ISO Runner Duck Hard to Find Colors

[Miss Lydia]

Friends chocolate and blue gave me black.

 

[Pyxis]

@Pyxis how does Silver comes out of chocolate and blue runners? I know blk does that’s where my blacks came from.

Blue bred to blue will yield 50% blue, 25% silver, and 25% black

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Blue bred to blue will yield 50% silver

Wait...doesn't blue x blue result in 50% blue and 25% each of silver and black?

And where's my 25% black??

 

[Pyxis]

Wait...doesn't blue x blue result in 50% blue and 25% each of silver and black?

And where's my 25% black??

Oh heck, yep! Lol. I may have written that right when I woke up. I'm gonna fix it

 

[czsilverwolf]

I'm a biologist so I am very familiar with how genetics works. The problem is figuring out what genes your ducks have to start with. I'm sure after multiple breedings it can be relatively accurately assumed. The problem is silver is already a hard color to breed because it is most most likely a recessive gene and if you don't have the gene for silver in your ducks they won't ever give any chicks with silver coloring.

 

[Pyxis]

I'm a biologist so I am very familiar with how genetics works. The problem is figuring out what genes your ducks have to start with. I'm sure after multiple breedings it can be relatively accurately assumed. The problem is silver is already a hard color to breed because it is most most likely a recessive gene and if you don't have the gene for silver in your ducks they won't ever give any chicks with silver coloring.

Silver as in the way we use silver in the US to mean two copies of the blue dilution gene? If so, it's not a recessive gene It is two copies of the incomplete dominant blue dilution gene.

Or, are you meaning silver as in harlequin/snowy, which they refer to as silver in the UK? That is indeed a recessive gene. Someone here on these forums was working on them in the US - and was successful. I believe they were selling breeders. If you do a search for harlequin runner, you can probably find the thread.

Edit: Actually, I found it. Here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/harlequin-runners.1271719/post-20441705

 

[Pyxis]

I think part of the problem you might run into when looking for these colors is that the UK uses different color terminology than we do in US. Unfortunately sometimes, like with silver, what they call one thing we use as the name for a totally different color. So that will throw a wrench in things for you.

For instance, if you said Lavender here in the US, I'd assume you're looking for chocolate combined with silver, so I'd tell you to get some chocolate runners and some blue or silver runners and start breeding them together. But I can't be sure that's what you actually want since I don't know what they mean in the UK when they say Lavender. Probably the same thing in this case, but I don't know.

 

[czsilverwolf]

Yep that makes sense. These are the colors I am looking for when I say Silver and Lavender.

I'm a sucker for the lighter colors with dark bills lol.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Just beautiful.

She’s pet quality but I think she’s beautiful. An she’s mine

 

[DuckyDonna]

Blue bred to blue will yield 50% blue, 25% silver, and 25% black

I actually understood that!