Chiken + Duck = ?

[loopy5370]

OK - I know they have crossed a tiger and a lion, buffalo and cattle, but can a duck and a chicken cross?
My drake recently died and my rooster has taken over. And unfortunatly (?) I witnessed the act and he is sucsessfully mating with my girl ducks.
I don't want to start incubating this late in the season but if this is viable what would I get ? Dickens or Chucks?

 

[cassidy22]

Most of those "successful" crosses were lab induced, scientific genetic modifications. I suspect first, that your roo is trying, but is not actually successful.

I would also suspect that if his parts were getting to the right place, that the eggs would not be viable. Just my suspicion.

Are you going to try to hatch them? Would you hatch them under duck protocol or chicken?

 

[Impress]

Ducks and roosters have REALLY different um, equipment. I don't think a rooster could even get far enough to even be close to fertilizing a duck egg, even if possible.

 

[yinepu]

i have had roosters breed ducks on several occasions... the eggs were never viable.. so no worries there!

and if by some strange miracle you did end up with "duckens" you could probably make a small fortune off him/her

 

[wyoDreamer]

He may seem to be successful in the mating, but he is not fertilizing anything.

Ducks and chickens are from completely different branches of the bird family tree.
They are the same Kingdom (Animalia), Phylum (Chordata) and Class (Aves).
I believe this means that they are: Animals, with a spinal chord and they are birds. Sorry, this is from my basic biology class about 20 years ago so I may be wrong on the definitions.
That is where they split in to different Orders, Families, sufamilies, Genus, species and Subspecies. Breeds are just different types of sub-species.

A lion and tiger both match in Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family and Genus. The genus being Panthera. Which makes them close cousins.

The bison and cow cross is matched through Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, and Family. So they are a another step or so apart, so somewhat able to interbreed.

For comparison, we humans are Kingdom: Animalia, Phylum: Chordata, Class: Mammalia and Order: Primates. Tiger is Order: Carnivora.
So we are as closely related to tigers as the chicken is to the duck!

 

[ranit]

I used to have a frizzle rooster that would chase my ducks around trying to breed them. Never did get anything other than ducks hatch out. We used to laugh at what the offspring would look like if he really could get the job done.

 

[loopy5370]

Thats kinda where I am at - just thought I would ask the question just in case - I always get the wierd ones at my house!!!!