Duck Egg Colour Genetics

[PerkinandCo]

So...I just put 28 duck eggs in my incubator. Eighteen are Welsh Harlequin, which I expect white eggs from, same as I get from them now. Seven are Khaki Campbell x Welsh Harlequin, and three are Khaki Campbell x Cayuga. My female Cayuga lays green eggs, and I am curious what her daughters will lay if I am able to hatch any.

I found this article (https://backyardpoultry.iamcountryside.com/eggs-meat/how-genetics-determine-duck-egg-color/) that says the green egg gene could really come through in the daughters, which would be pretty awesome:

The tendency to lay shells with biliverdin (green shells) and without (white shells) is in the genotype. Green shells (G) are dominant. This means, if the hen has a strong (G) gene, but the drake doesn’t, her ducklings will most likely also have a strong (G) gene.

But this isn’t always the case. Because they’ve been bred so many times, many duck breeds have both (G) and (W) genes, some stronger than others. This would be expressed (Gg) for two green genes, (Gw) for a dominant green gene over recessive white, and (Ww) where the duckling received two white genes with no green gene to overrule. (link)

How cool is that?! Extra bonus: The ducklings I hatch from Dutchess' green eggs should be sex-linked, since she is mated with a Khaki Campbell drake. Pretty cool! Can't wait to see if these eggs hatch successfully!

 

[cheezenkwackers]

Very interesting about the egg color. I love genetics! We are going to need to see pictures of those cute little chocolate and black ducklings!

 

[Goosebaby]

And here I am over here side eyeing all my girls who were advertised to lay blue eggs yet all lay white eggs.

 

[PerkinandCo]

Very interesting about the egg color. I love genetics! We are going to need to see pictures of those cute little chocolate and black ducklings!

I was thinking I would probably put something together for BYC with pictures of the sex-links if they go as planned. I've only read about this project, and couldn't find any pictures on it, so I thought maybe I would post some in case anyone else has been looking.

If all goes well, hatch day should be April 23rd!

 

[PerkinandCo]

And here I am over here side eyeing all my girls who were advertised to lay blue eggs yet all lay white eggs.

Oh dear. I have the same problem with one of mine! My Welsh Harlequins lay white, as expected, but my Cayuga lays green instead of black. I knew that could happen, but I was really hoping for black. I do really like the green, though. It brings a tad of colour to my egg cartons that are otherwise full of white eggs!

What kind of ducks do you have, @Goosebaby?

- Lily

 

[Goosebaby]

Oh dear. I have the same problem with one of mine! My Welsh Harlequins lay white, as expected, but my Cayuga lays green instead of black. I knew that could happen, but I was really hoping for black. I do really like the green, though. It brings a tad of colour to my egg cartons that are otherwise full of white eggs!

What kind of ducks do you have, @Goosebaby?

- Lily

Rouen, Black Swedish, Cayuga, and Welsh Harlequin.

 

[cheezenkwackers]

I was thinking I would probably put something together for BYC with pictures of the sex-links if they go as planned. I've only read about this project, and couldn't find any pictures on it, so I thought maybe I would post some in case anyone else has been looking.

If all goes well, hatch day should be April 23rd!

That is a great idea. I hatched ducklings from a Khaki drake and a Silver Welsh Harlequin and got sex-linked ducklings. These are them:

The dark, black ones are the boys and the lighter, brown ones are the girls. I can't wait to see yours!

 

[NatJ]

I found this article (https://backyardpoultry.iamcountryside.com/eggs-meat/how-genetics-determine-duck-egg-color/) that says the green egg gene could really come through in the daughters, which would be pretty awesome:

The tendency to lay shells with biliverdin (green shells) and without (white shells) is in the genotype. Green shells (G) are dominant. This means, if the hen has a strong (G) gene, but the drake doesn’t, her ducklings will most likely also have a strong (G) gene.

But this isn’t always the case. Because they’ve been bred so many times, many duck breeds have both (G) and (W) genes, some stronger than others. This would be expressed (Gg) for two green genes, (Gw) for a dominant green gene over recessive white, and (Ww) where the duckling received two white genes with no green gene to overrule. (link)

As someone who has read quite a bit about genetics, I find that really painful to read.

Genes are dominant or recessive, not "strong."
And the letter abbreviations are being used all wrong.

It sounds like the genetics for blue/green eggshell color work the same in ducks as they do in chickens: there is a dominant gene that causes blue/green in the eggshells.

If you want to express it with letter abbreviations, using G for Green:
G = gene for Green shells (dominant gets a capital letter)
g = gene for not-green shells (recessive gets a lowercase letter)

GG bird has two genes for green shells, lays green eggs if female, gives one green shell gene to each of their offspring
Gg bird has one gene for green shells and one gene for not-green shells. If female, this bird lays green eggs. This bird gives a gene for green shells to half of their offspring, and a gene for not-green shells to the other half of their offspring.
gg bird has two genes for not-green shells. If female, this bird lays white eggs (or brown, but not blue or green.) This bird gives a gene for not-green shells to every each of their offspring.

(With chickens it is actually capital O for the blue egg gene named "oocyanin" and lowercase o for the recessive gene that goes with not-blue eggs. But the pattern of inheritance is the same, and so is the pattern of using capital letters for dominant genes and lowercase of the same letter for the recessive form of that gene.)

How cool is that?!

It definitely is cool that ducklings hatched from green eggs have a good chance of laying green eggs themselves! I'm just griping about how the article expressed it.

For your duck who lays green eggs, either she has one green egg gene or two green egg genes. If she has one green egg gene, about half of her daughters will lay green eggs. If she has two green egg genes then ALL of her daughters will lay green eggs.

A drake can give the green egg gene to his daughters just as much as a duck can, but of course you won't see what color eggs he lays because males doesn't lay eggs.

If you do have any drakes with green egg genes, you could get some daughters that lay green eggs even when their mothers do not. If you were to have a drake with two green egg genes, then all of his daughters would lay green, even if none of their mothers did.