Barred Muscovy babies

[Rysktal]

Ah cool thread!!
Okay so I have 20 muscovy of all sorts of colours. I can't be super sure of what all of their true colours are yet as they are varying ages. Lots are still fluffy.

What combination of Drake and 2 Ducks should I keep to get sex linked ducklings? I may have 2 solid chocolate birds and I think I have some barred ones. Definitely have pied. I see white, buff, black, grey/blue and chocolate all coming in.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Sounds lovely either @learycow or @dotporter or @Nyla. can probably help with that.

 

[Pyxis]

What combination of Drake and 2 Ducks should I keep to get sex linked ducklings? I may have 2 solid chocolate birds and I think I have some barred ones. Definitely have pied. I see white, buff, black, grey/blue and chocolate all coming in.

If you have chocolates, if you breed a chocolate male to a female that is not chocolate it will yield all female chocolates and all males carrying chocolate.

Chocolate is the only sex linked gene in muscovies, I believe, so that's the only one that will work that way. Any colors that include chocolate, like cream etc, would also do the same for the same reason.

So in your case, if you have a chocolate drake, I would keep him, and then bred to any other colored females you'd get sex linked ducklings. Except maybe white, because there's a possibility that a female could be chocolate 'under' the white. So you might want to avoid white just in case.

If you breed to a blue female, both genders could inherit the blue gene, so from that cross you'd get black and blue males and chocolate and lilac females. Same for a female that is what I think is called pearl-grey, which is two copies of the blue gene, only in that case you would get only blue males and only lilac females.

So in short, chocolate male over anything not chocolate will give you sex linked ducklings. Avoid white in case the female is chocolate under the white. Doesn't have to be solid chocolate either. Barred and rippled work the same since those are patterns, not colors. Piebald is fine too. You'd want to avoid using a chocolate pied male with any color pied females though because then some offspring would be white and you couldn't tell their gender.

 

[HelplessHomeSteader]

Dam you BYC wife's going to hate me now that you guys got me instrested in learning more about how breeding works. We have five (7) week old muscovys not sure thier sexs yet.

 

[Rysktal]

Thank you @Pyxis !!

Lots to consider and learn more about. Of course my current favourite ducklet so far is white with light brown bars, so she would be a no go if I want sex linked ducklings.

What is the different between blue and lilac? I do see various shades of grey coming in on multiple ducks, some lighter than others.

So the drake I choose doesn't have to be solid chocolate?! Just not pied. And any hen is good as long as she's not white/doesn't have white?

♡♡

 

[Pyxis]

Thank you @Pyxis !!

Lots to consider and learn more about. Of course my current favourite ducklet so far is white with light brown bars, so she would be a no go if I want sex linked ducklings.

What is the different between blue and lilac? I do see various shades of grey coming in on multiple ducks, some lighter than others.

So the drake I choose doesn't have to be solid chocolate?! Just not pied. And any hen is good as long as she's not white/doesn't have white?

♡♡

Lilac is a duck that is blue and also chocolate

Yep, the drake doesn't have to be solid, and any duck that's not white will work. Pied is fine as long as the drake isn't pied.

 

[Rysktal]

Oh cool! So is this one "lilac"? Bluey-grey body, with a chocolate head and brown flecks on the chest.




I don't know how old he/she is but I am loving the colours!

 

[Pyxis]

I'm gonna admit I'm not the greatest at identifying muscovy colors, lol. However the lighter one in the second picture looks like it could be cream, which involves chocolate.

 

[AlleysChicks]

You're welcome!

Chocolate is fun in muscovies because it's sex linked. So every female that gets just one copy expresses it. Males have to get two copies, because it's recessive. You probably knew that, lol. And of course two chocolates together produces only chocolate ducklings, like you said.

It breeds true in mallard derived ducks, too It's recessive, so for instance a chocolate Call bred to another chocolate Call (I breed these) would yield all chocolate ducklings.

So if I have ducklings that are chocolate pied with mom as black/white pied and Dad as chocolate/white pied then the offspring are girls?

 

[Pyxis]

So if I have ducklings that are chocolate pied with mom as black/white pied and Dad as chocolate/white pied then the offspring are girls?

Yes