Need some advise on breeding silver wood ducks.

[Mandarinki]

I'm about to buy a pair of silver wood ducks. But the breeder I'm buying them from said that he could never get any ducklings from breeding silver to silver and would only get about 3 eggs which end up bieng infertile, but had better luck breeding silver to split/silver hen. Can anyone who has experience with this mutation share your breeding experience. Thank you....

 

[BYC-user-174785]

From my experience with silver wood ducks, I have never had such a thing happen. I have pairs with two silver birds, other pairs with split/silver to silver, and some pairs with two split/silver. When you breed the silver to silver, generally you will get weaker ducklings with a less mortality rate. Their clutch sizes are smaller, but they should lay fertile eggs. If you buy them, you could try pairing them with a regular wood duck or to a split/silver wood duck. If you decide to go with the regular hen, then you will get split/silver offspring. Then you could breed those to silver birds. You can also visit Jamie's website, www.mallardlanefarms.com, for more information about these crossings.

 

[waterdog]

Here is a link on how the color mutations work http://www.utm.edu/departments/cece/idea/aixgenetics.shtml , I would try them and see how many eggs they produce and the how the fertility is, the problem with the mutations is they are highly inbred so out crossing will help with this but it will take several years to get the affects. Another thing that helps is to get birds from different breeders that way you have a better chance for more diverse bloodlines.

 

[Mandarinki]

Thanks to both of you. That was some very helpfull information. I went ahead and bought my self the silver male and a split silver hen. That way I can get both the normal colored w/ silver gene and the pure silver.
Also another question. Let's say my split silver wood duck hen lays eggs and starts incubating. While she's in the box incubating if I throw in the pen a normal hen will he mate with her as well?
And if so the offsprings I get from both hens of the same silver male be considered related or not?