Duck Color Genetics

[Kholts]

Ok I am completely awful with reading color genetics. I have read all the articles on the this forum I could find but now my brains just swirling & im still confused.

Here is my dilemma:

1) Right now I have a mix Drake. I believe him to be an Ancona & Rouen mix. He is black & white (kinda like a black swedish) with some green sheen through his head (the kind where you can only tell in the sun) & has blue wing feathers (I believe comes from the Rouen). His beak is yellow and his feet are yellow with black patching like Anconas. To me he’s quite unremarkable. He’s I dunno black & white haha.

My females include pure Saxony, pure blue Swedish & pure Welsh Harlequin.

If I were to use him for breeding come spring and incubate are my chances super high of getting all black & black/white ducklings using these females?

2) I have a chance of acquiring a trio of 12 week olds that include a Pekin Drake, Pekin Duck & a Cayuga Duck.

Im just wondering if using a Pekin Drake over all the females I will have will give me a higher chance of different color & patterned ducklings. As well as a chance for pure Pekins not to mention better yield of meat if I’m graced with an awful drake/duck ratio hatch.

Can anyone give me insight? TIA

 

[Kholts]

So this is a hard one, because the pekin drake is a total unknown, because of how white works. There's no way to know what color genes he's carrying. He could maybe give you a nice variety, or maybe he would only produce black bibbed ducklings, there's no way to know until you did the breeding. He's a gamble, basically.

Your mixed drake though, he's carrying one copy of extended black from the ancona, and one copy of wildtype from the rouen. He would also be partially pied, again thanks to his ancona parentage. Half his babies will inherit the extended black gene, and so they would be black, or blue if the blue swedish or saxony was the mother, and would be bibbed and also possibly partially pied.

The other half will inherit the wildtype gene, and so those babies would all be some type of mallard based color. Saxonies I believe are genetically pastel, so this half of his babies with the Saxony would be blue fawn, some partially pied. With the welsh harlequin, they would be gray, some partially pied, and all split to snowy.

So in conclusion, with him expect half the babies to be black or blue bibbed, and the other half to be gray or blue fawn, and half of all the babies would also be partially pied.

Thank you so much! That dumbed it down perfectly. So I have a good chance of more than just black or black/white ducklings with my current drake. I like them odds.

I also enjoy the gray & blue colouring.

Looks like I’ll just be trying to get 2 more females for him so he can spread the love!

 

[cheezenkwackers]

Pyxis is the expert but I think you are better off with your mixed drake. Because he is mixed he is heterozygous for more traits or has hidden traits. Therefor he is more likely to give you more variety.

 

[DuckyDonna]

Certainly not me but @Pyxis will tell you!

 

[Kholts]

Thank you! I’ll see what pyxis has to say if you say they are the expert!

Never thought about the mix drake having more hidden traits. In my brain black just seems dominant and will take over anything. This is why I ask!

 

[cheezenkwackers]

Thank you! I’ll see what pyxis has to say if you say they are the expert!

Never thought about the mix drake having more hidden traits. In my brain black just seems dominant and will take over anything. This is why I ask!

I believe the extended black is dominant but since he only carries one copy of the gene only half his offspring should get it. The other half will probably look more like Rouens but I am not sure about that blue hens offspring.

 

[Pyxis]

So this is a hard one, because the pekin drake is a total unknown, because of how white works. There's no way to know what color genes he's carrying. He could maybe give you a nice variety, or maybe he would only produce black bibbed ducklings, there's no way to know until you did the breeding. He's a gamble, basically.

Your mixed drake though, he's carrying one copy of extended black from the ancona, and one copy of wildtype from the rouen. He would also be partially pied, again thanks to his ancona parentage. Half his babies will inherit the extended black gene, and so they would be black, or blue if the blue swedish or saxony was the mother, and would be bibbed and also possibly partially pied.

The other half will inherit the wildtype gene, and so those babies would all be some type of mallard based color. Saxonies I believe are genetically pastel, so this half of his babies with the Saxony would be blue fawn, some partially pied. With the welsh harlequin, they would be gray, some partially pied, and all split to snowy.

So in conclusion, with him expect half the babies to be black or blue bibbed, and the other half to be gray or blue fawn, and half of all the babies would also be partially pied.

 

[Kholts]

Next spring (assuming I successfully hatch babies) I’ll let you know if the predictions are accurate! I’ll even keep track of which female they came from.