Shaws call duck incubation thread (hatch a wonderful(worthless to Ralphie) dux thread)

[Pyxis]

Okay wait, one more question. All the ducklings that hatched looking pastel from Duck and Jane, were they all female, by any chance?

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Okay wait, one more question. All the ducklings that hatched looking pastel from Duck and Jane, were they all female, by any chance?

Thea is the only pastel that's made it to hatch from duck and Jane. . however you may be on to something here cause one of the babies Maggie (black) hatched was a pastel and it was a girl. I suspect that egg to be from thea. Also this new pastel is also a girl.
*anyway they look pastel to me. But my other two pastels from Sofie are a lighter shade than them.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Daisy and Daphne top pictures vs. Thea

 

[shawluvsbirds]

But hold on. . cause both the chocolate and lilac/lavender ducklings in question have a bibb? Can bibbs pop up from parents that aren't Bibbed?

 

[shawluvsbirds]

 

[Pyxis]

Alright, I've gotten confirmation that Drako is chocolate mallard aka Nutmeg. Might be a blue gene in there too.

So here's my working theory. You have what appears to be a chocolate bibbed drake, and Drako is a chocolate/lilac mallard drake. That can't be possible unless their mother was chocolate, right? So, there's a chocolate female in your flock. And it must be one of the ones that could have mothered the chocolate bibbed duckling. Which brings me to...

Thea isn't pastel. She's lilac mallard. Aka blue with chocolate.

She fathered Drako, and gave him a chocolate gene. Then, if he was bred back to her, they could produce both female AND male chocolate ducklings.

But if she's chocolate, then it means Duck must carry chocolate. Which means he's been passing chocolate to some of his offspring. That would result in some females that are chocolate, which is hard to see on a mallard base, and some males carrying chocolate. So Ralphie could also be carrying chocolate. When then bred to Thea, that would produce some chocolate drakes - which could make Drako lilac mallard, which is why his head is brown. He got chocolate from both Ralpie and Thea.

Meanwhile, Ralphie fathered the blue bibbed drake. He passed him his chocolate gene. Blue bibbed then mates with Thea who is really lilac mallard and boom, chocolate bibbed drake.

Of course, you can only get just chocolate and not lilac or lavender if Thea has only one copy of the blue gene, not two. So my theory is she never was pastel. The chocolate gene dilutes black just like blue, making her appear light enough that we thought pastel even though her mother wasn't blue at all.

A little bit of test breeding can prove this. If you separate Thea and breed her only to the chocolate bibbed drake, if you get chocolate ducklings, we know this is true.

 

[Pyxis]

But hold on. . cause both the chocolate and lilac/lavender ducklings in question have a bibb? Can bibbs pop up from parents that aren't Bibbed?

The blue bibbed drake needs to be their father for them to be on extended black bases like they are

 

[shawluvsbirds]

I haven't had enough coffee to begin to wrap my brain around this yet. . I'll be back on my coffee break

 

[Pyxis]

I haven't had enough coffee to begin to wrap my brain around this yet. . I'll be back on my coffee break

Genetics maybe aren't the best way to start a morning, lol.

Oh, even easier way to test this theory - are any at all of the chocolate ducklings female? If yes, breed them to Duck. If any ducklings at all hatch expressing chocolate, Duck carries chocolate.

 

[duluthralphie]

So Ralphie could also be carrying chocolate.

There is not one iota of doubt in my mind Ralphie would be carrying chocolate. Any good little Ralphie carry's chocolate to give to the girls.

Ralphie's ain't dumb. They know what helps grease the wheel so to speak..