Mallard x Buff Orpington Hybrid

[schatze]

I'd like to follow this thread because I was hoping my snowy mallard males would mate with my snowy mallard females, but instead my one buff drake mated with all my snowy females. The ducklings hatched last week (one of my chickens incubated the eggs), and only one duckling looks anything like the parents as ducklings.

 

[NathanZee]

I'd like to follow this thread because I was hoping my snowy mallard males would mate with my snowy mallard females, but instead my one buff drake mated with all my snowy females. The ducklings hatched last week (one of my chickens incubated the eggs), and only one duckling looks anything like the parents as ducklings.

I'm excited to see how they turn out!

 

[schatze]

They've gotten much bigger, of course, and are getting in their feathers.

 

[schatze]

Well yes, pekins and runners don't change colors, but they still do technically have a eclipse plumage, it just looks the same. That's strange your WH never changes. I've heard that all mallard derived ducks go into eclipse.

What is this? My snowy mallards always look the same. Is it because we don't have much of a winter here? There is only a behavioral change in that my dominant drake doesn't go after my B-level snowy mallard drake.

 

[Senna95]

Back to the original question: buff X mallard.....It is a little complicated because both the brown and buff dilutions are sex linked.

If you use a male mallard and female buff, you will get all blue fawns. Basically a mallard pattern, but with all the black diluted to a dark grey.

If you switch and use the buff male with the mallard females you will get 2 different colors: your females will be a buff mallard color, with some blue dilution ( they would only inherit one of the incompletely dominant blue dilution genes...), and the males would be blue fawn.

This is only for the first generation. After that all bets are off.

 

[schatze]

Back to the original question: buff X mallard.....It is a little complicated because both the brown and buff dilutions are sex linked.

If you use a male mallard and female buff, you will get all blue fawns. Basically a mallard pattern, but with all the black diluted to a dark grey.

If you switch and use the buff male with the mallard females you will get 2 different colors: your females will be a buff mallard color, with some blue dilution ( they would only inherit one of the incompletely dominant blue dilution genes...), and the males would be blue fawn.

This is only for the first generation. After that all bets are off.

Oh wow! My ducklings, the four pictured, have a snowy mallard mother and a buff father. Does that mean I have two males and two females?

 

[NathanZee]

What is this? My snowy mallards always look the same. Is it because we don't have much of a winter here? There is only a behavioral change in that my dominant drake doesn't go after my B-level snowy mallard drake.

Well, I might have been wrong on that. My Buff drake didn't go into eclipse, he just molted. So maybe only Mallards do?

They've gotten much bigger, of course, and are getting in their feathers.

They are pretty! Please keep posting as they grow!

Back to the original question: buff X mallard.....It is a little complicated because both the brown and buff dilutions are sex linked.

If you use a male mallard and female buff, you will get all blue fawns. Basically a mallard pattern, but with all the black diluted to a dark grey.

If you switch and use the buff male with the mallard females you will get 2 different colors: your females will be a buff mallard color, with some blue dilution ( they would only inherit one of the incompletely dominant blue dilution genes...), and the males would be blue fawn.

This is only for the first generation. After that all bets are off.

Thank you so much! Will the females retain the pattern of a mallard, or not?

 

[Senna95]

Yes! At least in the first generation. In the second generation the "dusky" gene would start popping up (in some of your offspring) and you would lose the eye stripes on the hens, and the white collar and bib on the drakes.

 

[schatze]

Yes! At least in the first generation. In the second generation the "dusky" gene would start popping up (in some of your offspring) and you would lose the eye stripes on the hens, and the white collar and bib on the drakes.

So do I have two of each? Or is this an answer to the post from February? I'm confused.

 

[Senna95]

So do I have two of each? Or is this an answer to the post from February? I'm confused.

That was an answer to the question above: "will the females retain the mallard pattern?". Sorry for the confusion.