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Domestic Waterfowl Club.

Sexing

Sex Linked Breeds

Sex Linked Breeds

From an academic point of view all varieties of common duck can be used in sex-linked matings provided the right breed is selected as a partner normally a gold/silver mating . Basically, the two sex-linked dilution genes in ducks are Brown (the more common) and Buff.  There are numerous potential sex-linked matings that can be done, basically any drake that carries Brown or Buff on any female  that is Black or Grey (Mallard)
Sex-linked ducks are a type bred so that it's possible to determine the gender of ducklings at the time of hatch based on the color of their down.  Or as the science-types say it, "Sex linkage is the phenotypic expression of an allele that is dependent on the gender of the individual and is directly tied to the sex chromosomes."

main Breeds:-  Welsh Harlequin, Abacot Ranger, Saxony , Ancona in the USA. Many breeds show a bill difference as an adult but not until almost feathered

The best pic and description is from www.tyrantfarms.com re welsh harlequins  for the sex linked pics and info



Welsh Harlequin female + male when starting to feather. Once the ducks are mature, the females will have a darker bill, whereas the male will have a yellow bill - which is the opposite of the bill color difference when they hatch.

Many of the breeds are helpful this  way naturally plus you can breed many with conflicting gene types such as dark  Campells to White Campbells which produce sex linked first crosses.

In a Muscovy 'Chocolate' is the only sex-linked gene :-

 chocolate X chocolate = 100% chocolate
 chocolate X black = black drakelets that carry chocolate and chocolate ducklets.
 chocolate X blue = black and blue males that carry chocolate, chocolate and lilac females.
 chocolate X self-blue = black males that carry chocolate and pastel and chocolate females that carry
pastel.
 chocolate X lilac = 50% chocolate ducklings, 50% lilac ducklings.

Geese

When the sex of both goslings and mature geese can be distinguished by the colour. This is known as auto-sexing. Sex-linked European breeds are the Pilgrim, Shetland, West of England, and Normandy, Bavent and Cotton Patch Geese in other countries  see their pages above. Sex linking can be bred in any cross as in the duck breeds  via the gold silver gene mating :-Breeds with white colour or some white colour often carry what we call the silver gene. This is a dominant or partially dominant gene—meaning it only takes one dose to express itself. When a female with the silver gene is crossed to a solid coloured male, her sons will be white and her daughters will be the colour of their father (though often with white undercolour). Male chicks will hatch with yellow down and females will be like their dad (usually buff or red tinted).

Below the female displays a  grey saddle-back pattern plus grey thighs  and head. In these breeds the  gander is mainly white with the odd tiddly patch of colour .


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