Welsh Harlequin Breeding Thread - People who are breeding or want to breed their WH's talk

[Tahai]

Hi DuckGirl.

Without seeing pictures of your ducks, it's hard to tell what you mean. I've noticed people use the term 'fawn' to mean many different shades, so it is often that one person's fawn is another person's cream.

It's important to remember, though, that the standard is written for the nuptial plumage. It does not apply to juvenile plumage, or to eclipse plumage.

On Holderread's website, they discuss the fawn plumage of the female duck (scroll down to the paragraph under the duck pic) http://holderreadfarm.com/photogallery/welsh_page/welsh_page.htm.

 

[DUCKGIRL89]

I will have to get pics for you then. My adult WH are coming into their adult plumage now actually! Can't wait till they are done molting so my poor drake doesn't look like a rag anymore....

 

[ducklover700]

I will have to get pics for you then. My adult WH are coming into their adult plumage now actually! Can't wait till they are done molting so my poor drake doesn't look like a rag anymore....

Poor boy.

 

[NCFF]

Regarding the inheritance question, it's true that the gold vs silver phase will be determined by what gene comes from the father. I can't use all the correct terminology but I'll try to explain what I know.
On the segment of the genes that code for silver or gold, the male inherits from both his mother and father, while the female can only inherit from her father. It's like the X and Y in people, Women are XX and men are XY so the genes on the "leg" of the Y that is missing on men can only show what came from the mother. On the genes not on the "missing leg" segments it will be the dominant genes that show through regardless of whether it came from the mother or the father, (or for a lot of traits it will be a combination rather than a dominant or recessive choice). With ducks its the females that are missing a "leg", the males have that leg from both the father and mother. The Silver gene is dominant so a male can have a recessive gold gene and still be silver.
If the drake had a silver father and a gold mother he could produce some female gold offspring as well as silver daughters, but all his sons would appear to be silver if his mate is silver. Half (or was it a quarter?) of his sons would carry the recessive gold gene like him. A silver drake with a recessive gold gene mated with a gold hen could produce some gold sons as well as daughters.
You can do sex linking if you have a gold drake (which would necessarily have the two recessive gold genes in order to show the gold phase) and a silver hen (one silver gene), because the females could only inherit the gold gene from the father whereas the sons would get one dominant silver gene from the mother and display silver.
Sorry if that sounds confusing, I had to sit down with some books and study and chart this all out for a few months before it stuck in my head and its still a little fuzzy.

So, I gold duck will not muddy the waters in breeding to the standard? If the color will come from the Drake, then keeping a Gold hen in a line of Silvers is ok. If the mating produces gold ducks then the color variance gene is coming from the father, correct.

 

[ducklover700]

Hi all,

I have a trio of WH ducklings right now. (1 silver F, 1 Gold F, and 1 male Idk his color) I've been considering keeping the boy, WH drakes are so gorgeous when they grow up, but I've heard horror stories of drakes so I'm a bit nervous to keep him with my females.

I guess I'm just looking for some opinions, and would like to see how everyone likes, or dislikes their drakes. I'll only keep ONE, and I'll have four or five girls total. (different breeds though.)

 

[larkflying]

My WH drakes have been very quiet and fairly calm. None were people aggressive. You have enough females that he shouldn't feel deprived. I'd keep him and see how he turns out! (plus, then you could have some more WH"s next year, which is my reason for having drakes . . .)

The only problem I did have was one drake who either felt like he was a goose, or the geese were just big ducks. He would chase the female geese and try to mate with them -- pointless, since he could never get one to stop moving long enough for him to attempt the deed. My feeling about this though was that it mainly because I brooded the ducklings and the goslings together, and this one drake imprinted partially on the geese. Didn't have a problem with my other drakes, just him. I did eventually rehome him for the sake of the female geese . . . I'm anxiously awaiting my two Holderread's drakes to mature . . . hopefully they will behave themselves.

 

[ducklover700]

thanks for your input; I wasn't originally going to keep my boy, but I've seen lots of very handsome WH drakes, and you're right, the idea of hatching out some ducklings from him next year would be very exciting! I had an ad on KSL already, and was prepared to sell the little guy, but I ended up nursing him back to health when he was sick. (I'm not sure what happened, I think it mainly had to do with a lack of vitamins.) but since I spent so much extra time getting him back to being a happy, healthy duckling, I ended up bonding with him. He's really the sweetest little guy-hardly every makes a peep-he loves to cuddle too.

I've also heard of some Drakes who were raised around chickens liked to try breeding with them...why not geese too? Kind of strange, you'd think he would've learned; I'm glad you were able to find a home for him though, so that your gals, and the geese, were comfortable, and happy again.

I think I'll give him a shot, I can always re-home him if he turns out to be a bird that doesn't do my girls any good. (The main thing I would be afraid of is that he's being more of a mean drake than a caring/protective one.)

 

[ducklover700]

Here are a couple pics of him BTW. he's still extremely tiny compared to all my other gals; his growth was stunted quite a bit when he was sick.

I'm wondering if he's a silver, or gold boy? He has the darker head, but the rest of his body is pretty light.

 

[larkflying]

He's a pretty boy -- I don't know what phase he'll be, but as he gets all feathered out, it should be pretty clear whether he's gold or silver colored. Pictures of gold phase Welsh Harlequin drakes are hard to find . . . I have an immature one, at least, I think I do, but he's still getting his coloring. One of these days I'll go out and grab him for a picture . . . my silver phase drake is looking very nice so far, but he's only about 2 months old, so I'm not getting my hopes up.

 

[ducklover700]

I've looked online and haven't found much luck getting a good picture of a gold boy.. lots of pretty silvers though. I don't really think I mind either way-my ducks are mainly egg/hobby animals. Obviously, he'll be the hobby part.

If he does grow up to be a nice looking drake I'll most likely hatch out some of his babies though. I'd like to see a pic of your boys!

BTW, they aren't WH ducklings, but my ancona eggs are on day 26 (just a few minutes shy of 27 lol) and I have one early pipper! I went in to check on the humidity, and temp only to spot a pip on one of them. I'm so excited...really hoping that it'll get out of the egg easily enough...and that by leaving it, and going to bed i'll have progress in the morning.