Bantam Duck Page

[bacres]

Hey I have a question about the Snowy and the Grey Genes. I used the calculator for ducks and found out when I breed a Grey to a Snowy I will get all Greys that are "split" to Snowy then I take those babies and breed them to my Snowys and it said I'd get 50% Snowy and 50% Grey. Do you think that this is a smart idea to do. The whole idea behind it is to improve the type of the Snowys.

 

[Mrs. Turbo]

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sounds good to me

keep your best snowy/gray mixed cockerel and breed him back to his mom.

 

[Mrs. Turbo]

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Do you still breed Silver Appleyard call ducks?

just sold the last of them at the show this past weekend....but you never know.

 

[CityChicker]

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Actually, I think it is a bad idea. Grey is the wild-type Mallard color/pattern. Snowy is the dusky color/pattern with the addition of the harlequin phase genes (only one author in the duck world has written information that contradicts this). When you breed Grey to Snowy, the end result will eventually be all sorts of mismarked birds. The advice to breed to Grey is based on a very basic misunderstanding of duck colors and how the colors are built. If you take the advice to breed Snowy to Grey and then breed the offspring together, you will NOT get 25% Snowy as some believe. In actuality, only 1 in 16 will be the correct Snowy genotype.

 

[Mrs. Turbo]

my advise was to breed the best offspring back to the parent. That is what we did and we got some great snowys from the mix. I would only do the cross one time then line breed from there. You will get off colors the first year, but they will get better type and color wise every year.

 

[bacres]

Well I need wait till spring before I start all this breeding! Haha. What is your favorite Incubator for your call duck eggs?

 

[CityChicker]

Mrs. Turbo :

my advise was to breed the best offspring back to the parent. That is what we did and we got some great snowys from the mix. I would only do the cross one time then line breed from there. You will get off colors the first year, but they will get better type and color wise every year.

To clarify- I didn't mean your advice. I meant the advice that is floating around about breeding Grey to Snowy and then the F1 offspring together to get 25% Snowy. That advice, that I think is originally from the Holderread book, is based on the mistaken assumption that Snowy is Grey based (wild-type) when it isn't. I didn't mean your advice. I would still breed Snowy to Snowy if at all possible.

If that is absolutely not possible AND a person has the level of knowledge necessary to cull the off-color birds (as the Foleys do), then breeding Snowy to Grey and then back to the Snowy parent is not going to be as bad as the first scenario that is frequently quoted. You will certainly have less mismarked birds going the route Mrs. Turbo suggests. No doubt about it. You still will have some though and need to be able to recognize them and not use them for future breeding. There are enough Snowies available though that I think the quicker route for most people to improve their stock would be to breed Snowy to Snowy.​

 

[Mrs. Turbo]

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To clarify- I didn't mean your advice. I meant the advice that is floating around about breeding Grey to Snowy and then the F1 offspring together to get 25% Snowy. That advice, that I think is originally from the Holderread book, is based on the mistaken assumption that Snowy is Grey based (wild-type) when it isn't. I didn't mean your advice. I would still breed Snowy to Snowy if at all possible.

If that is absolutely not possible AND a person has the level of knowledge necessary to cull the off-color birds (as the Foleys do), then breeding Snowy to Grey and then back to the Snowy parent is not going to be as bad as the first scenario that is frequently quoted. You will certainly have less mismarked birds going the route Mrs. Turbo suggests. No doubt about it. You still will have some though and need to be able to recognize them and not use them for future breeding. There are enough Snowies available though that I think the quicker route for most people to improve their stock would be to breed Snowy to Snowy.

I know you didn't....

We are also still learning and sometimes the best way to do that is to breed 2 together and see what happens....just keep good records.
We don't ever breed brother & sister... only mother to son and father to daughter when we have a good line going.

 

[bacres]

Still awaiting an answer about everyones favorite incubators....

 

[turbo]

for waterfowl, pretty much any brand that is made from Redwood...I hand turn the eggs..with the eggs laying on their side.