Hi.
I am looking for info. about Swedish ducks, thier
history if poss. (I have read Oscar Grow). But I am also very interested in the genetics of all blue poultry.
I understand that with the Swedish, black to silver gives 100% blue. But breeders here in Aust. have been breeding only blue to blue for more than 7 generations & as a result, the birds no longer produce very many silvers - we get a few splash, but mostly white in place of silver & they are dominant white, they produce blue black & white when mated to black or blue.
Would anyone know the best combination for me to
produce silver. I have dark blue ,blue, black and
splash, but I wonder if the black birds we have will be dominant black also instead of recessive?? All the
blues have splashes of black.
Has anyone discovered a 'formula' for producing the best pattern and med. blue shade?? ie: is a particular shade of silver better than another.??
Are silver birds unique to the Blue Swedish or do they occur with other breeds of blue poultry also??
and is silver (the blue variety) a showable colour in
any breed.?
many thanks
Lynda

Don't know that this will help but here goes.

The color blue (Andulusian) works like this. Blue (Bb) bred to Blue (Bb) theoretically produces 50% Blue (Bb), 25% Black (BB) & 25% Splash (bb).

Crossing a Splash (bb) with a Black (BB) produces 100% Blue (Bb). To obtain good dark color quality in Blue it's best to bred back to Black...this prevents the shade of Blue from fading out & becoming a "washed out" color. The "washed out" shade is probably what you call Silver.

We breed Swedish & Call ducks & have produced silvers & even Chocolates!! We are currently working on a "formula" to "stack the odds" in favor of these desired colors. We believe them to be dilute factors & possibly located on a different allele or gene locus like some colors of dog breeds are. We've tried locating information regarding "coat" color in waterfowl & have come up empty.

In other breeds of poultry such as Old English chickens they have a color termed self blue which looks silver & in pigeons they have a RED color which resembles chocolate in ducks. We even had a woman call us & tell us that she's been working (for a couple of years) on creating a strain of CHOCOLATE silkies! We're going to follow that one up next year when she plans on offering some to other breeders.

Hope this was of some assitance. Feel free to email us & we can discuss further "insights". :-)

Thanks Dogwood! :-)

I have found a photo of a silver swedish, it's not a very good picture, but might give some idea what I'm talking about, it does look like a very light blue, but I am told that it breeds true. I think its beautiful!! Have you seen one?
Sorry, I can't work out how to "insert a link"
http://www.longvalleynj.com/ducks.htm
(middle, rear of the second picture)
I have also heard of a "lavender" muscovy and wonder if that is a similar colour.

Lynda