Does Anyone know Where Webfoot is???

[Dances with Ducks]

Gold drake to gold hen = all gold offspring
Gold drake to silver hen = gold ducklets and silver draklets
Silver drake to silver hen = all silver offspring
Silver drake to gold hen = all silver offspring phenotype (50% of males will have recessive gold gene**)

BUT
if the silver drake has a gold mother**
mated to a silver hen 50% of drakelets could be gold all the rest, male and female, will be silver
mated to a gold hen 50% of drakelets or ducklets could be gold and 50% silver
(I hope that's right, I should recheck later but I gotta go now)

 

[Wifezilla]

Wifezilla can you tell which eggs your Holderread hens are laying? Do you think you will want to sell any?

Unfortunately no...and I don't have room to separate them out. If you would be happy with HALF Holderreads, I could help you. I can usually tell my runner eggs from my WH eggs, but I can't tell the eggs from the WH apart

I am getting an egg a day now and a sporadic "jello egg" so they should be at full production in the next couple of weeks.

I think Cetewin has hers separated for breeding. Maybe use me as a backup if she can't get some to you?​

 

[1lpoock]

I made this to clear up any confusion...

 

[CityChicker]

That is awesome that you made that chart, 1lpoock, although I would avoid remaining genes if possible. In ducks, "c" is recessive white. Gold in Welsh Harlequins is created by sex-linked recessive brown, "d". This would be represented in males by d/d and females by d/-. Also, Silver is *not* sex-linked, just the brown dilution. Silver itself really isn't a gene per se either. It is the combination of dusky mallard, m^d, and harlequin phase, li^h. Excellent job though! I will have to learn how to do those punnett square graphics. You are obviously more computer literate than I!

DWD had it right on the genetics as well. Obviously, there are more Gold ducks floating around than Gold drakes because it is a sex-linked trait and some of the larger breeders seem to do the sex-linked matings. Every one of my six hens from Holderread's were Gold. Only one of the drakes was Gold and those seem to be few and far between. The definitive difference between the Gold and Silver drakes is the wing speculum. The speculum should be bronze-green, not blue (as well as the black areas elsewhere being somewhat diluted to brown). If the bird has a blue speculum, it is not a Gold (Even when you order from places like Holderread's, they will not guarantee that you get all Golds even if you request it. I also question whether or not the heterozygous males *may* show some difference in their phenotype). You *have* to have a Gold drake to *guarantee* Gold offspring (or know he is a "split"). Otherwise, you could mate a Silver drake to Gold ducks all day long and get 100% Silver offspring. Blue=Silver. Bronze-Green=Gold.

I have done some really interesting reading on Welsh Harlequins recently since I was able to acquire some of the original writing and pictures by Leslie Bonnet through a dealer in the UK. Someday soon, I hope to put it on a web page. He did, however, describe several very different variations in color (and this was before what we know as "Silver" came about). He also confirms that the original stock was bred to Aylesburies creating the "Whalesbury" (the reason we have "Silver" in the US). The pictures are very interesting as well and make me seriously doubt whether the original Welsh Harlequins were really sports of the Khaki Campbell. They looked a heck of a lot like Runner mixes to me! They were far more upright than the Khaki Campbells of the day, but body shape did vary and I don't have pictures yet of the birds after the Aylesbury blood was added several years later. Bonnet was, above all else, a pragmatic and a business man. Even naming the Welsh Harlequin the "Welsh" Harlequin was a cunning business decision. It is quite obvious why he would say that the birds were sports of Khaki Campbells.

Anyway, I miss my WH! I wish I had more room so that I could work with them again. Limited space though means little room for big ducks. I will say that they are one of the more beautiful ducks I have ever kept. Hopefully, Wifezilla and DWD will post updates when they breed. (Hint,

)

 

[Dances with Ducks]

City Chicker:
Here is Honey, she is an awesome looking Harlequin to my eye.

Here is Agave (gold drake)

Just for contrast, my silver drake Sir Frances. The light was perfect to catch all his colors!

And Bridgett my silver hen

 

[CityChicker]

Yea! Those are great pictures! That really shows the difference well. You are going to get some great ducklings I think!

 

[Dances with Ducks]

Thanks, I'm anxious to see the ducklings, they still aren't laying yet.
Sir Frances's mother is gold, that's why I have all these calculations on what his offspring would be. But I'm not sure he has the best form, so now Agave is the man!!
Are gold hens supposed to have black legs like the silvers, do you know? I think they get darker as they age, right?

 

[CityChicker]

You know- I really don't know for sure if it says anything in the standard about desired leg color. That is a good question. I would have to try to find out or maybe someone else here knows.

 

[1lpoock]

The standard only says silver phase should have dark brown/orange legs. It doesn't say anything about the legs of gold phase, I'm assuming they should be the same?

 

[Dances with Ducks]

Thanks 1lpoock! I read that same thing in Holderreads book and was left with the same question. Now that I think about it, the APA doesn't say much at all about the gold phase, do they? It's the UK that prefers the gold and really specifies standards for that phase, I believe. I just checked the photo of the harlequins in my Ashton book (UK) and it shows a hen with slightly darkened orange feet, maybe that's what I should go on.