Magpie Call Ducks

[carolynm]

I was just wondering where does the magpie call duck color come from? I imagine if one has magpie color stock one can breed them and get more, but just curious if they originally came from crop outs on a solid color? If so what color -originally black or white (or maybe crop outs from both? ).

 

[carolynm]

And has anyone ever heard of a calico call ? Supposedly it is white, tan, black and blue?

I like magpie calls but can't find any around here...just wondering if I could "make" some down the road, and was wondering what colors one would start off with.

 

[Sweetfolly]

Magpie is a pattern that arises when a duck carries both the Bibbed and Pied genes. Lots of people think you can get it from breeding a Black bird to a White bird, but it rarely happens like that. White is caused by two copies of a gene that "masks" other colors. A White duck could genetically be ANY color "underneath" the White. I suppose you could produce Magpies by breeding a Pied to a Bibbed - I considered doing it myself, but I ended up finding some fairly well-marked Magpies before I found any good quality Pieds!

No such thing as a Calico Call. Well, not really. I have a pet-quality Call drake that I suppose you could call "Calico", but he's actually a Blue Bibbed that's heterozygous for extended black, so he's "leaking" Blue Fawn patches through the Blue. He's mis-marked, that's all. It's not a color you could breed for, it's not stable. Just a oddity that cropped up.

 

[carolynm]

Thanks for the informative post! I'm going to see what this person called Calico in a few weeks. I'm really curious-they said they were white tan black and blue (I don't think I'll be buying them, just curious!).

Where did the Pied gene originally come from? Was another breed bred with the calls to get the color?