Hello.
I have some questions about genetic, but ONE in particular... and maybe stupid, but I'm curious, and actually really hoping something very specific...
So...
Out of my four first Indian Runner ducks - all of them being born in Spring 2022 -, two are females...
One of these females is Olive - a LIGHT DUSKY runner duck :
("LIGHT DUSKY" means Olive is the brownish duck, at the center of the picture...)
She laid her first egg on October 18th, 2022... the exact year she was born.
(And she then kept laying during the next winter, and then the year - until her molt...!)
During the time she was laying - she has not started again for the year, but she will soon -, her eggs were, I feel, good sized for a runner duck's eggs : a bit bigger than most of my chickens' eggs - probably around 70-80 grams...
These eggs were also white coloured, with very, VERY light cream coloured diagonal stripes.
The diagonal stripes really were so light I can not even show a picture to you : they are not appearing on the pictures I took. (Bad quality...)
I wondered in the past if the stripes on Olive's eggs were due to the dusky pattern allele (md), but now I know a bit more about (feather) colours genetic, I am questioning if Olive have not, in fact, some mallard pattern allele (M+), and if so, if the stripes on her eggs could then be linked to this mallard pattern allele...?
I don't know... I am no expert, but I would like to learn more...!
I think she does look like a very pure Light Dusky, but what do I know...?
She has had three Light Dusky daughters, and there actually are some really light differences in their colouring...! Could be from their father(s), but could also be from their mother - if she has some complicated genetic not visible by her feathers...?
...The other of these two females is Ebène - a BLACK runner duck :
Ebène is the black duck on the left, on the picture...
I say she is black, but as you can see, she has some white spots or her chest... and as you can NOT see, she also has a tiny few white feathers at the corners of her bill...
(The white feathers are NOT due to age, since Ebène is so young, and always have had them...)
So : I don't think I actually can consider Ebène as black (homozygous)...? Or could I?
(Is she actually a black bibbed, even if there is actually almost no white on her feathers? ...Or could she be genetically pure, and the white spots would then just be a default, or whatever...?)
I any case : be she a pure black or not, she has laid black eggs - like black runner ducks are renowed to lay...!
Her first egg really was almost entirely black :
The egg on the center (the black one) was her first egg - laid on February 18th, 2023...
(In spite of the fact Ebène is also born in Spring 2022, she is one month younger than Olive... which is why she did not lay in 2022 like Olive, but has waited until 2023 to lay her first egg.)
The gray egg, more on the right on the picture, is her second egg...
And next, day by day, the eggs Ebène laid were lighter and lighter in colour, until they became completely white...
(Ebène's eggs are the smaller ones : she never could lay eggs of the same size than Olive's.)
Afterwhat she never laid a black OR gray egg until she stopped laying (because of her molt, of course)...!
...
Now, we are in February, 2024, and I have not two female runner ducks, but eight : Olive, Ebène, and six of their daughters I kept home.
And among these daugthers, there are :
- 2 white runners,
- 2 light dusky runners,
- 1 black bibbed runner,
- 1 (faulted) trout runner.
...For now, 2024, and four of my eight female runners are already laying eggs...
The first egg I found for 2024 was early February, and was clearly laid by a black duck.
Nevertheless, in spite of the fact it was the first egg of the season laid by a black duck, it was not black : it just was gray. The gray from the black dye, but gray nevertheless!
So, I naturally thought this egg was laid by Ebène... since, if it was the first egg ever laid by a black duck - here then by Corneille, Ebène's black bibbed daughter -, it would have been black, no...?
But now, I don't know if the egg were really from Ebène : indeed, the eggs are lighter and lighter by the days, but seem to me to become more very light, palish cream than white...? (...Or Ebène' eggs colour has slighty changed, or the "black" eggs are actually laid by her daughter Corneille...)
...Concerning the other eggs : two of them are very, very pale cream coloured; and one of them is a (very) pale blue!
...Look... my question here can seem stupid, but I would want to know ONE thing in priority : if one of my runners is laying blue eggs... does that means this runner could have a blue gene (feathers)?
I know these eggs are not laid by Olive : indeed, since I have no stripped eggs for now, it means Olive is not laying for the time being.
I also know the blue eggs are also not laid by one of my two black female runners : I have only one black runner laying for now, and her eggs are NOT becoming blue; in addition, these blue eggs were blue from the very first of them - and never were grayish and/or seemed to be dyed...
I am actually hoping one of my two white females OR my faulted trout (the brown one with eyestripes) is laying these blue eggs, and that could be mean I could have at least ONE carrier of the blue gene among my ducks...
(Dads of my six youngest females are a trout drake and a white drake...!)
Can I have hope one of my drake, and so, their daughters, are carriers of blue...? Thanks to the fact their eggs are blue coloured, in spite of the fact the ducks are not black, or blue, or chocolate...?
Sorry if it is a stupid question.
I KNOW runners can lay blue eggs and not be blue themselves... but I only heard that about black, chocolate, and blue runners... and I don't know... are black and chocolate not linked to blue anyway (possible carriers), which would explain the blue eggs they can lay...?
What I ask more precisely is : is the blue of the egg somewhat linked to the blue gene for the feathers' colouring...?
(Is there a rule for ducks' EGG colour genetic...?)
...Thank you in advance to who will answer to me.
Blue gene or not, link between eggs colour AND feathers colour or not... I would really like to know all it is know about Indian Runners' eggs colour GENETIC...!
(Like... is it possible to breed runners for a specific egg colour?)
(Hope the pictures help to see clear - genetic and all -, but : I did not took any pictures of the eggs laid this month...! Nothing to see anyway : pictures of the eggs would not be a sufficiently good quality to see the differences in colours...)
I have some questions about genetic, but ONE in particular... and maybe stupid, but I'm curious, and actually really hoping something very specific...
So...
Out of my four first Indian Runner ducks - all of them being born in Spring 2022 -, two are females...
One of these females is Olive - a LIGHT DUSKY runner duck :
("LIGHT DUSKY" means Olive is the brownish duck, at the center of the picture...)
She laid her first egg on October 18th, 2022... the exact year she was born.
(And she then kept laying during the next winter, and then the year - until her molt...!)
During the time she was laying - she has not started again for the year, but she will soon -, her eggs were, I feel, good sized for a runner duck's eggs : a bit bigger than most of my chickens' eggs - probably around 70-80 grams...
These eggs were also white coloured, with very, VERY light cream coloured diagonal stripes.
The diagonal stripes really were so light I can not even show a picture to you : they are not appearing on the pictures I took. (Bad quality...)
I wondered in the past if the stripes on Olive's eggs were due to the dusky pattern allele (md), but now I know a bit more about (feather) colours genetic, I am questioning if Olive have not, in fact, some mallard pattern allele (M+), and if so, if the stripes on her eggs could then be linked to this mallard pattern allele...?
I don't know... I am no expert, but I would like to learn more...!
I think she does look like a very pure Light Dusky, but what do I know...?
She has had three Light Dusky daughters, and there actually are some really light differences in their colouring...! Could be from their father(s), but could also be from their mother - if she has some complicated genetic not visible by her feathers...?
...The other of these two females is Ebène - a BLACK runner duck :
Ebène is the black duck on the left, on the picture...
I say she is black, but as you can see, she has some white spots or her chest... and as you can NOT see, she also has a tiny few white feathers at the corners of her bill...
(The white feathers are NOT due to age, since Ebène is so young, and always have had them...)
So : I don't think I actually can consider Ebène as black (homozygous)...? Or could I?
(Is she actually a black bibbed, even if there is actually almost no white on her feathers? ...Or could she be genetically pure, and the white spots would then just be a default, or whatever...?)
I any case : be she a pure black or not, she has laid black eggs - like black runner ducks are renowed to lay...!
Her first egg really was almost entirely black :
The egg on the center (the black one) was her first egg - laid on February 18th, 2023...
(In spite of the fact Ebène is also born in Spring 2022, she is one month younger than Olive... which is why she did not lay in 2022 like Olive, but has waited until 2023 to lay her first egg.)
The gray egg, more on the right on the picture, is her second egg...
And next, day by day, the eggs Ebène laid were lighter and lighter in colour, until they became completely white...
(Ebène's eggs are the smaller ones : she never could lay eggs of the same size than Olive's.)
Afterwhat she never laid a black OR gray egg until she stopped laying (because of her molt, of course)...!
...
Now, we are in February, 2024, and I have not two female runner ducks, but eight : Olive, Ebène, and six of their daughters I kept home.
And among these daugthers, there are :
- 2 white runners,
- 2 light dusky runners,
- 1 black bibbed runner,
- 1 (faulted) trout runner.
...For now, 2024, and four of my eight female runners are already laying eggs...
The first egg I found for 2024 was early February, and was clearly laid by a black duck.
Nevertheless, in spite of the fact it was the first egg of the season laid by a black duck, it was not black : it just was gray. The gray from the black dye, but gray nevertheless!
So, I naturally thought this egg was laid by Ebène... since, if it was the first egg ever laid by a black duck - here then by Corneille, Ebène's black bibbed daughter -, it would have been black, no...?
But now, I don't know if the egg were really from Ebène : indeed, the eggs are lighter and lighter by the days, but seem to me to become more very light, palish cream than white...? (...Or Ebène' eggs colour has slighty changed, or the "black" eggs are actually laid by her daughter Corneille...)
...Concerning the other eggs : two of them are very, very pale cream coloured; and one of them is a (very) pale blue!
...Look... my question here can seem stupid, but I would want to know ONE thing in priority : if one of my runners is laying blue eggs... does that means this runner could have a blue gene (feathers)?
I know these eggs are not laid by Olive : indeed, since I have no stripped eggs for now, it means Olive is not laying for the time being.
I also know the blue eggs are also not laid by one of my two black female runners : I have only one black runner laying for now, and her eggs are NOT becoming blue; in addition, these blue eggs were blue from the very first of them - and never were grayish and/or seemed to be dyed...
I am actually hoping one of my two white females OR my faulted trout (the brown one with eyestripes) is laying these blue eggs, and that could be mean I could have at least ONE carrier of the blue gene among my ducks...
(Dads of my six youngest females are a trout drake and a white drake...!)
Can I have hope one of my drake, and so, their daughters, are carriers of blue...? Thanks to the fact their eggs are blue coloured, in spite of the fact the ducks are not black, or blue, or chocolate...?
Sorry if it is a stupid question.
I KNOW runners can lay blue eggs and not be blue themselves... but I only heard that about black, chocolate, and blue runners... and I don't know... are black and chocolate not linked to blue anyway (possible carriers), which would explain the blue eggs they can lay...?
What I ask more precisely is : is the blue of the egg somewhat linked to the blue gene for the feathers' colouring...?
(Is there a rule for ducks' EGG colour genetic...?)
...Thank you in advance to who will answer to me.
Blue gene or not, link between eggs colour AND feathers colour or not... I would really like to know all it is know about Indian Runners' eggs colour GENETIC...!
(Like... is it possible to breed runners for a specific egg colour?)
(Hope the pictures help to see clear - genetic and all -, but : I did not took any pictures of the eggs laid this month...! Nothing to see anyway : pictures of the eggs would not be a sufficiently good quality to see the differences in colours...)
