redpandakitty
In the Brooder
Meet Emily. We love Emily, but I ordered a Blue Swedish pair and am not sure if she actually is a Swedish, or something else. Her down was definitely dark brown instead of the grayish brown color of the male, and she looks like a more brownish blue color now that her feathers are in. They're my first blue ducks, and the first I've ever seen in person, so not sure what amount of color variation is normal. I sent the hatchery pictures of her from the day I picked her up, and when they emailed me back (6 weeks later!), this is what they said:
"You are correct, the duckling with the leg band is your male Blue Swedish, and is [sic] does appear that the other duckling is a female Blue Swedish as well.
When breeding poultry for the color blue, genetics produces a constant recurrence when just 50% of the offspring will be all blue. The other half will be a mix of black, white and splash chicks. All of the chicks, regardless of their color, will carry the blue gene and when mating black/white, or with blues, will produce many blue offspring.
so [sic] it seems to me like she is just a little bit of a different shade compared to the male."
I can accept that she is a poor example of a Blue Swedish; I did, after all, order from a hatchery and wasn't expecting show quality. I can also accept that she's not even a Swedish. I was fine with breed substitutions since I was ordering pets only; all I wanted was a healthy bird (which she is). What I cannot accept is that the person contacting me, representing the hatchery, doesn't have the most basic understanding of how blue genetics work in poultry and gave me that garbage explanation of it. Which, in turn, makes me doubt the entirety of their claim that she is a Blue Swedish.
3 days old
6 weeks old
Side note: the male still doesn't have a name, so if anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!
"You are correct, the duckling with the leg band is your male Blue Swedish, and is [sic] does appear that the other duckling is a female Blue Swedish as well.
When breeding poultry for the color blue, genetics produces a constant recurrence when just 50% of the offspring will be all blue. The other half will be a mix of black, white and splash chicks. All of the chicks, regardless of their color, will carry the blue gene and when mating black/white, or with blues, will produce many blue offspring.
so [sic] it seems to me like she is just a little bit of a different shade compared to the male."
I can accept that she is a poor example of a Blue Swedish; I did, after all, order from a hatchery and wasn't expecting show quality. I can also accept that she's not even a Swedish. I was fine with breed substitutions since I was ordering pets only; all I wanted was a healthy bird (which she is). What I cannot accept is that the person contacting me, representing the hatchery, doesn't have the most basic understanding of how blue genetics work in poultry and gave me that garbage explanation of it. Which, in turn, makes me doubt the entirety of their claim that she is a Blue Swedish.
3 days old
6 weeks old
Side note: the male still doesn't have a name, so if anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!
