Muscovy duckling

[CaliFarmsAR]

Hey guys! I’m very excited today as my second Muscovy hatched late last night!! Does anyone know what color he/she is? The dad is a lavender and the mom could be black, white, blue, chocolate, black & white, lavender pied (she has been broody, so I don’t think it’s her duckling). Any help figuring this out is greatly appreciated!! Also, what ducklings should I expect from a blue hen crossed with the lavender drake? @Pierre duck drake, my eggs are obviously for sure fertile looks like I’ll have to try and catch one of the hens laying before she goes broody, so we can do the egg swap!! Two of the hens are broody!

This is the duckling!

Here’s a picture of the blue hen, she is nesting so I’m trying to figure out what a blue crossed with the lavender will look like!

 

[CaliFarmsAR]

@NatJ @Overo Mare can you guys help figure out what the ducklings may look like?

 

[Painted Calls]

I have absolutely no idea other than SO CUTE. Looks like the color should be really pretty!

 

[CaliFarmsAR]

I have absolutely no idea other than SO CUTE. Looks like the color should be really pretty!

Thank you so much!!!

 

[Miss Lydia]

@Pyxis is good with color.

 

[NatJ]

what ducklings should I expect from a blue hen crossed with the lavender drake?

(Edit: OP has Muscovies, but I accidentally answered for Mallard-derived breeds, which have some different genes and color terms. Correct info is in a later post.)

I had to go look up duck terms, but I think it will work like this:

The blue color is caused by one copy of the blue gene.
The lavender color is caused by chocolate and one copy of the blue gene. Chocolate is on the Z sex chromosome, so it behaves depending on which gender has it.

For the chocolate gene:
The lavender male passes the chocolate gene to all his ducklings, both male and female.
The blue female gives her sons the not-chocolate gene, and gives her daughters a W chromosome that has no effect on color.
So the sons will show not-chocolate, and the daughters will show chocolate.

Each parent can give their babies the blue gene or the not-blue gene. So some babies will be pure for not-blue, some will have one copy of the blue gene (usually makes blue), and some pure for the blue gene (it appears this color is called "silver" in ducks, or "splash" in chickens.)

Putting those genes together, the offspring should be:
Males in black, blue, or silver (effects of the blue gene, with no visible effects of the chocolate gene they are carrying.)
Females in chocolate, lavender, or lilac (effects of the blue gene and of the chocolate gene.)

As soon as you can recognize which color is which, you will also know the gender of each duckling from that cross.

 

[CaliFarmsAR]

I had to go look up duck terms, but I think it will work like this:

The blue color is caused by one copy of the blue gene.
The lavender color is caused by chocolate and one copy of the blue gene. Chocolate is on the Z sex chromosome, so it behaves depending on which gender has it.

For the chocolate gene:
The lavender male passes the chocolate gene to all his ducklings, both male and female.
The blue female gives her sons the not-chocolate gene, and gives her daughters a W chromosome that has no effect on color.
So the sons will show not-chocolate, and the daughters will show chocolate.

Each parent can give their babies the blue gene or the not-blue gene. So some babies will be pure for not-blue, some will have one copy of the blue gene (usually makes blue), and some pure for the blue gene (it appears this color is called "silver" in ducks, or "splash" in chickens.)

Putting those genes together, the offspring should be:
Males in black, blue, or silver (effects of the blue gene, with no visible effects of the chocolate gene they are carrying.)
Females in chocolate, lavender, or lilac (effects of the blue gene and of the chocolate gene.)

As soon as you can recognize which color is which, you will also know the gender of each duckling from that cross.

Wow!! Thank you so much!!

 

[CaliFarmsAR]

This is my breeder drake

 

[Painted Calls]

This is my breeder drake View attachment 3122189

So handsome!

 

[NatJ]

I had to go look up duck terms, but I think it will work like this:

The blue color is caused by one copy of the blue gene.
The lavender color is caused by chocolate and one copy of the blue gene. Chocolate is on the Z sex chromosome, so it behaves depending on which gender has it.

For the chocolate gene:
The lavender male passes the chocolate gene to all his ducklings, both male and female.
The blue female gives her sons the not-chocolate gene, and gives her daughters a W chromosome that has no effect on color.
So the sons will show not-chocolate, and the daughters will show chocolate.

Each parent can give their babies the blue gene or the not-blue gene. So some babies will be pure for not-blue, some will have one copy of the blue gene (usually makes blue), and some pure for the blue gene (it appears this color is called "silver" in ducks, or "splash" in chickens.)

Putting those genes together, the offspring should be:
Males in black, blue, or silver (effects of the blue gene, with no visible effects of the chocolate gene they are carrying.)
Females in chocolate, lavender, or lilac (effects of the blue gene and of the chocolate gene.)

As soon as you can recognize which color is which, you will also know the gender of each duckling from that cross.

Um, that is actually wrong.
I just realized: when I looked for information on "duck" genetics, I found information on mallard-derived ducks, but because muscovies are a different species they have some different color genes.

https://alsquackery.com/muscovy

According to this, "lavender" in muscovies is caused by a different gene (they are calling the color "lavender" and the gene "pastel.") And blue is caused by a gene that works the way I expected it to, just like in chickens and in mallard-derived ducks.

So crossing a blue female with a lavender male should give black babies that carry the lavender gene, and blue babies that carry the lavender gene. No chocolate, and no sexlinks.
Sorry about getting it wrong the first time