Genetics - Bill Color

[Duck Hill]

Holderread suggests the following for bill color:
1) Skin color is pink or orange. If pink, bill is pink - and if skin is orange (or yellow), bill is orange.
2) This color is covered in the females by a "saddle" marking of varying size.
3) If the underlying color is pink, males tend to have blue bills. If the underlying color is orange, males tend to have green bills.
3) In some females, the entire bill is covered, making the bill solid colored.
4) Holderread states that solid bills in females is a dominant trait.
5) Holderread adds that in adult males, the color covers the bill, so that it is not possible to tell if the bill is solid or not.

I have just had some unusual results in my breedings that do not follow these rules:

1) I mated Broccoli, a trout Runner male (green bill) with Quinn, a silver Welsh Harlequin female with a solid dark bill. Five babies. Four have dark bills. One girl has an orange bill with a black bean (she is dark in feather color).

2) I mated Beacon with Rose (both Runners). Beacon is white with an orange bill. Rose has an orange bill with a saddle. All of the five offspring have dark bills.

The second one can be explained with the hypothesis that Beacon has a dark bill "hidden" under the orange bill created by the double white genes. But the first one stumps me. Quinn was isolated prior to breeding with Broccoli and she was alone in the breeding pen. She is a purebred Harlequin and should therefore have a pure dark bill. The baby is definitely hers.

 

[Duck Hill]

FOLLOW UP: THE ADULTS AND THEIR BACKGROUND
(The cast of characters!)

Broccoli as a baby. He is a trout runner duck and he had a fairly dark bill. As an adult male Broccoli's bill is greenish. Broccoli was a Holderread duckling. He is now a blue trout drake.


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Beacon is a white duck with an orange bill and orange legs. But white is a color that "hides" other genes. Can we figure out what hides "under" his white genes?


Beacon's mom (Cinnamon = Cannelle) as a baby and then as a teenager - her bill was orange with some brown. She was a Holderread duckling. She became a trout duck with extra white on her neck. I am 100% sure Cinnamon is Beacon's mom 'cause she was my only green egg layer at the time, and I have a photo of Beacon coming out of his green egg.




Beacon's dad: Following two months of incubating eggs from planned matings that were not fertile, I gave up and turned Cinnamon out with all the boys. A few days later I was sorry I had done that since I really did want ducklings. I did incubate a few of the eggs. One of those eggs gave me an all-yellow duckling!!!

Three Indian Runner ducks were the possible dad: Crocus - a fawn and white runner, Indigo, a penciled runner, and Filbert, a blue dusky.

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Quinn is a Harlequin duck (shown here with Beacon).


Quinn is a purebred Welsh Harlequin descendant of "pure Holderread stock."

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Beacon was also mated to Rose.



Rose has a brown bill with saddle and she lays green eggs. Rose's mom is Thunder, a Holderread penciled Indian Runner duck. Rose's dad is Filbert, a Holderread blue dusky Indian Runner.

 

[Duck Hill]

BEACON'S POSSIBLE DADS:

Possiblity #1: Beacon by Crocus
M+Md li - Bl - R - br - w w


Possibility # 2: Beacon by Indigo
M+Md li - - - R - br - w w


Possibility # 3: Beacon by Filbert (a.k.a. Noisette)
M+Md li li Bl? - - - br? - w w

 

[Duck Hill]

THE BABIES:

Broccoli (fairly dark bill) x Quinn (very definitely, very very dark bill) = four babies with fairly dark bills, but one with a yellow bill (her name is Determination).


Spot 1

Spot 2 (Spot 1 and Spot 2 are identical in every way).


Cloudy

Sunny


Determination (two photos).

 

[Duck Hill]

The babies by Beacon:

Seven dark babies by Beacon (six in this picture). All have very, very dark bills. At a week of age, their feet were all solid black. At three weeks their feet were dull solid black, still very dark. One carries a Blue gene and is lighter; his dark bill is grey and his feet are grey. Six have head stripes. One is dusky.

The five oldest are by Quinn (including the dusky and the Blue) and the two smallest are by Rose. The duckling in the middle has a Blue gene and so is slightly lighter than the rest. NONE of these show any runner markings. No white on the neck. No white on the wings. No speckled feet.

More babies by Beacon.

The two in the back are by Rose. They have bills that are 90-95% dark with a bit of pinkish color on the sides. The two in the front, by Quinn, are similar - 95% darkish and a little color on the sides.



The very last born, by Rose, has a bill that is light with a dark saddle in the middle. That is to be expected because this baby clearly has ONE runner gene (from his mom Rose, who also has one). The baby has white on the neck, white on the sides of the bill, white wing tips, NO white anywhere on the belly, and speckled feet.

 

[Duck Hill]

GENETICS QUESTION #1

"Determination" is by Broccoli out of Quinn with 100% certainty. Yet she shows a yellow bill. Quinn has a dark bill and Broccoli may or may not have a dark bill.

Dark bill is supposed to be dominant, so how did Determination end up with her orange bill?

Of 13 babies by Quinn, Determination is the ONLY baby to have a yellow/orange bill.

 

[Miss Lydia]

They sure are gorgeous.

 

[Duck Hill]

GENETICS QUESTION #2

Three of the ducklings look "brown" in color. All appear to be females. This can only happen if the dad has a hidden brown color gene. But there are TWO dads. Do both have a hidden brown gene???

Sunny - Dad HAS to be Broccoli. Is she Blue and Brown or Blue only? How can I tell???

Sunflower - Dad is most likely Beacon but could be Broccoli. Looks much like Sunny, only a bit darker overall.

Wild Rose - dad HAS to be Beacon. But of 13 Beacon babies, she is the only one to look Brown. If she is Brown, then Filbert has to carry a single hidden brown gene (Cinnamon was NOT brown, so Beacon would have to have obtained the gene from Filbert).

 

[Duck Hill]

Beacon's dad - an answer:

There are 13 babies who are, or who are probably by Beacon. Only one has runner markings, in a single dose (no white belly, not full runner markings). That one is one of five by Rose (who carries a single Runner gene).

If Beacon carried a single runner gene, roughly half of the babies, or about six, should have shown single runner gene markings. In particular, about four of the eight babies by Quinn should have shown some runner markings (white wing tips, white neck marking, mottled feet, etc.). NONE of the Quinn/Beacon babies show such markings.

THEREFORE Beacon's dad is FILBERT (a.k.a. Noisette)!!!

Beacon's genes therefore are

M+Md (Mallard x dusky) li li (two light genes)
Bl? (one partially dominant blue gene?)
br? (one hidden brown gene? maybe???)
w w (or c c; meaning two white genes).

 

[Duck Hill]

UPDATE 5-15-18
GENETICS QUESTION #2
Sunflower IS brown. Sunny is light beige.

Lancaster (1963) says "Jaap and Milby (1944) first showed that the combined effect of blue and brown dilution on non-extended black produced the well-known buff colour in ducks."

This would suggest that Sunny inherited a blue gene from Broccoli (who is obviously blue) and must also have inherited a hidden brown gene from him. This would mean that Broccoli carries a hidden brown gene.

The presence of brown on Sunny and Wild Rose (from Beacon) suggests that Filbert (and his son Beacon) ALSO carry a brown gene.