Call Duckling Color Question (NOW WITH PICS)

[ducklover15]

I'm trying to figure out what color my latest call ducklings are...

They look exactly like grays -- just like their dad looked like as a duckling -- but I'm very sure dad isn't a gray. I'm actually not really sure what he is.

I have 3 dark ducklings that look like grays and one that's slightly lighter in color. The mom is a butterscotch but this duckling isn't light enough to be a butter.
Maybe it's a female and the other three are males? I know some breeds can be sexed by down color.

I'll try to get some pictures up today of dad, mom and the babies.

When dad was in his drake feathers he had a very green head, a white chest and belly, blue primary feathers and kind of brownish feathers everywhere else. He definitely is an odd looking fellow. =]

I was told he might be a dark mini appleyard. Maybe he's a mix of both gray and appleyard.

Alright, off to get pictures!

 

[Hattiegun]

did u get these ducks from DuckLuck?

cant wait to see pics !

 

[jrobertson]

i've got a pair of free range ducks that were sold to me as rouens, poor production versions but rouens. this year when they started to lay i gathered every egg they laid and the hatchings have been consistent. i get perfect little gray babies and babies that look exactly like appleyard babies yellow with black mohawk and sprinkled black yellow backs. what i didnt know was through this breeding of whatever the adults are (rouen/appleyard mix?) the ducklings come out sex-linked. the black and yellow of both varieties are always males and the females look the exact same only the black is replaced with brown. i find it neat that there isn't a muddied version of the combo but two different types coming out the same pair consistently. that hen has laid over 100 eggs this season with about 95% hatch rate artificially.

 

[CityChicker]

Probably posting pictures, Ducklover, is the best way to go. A Butterscotch to a pure Grey should equal 100% Blue Fawns. If the Grey is carrying light phase, you might also get some Blue Butters. You could not get normal Butterscotch in the first generation though mating to a Grey as you need both parents to carry Blue dilution (and light phase for that matter). A Grey does not carry Blue dilution, nor typically light phase. If you are hatching Grey ducklings from this pair, the hen is not a Butterscotch. It is not genetically possible. She might be a Blue Butterscotch though. In that case, you would get a mix of Grey and Blue Fawn offspring in the first generation which could be the difference in color you are seeing (there is no sex-linked difference in down color in ducks other than brown and buff dilution). In the next generation, you could then get Butterscotch and possibly Pastel as well depending on how you mated the offspring. Pictures though are about the only way we can say what is going on.

Jrobertson- I don't want to completely hijack the thread without Ducklover's permission, but a couple things could be going on with your Rouens. The most obvious thing is that one of your birds is carrying restricted Mallard (which is one component of the Appleyard color). I would bet if you opened their wings, one of them probably has some excess white on the dorsal wing fronts. That is why you are getting the yellow ducklings with mohawks. If all your female offspring are brown, then your drake is also carrying sex-linked brown dilution, which would be quite unusual for Rouens (as would be the restricted Mallard).

 

[ducklover15]

Hattiegun - Nope, I bought eggs from eBay last summer and hatched them. They were all suppose to be snowies, but I got a lot of different surprises!

This post is going to have tons of pictures!

Out of the four eggs that were all suppose to be snowies, I got these ducklings:
Day Old Ducklings

Week Old

I figured one was a snowie (the yellow), one a butter (the light color) and the other darker ones grays.
I remember someone telling me that the butter is probably a blue butter, so that may help some.

I sold one of the dark ducklings because they both ended up being males. So the dark male has been breeding with the butter and snowie girls.

These are pictures of the dad as he grew up.
He's trying to eat a rock...

Just starting to get feathers.

Before his drake molt.

He's mostly into eclipse here.

Him today.

I sadly don't have any pictures of him not in eclipse...but he had a very green head, no white ring around his neck, a black butt, a white chest with some reddish/brown spots and his back feathers were mostly gray and brown.


The butter just hatched a clutch of 7 eggs. She laid some of the eggs and the snowie girl laid some of them. Three look exactly like gray ducklings, three look exactly like snowies and the other looks like a light gray or a dark butter.
Here are the ducklings in question with the mom:

The lighter color duckling is at the top of the picture.

So my main questions are:
What color is the dad? And what color will the babies probably be?

I can also post pictures of the two mothers growing up but I'm pretty sure on their colors.

 

[briarpatchfarms]

Im pretty sure the male is a silver appleyard(color not breed

)!!!!

 

[CityChicker]

To be honest, you have such a mix of colors going, it will be nearly impossible to decipher the colors. There is no way those are out of Snowy stock. Did the person raising them happen to have Australian Spotteds? If not Aussies, perhaps Spot or Aleutian Calls? You have some hatching with light phase, some with harlequin phase, and some with blue dilution, and some with no blue dilution (some also possible dusky and not dusky, wild type/dark phase). This is possible in a few different breeds of ducks, especially Aussie Spots. It is not even remotely possible with birds that even resemble Snowies. The only way to get those from Snowy stock would be to mix in at least a couple other colors.

They are quite beautiful though! I strongly suspect that they may not even be Calls. Just look at their bills and body shape. They look pretty much identical to Australian Spotteds. Anyway, you are correct on the ones you are calling Snowies. The ones you are calling Grey appear to be light phase Grey (similar to a Silver Appleyard minus the restricted Mallard genes). The one that looks like a Grey, but with lighter colored down has one blue dilution gene (which always results in that greyish down) plus probably light phase, hence basically Blue Butterscotch. The lighter colored hen you originally hatched is definitely not Butterscotch. Again, the grey down indicates one blue dilution gene rather than two (Butters have two). The more expansive yellow down would indicate that she is also either harlequin phase or light phase split harlequin phase (basically Spot or Aleutian) rather than just light phase (which Butters are).

I would probably try to go back to the Ebay seller and determine what other types of ducks they have because, as I said, they look identical to Australian Spotteds. If you want to sell them as Calls, I would say that they are pet quality mixed color that look very similar to Aleutian or Spots and therefore will hatch out several colors. The genetic make-up of the color (even in good quality stock) results in a minimum of 9 different genotypes so you are always going to have a variety of colors in the offspring. If you are interested, I can explain the genetics of why this happens.

 

[Mrs. Turbo]

The snowy call duck is a hard color to work with because the colors vary so much…that is why there is not a ton of people raising them to show. Sometimes you just never know what you are going to get. I did get 2 sports from my snowys this year. They look just like the silver appleyard call ducks….pretty close to what yours look like with more call duck features…...Just like with the butterscotch, we sometimes get apricot silver from our butterscotch and they have not been crossed on other varieties.

The mixture of color you got from your ebay “snowy eggs” ….well, they might have been mixed with some other color because most of them should have resembled a snowy or you are just one unlucky person.

 

[Sweetfolly]

Mrs. Turbo :

The mixture of color you got from your ebay “snowy eggs” ….well, they might have been mixed with some other color because most of them should have resembled a snowy or you are just one unlucky person.

I disagree, I think you're an extremely lucky person, ducklover15!

Those are neat-looking ducks whatever they are, you were lucky enough to hatch a trio (after you sold the extra male) from e-bay eggs, and you must be having a blast seeing all the colors in their new ducklings!

Maybe I should try ordering some Snowy Call eggs on ebay and see what I get....

 

[CityChicker]

Mrs. Turbo :

The snowy call duck is a hard color to work with because the colors vary so much…that is why there is not a ton of people raising them to show. Sometimes you just never know what you are going to get. I did get 2 sports from my snowys this year. They look just like the silver appleyard call ducks….pretty close to what yours look like with more call duck features…...Just like with the butterscotch, we sometimes get apricot silver from our butterscotch and they have not been crossed on other varieties.

The mixture of color you got from your ebay “snowy eggs” ….well, they might have been mixed with some other color because most of them should have resembled a snowy or you are just one unlucky person.

The reasons you are getting those sports are fairly easy to decipher. If you are getting occasional Apricot Silvers in your Butterscotch (which I have seen other people say as well about Butters), then some of your birds must carry dusky (m^d), even if just as a split, m+/m^d. The dusky of the Apricot Silver has to be coming from somewhere, but I suspect it is hard to see in some birds hence you may not have noticed it in your breeders. I suspect dusky (or lack of dusky more accurately) is also involved in your Snowy sports that look like Appleyards, but it may be an issue of light phase rather than harlequin phase as well. Again, it should be fairly easy to breed out if you know what you are looking for (ie. hens with eye stripes, drakes with extended clarets not laced in white, etc...).

Anyway, that is my input (not that you are asking for it and understanding that you may already know these things as well, LOL). I am reluctant to even give Call duck breeders any genetics input at all, but hopefully you will not take offense as I do think I know what I am talking about despite not being a big name Call breeder. A few Call breeders out there have left me "gun shy" for even saying the words "Call duck". LOL.​