Can a male Call Duck succesfully mate with a Welsh Harlequin female?

[ChicCrazyAZ]

I have a pair of Call Ducks, this is their first Spring and just saw them mate yesterday. They are about 7 months old.

I also have a female WH, who is about 4 months old. The male I had died when he was 3 weeks old, no idea why. It was really upsetting, as he seemed perfectly fine in the preceding days.

Anyhow, I put the female with a Cuckoo Maran chick, since she was beside herself with grief. I am positive the Maran chick thinks she is a duck and have even heard her make sounds like a quack.

The last week or so, the duck/chick pair have been hanging out with the calls, prior to that, they would run them off.

Question is.. will the male Call breed with the WH hen? If so, will it be viable? Should I separate them?

If it is viable, what would the chick look like? The Calls are Chocolate (I know not recognized color, but they are super cute!)

Thanks!

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

I had one call drake that figured out how to mate with a "large" duck and one that never did.


The smart one learned to scoot back to mate.


She did hatch ducklings - smallish, but not as small as a call.

 

[secretquail]

dunno, but that would crack me up to see!

 

[ChicCrazyAZ]

Quote:
I was wondering about that, but isn't the eggs she lays the same size regardless if it is fertilized or not? Is it just the baby that is smaller?

What about color? There will only be one dominant color gene right? So they will either be WH color or chocolate, not a mix?

Genetics really confuse me.. no matter how much I try to study it!

Thanks!

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Yes the egg is normal size for her but the duckling just does not grow to the size of the mom. Color - I cannot help on - it boggles my mind

This is Henry (she passed away August 2010) she was the "start" of our small duck flock. She was a large duck - the male to the left is our "call" male Dough (he is pet quality). He is the one who was smart enough to figure out the whole deal.

Henry hatched 3 ducklings - a blue color, a mallard color and white - two males and a female. We kept the female - Aflack.



Here is Alfack - on the right between Henry and the male Dough - the rest of the ducks are last years hatch from Aflack and Dough.

 

[ChicCrazyAZ]

Thanks!!

Hard to tell from the distance, but it does look like Aflack is right about in the middle of them, as far as size goes.

The colors you mentioned hatched are so different than what I would have expected. Then again, I am so confused by all of the color genetics anyway, doesn't surprise me

Thanks for sharing the pics!