of chocolate. However, you could get a Lilac hen with one copy of chocolate and two copies of blue.

So if you do have a Lilac drake, he would give one copy of chocolate and one copy of blue to *all* his babies. The hen, black, would give them no colors at all. So any drakes that result from that cross, they would not show the chocolate gene, but will show the blue, so they would be Blue.

The hens that result from that cross would show both the blue and the chocolate, and would thus be Lavender.

So what I said before was wrong. My brain was all muddled since it gets complicated with sex-linked genes.

 

[ChristineR]

It actually gets kinda complicated if your drake is Lilac since Chocolate is a sex linked gene (and my brain is not working very well right now)

Basically, a hen could only have one copy of the chocolate gene, and if she does, she is visibly chocolate. However, a drake can carry two copies. If he only has one copy of the gene, then he would not show chocolate. If we don't look at blue at all, then he would be black. If he is also carrying blue, then he would look blue even though he is has one chocolate gene.

So a Lilac is a silver with chocolate, but a drake would have to have two copies, so to get a Lilac drake he would have to have two copies of blue AND two copies of chocolate. However, you could get a Lilac hen with one copy of chocolate and two copies of blue.

So if you do have a Lilac drake, he would give one copy of chocolate and one copy of blue to *all* his babies. The hen, black, would give them no colors at all. So any drakes that result from that cross, they would not show the chocolate gene, but will show the blue, so they would be Blue.

The hens that result from that cross would show both the blue and the chocolate, and would thus be Lavender.

So what I said before was wrong. My brain was all muddled since it gets complicated with sex-linked genes.

But a silver drake x a black hen = 100% blue, right? So if I got any color other than blue, I would know he isn't silver...

 

[Poultry Friend]

Yes. If he is silver you would get 100% Blue. Keep in mind that Lavender can look kinda like blue, so I would say keep the babies until they feather and look at the boys VS the girls. If the girls seems to have more of a brown tint to them, then I would say he is Lilac. If they all look the same, I would say he is Silver.

There are pictures here of each color. Maybe that will help you. http://worthitfarms.jigsy.com/ancona-colors