Mare's Illegal Cute-ness (Call Duck) Chat Thread!!

[muddy75]

Are you gonna let her hatch it?

It’s way behind the call eggs, so trying to decide if I’m going to move it to the incubator when she abandons the nest……

 

[WVduckchick]

Her parents are both traditional looking grays so who knows I guess. They are pet quality so likely not bred 100% true. It doesn't matter to me really since mine call duck addiction is just for fun. Just curious. I appreciate all your help! Its fun to see what hatches!

I totally agree, mine are all pet quality too (though even pet quality have the ability to produce some exceptional offspring) and I love seeing what we get. I understand basic genetics, but when it gets complex, my brain seems to frazzle. I love trying to figure out what happened, or guess what will happen, but sometimes we just never know. I also appreciate our SQ breeders here that try to help us along. It’s all fun for these beautiful little bundles of joy.

It’s way behind the call eggs, so trying to decide if I’m going to move it to the incubator when she abandons the nest……

I don’t incubate nearly as much as I used to. I have so many broodies now, I let them replenish my flocks. I do have a few chicken eggs incubating now, found my silly OEGB hen on top of a storage cabinet with a nest. No idea how she thought she was gonna get chicks down from 8’ in the air!! But the eggs were already growing so I couldn’t toss them.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Lovely!
She looks kinda light though, so I wonder if one of her parents was bibbed. The drake closer to her does appear to be blue fawn to me. Maybe @pipdzipdnreadytogo can comment on that possibility, if the hen had a bibbed parent. I’m 99.9% sure that grey/blue fawn/pastel is the basic equivalent to black/blue/splash in chickens.
Or another thought, maybe she had one snowy parent?

Agree that the hen looks light for a Gray hen. A Gray or mallard patterned hen should have very little white on her at all from what I've seen. So something else is definitely going on there. Based on the drake having a darker / less green head, he also has some other genetics at play beyond wildtype mallard... Pictures of the duckling might give us a few more clues to go off of as well.

Yes, the blue gene in ducks is genetically equivalent to the blue gene in chickens in expression and inheritance, even assigned the same symbol Bl for the gene. No blue genes (bl+/bl+) leaves black pigment in the plumage black, one blue gene (Bl/bl+) dilutes black pigment to blue-gray, and two copies (Bl/Bl) dilutes it further to grayish white. I don't know if the same is the case with ducks as with chickens, but in chickens at least, the shade of blue in blue plumage can vary quite a lot as well, from super dark to very pale. So from that, I kind of wonder if the drake in question is a very dark Blue Fawn instead of Gray. But, again, I have little experience with this sort of thing in ducks, so I can only speculate on that point.

 

[Strawberry74]

Agree that the hen looks light for a Gray hen. A Gray or mallard patterned hen should have very little white on her at all from what I've seen. So something else is definitely going on there. Based on the drake having a darker / less green head, he also has some other genetics at play beyond wildtype mallard... Pictures of the duckling might give us a few more clues to go off of as well.

Yes, the blue gene in ducks is genetically equivalent to the blue gene in chickens in expression and inheritance, even assigned the same symbol Bl for the gene. No blue genes (bl+/bl+) leaves black pigment in the plumage black, one blue gene (Bl/bl+) dilutes black pigment to blue-gray, and two copies (Bl/Bl) dilutes it further to grayish white. I don't know if the same is the case with ducks as with chickens, but in chickens at least, the shade of blue in blue plumage can vary quite a lot as well, from super dark to very pale. So from that, I kind of wonder if the drake in question is a very dark Blue Fawn instead of Gray. But, again, I have little experience with this sort of thing in ducks, so I can only speculate on that point.

I get some of the duckling when I get home. Thanks!!

 

[Strawberry74]

Here is the little one and its sibling. They were both hatched under my broody white call duck. They are 3 weeks old. Its funny because mama likes them, but never wants to go back in when I let her out for adult swim time with the rest of her trio

 

[casportpony]

From today:

 

[Canadian Wind]

Critters should not be allowed to be so cute!!!

 

[muddy75]

Almost time to put next round of eggs in lockdown…..estimated to hatch this weekend. (Except the lone pheasant egg that my broody sneaked into the nest….. no idea what day it’s on…..so I’ll probably move it into the other incubator with more call eggs and my bantam Cochin eggs)

 

[muddy75]

From today:
View attachment 3530547View attachment 3530548

I couldn’t get a picture, but the ducks Ive moved were exploring more this evening and for one small moment, I had “all my ducks in a row”

 

[muddy75]

Hoping to move Gilligan, his girls and the rest of the ducklings tomorrow evening. Peanut has been happy ruling the roost, so I hope he doesn’t get too upset when I bring Gilligan over