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Article and Standard Published in
Fancy Fowl magazine, April 2005
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Colour
Genetics
Shown
at Malvern first in 1995, the Apricot Silver Call has proved to be
an attractive and popular colour form. Thanks to the policy of
the
BWA Championship committee, non-standard varieties have been given
classes to themselves. This allows breeders and judges to see and
compare birds before they are submitted for standardization. Many
feel that the Apricot Silver has long justified its place in the
pantheon of accepted Call Duck varieties. Ten years seems a
reasonable time for the colour to establish itself and to develop
a wide enough band of breeders to formulate a practical Standard.
Moreover,
not only is it popular but the Apricot Silver is a stable colour
type. Genetically it has the same basic colour genes as the
popular Standard Silver and the Abacot Ranger, with the addition
of blue dilution genes from both parents. Put another way, what a
Saxony is to a Rouen Clair, so an Apricot Silver is to a Standard
Silver. However, these two varieties of Call have the critically
important dusky mallard and the harlequin phase genes. Mated to
each other they produce the other variant in the series—the Blue
Silver Call, much in the same way that Mallard Calls and Apricot
Calls produce Blue Fawns.
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A
new colour—Apricot Silver Call Ducks - by Graham Barnard
We started to breed Apricot Silvers by
an accidental cross. At first we did not know what they were, but
soon found out that others had produced drakes like the one we
had. But no one we knew seemed to have produced a duck to match.
We purchased a trio of ducks at the Stoneleigh Rare Breeds Show
& Sale (1993) thinking they were the right ducks to complement
the drake we had bred, because the drake in the trio was the same
as ours. As it turned out, they were not. We split the birds into
pairs and from these we produced two drakes and one duck. We knew
instantly that these birds were definitely exactly the same colour
as our drake because all of the birds looked almost identical in
eclipse plumage. This is a must; if birds do not look almost the
same in eclipse, they are most definitely not a matching pair and
it is very important when trying to breed new colours to use this
as a guideline. Since then we have put like to like and they do
produce young in their own image.
In the last nine years we have produced many
of these birds which we have sold to people throughout the
country. They are always extremely popular and one of the first
birds to sell when offered for sale to the general public. In this
time they have proved two different things: first and most
importantly they do breed true; second, they are extremely
popular. In shows they nearly always have the largest entry of
non-standard colour Calls and have been exhibited over the years
by quite a large number of people. I feel that when or if these
birds are standardized they soon will be one of the most popular
colours at the shows. For all of those of you who just enjoy
keeping attractive Calls they would be a very worthwhile addition
to your collection. Only time will tell whether I am right or
wrong.
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Call
Duck Association 
