question on color genetics in ducks - hey you color experts!... ?

[zzGypsy]

ok, so we've been discussing the possible lineage of this drake and we're thinking maybe khaki and crested blue swedish. the picture's not completely color correct - he's steel gray and a fairly uniform color, with a slightly darker edge on his feathers.
so the question is, if I wanted more ducks in this color, what would be my best option for geting them? geneticly speaking? what should I breed him to in order to get more like him, color wise? I'd like to keep the large size as well.

time to learn about duck color genes!

 

[Henk69]

A khaki female (he looks khaki = chocolate + dusky, maybe plus extended black). The one in front of him in the last pic?

Do the blue crested swedish have a white bib?

 

[aineheartsyou]

Quote:
all swedish are to have a bib

 

[DB_Tex]

I'll be honest... I would be all over blue, silver and dusky campbells.

 

[zzGypsy]

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I would be too... seems it might be a popular choice.

swedish should have a bib. this fellow has a little bit of white on his chest, just a couple of small patches, certainly not what you'd call a bib. that and his build and color are what made me think he's probably got blue swedish in the genes.

so I've got a couple of khaki hens, and he's just started showing an interest in breeding, but we're not really getting many eggs yet. once they start laying, maybe I'll see if we can't get some fertile eggs from that pairing and see what they produce.

 

[Senna95]

Ok, I'm not an expert, but I'll take a stab at this:

your duck: dusky, extended black, one incompletely dominant blue dilution, and 2 recessive brown dilutions. I believe that this is the color they call lavender.

crossing your drake with a khaki campbell would give you half regular khakies, and half in his color.

 

[zzGypsy]

Quote:
ok, this is a good staring point.

I'm really new to color genetics in ducks, so I don't know how the various genes are expressed, and which ones are recessive and ride along, or are required, with different expressed variety in the offspring than the parents.

so let's say I'd be interested in getting this extended into a reliable line of solid colored steel-gray ducks.

given those color genes, would it be theoretically possible to get a true-breeding steel blue solid color line?

if I select the steel colored ducks only out of that lineage, and breed back to him, or selected ducks from down-line generations, can I weed out the browns over time? or will there always be a percentage of brows appearing as part of producing this color?

I know I'm asking for the extended course in how the genetics work so if there's a resource that you can point me to that would help me get the basics of this down, that'd be cool too.

 

[Oregon Blues]

You could simply buy some blue East Indies or some blue Cayugas and get all the sold slate gray non-bib ducks you want, plus they would be purebreds, so a much better chance they would breed true and they'd be more valuable.

 

[zzGypsy]

Quote:
I've got cayugas, love 'em, they're very cool, but not this color.
I've had runners too...
and what defines value isn't always what someone else will pay you for a thing... sometimes what's valuable is learning and doing.

I don't imagine the first proto-appleyards were valuable, but 50 years later, they're a breed. now THAT'S cool.

steel blue khakis... that sounds cool to me. creating a line like that would be a fun thing to do. it's really ok with me if they don't have any particular value on the way to getting there. or even if I do get there.

seems to me that developing a different color line in ducks is something that can be done in a reasonable time frame... so many things can't be. besides, I need a project.

I'll start with some of the SQ appleyards in the spring (including the eggs I have on reserve) but there's no reason I can't do both!

come on, play along, point me to where to learn, teach me something ... when I write my book on how I created this line of ducks I'll write glowing accolades on the dust jacket about how you mentored me

I love learning, ready? let's go!

 

[aineheartsyou]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=410593

This is a good place to start studying duck color genetics. I also recommend Story's Guide to Raising Ducks by Dave Holderread