Crested gene question?

[BlueO]

Hello everyone! So I have a crested duck and she just started laying. I am wanting to breed her later in the fall but she is my only crested duck and I’m wondering if some of her babies will be crested? Both her parents carried the crested gene but did not show it. All of the ducklings they have are crested. I know breeding two crested ducks will result in ducklings that never make it to hatch. If I breed her with a non crested drake will some of the babies be crested? Thanks!

 

[cheezenkwackers]

The gene is dominant but shows great variability. So, your ducks parents were heterozygous (one normal, one crested) but with crests too small to see. Your duck is most likely also heterozygous since it is the homozygous (2 crested alleles) that can result in death in the shell. If so, if you breed her to a non crested you should get half with the crest gene. But, not all of those will have crests big enough to see. My crested Swedish had 7 ducklings with a non rested Khaki drake. None had visible crests and she has a huge crest. This is her:

 

[BlueO]

The gene is dominant but shows great variability. So, your ducks parents were heterozygous (one normal, one crested) but with crests too small to see. Your duck is most likely also heterozygous since it is the homozygous (2 crested alleles) that can result in death in the shell. If so, if you breed her to a non crested you should get half with the crest gene. But, not all of those will have crests big enough to see. My crested Swedish had 7 ducklings with a non rested Khaki drake. None had visible crests and she has a huge crest. This is her:View attachment 4172746

Ok thank you! Will update when I hatch her eggs. Your duck looks so much like mine!

 

[cheezenkwackers]

Ok thank you! Will update when I hatch her eggs. Your duck looks so much like mine! View attachment 4172880

Oh my, they do! Mine is a silver so crossing her to a khaki gave me blue boys and Lavender girls. What color is your drake?

 

[BlueO]

Oh my, they do! Mine is a silver so crossing her to a khaki gave me blue boys and Lavender girls. What color is your drake?View attachment 4172952

She’s so pretty! I have three drakes, a fawn runner, black Swedish and a golden 300. I’m thinking I’ll breed her with the runner. Do you have any pics of her babies?

 

[cheezenkwackers]

If you breed her to the Runner the babies will be sex-linked. The girls will have the buff gene and be similar but lighter to my lavender but with spotting like an Ancona due to the runner pattern. The boys will look similar with the same spotting but blue (no buff will show). Here are some of mine from my silver crested:

This is right after hatch and you can see the girl on the far left has a brownish tint. The boy on top of her, showing his whole back, is blue.

Same group a day or two later. The 2 girls on the right, the 2 boys on the left. Ignore the duckling with the facial stripes and back spots, she had a different mother.

Same ones mostly all grown up.

Female that I kept from a different hatch (same parents).

This a a Dutch Hookbill drake I hatched (there was some outcrossing a few generations back). He is blue with the runner pattern. I suspect this is what yours would look similar to.

Same one a few weeks older.

Same one all grown up. I didn’t keep him. He went to a friend and this is the only photo I have of him grown.

I look forward to seeing what you get.