help! I can't tell if these Welsh Harlequin ducks are male or female

[learycow]

Can you post a bigger picture?
Generally around week 8 you can tell for sure males to females based off of voices.

At this age, they will go through what I call "duck puberty" and they can flip flop voices for a few weeks which can make it difficult to be 100% sure of what you are hearing!
Also, with this breed, the bill sexing is only 98% accurate for the first 3 days after hatching. Then the bills change and you can't tell anymore.

These ducks, as mentioned, do not look like they were bred to standard. So the general rule of thumb where males have light bills and females have dark bills is not correct. Otherwise you would have 1 male and 3 females here. The dark heads at this age do not mean they are drakes. Females can have darker heads as they molt, change, and get color. Around week 12 the males will start to get green feathers coming in around the eyes and bill. This is the start of their green heads and adult molt. So the dark heads you see now don't tell gender just yet.

It's hard to tell so if you can post a bigger pic I can try to guess better, but I say you have 2 of each gender. Left bottom and right top are the males. Though again, as far as quality goes, the one with the yellow bill could very well be a poor quality hen

 

[learycow]

This pic is one male and 3 females. Much older and full grown compared to you, but just to show that females can have dark heads, but only the male's heads will turn green


Sorry for the bad pic, but the hen in the back has a yellow bill. She is a pure welsh even though her bill color was wrong and she had eye stripes. But she was only used in my egg flock while I had her, never bred as these are traits you don't want to pass to offspring

 

[learycow]

And here, welsh a few weeks older than the ones you pictured, starting to molt into adult feathers from juvenile feathers.
This is a perfect example of MANY poor quality welsh.
Every single one pictured is a male (ordered from metzers in 2008, supposed to be 12 females and I ended up with straight run and mostly males! but this shows how hatcheries do NOT breed to the standards, only for production in their birds). See how some have deep orange bills and some have yellowish green bills?
Some have large white neck patches?
All have darker heads, but the males as shown here, get the green which is starting to come in around the bill and eyes in this pic

 

[learycow]

Sorry I took over here, LOL. I got a little carried away but hope this helps!

 

[BackYard Sheena]

And here, welsh a few weeks older than the ones you pictured, starting to molt into adult feathers from juvenile feathers.
This is a perfect example of MANY poor quality welsh.
Every single one pictured is a male (ordered from metzers in 2008, supposed to be 12 females and I ended up with straight run and mostly males! but this shows how hatcheries do NOT breed to the standards, only for production in their birds). See how some have deep orange bills and some have yellowish green bills?
Some have large white neck patches?
All have darker heads, but the males as shown here, get the green which is starting to come in around the bill and eyes in this pic

I have an order in process with metzers.... supposed to be 11 females and 1 male! (a hute variety but 3 of the girls and the boy are supposed to be welshies) now I am seriously worried

 

[learycow]

I have an order in process with metzers.... supposed to be 11 females and 1 male! (a hute variety but 3 of the girls and the boy are supposed to be welshies) now I am seriously worried

This was in 2008 and even though these were coming up on 4 months, I contacted Metzers, sent pictures, and the sent me a new batch and all were females. They said that the packer must've taken them out of the straight run pen rather than the female pen and apologized.
I haven't ordered from them in over a year, but the few years after that bad batch I only ever had 1 other mess up where they sent a few males that were supposed to be females. But they are really good about sending replacements or refunds

 

[rosiebramall]

Would anyone be able to help me out with sex of these ducks please? It will be much appreciated. Thank you x

 

[Amiga]

The one in front is a drake - with the curly tail feather.

Do the others quack loudly? That is about the easiest way to tell, once they are nearly grown.

 

[rosiebramall]

They're all about the same really but Donald the kc is definitely the loudest x

 

[learycow]

The khaki campbell in the front is a drake (Curly feather and dark head).

The two welsh look like a female (lighter colored one, dark bill) and a drake (dark head starting to turn green, lighter colored bill)