sexing muscovies...

[nzpouter]

Hi all, just score myself these 2... They are 5 months old.

Any idea on sexes?

Thanks.

 

[keith burns]

sweet we lost our last 2 to something???

but thay look sweet

 

[nzpouter]

Quote:
Yeah they are..

friendly as well, just follow us around waiting for treats.


Anybody else have any guesses...?

 

[Cottage Rose]

Very pretty!

They look like drakes to me.

 

[kitkatbahr]

Hi Nz,

I'm guessing HENS!!

I have two Muscoveys and I was fooled into thinking one was a hen when I got her. So was the lady that had the rescue group that knew alot about animals, etc. She thought it was a hen too. I aready had Charlie, my drake, but wanted a hen to go with him. This lady at the rescue group told me she had a hen (and I ended up with a 6 week old baby too). So, I went to pick them up. The hen was full-grown, but young. The other was, as I said, a baby, about half grown. I brought them home.

The "hen" took great care of the baby, nurtured it, etc. until it was almost grown. I swear I thought "she" was a hen. Then, one day I noticed her "caruncles" were growing more (the red warty things on her face). Even hens have caruncles, but drakes have lots more. She continued to look more and more like a drake and it turned out she was. So, I ended up with two drakes. They both hiss and wag their tails! LOL The baby ended up growing up and being a hen. She also flew away with some wild Muscoveys though, after both boys kept trying to mate with her. I guess it was too much for her and she said the heck with that!!

So, yesterday, I got four more ducks. They are Pekin mixes (we think with Swedish). I am trying to determine if their are any drakes or if all hens. Hopefully, all hens!

As for Muscoveys, the drakes hiss and the ducks kind of trill/and can give a quackish type noise, but are usually pretty quiet. The drakes cannot make regular duck noses though, once grown. They can peep like crazy when they are babies though!!!! I don't know if you will be able to tell much at 5 months old. Both of yours have caruncles growing in, as did mine. Even LIttle Duck, who turned out to really be a hen (the baby) got her caruncles pretty early. Just not alot of them. Now, as my boys get older, their caruncles get bigger and bigger. I saw a wild duck that was here for awhile (before he got hit by a car) and he must have been a couple of years old, cause his head had so many caruncles it looked like it could weigh his head down!

Have fun with them.

Here are my two boys (they both have Angel wing, which is why their wings stick out)

These are my new "girls"

Here is a pic of Drake with Little Duck, right after I got them. Drake was the one we thought was a hen, and took great care of Little Duck (the baby). But, Drake turned out to be,well, a drake, which is why we named him that. Before that, it was Amelia (as in Amelia Earhart! LOL)

Ok, here is a pic of all three of them, right after I got Drake and the baby. It's kind of far away, but you can see Drake and the baby, and then that is Charlie in the closer up view. He is a little bit older than Drake, and you can see he has more caruncles than Drake does. This is another reason we thought Drake was a girl at the time. Charlie was definitely a boy. Also, the other thing is that Muscovey Drakes have HUGE feet, even when they are young. Little Duck had daintly, petite feet and the other two had big feet.

Hope that helps! Enjoy them.


Kathy

 

[vicki2x2]

Are they the same size? If so, they are probably the same sex. By 5 months, the males far out weigh the females. Just looking at them, my guess would be 2 females, but it is hard to tell from pics.

 

[chickenwhisperer123]

I would say females, because my male muscovy has that big red 'thing' on his face!

They are very nice looking.. (Im Jealous...)

 

[conny63malies]

Look at the feet. Ifthey are small and dainty they are females if they are bigger they are drakes. Also if they weigh more than 7 pounds the are male. If they make a rather hissing sound they are male and if the make a weak little quack they are girls.

this is a teenaged drake, see the large feet?

those are adult females , look at their small feet( the gray and the light-chocolate one are my breeders)

based on what feet i can see and the body size they look like drakes to me

 

[Cottage Rose]

The lack of curuncles is because they're only 5 months old and if
they're drakes they won't hiss until they are much older.
If they have nothing to compare them to how can they
determine sex though size difference?
To me thier length of body and neck and size of head
makes me think drakes but I could be wrong.

This is a pic of some male and female Muscovies around 5-6 months old.
Note the lack of curuncles.
The only reason we can tell which is which here is because we have
both sexes present.

 

[conny63malies]

Cottage Rose:

The lack of curuncles is because they're only 5 months old and if
they're drakes they won't hiss until they are much older.
If they have nothing to compare them to how can they
determine sex though size difference , you dont need both sexes to figure out the sexes. Just grab a duck step on a household scale with it, write down the weight, then step on scale without the duck subtract this weight from the ... what is leftover is the weight of the duck. Less than six pounds and less and they are girls anything more they are prob boys.
AS i already said, look at the picture of the my ducks. THere is a huge diff. in foot size. By the way the boys in the pic are about 5 month as well and all weight 7+ pound