Please, show me your ducks

[Blue is my chicken]

Your runners are so pretty


Anything could be possible with my boys. Their parents where a completely different colour (I can’t remember what it was now but I think it was pastel)
The breeder said their parents started to have black bibbed babies and she had no clue why.
So they should have pastel in their genes.
I bred buttercup once, when my duck Johnny (the blue fawn duckling in the picture) laid an egg she passed shortly after that and I put it in then incubater desperate to hatch it, it managed to hatch but passed away at three days old. That baby was what I am calling dark fawn but I don’t know what colour the duckling really was.
I named the duckling Jo Jo (junior Johnny). I miss them both a lot.

I knew something wasn’t right with her she walked like she had splayed legs she didn’t open one of her eyes and the other she kept closed most of the time she wasn’t very lively manly slept on me, the day she passed was the day I left her alone I still think maybe if I hadn’t gone out she would still be here but I try not to think about it too much and just accept that something wasn’t right with her and if I had stayed that day she would have passed on another day
This is Jo Jo

 

[Papaye]

Hi.

Your runners are so pretty

Thank you!

Anything could be possible with my boys. Their parents where a completely different colour (I can’t remember what it was now but I think it was pastel)
The breeder said their parents started to have black bibbed babies and she had no clue why.
So they should have pastel in their genes.

They were Mallard patterned, or Dusky?

It is indeed strange for Black Bibbed ducklings to be born from Pastel parents...
I did not think it would be possible...!

Maybe the breeder has not separated her breeding groups from each others early enough?

☼ ☼ ☼

A man who has sold Duclair ducks to me in SEPTEMBER told me he had got a Black Bibbed ducklet (♀) from Brown Bibbed parents...
...but it should not be possible to get Black from two Brown parents, right?
So : I think he has just not kept them separated long enough from his other ducks, and that his Black duckling's dad is - in fact - a Black drake...

And given the Duclair hens he sold to me don't even look purebred... I'm honestly not sure the guy knows he has to keep his breeding groups separated for several weeks before incubating the eggs!

(NOT blaming or criticizing him here, since I myself would not even know where to find this type of information in France.
We don't have a BackYard Chickens...)

☼ ☼ ☼

...Could be the same with your seller... what do you think?

Or then, I really don't know how we could explain getting Black Bibbed from Pastel...
Still, I find it fascinating!

That baby was what I am calling dark fawn but I don’t know what colour the duckling really was.

This is Jo Jo

Looks Mallard to me. Grey...

She looks adorable on the pictures!

I knew something wasn’t right with her she walked like she had splayed legs she didn’t open one of her eyes and the other she kept closed most of the time she wasn’t very lively manly slept on me, the day she passed was the day I left her alone I still think maybe if I hadn’t gone out she would still be here but I try not to think about it too much and just accept that something wasn’t right with her and if I had stayed that day she would have passed on another day

I had a stargazing duckling in Spring.

First time in my life I saw it (in real life), you know...?
She was born like that, the poor girl...

I have tried to save her by bandaging her neck to prevent her from moving her head too much.

I have seen how to do it on Youtube :

It helped, really!!
BUT : I had to keep my duckling stuck in a sock to prevent her from moving, since she could not stay standing without falling.

...She eventually died.

Actually, she was almost cured from her stargazing... but still, I don't know what happened exactly...

She was a runt, so it could explains some things : indeed, she did not get bigger in spite of the fact I gave her vitamins and probiotics to help her grow up...

I was very attached to her, since I had to keep her with me - constantly, even during the nights...

► To this day, I still feel bad for not succeeding in saving her... so, I understand you.

But I am sincere when I say that I am persuaded there is nothing you could have made for your duckling : if she was meant to survive, she would have.

Sometimes, there is just nothing you can do.

 

[Blue is my chicken]

They were Mallard patterned, or dusky?

Sorry who were mallard/dusky? My boys parents?

I suppose if there was black bibbed in the lineage anything is possible.

The breeder I got them from only had the 2 call ducks (1 breeding pair) so their was no possibility of the parents being anyone other than the two pastles

I don’t have enough information about duck genetics to know but if their was a black duck in lineage maybe?
But to be honest in your case I think it is most likely the breeder didn’t separate long enough

Jo Jo could have been mallard I never got to see her grown up so I don’t know. Her mother (Johnny) I thought was a mallard as a duckling but she turned out to be a blue fawn, I called her a dark fawn mainly because I was still grieving the loss of her mother and they looked so similar as babies (Jo Jo was just darker)
Jo Jo died by flipping on to her back (that is how we found her after she passed)

She looks adorable on the pictures!

Thank you

I had a stargazing duckling in Spring.

First time in my life I saw it (in real life), you know...?
She was born like that, the poor girl...

I have tried to save her by bandaging her neck to prevent her from moving her head too much.

I have seen how to do it on Youtube :


It helped, really!!
BUT : I had to keep my duckling stuck in a sock to prevent her from moving, since she could not stay standing without falling.

...She eventually died.

Actually, she was almost cured from her stargazing... but still, I don't know what happened exactly...

She was a runt, so it could explains some things : indeed, she did not get bigger in spite of the fact I gave her vitamins and probiotics to help her grow up...

I was very attached to her, since I had to keep her with me - constantly, even during the nights...

► To this day, I still feel bad for not succeeding in saving her... so, I understand you.

But I am sincere when I say that I am persuaded there is nothing you could have made for your duckling : if she was meant to survive, she would have.

Sometimes, there is just nothing you can do.

For all we know there was something wrong internally that we could do nothing about
Sorry about your baby it’s hard when you loose them