Please Help Determine Breed and Sex of my Duck!

[Frank Phinster]

Thanks for the pictures, they really help

They are both males.
The first one has the typical pattern of a male mallard, dark head, brown chest, light trunk, dark back. A blue dilution gene causes the black parts of his plumage to become blue and the grey of the trunk rather yellowish. If you compare the drake of swshuntee with the bird of goats rule 101, you can see that aside from the colours the patterns are similar.

Some drakes simply lack the curled feathers on their tails. Sometimes they get lost in a fight with another drake and some don't even develop one. I once had a drake that never had a sex curl.

To me, both of them look like crosses. They can stand quite upright and are rather slim, but their legs are a little too short for runners and the overall shape is not quite right.
The blue-yellow drake reminds me a little of a Campbell or a Welsh Harlequin, but as far as I know none of this breeds has this colours.

The black one is too slim and stands too upright for a black swedish. You can identify him as a drake by the colour of his bill and the green gleam on his head while the trunk is rather dull.

I tend to say that they both have runner ancestors but not exclusively and thus are crosses.

Here a picture of my runners. Note that they are not show quality, but still show the typical runner traits:



@ HollyDuckFarmer:

I have been occupied with stuff that you can do only during summer vacation, travelling, visiting some friends, writing a term paper, etc.
But now I finally have time for some participation in this forum again

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

Here's a pic of some of mine. See the sort of Sweedish looking drake? Well he was hatched by the duck clockwise towards the left, a pure Khaki Campbell duck. (Had a Pekin drake at the time). Sometimes he gets the shimmery green head, plus the area around his drake feather are the same green. In the pic, the next duck (might be drake) over is pure Runner. Hard to see the stance tho. Counter clockwise from the mixed drake in the center are all Young KCs and KC x Rouen.

So Frank, what gene is it that gives that buff look on the cross?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Here's a pic of some of mine. See the sort of Sweedish looking drake? Well he was hatched by the duck clockwise towards the left, a pure Khaki Campbell duck. (Had a Pekin drake at the time). Sometimes he gets the shimmery green head, plus the area around his drake feather are the same green. In the pic, the next duck (might be drake) over is pure Runner. Hard to see the stance tho. Counter clockwise from the mixed drake in the center are all Young KCs and KC x Rouen.


So Frank, what gene is it that gives that buff look on the cross?

Those 2 breeds make a nice cross, love the colors. I could spell at one time

 

[Frank Phinster]

Here's a pic of some of mine. See the sort of Sweedish looking drake? Well he was hatched by the duck clockwise towards the left, a pure Khaki Campbell duck. (Had a Pekin drake at the time). Sometimes he gets the shimmery green head, plus the area around his drake feather are the same green. In the pic, the next duck (might be drake) over is pure Runner. Hard to see the stance tho. Counter clockwise from the mixed drake in the center are all Young KCs and KC x Rouen.


So Frank, what gene is it that gives that buff look on the cross?

According to my book, the khaki colour is a dusky mallard pattern with a brown dilution gene. Because my book claims that the buff colouration is the result of genes that are unlikely to be present in your drake - a blue dilution and a buff dilution gene.

The dusky pattern causes the drake to lose his bib and neck ring, the light grey feathers of his body become dark grey.
The brown dilution causes the black parts of the plumage, like head and back become dark brown and the grey plumage of the trunk a lighter tone of brown. My book further distinguishes between light phase dusky and dark phase dusky and speaks of two kind of khaki campbells, light and dark.

The swedish-looking drake has, apart from his white bib, great similarities to the pictures of campbells in my book, which, additionally with the explaination, makes me confident that the khaki genes play a role here. If you had a duck from the same parents, you might be able to find out whether he has recessive white genes. A portion of the offspring would be pure white.

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

Swshuntee--

What do you think of this duck in the 3rd Picture? http://holderreadfarm.com/photogallery/saxony_page/saxony_page.htm
Saxony for the non bibbed drake?