Lilac call duck project progressing, slowly but surely

[Snyder]

Senna95 is correct with the Lilac and Lavender genotypes. The UK name for what North Americans call Silver is called Lavender. Like has been mentioned, UK Silvers are what we call the Snowy colour.
Grey cross White only produces Snowy coloured ducklings if your Greys are carrying the Harlequin gene(therefor are impure) and your Whites also have the Harlequin gene "under" the White.
Calls and Runners are natorious for carrying reccesive genes because of the amount of genes available in those breeds. Because of this, alot of impure coloured birds are sold as pure coloured birds. This causes confusion, when odd coloured birds appear, for people with out a firm grasp of genetics. Not to take anything away from Sheraw, as he has produced very good Call ducks, but with that said he is known for that and not his knowledge of genetics.

 

[Brody's Broodello]

Thanks Senna95 & Snyder
I've not bred the Lavender/Lilac/Silver in our Calls. We have one that my son bought from Darrel for his B-Day since he had $10 & it was burning a whole in his pocket. lol We only breed the standard show colors, the projects are in our silkies. But having said that, I just wanted to point out to the poster that what she was breeding was not something totally new, but an already known color, therefore some of the guess work had already been done. I wish her luck, it really is a pretty color. I enjoy looking at our little Thomas, even though he can be a s#!t, most days, likes to bite me.

 

[KateBeauchemin]

Yes thank u all who replied. My project is new to me. The speckled hens are all new stock as are the lavendar drakes. I think this is all facinating. I just love new knowledge.

I don't have many resources available. So I have to use what I can get.

Thanks again everyone. Does anyone have pics of lilac or lavendar calls? I asked this in my last topic and never got a response. Fully feathered mature?

 

[Senna95]

You should invest in a couple of books:

1. "Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks" by Dave Holderread (be sure to get the new edition)
2. "Colour Breeding in Domestic Ducks" by Mike and Chris Ashton. (this one you have to get on Amazon UK)

Mine are so thumbed through that they're falling apart. Both have information on Lilac/lavender.

Those 2 books, and all of the advise and help from people on this forum have been absolutely GREAT.

Also, check out "Understanding Basic Color Genetics" by Rollyard. It's in the "Sticky Topics".

Good luck!

 

[LemonDoodles]

Gosh, I really really like them!

 

[friedeggs]

I saw them at the congress 2 years ago and the person with them referred to them as silvers. They are quite eye catching

 

[Sweetfolly]

Wow! This is confusing:/

Here's my understanding of lilac/lavender/blue etc.

2 black genes turn all feathers black. They call this (obviously) black
Add 1 blue dilution gene, and now you have "blue"
Add another blue dilution gene, and you have "silver", or some call this "splash"

Now once you start playing with the brown dilution gene things get a little more complicated, becasue brown is sex-linked. That in addition to the blue-gene being incompletely dominant you could end up with a host of colors including lavender, lilac, black, chocolate, blue, and silver, all depending on whether or not your babies are male or female.

Genetically lavender is 2 black genes, 2 blue dilution genes, and one (in females) or 2 (in males) brown dilution genes. This color is generally very light and looks almost like a "dirty white".
And Lilac is 2 black genes, 1 blue dilution gene, and one or 2 (again, depending on sex) brown dilution genes. It is darker than lavender, and looks like a gray-ish brown.

Kate, in addtion to the black, blue, and brown genes, I think you may have a few other genes you're playing with as well, including maybe bibbed, and/or runner pattern, judging by the white around the eyes of your "Hen 2" and the little black speckled one. In addition, if there is indeed a blue-fawn in your ducks' recent family tree, then you've also got mallard pattern, and possibly a recessive non-black gene, either one of which may pop up in future generations.

2 lilac ducks will never breed true because of the inclompletely dominant blue gene. You will get Chocolates, lilacs, and lavenders from this cross.

However, 2 lavender ducks will breed true and produce only lavender offspring.

Lastly, I just peeked at your old post, and to my untrained and beginners eyes (keep that in mind), your hen in the second picuture is blue, and the 2 drakes are probably lilac. If that is true then all offspring would inherit one brown gene from the drake, and none from the hen. Since brown is sex linked, it would only show up (for the first generation) in the hens, producing chocolate, lavender, and lilac hens. The drakes would be carriers of the brown dilution gene, but physically would be black, blue, or silver.

Welcome to that very confusing world of duck color genetics!

Perfect! This is exactly what I was going to say. Except that it only takes 1 Extended Black gene to turn all the feathers black, the duck would then be heterozygous, and often you'll see some brown pencilling from the mallard pattern "leaking" through the black feathers on a heterozygous black. The foundation of my own Lilac Call project is such a drake who is also carrying a "hidden" brown gene. When bred to a Blue Bibbed hen, he throws Black Bibbed, Blue Bibbed, Chocolate Bibbed, Lilac Bibbed, Blue Fawn, and Mallard-Grey offspring.

This picture was taken yesterday of one of his Bibbed Lilac daughters, "Cheerio":


Her sister, "Kix", had a significant amount of white feathering appear in her first molt, so I'm undecided as to whether or not she will be used for this spring's breeding (excuse the mess in this picture - we're in Wisconsin and the overnight low temps have been in the negative teens - the Call turds are frozen to the bottom of the pen until spring!

):


Here are their parents:


Cheerio, their momma, and their Blue sisters will definitely be back in the pen with their daddy to make more Lilac babies this spring! My goal is to breed Self (solid, non-bibbed) Lilacs, which I might achieve this year by breeding Cheerio back to her Self-Black daddy, but it's going to take a few more years of hard work to get where I'd like them to be. I could just go out and buy some Self-Blues and Chocolates to add into the project so I wouldn't have to work around the Call's Dominant Bib, but I like the depth of the Lilac color I'm getting by breeding to the Black. Because Lilacs DO NOT breed true (and I have no interest in breeding Lavenders - I like a little bit more richness to the color), it's always going to be a matter of breeding Blues, Blacks, Chocolates, and Lilacs together.

I don't have these two babies anymore (I wish I did, and I'm actually planning on breeding some more this year!), but for anyone who'd like to see a comparison between Lilac and Silver (Splash), compare the pictures of my Lilac girls above to these two babies, who are Splashes (Extended Black with a double Blue dilution) that came from a Butterscotch x Blue Bibbed mating. Because they had only one copy of Extended Black, they were "leaking" small patches of Butterscotch coloring:

 

[AliciaM]

What color is the one on the right? I have been refering to him as a silver bib.

 

[Sweetfolly]

What color is the one on the right? I have been refering to him as a silver bib.

He's a Blue Bibbed (Extended Black + 1 Blue dilution).

 

[AliciaM]

What color is the one on the right? I have been refering to him as a silver bib.

OOPS... sorry for reposting this pic.. How can I remove it??