Is sort of black a recessive color?

[nancy]

I looked at the chart of crossings and can't figure out the ducks on our pond.

We know that Darryl is the dad. He's white and grey. The mother with them is Clarissa, who is milk chocolate and white. There are 7 of the original 14 ducklings still around - and one that I turned over to a rescue.

One of the ducklings was yellow and is now white with milk chocolate markings. One of the missing ones was also yellow. Another one is all brown, with some iridescence. The one I turned over was similar. The rest are almost black, with white breasts (various amounts of bib - and various degrees of black speckles in the bibs) and lots of iridescence.

Agnes, the duck that disappeared  before the ducklings hatched had the same look as the really dark ducklings, but without the bib.

Is it possible that Clarissa hatched Agnes's ducklings? Or can two light ducks produce such dark offspring?

[Cathy]

Nancy,

It certainly is possible that the ducklings from a single nest are from different birds.  Muscovy are known as dump nesters so a lot of times several birds will lay in a single nest until one bird starts setting.  Sometimes you will get two birds try to set the same nest even, however, I have never had much luck with this as the eggs get scooted back and forth and left out in the open and by the time they're done they've managed to kill nearly all the embryos at some point or another.  I do not allow shared nests as a result.

[rollyard]

Two possibilities here.  As you have said, maybe the disappearing duck was laying her clutch in the same nest as Clarissa.  But it is also possible for the black ducklings to have come from Clarissa & Darryl.  You see, the grey (blue) you speak of is actually black diluted by the blue (N) gene (single dose), & the chocolate (if it is in fact chocolate) on Clarissa is also black diluted by the chocolate (ch) sex linked gene. 

So you actually have two black & white birds diluted to in one case, blue & white, & in the other case, chocolate & white, both capable of passing on the colour gene/s for black, either dominant wilde-type (A+), or recessive Atipico (a).  Unless both birds are also carrying the reciprical recessive diluting gene then you are unlikely to get either blues or chocolate in the young (it would be possible though for young females to be chocolate if the drake was heterozygous for ch being a sex-linked gene).  But as you have said that a couple of the ducklings are brown/chocolate, then the drake must be carrying the chocolate gene.

The pied (magpie) pattern may be the result of the recessive Duclair pied gene (d) which inhibits pigmentation on certain areas of the bird.  It can get quite complicated so will leave it at that.  But yes, it is possible to get black birds from the birds you have described.

Regards

[Cathy]

Thanks Rollyard, your grasp of genetics will be a great help here.  I have a very small, minute understanding of some of the basics but that is it.

[rollyard]

No worries Cathy, I am just learning myself

Regards