Why does my silver appleyard duckling have a brown stripe instead of black?

[DingusDuck]

Pretty much all my silver appleyard ducklings have a black stripe, but one has a brown stripe, and I was just wondering why.

Here's a picture of the brown one next to a black one:

Any ideas why he has a brown stripe?
He was like this when he was born and he is now a few weeks old and it's still brown.

 

[cheezenkwackers]

Did you hatch him? Where did the eggs come from? I am wondering if you are seeing the chocolate or brown allele. But, this is not usually found in pure Appleyards. It is found in Khaki Campbell's and other brown or chocolate ducks. If so, I suspect this duckling is female and would therefor only need to have gotten the allele from one parent, her father.

 

[DingusDuck]

Did you hatch him? Where did the eggs come from? I am wondering if you are seeing the chocolate or brown allele. But, this is not usually found in pure Appleyards. It is found in Khaki Campbell's and other brown or chocolate ducks. If so, I suspect this duckling is female and would therefor only need to have gotten the allele from one parent, her father.

Thanks for your response!

I did not hatch him, got the eggs from https://www.ebay.com/itm/155417679807.
Is it possible to be found in purebred appleyards and are there any other explanations?

 

[cheezenkwackers]

Thanks for your response!

I did not hatch him, got the eggs from https://www.ebay.com/itm/155417679807.
Is it possible to be found in purebred appleyards and are there any other explanations?

Purebreds in ducks is different than animals like dogs. There are no papers saying they are purebred. You can outbreed, and then cross back to Appleyards for a few generations and they are considered purebreds. Since Appleyards were getting rare, that may have been done on purpose to increase genetic diversity. I am currently working with Hookbills and that is what is being done since they went down to only a few individuals. If they don’t, inbreeding could cause bad effects.
So, to answer your question, they could still very well be purebreds. Either with a very distant ancestor who carried chocolate or your little own could have a new mutation of the same allele resulting in it. All traits different from wild Mallards come from random mutations. They can occur more than once. Most/many of the “little people” in this world (achondroplasia dwarfism) have normal parents but they got a mutation resulting in the dominant trait. So, lighting can strike twice when mutations are involved. I can’t think of any other explanation, but maybe others can.

 

[DingusDuck]

Purebreds in ducks is different than animals like dogs. There are no papers saying they are purebred. You can outbreed, and then cross back to Appleyards for a few generations and they are considered purebreds. Since Appleyards were getting rare, that may have been done on purpose to increase genetic diversity. I am currently working with Hookbills and that is what is being done since they went down to only a few individuals. If they don’t, inbreeding could cause bad effects.
So, to answer your question, they could still very well be purebreds. Either with a very distant ancestor who carried chocolate or your little own could have a new mutation of the same allele resulting in it. All traits different from wild Mallards come from random mutations. They can occur more than once. Most/many of the “little people” in this world (achondroplasia dwarfism) have normal parents but they got a mutation resulting in the dominant trait. So, lighting can strike twice when mutations are involved. I can’t think of any other explanation, but maybe others can.

Thanks!! This was very interesting!

 

[duckmeister]

Pretty much all my silver appleyard ducklings have a black stripe, but one has a brown stripe, and I was just wondering why.

Here's a picture of the brown one next to a black one:
View attachment 3629387

Any ideas why he has a brown stripe?
He was like this when he was born and he is now a few weeks old and it's still brown.

Recently hatched Silver Appleyard ducklings from eggs I purchased on ebay, the two that hatched were exactly the same color as the ones in your photo. The darker one is a hen and the browner colored striped on is a drake on these two birds that I have.

 

[DingusDuck]

Recently hatched Silver Appleyard ducklings from eggs I purchased on ebay, the two that hatched were exactly the same color as the ones in your photo. The darker one is a hen and the browner colored striped on is a drake on these two birds that I have.

Interesting! My duck eggs also came from ebay, but the brown one ended up being female.

 

[DingusDuck]

She is the brown one on the left.

 

[ThePinksters]

View attachment 3800733
She is the brown one on the left.

How have they grown out now? This photo is interesting… do both have black bills? You tend to see that in Welsh Harlequins rather than Silver Appleyards. I have both breeds and can tell them apart by their bill color. Breed standard for Appleyards is a yellow or green bill. Standard for Welsh’s is black for hens and green for drakes.

 

[DingusDuck]

How have they grown out now? This photo is interesting… do both have black bills? You tend to see that in Welsh Harlequins rather than Silver Appleyards. I have both breeds and can tell them apart by their bill color. Breed standard for Appleyards is a yellow or green bill. Standard for Welsh’s is black for hens and green for drakes.

So now Dingus has a brownish bill, toivio died, and the black bill there is Goober who was from the same eggs I got.

Here are some pictures of other ducks which we hatched from their eggs. some of them are mixes.