Ducks

[Daniel_2kaii9]

hey, im getting silkies in 2 weeks and im gonna try hatching duck eggs under them i got a black swedish female duck and 2 pekin ducks 1 male 1 female if i hatched some black swedish eggs under the hen will thay have the same pattern as her ? and will thay be Black swedish X Pekin ? there's a pic its not mine but she looks like that

 

[CityChicker]

It depends entirely on what is under the white of the Pekin. You won't have any white offspring unless the Swedish is carrying recessive white. A lot of Pekins though apparently have Grey (like Rouen) and Bibbed "under" the white, so you probably will have some that come out like the Swedish. There is really no way to tell for sure. It just all depends on what genes they have in common.

 

[Daniel_2kaii9]

my male pekin is all white and under him its white will the black swedish ducklings be the same pattern as her or a little diffrant ?

 

[CityChicker]

LOL, when I said "under" the white, I didn't mean literally under him. LOL, I know it is a funny way of phrasing it. When I first heard that expression, I was very confused about what it meant too.

White in ducks is basically a masking color, meaning that it masks the other colors a bird carries genetically. It is a recessive gene that the bird needs to get from both parents in order to turn out white. "Under" the white means it depends on what other genetic information for color a bird has hidden by the white. Does that make sense? I know it is confusing. When I first heard the expression, I was like- what the heck?!? LOL

Basically, it is really hard to know sometimes what a bird like a Pekin is carrying with respect to color because you can't see it due to the white. From talking to lots of people that have bred Pekin crosses, it would seem that a lot of Pekins carry Grey (like a Mallard or Rouen) and some do seem to have Bibbed as well (like your Swedish). Until you breed the birds together, it is just about impossible to know what you will end up with. I would strongly suspect that you will get some that look like Rouens, some that look like Swedish, and in the second generation- some all white birds.