Pied Duckling Pics Finally Here!!!!!!

[bemba]

Hi guys, here are some pics of the ducklings that hatched a couple of weeks ago, sorry for the late reply..... the computer crashed twice!!! Anyway here they are! Especially curious to see what CityChicker thinks about the colours of mum and dad. Pic below is mum and dad.

The next 2 pics are of the bubs with foster mum 'Angel' call duck x bantam silver appleyard.

 

[CityChicker]

Hi David! Nice to hear from you and see your ducklings. Is the mom the pond duck you found? The drake I think is the one we thought was Pied Dusky before? He definitely still looks Dusky to me. You are the second person that has had one with very similar color recently (minus the Pied of yours). I think because of the small amount of claret showing through, he is probably m+/m^d as I am leaning more and more towards m^d definitely not being completely recessive to m+.

The hen does appear to be Mallard Pied. It is hard to tell why you are seeing the variation in the babies. It is very possible the drake is carrying one (or more than one) of the recessive sex-linked dilution genes and that is why some are lighter. It is hard to tell. I would normally think perhaps Blue is involved, but neither of the parents appear to be carrying Blue. A couple of them almost look like they are light phase as well, but it could just be that they are wet and/or again just showing the difference in plumage from whatever dilution gene(s) they may possess.

Time will tell. Once they feather out, you will be able to tell more. If you can sex them, I would try to do that if you want a quicker answer to what they might be. They are pretty cute! I am glad to see you making progress!

 

[bemba]

Hi Dana, Yes the mother is the pond duck that I rescued, and dad is the duck from the beginning. I do know the sex of the ducklings and goes as follows (from first pic) 2 dark pied ducklings at back are drakes, the 2 either side of mums wings are ducks, the one right near the tail of mum is a drake, the one behind it is a duck and the yellow one is a drake. Hope this sheds some light as to what they may be

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

They are such cuties.....I especially love their adoptive mom..she is gorgeous.

 

[duckyfromoz]

Interesting to see one in particular has a similar appearance to an appleyard with the head stripe and dark tail...Very cute... Hope you plan on posting as they continue to grow- I would love to see how they turn out.

 

[bemba]

Thanks D'Angelo she is a real character, super tame too.
And yes ducky thats what I thought when it hatched, if you look closely it has pied around the neck and on the wing tips, also on the belly! Can't wait to see how they feather out.... and yes updated pics are a must

 

[CityChicker]

Quote:
Hmmm... I really don't know then. That is strange. Maybe it is just that I can't see the pictures well enough on my laptop. I would have thought the lighter ones would be hens as I suspected there was a sex-linked gene involved. I can't see any Blue in the parents (again though, maybe it is this monitor). If the difference is not from Blue or one of the sex-linked dilutions, then the parent birds must carry light and/or harlequin phase. I don't know how common that is there. I know here in the US, it is extremely common for especially Runners and the bantam ducks to carry one or both, li and li^h.

At least you now have several with obvious Pied! I look forward to seeing how they feather out.

 

[bemba]

Just a quick update on the pied call program, it's several generations in and I'm very happy with the results here are some of my favs....

 

[canard]

Adorable ducklings!!!!