Welsh Harlequin

[streemers]

the drakes are very nice looking but my yard isnt that big and so i cant get to many. 10 plue what i ordered is 22 plue i have 4 already. so now i am at 19 pluse 3 in the bator... i think i am getting out of control

 

[beakkeeper]

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yes, you are quite ill!

 

[OzarkCountryGirl]

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Thank you.

She is not quite a year old. I'm hoping she turn broody one of these day when it gets warmer, but as of now, she is still playing the hiding game. Just found her new hide-y-hole today in the back of the barn under a rack, with four new eggs in it. She had scooped out a hole in the dirt and tried covering them back up. The yahoo group is under "WelshHarlequins"

 

[shavalgen]

The Welsh Harelquin came about as a sport from a flock of Khaki Campbells.
There is no gold and silver version of the Welsh Harlequin. The so called gold version is the Welsh Harlequin, the Silver version is the Abacot Ranger colour pattern.
Abacot Ranger is harlequin phase dusky. (This it the true silver)
Welsh Harlequin is harlequin phase dusky plus the addition of sex linked brown. (This is brown silver)
Welsh Harlequin to Khaki Campbell.
Khaki Campbell is dark phase dusky with brown. Dusky is dominant to harlequin phase. Since both breeds are brown you should end up with all khaki ducklings.
If the drakelings turn out like a Dark Campbell then your Welsh Harlequins are not pure. The Welsh Harlequin Drake used would be silver not brown silver as required by the standard.

 

[Dances with Ducks]

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Shavalgen, do you mind me asking where you are from? What you are describing is accurate for the UK standards. It gets confusing because the USA and the UK have different standards. In the US what you call the Abacot Ranger color is the accepted standard for the Welsh Harlequin, and the UK standard is considered gold here.

 

[shavalgen]

I'm from Australia but the Welsh Harlequin is an English breed so their colour standard is the one to follow. The silver birds would be culled for incorrect colour of their speculum. If you want to get the brown silver harlequin just add some khaki campbell blood. It doesn't really matter where we are from as the genotype should still be the same. We have had many heated arguments occur at shows here when both silver and brown silver birds are shown as harlequins. I agree that both have there place so long as brown silver is acknowledged as the original colour and the silver a later variant as the original sports were from birds homozygous for brown.
I'm really jjust happy to see more breeders take on waterfowl as they tend to be pushed aside at a lot of shows and during dry times like our droughts here they are usually the first to get the chop.

 

[Dances with Ducks]

Shavalgen what you are saying is so intriguing, allowing a very simple way to "reconstitute" a Gold Phase (as it is termed here in the US). I would really like to get this to the bottom of this.
I'm looking at Holderread's Bulletin on Welsh Harlequin Ducks, he writes:
"If a Silver Harlequin is mated to a Khaki Campbell, all of the offspring will be colored like Dark or Khaki Campbells. Results other than these strongly suggest cross-bred stock.''

But you say "If you want to get the brown silver harlequin just add some khaki campbell blood."

Pehaps the discrepancy has to do with terms used for genotypes. Holderread terms the Gold phase to be MD/Md, lih/lih, d/d
he writes the Silver phase is MD/MD, lih/lih
Does this correspond to the genotypes you term Welsh Harlequin and Abacot Ranger color pattern as applied to Welsh Harlequins? (I say "as applied to Welsh Harlequins" because I am also looking at Mike and Chris Ashton's book Colour Breeding in Domestic Ducks and they distinguish the Abacot Ranger as a different breed from the WH. I have never heard of any AB in the US.)
Basically if we are using different genotypes for what we term the same breeds we will of course get different results. So that is why is ask for your confirmation on these genotypes in the above format.
I am very sorry for any discrepancies in terms, I pretty much have to communicate in the country in which I live. (I am looking for a reference link to show you the US standard for Welsh Harlequins, which is the "Silver".) I would like to see more "Gold" raised here, as far as I can tell there are only two breeders in this country that sell them. So that is why your statement is so intriguing to me. Please forgive my clumsy understanding of genetics, which is even more confused by international differences in definitions of terms and breed standards.

 

[shavalgen]

Yes we are using the same genotypes.

md/md lih/lih D+/(D+) This is the silver version.

md/md lih/lih d+/(d+) This is the gold version.

Using the silver female.

What you need to do is use a Campbell drake over the Harlequin duck.

This will result in dark dusky drakes and khaki ducks (brown dark dusky)

Dark phase dusky is dominant to harlequin phase and brown is sex linked so only the ducks will have brown making them khaki.

You would then put one of the dark dusky drakes over the khaki ducks.
You should end up with the following averages.

12.5% dark dusky drakes (CULL)
12.5% khaki drakes (CULL)
12.5% silver drakes (US Harlequin)
12.5% brown silver drakes (US Gold Harlequin)
25% khaki ducks (CULL)
25% brown silver ducks

This will give you a sound base to go on with.

When I mentioned the Abacot Ranger it was to demonstrate the difference between the common colour in the US and the original gold colour of the Welsh Harlequin. The abacot ranger died out in the UK only to be re-created by the germans under the name streicher.

The waterfowl genotypes are quite hard to get wrong except when hobby names are introduced. Butterscotch is one. The butterscotch call is an appleyard coloured birds homozygous for blue. I have no problem with the name butterscotch but this name should be for the appleyard colour pattern in the absence of blue. So you would then have butterscotch, then add blue and you have blue butterscotch and then add another dose of blue and you would have an apricot butterscotch. They seen to be going in the opposite direction with the colour. I won't call an appleyard silver as they aren't silver, and the Ashton's have confirmed this. I call it restricted trout because it is a trout with a restrictor gene added. Butterscotch would be have been better. If you go north to Canada, blue butterscotch is called peach and the butterscotch is called cream. That's why I don't like hobby names.

 

[Dances with Ducks]

So it's a matter of carrying it out through the generations until the genetics reveal themselves! Thanks so much Shavalgen, that clears it up!

 

[dally]

hi, i'm new and what a great forum.

we had 2 pet ducks, one khaki campbell, who we recently lost, leaving our beautiful lily alone. just figured out she may be a welsh harlequin from the pics here.

i'll try to post a pic and see what you think?

i have got a little call duck to keep her company for now, but would like to find them each a "same type" companion.

is there anywhere in british columbia that breeds these ducks?