Are you my mother? Duckling Matching

[cheezenkwackers]

I have 5 beautiful ducklings who hatched in my incubator on Wednesday. I know who their father is. I only have one drake. But I wasn't sure who their mothers were. I think I have my genetics straight and now know, but see if you can figure out who goes with who.
Here are the possibilities:

Salsa: My drake (here in eclipse plummage) is 1/2 Khaki and 1/2 Silver Appleyard. The possible mothers, clockwise from him are:
Popcorn: Silver Welsh Harlequin
Dip and Kwackers: Khaki Campbells (they bleach in the sun and have only molted a few feathers).
Mayo: I was told she is a White Crested by the friend who gave her to me but her bill is the wrong color.
Mustard: 1/2 Welsh Harlequin, 1/4 Khaki, 1/4 Appleyard, I think.

Two babies are darker, I believe they are blue with a bib.

Two babies are lighter and more tan. I believe that is Lilac?! I think Lilac is blue with the addition of the sex-linked brown dilution.

The last one is light olive brown with facial stripes (and greatly resembles his/her daddy when he was a duckling although his facial stripes were more distinct).

So, have you figured it out?

If (big if) I did my genetics correctly, I believe the first four ducklings are all from Mayo, my so called White-Crested. Since white can "hide" all other colors, she is the only one who can have the black and blue genes needed for blue and lilac. It helps that I hatched eggs from her sister, who looks just like her, and Salsa last year. All of their ducklings where blue and lilac as well. The fifth duckling is not from her. I believe her mama is either Mustard or Dip but I am really basing it on who I usually get eggs from not genetics. I think any of the other four (not Mayo) could be his/her mother. Anyway, I look forward to seeing what they look like when they grow up.

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

probably all different mothers, sometimes ducks will lay eggs in the same nest

 

[cheezenkwackers]

probably all different mothers, sometimes ducks will lay eggs in the same nest

The eggs could have come from any of my females but they didn't. Unless my understanding of the genetics is wrong, the first four ducklings could only have come from the white crested mother. If any of the other mothers had the dominant black allele and the blue allele needed to make those babies, they would show those traits.

 

[TomCahalan]

I recently read about a recessive silver gene in call ducks. It isn't the one that makes blue ducks, nor is it the one that makes white ducks. The recessive silver gene, in combination with other dilution alleles, produces an almost white duck. Your crested duck looks similar to the picture that I saw. I just search around and found another that looks just like yours, including the dark bill:

http://prickereepines.homestead.com/Silver_Crested_Hen.jpg

Looks like you have a rare allele that isn't normally found in full-sized ducks.

 

[cheezenkwackers]

Wow, she does look like that. Thank you! Time for more research!

 

[nao57]

The feet all look way different on all of them. This suggests all different moms, and not the same mom. Like REALLY different.

 

[cheezenkwackers]

I recently read about a recessive silver gene in call ducks. It isn't the one that makes blue ducks, nor is it the one that makes white ducks. The recessive silver gene, in combination with other dilution alleles, produces an almost white duck. Your crested duck looks similar to the picture that I saw. I just search around and found another that looks just like yours, including the dark bill:

http://prickereepines.homestead.com/Silver_Crested_Hen.jpg

Looks like you have a rare allele that isn't normally found in full-sized ducks.

Ok, so this is what I found. This duck here looks just like my girl minus the crest. She is called a silver swedish. She is homozygous for extended black (EE), Blue (BlBl), dominant bib, and something they are calling white primaries (ww)??? The white primaries is not in my Storey's Guide. The article says that the silver males will be bluish and that fits with my ducks brother. Is what you say a reference to the white primaries allele? Did it say anything about the crest? Neither female has had any crested offspring and I did not have any not hatch which seems strange since cresting is supposed to be a dominant trait.
Here is the link to the whole genetics article: link.

 

[TomCahalan]

I really don't know, though I found this thread:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/recessive-silver-gene-in-ducks.1292227/

I hope that you become the expert on this and share your knowledge.

Also, you link is just to the images. Please link the thread where they are discussing "white primaries".

 

[cheezenkwackers]

I really don't know, though I found this thread:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/recessive-silver-gene-in-ducks.1292227/

I hope that you become the expert on this and share your knowledge.

Also, you link is just to the images. Please link the thread where they are discussing "white primaries".

Here is the link: click here. I am leaning towards the silver Swedish theory. Metzer says on their sight that they use silver Swedish to cross with their black Swedish to get their Blue ones. In several of their flock pictures they have white birds with black bills yet they do not sell anything with that.