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Moose Manor Farms

Babies!

8/5/2011

5 Comments

 
Picture
Welsh Harlequin duckling 3-hours old
I've had mixed results in my incubator this year.  The eggs that I'm able to get consistently excellent hatches for are Spot, my single Ancona girl and Blush, one part of my lovely Welsh Harlequin pair.  Those two girls give me an average 85% hatch rate! 

Spot was in my WH breeding yard until I moved Blush and Duck Dogers into the garden last month.  I added her when she hurt her leg and was trying so hard to keep up with the Runners at a fast limp.  Just so happens that Blush was acting like she was getting ready to set a nest and Spot could keep Duck Dogers company for the month that she was broody.  Since Spot and Blush's eggs look just alike, if I wanted to hatch WH I had to set them both. So after carefully marking their eggs when I collect them each day, I discovered that it's really easy to tell who's babies I have as soon as they hatch.

Both girls throw beautiful, healthy  ducklings but Spot's kiddo's are really interesting looking.  She throws Blues, Blacks, Chocolates, and Lavenders... some splash but most bibbed.   One of the fun things is trying to figure out just what Spot's babies will look like when they get their feathers.  Sometimes they lose their baby bibs and sometimes they don't.

On July 13th I hatched out 4 babies from a batch of Blush and Spot's eggs and this time I got colors I haven't had before: one lavender and one chocolate from Spot all with multicolored legs and feet.  All of Blush's babies are yellow with orange legs and they're growing into beautiful Welsh Harlequins, however, the one in this batch is a creamier color than her usual... I'm interested to see what kind of adults I get.

I plan to keep all the WH girls to build my flock and, while I don't need them, I'm tempted to keep the chocolate and lavender from this hatch.  I bet that they grow into stunning birds.  

The pictures below were taken just a few hours after these babies hatched as I was moving them from the incubator to the brooder.


Picture
4 babies only a few hours old and just out of the incubator
Picture
Black & White Ancona x Welsh Harlequin mix
Picture
Lavender Ancona x Welsh Harlequin mix
Picture
Chocolate Ancona x Welsh Harlequin mix
Welsh Harlequin day old
Welsh Harlequin
5 Comments
Rachael
12/5/2011 11:32:29 am

Did you keep the Lavender one to see how it turned out? Technically it's not Lavender but Lilac. Lilac = Extended Black with one dose of blue dilution (from your Ancona) plus one dose of Brown/Chocolate dilution. Lavender = Extended Black with two doses of blue dilution (which can't happen since your drake is not carrying blue and the second blue would have to come from him) plus one dose of Brown/Chocolate dilution. For you to get Chocolates and Lilacs your WH drake must be carrying one Brown/Chocolate dilution gene. Also - all chocolates or lilacs you get will be female (Choc/Brown dilution is a sex linked recessive gene). Anyway, fabulous garden, and gorgeous ducks!

Reply
Dana Kee link
12/5/2011 11:47:40 pm

@Rachael: I do still have these ducks! I have them for sale but haven't really advertised them well - LOL! I have some older pictures of them on my "for sale" page: http://2mooses.weebly.com/livestock-for-sale.html#WHxAncona-July But I need new ones because they've grown into such beautiful ducks!

Thank you for the genetics breakdown - how interesting! I'm always glad to be able to sight sex the babies.

As they've grown and rounded out they all look like small Ancona's since they're pudgier than the WH. They're very curious and bossy little things!

Thanks for visiting!

Reply
Rachael
12/8/2011 07:21:10 pm

Hi Dana, thanks for the reply! I'm just learning about duck colour genetics but am finding it fascinating. I have Blue Swedish ducks. The Lilac duck is certainly beautiful. Really even colour throughout the whole duck (unlike blue Swedish which almost always have a few black feathers). Gorgeous! :-)

I've found the ducks to be a huge asset in the garden - hardly any snails, slugs or weeds. Clever ducks :-)

Reply
Basty link
1/25/2012 03:16:42 am

nice post

Reply
Vlastimil link
3/26/2012 11:01:23 am

Great info, thanks

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    Dana

    About Farmrgirl

    Small town Calif. farm-girl leaves the ranch behind for many years of adventure at sea, travels the world, then moves to Washington DC in 2007 where she finds the perfect homestead to settle down: acres of secluded Southern Maryland woods where she goes granola by raising her quality of life, Mastiffs, ducks, chickens, and tomatoes {& one Bengal kitty}... sustainably.


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