Larkwell Valley (2023)

[NatJ]

Have another 5 or 6 green duck eggs under a hen hopefully (so 9 or 10 total between nests).

The possible layers are a khaki, buff and Rouen, or several Swedish. If all the eggs hatch, is it likely that their colors will give away who mama is?

I don't really know duck genetics, but I found this article:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/mallard-derived-duck-color-genetics-basics.74277/

Depending on which males are involved, it may be possible to sort out the mothers of at least some ducklings. When they hatch, maybe take photos and try tagging the person who wrote that article.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I don't really know duck genetics, but I found this article:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/mallard-derived-duck-color-genetics-basics.74277/

Depending on which males are involved, it may be possible to sort out the mothers of at least some ducklings. When they hatch, maybe take photos and try tagging the person who wrote that article.

Only male is a blue Swedish.

 

[NatJ]

Only male is a blue Swedish.

If I read that article right, then all ducklings should be blue or black, from all the mothers.

The article is unclear on whether you would get white bibs on all ducklings, or only on ones that have mothers with a white bib. (Maybe there are two genes that can cause bibs, with one being dominant and the other recessive?)

So unfortunately, I don't think you will be able to easily tell which mother the ducklings come from.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

If I read that article right, then all ducklings should be blue or black, from all the mothers.

The article is unclear on whether you would get white bibs on all ducklings, or only on ones that have mothers with a white bib. (Maybe there are two genes that can cause bibs, with one being dominant and the other recessive?)

So unfortunately, I don't think you will be able to easily tell which mother the ducklings come from.

The post mentions a recessive bibbing. I never had anything other than Swedish hatch years ago when I had ducks before, so I only ever had little black and blue selwedish babies. This post makes it sound like if I have ducklings hatch with bibs, it has to be a Swedish since I don't have any bibbed mama's besides the Swedish

The Bibbing Alleles (B+, b)

These are the alleles that control recessive bibbing. There may be another dominant bibbing gene as well that is linked to extended black, or that type of bibbing may be an interaction effect, we are not sure. But this type of bibbing controlled by these alleles is recessive.

B+

This is the wild type dominant not-bibbed allele. Any duck having this allele will not have a recessive bib. They might still have a bib, though, since some bibbing is linked to extended black.

b

This is the allele for recessive bibbing. Any duck that has two copies of this allele will have a bib. Sometimes you see mallards with bibs, and that would be due to this allele. An example of such a mallard can be seen here.

It also looks like the buff will be recessive, so if it's her, I probably won't know.


But if I have a silver baby hatch from the egg, it has to be Swedish since they're my only blue ones




So I guess here's hoping it hatches brown . At least then it will be probably between my khaki and Rouen and not 4 different breeds

 

[NatJ]

The post mentions a recessive bibbing. I never had anything other than Swedish hatch years ago when I had ducks before, so I only ever had little black and blue selwedish babies. This post makes it sound like if I have ducklings hatch with bibs, it has to be a Swedish since I don't have any bibbed mama's besides the Swedish

My concern was where it said, "There may be another dominant bibbing gene as well that is linked to extended black, or that type of bibbing may be an interaction effect, we are not sure."

And "B+

This is the wild type dominant not-bibbed allele. Any duck having this allele will not have a recessive bib. They might still have a bib, though, since some bibbing is linked to extended black."

Basically, a duck who does not have the *recessive* bibbing allele might still have an actual bib-- same marking, presumably caused by a different gene.

I suppose you will find out after the ducklings hatch, based on whether bibs are on some, all, or none of them.

But if I have a silver baby hatch from the egg, it has to be Swedish since they're my only blue ones

I agree with that.

So I guess here's hoping it hatches brown . At least then it will be probably between my khaki and Rouen and not 4 different breeds

If the Extended Black is dominant over everything else, and if the drake is pure for that, then I think all the ducklings will have to be black (with or without blue diluting it.)

I suppose we will find out when they hatch-- duck genetics really aren't my thing, so I've just been reading that article and trying to apply it to the breed list you gave.

 

[NatJ]

Poking around a bit more about duck genetics....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/blue-swedish-cross-genetics-pics-added.228086/
Someone had Blue Swedish males with a Khaki Campbell female and a Runner female. All ducklings looked like Swedish (blue or black)


And these bits in a different thread:

There are recessive bibs, which is its own separate gene, but these are not the bibs you're talking about.

What you're talking about is the bibbing that is linked to extended black. These bibs, we don't know for sure what causes them. All we know is that they show up wherever extended black goes. Breed a gray drake to a chocolate duck? Ducklings are black bibbed. Etc etc.

To get rid of this bib and make a self duck, you need the dusky gene, two copies. It removes the bibbing on extended black based colors.

Yes. If a duck is black, you can't see the mallard genes any more. They're still there, so genotypically they matter, especially for breeding purposes, but phenotypically they don't matter, since you can't see them. Aside from dusky mallard which, as I talked about earlier, can remove the bibbing associated with extended black.

(Same poster who wrote the article on duck genetics, but explaining a bit more here. It appears that "extended black" ducks, which would presumably include your Blue Swedish drake, produce ducklings with white bibs unless they have a specific other gene to make them actual solid black.) I think I did the quoting right, so you can click at the top of the quote to go to the thread it came from, if you want to see it in context.

 

[Canadian Wind]

NatJ is correct. Since it's a purebred Swedish, babies will be black or blue. Unless bred to another blue, then you could have blacks, blues, or silvers.

Now, if the blue drake *wasn't* pure, there is a plethora of options!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

NatJ is correct. Since it's a purebred Swedish, babies will be black or blue. Unless bred to another blue, then you could have blacks, blues, or silvers.

Now, if the blue drake *wasn't* pure, there is a plethora of options!

Definitely should be pure for my boy.



Well darn. I really was expecting much more in terms of color from those three ladies with my Swedish

 

[Canadian Wind]

Definitely should be pure for my boy.



Well darn. I really was expecting much more in terms of color from those three ladies with my Swedish

Yeah, it's the curse of the Blue. Same with chickens. And Muscovy.

Call your duckery Blue Mountains Quacks.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Well, I'll probably have a mixed pen next spring with a runner drake, maybe one of my two will make some fun colors or something.