How do you breed the snowy pattern in runner ducks?

[Adolfus Nile]

This "welsh harlequin" color runner duck looks great to me. Black bill, white base, black speckle sort of look. I have a handful of runner ducks and im curious if I could breed this color. Would it be useful to cross a runner with a welsh? How could this color be bred without existing stock in this color? Would it breed true?

 

[Miss Lydia]

@cheezenkwackers

 

[cheezenkwackers]

The Harlequin allele is recessive. So, a duck has to have two copies of it to be Snowy (in the US) or Silver (in Europe) and look like yours. Yes, if you crossed that duck to a Harlequin drake, it would breed true and all babies would have that color. But, you could also cross her to a non-snowy (non black) drake like the one in the picture . The babies would not be that color (unless he happened to carry it) but, they all would be carriers. If you crossed one of her sons with her, half the babies should be Snowy, half not. I recently hatched eggs from my Dutch Hookbill pair. She is a brown or chocolate mallard, my drake is a brown or chocolate dusky (1st picture below). I had a surprise gold Snowy hatch (2nd picture). So, both of my Hookbills must be carriers.