runner duck rainbow - color breeding project

[notallducksinmypond]

Hey everybody,
I´m from germany so please excuse mistakes.
Im absolutely into runner duck color genetics and want to breed every single color over the next few years.
unfortunaly in germany there are not many cool "certified colors" in the runner duck breeding standarts.
We have mallard (wildtype), trout (light phase mallard), something harlequin/snowy ("silber wildfarbig"), black, blue, brown, white, apricot trout/saxony ("blau-gelb"), brown trout ("erbsgelb") and brown-mallard runner/pied.

no dusky, no beautiful combinations of blue and brown and nearly no white markings allowed.

so, very boring and i want to change that, at least in my own yard.

I´ve got my hands on some treasures by browsing lokal markets and our online-fleamarket, because the colors (or at least the basics to mix them) are there but nobody calls them the right name or knows what they have...

My little flock contains (at the moment everybody born 2024):
ducks
Waltraud, mallard
Anne, brown mallard
Josefine, trout
Erbse, white
Mariechen, black pied
Heidi, Black bibbed
Rauch, blue bibbed
Tilia, lavender bibbed
Hosta, light blue dusky

drakes
Fraxinus, trout (?) calico & black pied
Sam, blue trout
Salix, apricot trout
nameless 1, brown dusky
nameless 2, light blue dusky

My breeding plans for 2025 are:
Group 1:
Fraxinus, trout (?) calico & black pied
+ waltraud, mallard
+ josefine, trout
Goal: is fraxinus homozygous for pied? is he mallard or trout or black?

Group 2:
Sam, blue trout
+ Erbse, white
+ Mariechen, black pied
Goal: which colors is erbse (under the white layer)? and single-blue ducklings

Group 3:
Salix, apricot trout/saxony
+ Rauch, blue bibbed
+ Heidi, black bibbed
Goal: single-blue and double-blue ducklings

Group 4 first round:
nameless 1, brown dusky
+ Anne, brown mallard
+ Tilia, lavender bibbed
Goal: brown and lavender ducklings of both sexes, some bibbed

Group 5 temporary:
nameless 2, light blue dusky
+ Hosta, light blue dusky
Goal: we get light dusky, light blue dusky and apricot dusky ducklings, keep the apricot ones
this drake will be rehomed at the beginning of May, he is already spoken for.
then the duck will remain

so we get
Group 4, second round with additional duck:
+ Hosta, light blue dusky
additional duckling options: Female dusky-lavender and brown-dusky ducklings, (males will not be brown, just dusky & blue dusky)

so hopefully by the end of 2025 additional colors in my runnerduck rainbow:
apricot dusky
brown dusky
lavender dusky
brown bibbed
blue
light blue
and some nice pied on various colors

If you like, i will take you along with me,
you will get tons of duck and duckling photos,
breeding coop construction photos (pinterest made me want little colorful swedish houses with white trim, i´m sorry),
the nerdy stuff (color prediction charts, gender guessing game,...)

 

[sourland]

Good luck in your breeding projects.

 

[My15Ducks]

Sounds like a fun project!

 

[notallducksinmypond]

we have the first egg, arty:
january 19th
57g

nice weight for a first one.
I´m looking for 65 to 70g for incubating

 

[Bolfreak]

Can you post pics with your color description? I’ve tried very hard to find duckling and older pics of rare colors and it’s very difficult to find. Especially duckling pictures!
I’m doing my own color project, but eliminating body types I don’t want (Call, Runner) and colors I don’t want (Bibs). My goal is Crested Blue mallard and Apricot and a separate flock of Crested Black (solid, no Bib and medium size not Runner body).

 

[notallducksinmypond]

Can you post pics with your color description? I’ve tried very hard to find duckling and older pics of rare colors and it’s very difficult to find. Especially duckling pictures!

Yes, that´s my plan. i will add portraits of my current breeding ducks and the ducklings as they hatch and grow up.

I’m doing my own color project, but eliminating body types I don’t want (Call, Runner) and colors I don’t want (Bibs). My goal is Crested Blue mallard and Apricot and a separate flock of Crested Black (solid, no Bib and medium size not Runner body).

this also sounds interesting. In my opinion crested is not desirable in any duck our poultry because of the corresponding head malformations and brain defects, but i think this should be everybodys own decision.

 

[Bolfreak]

Yes, that´s my plan. i will add portraits of my current breeding ducks and the ducklings as they hatch and grow up.

this also sounds interesting. In my opinion crested is not desirable in any duck our poultry because of the corresponding head malformations and brain defects, but i think this should be everybodys own decision.

That’s just internet lore. My Crested ladies are sweet and funny, they love to be sprayed with the hose and will line up for it every time I grab the hose. Of the four ducklings I got, only one had neurological problems, including blindness which would not have worked since all of mine free forage all day. I did a necropsy after culling just to examine the crest and attachment, as I’ll do with all of mine for learning purposes.
All of the big hatcheries have Cresteds anyway…and none of them get the treatment with love and intention I give mine, so if you want to talk ethics, nothing should be “bred” since it’s just selecting for traits and mutations anyway. English bulldogs, Basset hounds etc…it’s all unethical in that view.

 

[bhamducks1]

Hey everybody,
I´m from germany so please excuse mistakes.
Im absolutely into runner duck color genetics and want to breed every single color over the next few years.
unfortunaly in germany there are not many cool "certified colors" in the runner duck breeding standarts.
We have mallard (wildtype), trout (light phase mallard), something harlequin/snowy ("silber wildfarbig"), black, blue, brown, white, apricot trout/saxony ("blau-gelb"), brown trout ("erbsgelb") and brown-mallard runner/pied.

no dusky, no beautiful combinations of blue and brown and nearly no white markings allowed.

so, very boring and i want to change that, at least in my own yard.

I´ve got my hands on some treasures by browsing lokal markets and our online-fleamarket, because the colors (or at least the basics to mix them) are there but nobody calls them the right name or knows what they have...

My little flock contains (at the moment everybody born 2024):
ducks
Waltraud, mallard
Anne, brown mallard
Josefine, trout
Erbse, white
Mariechen, black pied
Heidi, Black bibbed
Rauch, blue bibbed
Tilia, lavender bibbed
Hosta, light blue dusky

drakes
Fraxinus, trout (?) calico & black pied
Sam, blue trout
Salix, apricot trout
nameless 1, brown dusky
nameless 2, light blue dusky

My breeding plans for 2025 are:
Group 1:
Fraxinus, trout (?) calico & black pied
+ waltraud, mallard
+ josefine, trout
Goal: is fraxinus homozygous for pied? is he mallard or trout or black?

Group 2:
Sam, blue trout
+ Erbse, white
+ Mariechen, black pied
Goal: which colors is erbse (under the white layer)? and single-blue ducklings

Group 3:
Salix, apricot trout/saxony
+ Rauch, blue bibbed
+ Heidi, black bibbed
Goal: single-blue and double-blue ducklings

Group 4 first round:
nameless 1, brown dusky
+ Anne, brown mallard
+ Tilia, lavender bibbed
Goal: brown and lavender ducklings of both sexes, some bibbed

Group 5 temporary:
nameless 2, light blue dusky
+ Hosta, light blue dusky
Goal: we get light dusky, light blue dusky and apricot dusky ducklings, keep the apricot ones
this drake will be rehomed at the beginning of May, he is already spoken for.
then the duck will remain

so we get
Group 4, second round with additional duck:
+ Hosta, light blue dusky
additional duckling options: Female dusky-lavender and brown-dusky ducklings, (males will not be brown, just dusky & blue dusky)

so hopefully by the end of 2025 additional colors in my runnerduck rainbow:
apricot dusky
brown dusky
lavender dusky
brown bibbed
blue
light blue
and some nice pied on various colors

If you like, i will take you along with me,
you will get tons of duck and duckling photos,
breeding coop construction photos (pinterest made me want little colorful swedish houses with white trim, i´m sorry),
the nerdy stuff (color prediction charts, gender guessing game,...)

Hello, I am down in Bellingham and would like to learn from your duck and chicken farm. Thank you!

 

[davez]

I Want to see what your little houses look like because i have made some in the past and want to some more.

 

[Papaye]

Hi!

Some updates on your "Rainbow" project...?

•

I am myself planning to get rid of most of my Light Dusky Runners in order to replace them with Penciled and Light coloured (Indian Runner) ducks...
(Like you : I just want more colours.)

I am notably trying for different kinds of Yellow Belly Indian Runners - see what I can get from breeding my Blue Fawn Yellow Belly drake to different colour phases of Mallard patterned hens (including 2 Appleyard Runners)...

(I don't know if every colour of the Mallard pattern can show the Yellow Belly gene - which I still know too little about -, so I'm testing it this season.
I am especially interested to see if an Appleyard coloured duck can also be Yellow Belly?!)

I am also trying for different kinds of Penciled Runner ducks, but since this is going to be the FIRST time I get ducklings from Pied parents, I am not 100% sure I am going to get exactly what I want...
(I want to get Lilac Penciled ducklings, but let's see if I'm doing it right AND am lucky...?)

•

Do tell us what ducklings you get, and show them to us pretty please!
I'm excited to see your Dusky ones!
(I hope you will be able to get these Apricot Dusky ducklings : they are so beautiful I don't know how they are not more popular, and so are so hard to find...!!)

Also : would you have a picture of a Lavender Dusky duck?
I can hardly imagine how they would look different from an ordinary solid Lavender coloured duck!

...Good luck with your project.
I really hope you will keep us updated!!