Ancona questions

[Strixnebulosa]

Hello I am new to the Ancona breed.
I purchased two different sets of hatching eggs on eBay and my ducks are now 6 weeks old and I have began to sex them.
I believe I have some blacks, browns, lilac/lavender, and a blue. I have no idea what I'm doing as far as mixing these colors. I ended up with four hens and eight drake's. One of the drake's is crested which I'm told is extremely rare but also not a breed standard. I also have one male that is black and white but has brown scalloping on his black breast. I'm not sure if that's considered good for breeding either. If anybody has any opinions on which ones I should keep for a breeding program that would be most helpful. Otherwise I might just go for novelty and keep the crested Drake and the hens.

 

[WhiteTreeOfGondor]

Hello I am new to the Ancona breed.
I purchased two different sets of hatching eggs on eBay and my ducks are now 6 weeks old and I have began to sex them.
I believe I have some blacks, browns, lilac/lavender, and a blue. I have no idea what I'm doing as far as mixing these colors. I ended up with four hens and eight drake's. One of the drake's is crested which I'm told is extremely rare but also not a breed standard. I also have one male that is black and white but has brown scalloping on his black breast. I'm not sure if that's considered good for breeding either. If anybody has any opinions on which ones I should keep for a breeding program that would be most helpful. Otherwise I might just go for novelty and keep the crested Drake and the hens.

Oh, they're lovely! Crested does pop up in Anconas and it isn't a "standard" Ancona trait, but Anconas don't actually have a true standard. I know some breeders breed their crested separately from non-crested since the crested gene is recessive and can be lethal, so that allows those who like crested to keep it going without spreading it throughout their whole breeding program.

The brown scalloping sounds like pencilling, which is fine. And color on the chest is a good thing in Anconas!

You have a nice variety of patterns. Those lighter colors look lavender to me.

 

[Strixnebulosa]

Oh, they're lovely! Crested does pop up in Anconas and it isn't a "standard" Ancona trait, but Anconas don't actually have a true standard. I know some breeders breed their crested separately from non-crested since the crested gene is recessive and can be lethal, so that allows those who like crested to keep it going without spreading it throughout their whole breeding program.

The brown scalloping sounds like pencilling, which is fine. And color on the chest is a good thing in Anconas!

You have a nice variety of patterns. Those lighter colors look lavender to me.

Thank you for the info. Can you tell me anymore about the crested gene? Like can I safely breed that drake to the other hens? I guess my big thing is this breed checked all the boxes that I was looking for in a duck. And if I can help by offering hatching eggs for sale and hatching babies and selling them I would like to do so. But I definitely don't want to hurt the breed. Maybe keeping it simple would be best but this dang crested duck threw a wrench in my program. He's just so stinking cute.

 

[WhiteTreeOfGondor]

Thank you for the info. Can you tell me anymore about the crested gene? Like can I safely breed that drake to the other hens? I guess my big thing is this breed checked all the boxes that I was looking for in a duck. And if I can help by offering hatching eggs for sale and hatching babies and selling them I would like to do so. But I definitely don't want to hurt the breed. Maybe keeping it simple would be best but this dang crested duck threw a wrench in my program. He's just so stinking cute.

Here's a good article about the gene: https://www.faithvalleywaterfowl.com/crested_call_genetics.html

"If you desire to work on a crested duck program, but do not want to encounter
the lethal gene death percentage, you can get around it by not using all crested
parent birds. You will end up with the same amount of crested offspring whether you use all crested parent birds or if you mate a crested to a non-crested parent bird.

If you breed two ducks together that each have the crested gene, you will get:
25% of the ducklings that are dead in the shell

50% of the ducklings that carry the gene, but might or might not have a crest

25% of the ducklings that don’t have the crested gene

If you breed a crested parent duck to a non-crested gene carrier, you will get:
50% of the ducklings that carry the gene, but might or might not show the crest

50% of the ducklings that do not have the crested gene."

Also, I looked it up again and I was wrong; it seems to be incompletely dominant, not recessive .

 

[Strixnebulosa]

Here's a good article about the gene: https://www.faithvalleywaterfowl.com/crested_call_genetics.html

"If you desire to work on a crested duck program, but do not want to encounter
the lethal gene death percentage, you can get around it by not using all crested
parent birds. You will end up with the same amount of crested offspring whether you use all crested parent birds or if you mate a crested to a non-crested parent bird.

If you breed two ducks together that each have the crested gene, you will get:
25% of the ducklings that are dead in the shell

50% of the ducklings that carry the gene, but might or might not have a crest

25% of the ducklings that don’t have the crested gene

If you breed a crested parent duck to a non-crested gene carrier, you will get:
50% of the ducklings that carry the gene, but might or might not show the crest

50% of the ducklings that do not have the crested gene."

Also, I looked it up again and I was wrong; it seems to be incompletely dominant, not recessive .

Wow. Thank you. That was a very informative site. I'm just not sure I'm ready to breed crested. I'm just trying to get my feet wet into Ancona and this happens. It is very interesting I let the breeder know that one of the ducklings was crested and they said they've been breeding their flock now for 5 years and they've never gotten a crested offspring.

 

[telandra2]

Don't forget crested means the have a hole in their skull! I have a Ancona hen who has about 20% crested babies so I would cull her ... except she is a spectacular mom. 100% survival rate on her eggs and ducklings so far.

Here is a pure white crested drake from her this year:

My personal vote is you keep the one with the brown scalloping. I have a black and white drake that must have some recessive colors because he makes interesting babies. (He also had tri-color siblings.)

 

[Jenbirdee]

Hello I am new to the Ancona breed.
I purchased two different sets of hatching eggs on eBay and my ducks are now 6 weeks old and I have began to sex them.
I believe I have some blacks, browns, lilac/lavender, and a blue. I have no idea what I'm doing as far as mixing these colors. I ended up with four hens and eight drake's. One of the drake's is crested which I'm told is extremely rare but also not a breed standard. I also have one male that is black and white but has brown scalloping on his black breast. I'm not sure if that's considered good for breeding either. If anybody has any opinions on which ones I should keep for a breeding program that would be most helpful. Otherwise I might just go for novelty and keep the crested Drake and the hens.

they are gorgeous. i just have this one little ancona with just a tiny bit of cresting lol

 

[Duck-a-Dee]

Hello I am new to the Ancona breed.
I purchased two different sets of hatching eggs on eBay and my ducks are now 6 weeks old and I have began to sex them.
I believe I have some blacks, browns, lilac/lavender, and a blue. I have no idea what I'm doing as far as mixing these colors. I ended up with four hens and eight drake's. One of the drake's is crested which I'm told is extremely rare but also not a breed standard. I also have one male that is black and white but has brown scalloping on his black breast. I'm not sure if that's considered good for breeding either. If anybody has any opinions on which ones I should keep for a breeding program that would be most helpful. Otherwise I might just go for novelty and keep the crested Drake and the hens.

I would keep the drake with pencilling for breeding. You could maybe keep the crested in a separate flock for fun/experiment since that crest is really cool looking.
Rust and pencilling traits are good to have and help break up the markings in the offspring. In my circle of Ancona people they tend to agree penciling is good but all of them are very much anti-crested because it is a lethal gene, they wont even touch stock that "might" produce an occasional crested. Also just fyi mixing colors is great, no need to focus on one color or separating colors unless you want to hatch more of specific colors over others. Dave Holderread recommends keeping a mixed color flock for the best vigor/heterosis. Good luck on your Ancona journey