HISTORY;
Crested
ducks are
basically an aberration appearing in any colour and as such hava mixed
history. The crest is essentially a mutation associated with skull
deformities and known for hundreds of years. There are those who claim
that crested ducks first appeared in Britain, which is unlikely but
they were certainly first Shown here and appear in many early poultry
books . Genetic mutations appear occasionally all over the world.
Selective breeding would then have increased the numbers of birds with
the same characteristic. 17th century Dutch paintings show crested
ducks on wildfowl such as Melchior d'Hondecoeter (1636 -1695) and
Marmaduke Craddock (1660 - 1717) from Somerset in the Uk showed them
The crest is formed from a mass of fatty
tissue that emerges through a
gap in the cranium.( skull) From this, feathers grow. Crests vary from
centrally placed, full crests, rather like powder puffs, to knobbly
protuberances with just a few feathers; or the occasional earring when
it has 'slipped'. The crested gene can be bred into any breed except
Muscovy as one parent crested will breed a percentage of crested
offspring .All crested seldom breed successfully but if they do produce
better stock. If using a crested female with a large crest watch as the
drake uses this as to ' assist ' mating and she can get injured easily.
The tuft of feathers on the head, which occasionally appears, having
been recognized as a point of attraction, selected and bred for of the
off spring many will be plain headed but carry the crested gene so a
crested drake will turn any breed crested . . they also have the energy
for this so watch out
The crest gene is an incompletely
dominant one. ie, if an chick
receives a double dose of the gene &endash; one from each
parent (homozygous) it will die in the shell. If only one of the
parents passes it on (heterozygous) the resulting hatches will be :-
25% will not hatch, 25% will not have crests and 50% will have crests.
If a crested heterozygous bird is crossed with an un-crested one, the
resulting hatch should be 50% crested and 50% plain. So, as you can
see, breeding Crested ducks is challenging and not recommended for
beginners; also if the crest is so large as to intefere with normal
eating and mating etc it would need to be 'trimmed' to allow the duck a
normal life.
The Lethal
Crested Gene
This gene is a dominant gene with a lethal variant. If C=crested and
p=plain non-crested, it works like this:
Crested Drake =C p (this means that a crested
drake in a pen can turn any breed crested)
Crested Duck = C CC Cp
their offspring will be:- pp is
a non-crested duckling,....Cp is a crested duckling,..CC (theoretically
crested) dies in the shell due to skull deformities.
Miniature
Crested;
Names Also known as Le canard Huppe' in
France/Belgium. Ciuffate in
Italy
Country Of Origin;......... Great Britain
Purpose;..........Eggs../ Exhibition
Egg Colour................... eggs white
Egg Numbers.............100+
Breed Defects. .. . . .Any colour is
permitted. Defects are thus split
crests or deformity rather than colour breed points
Incubation:. . . . . . .28 days.
Breed Hints....****.Not a beginners
breed ****
Weights;4 to 6 pounds/ drake is 3.2kg
duck is 2.7kg.
Breed Tip Kept as pair or trio
Info There is also a Crested large ,also
a crested call
.
CRESTED;BANTAM
Ducks;.......Breed Info'
HICKS
WATERFOWL WORLD /
OSWESTRY / Tel 01691 655 635
http://www.waterfowlworld.co.uk/
or
grahamhickss@hotmail.co.uk
Rosemary
Sharpe MONMOUTH . Tel 01600 713868
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