PICS of feather legged ducklings

[Mrs. BJ Hensley Jr.]

This is the first feather legged batch of ducklings I have ever seen. Only 1 came from a muscovy shell. I have been having very strange hatch this year. Last month's hatch had major birth defects. Alligator and cleft bill. One even had its brain on the outside. Maybe it's something in the water???

 

[chooks4life]

Well, I'm no duck expert but I've never heard of feather legged ducks... If I recall correctly anyway. Will be interesting to see how this goes. Domestic ducks never interested me much but some of the wild ones are quite interesting.

Best wishes.

EDIT: eh, what do you know, did a search and found numerous threads on this site about ducks with feathers on their legs. The more you know.

 

[BackYard Sheena]

Awww cute!! When my mom first got some chickens that had feathers on their feet I thought they looked so goofy at first but they are really growing on me. I didnt know there were ducks like that!!

 

[Going Quackers]

How different! so it's a scovie baby? not seen that before, i know the delay to spring and the brutal winter has made hatching this year a challenge.

 

[chooks4life]

From the little bit of reading up I did yesterday they're called 'stubs' and are a serious defect in some breeds, at least according to judges' opinions. They may or may not be linked to lethal genes. I'd bet there are some linked genetic defects. Still, if you could stabilize and breed that trait on into your own breed, you could be onto something.

Best wishes.

 

[Mrs. BJ Hensley Jr.]

What do you mean "lethal genes"?

...

From the little bit of reading up I did yesterday they're called 'stubs' and are a serious defect in some breeds, at least according to judges' opinions. They may or may not be linked to lethal genes. I'd bet there are some linked genetic defects. Still, if you could stabilize and breed that trait on into your own breed, you could be onto something.

Best wishes.
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[Mrs. BJ Hensley Jr.]

The first is Scovy for sure. Its the ONLY white muscovy baby I have ever gotten. I have a white male im using for the first time so my guess is maybe its his baby; though it could end up blue like its mama.

Second is NOT. Its features tell me its daddy is my ancona drake. It wasnt in a muscovy egg so mama wasn't muscovy.

The third one could go either way. My husband tossed the shell before I got home so im not sure who the mama is.

Its fun to see all the babies hatch out and try to guess what they are. When I sell ducklings, I always ask the buyers to send me photos and keep me updated so I know which breed crossings did best and whether or not my parental guestimation was accurate. Thus way I dont have an extea 500 ducks every year.

 

[chooks4life]

What do you mean "lethal genes"?

The sort of genes which cause death in shell/in utero, or soon after.

I.e. tufted ear genes in chickens are lethal to some extent, so are the very short-legged bantam genes, you get a certain percentage dead in shell or sometime around that, generally only if you're breeding pure for the trait.

Every species has some lethal genes as far as I know, they usually also carry some visual aspect you can use to identify them i.e. dwarfism genes in various species, spikers in deer, miniature ears in Scottish Fold cats, coloring in most species (particularly albinism or variants of that), abnormal shape or whatever else.... But doubtless there would be some case where the lethal genes simply result in dead offspring without any visual cues.

With ducks, the crested gene is lethal to some extent.
Quote: (from Wikipedia, but it's much the much as I've read in industry publications);
Best wishes.

 

[Mrs. BJ Hensley Jr.]

That makes a LOT of sense. Thank you Very much for the extensive help. I had no idea. I just mix and keep what ever looks best per personal preference. I sell the rest.

 

[BackYard Sheena]

I know I've read enough about the crest to scare me, but more so because I've read it's easy for them to get a head injury and I have two small boys and I just knew I didn't want to go down that road. If I had a baby pop out with one I would love it forever and probably even favor it because of it would be special and unique in my flock but I wouldn't intentionally add one with a crest to it.

The hairy feet however, I can't see after it being hatched how that could serve as a danger for at least that specific bird (aside from passing it down to future generations) so unless I were to hear otherwise, you totally have my attention and I would be interested in adding one to my flock one day

I am glad to have read that information though so if one day I did have one, and tried to hatch babies from it I would know to do my best not to get attached to the babies until they hatched and had a few days to see how strong they were. I really appreciate you explaining that @chooks4life