How Did I End Up With Black Bibbed Ducklings?

[duckmeister]

Trying to figure out how i came up with these black bibbed ducklings. I have gray call and white calls running together, so mom could be a gray hen or a white hen, and dad could be a gray drake or a white drake. My white calls are 100% white, and the grays are correct colors for gray, so I'm puzzled where the black bibbed came from, could somebody please fill me in on the color genetics. I didn't want any black bibbed ducks, but they are kind of starting to grow on me.

 

[marcelineduckie]

I'm not an expert on genetics but I do remember that lesson from high school pretty alright, genes can go very far back people can look exactly like their great great great great grandparents so I will assume ducks are the same

 

[Kleonaptra]

They sure are cute! I would say someone is not 100 percent pure

 

[duckmeister]

Would assume that each parent, one gray and one white would have to have a recessive gene for black bibbed, but reading Dave Holderread's genetics chart, it seems to indicate that black bibbed is a dominant gene, not a recessive one, in that case one parent would have to be black bibbed. Possibly these ducklings won't be black, they'll be mallard colored except with lots of white on them? They inherited recessive bibbed genes but won't be black colored as adults? They sure look black though.

 

[duckmeister]

Reading Dave Holderread's duck book on page 143- think it answers my question, these are bibbed mallards because the gene is recessive. He says the recessive bibbed gene is rare in N America, so it will be interesting to see them develop. But they sure look black bibbed to me, but they can't possibly be apparently without a black bibbed parent.

 

[marcelineduckie]

Hmm that is very interesting I'd love to see pictures as they grow

 

[lilwanderer]

Unsure if I'll get a response- but I just had this happen with my gray call pair. Thoughts?

I also got yellow ducklings. None are gray like their parents.