Vent sexing

[newgirlforsure]

Se*xing. I didnt swear

 

[Duck Drover]

The good news is that you don't have to raise them to know they are boys. The bad news is the drakes are hard to sell in egg laying breeds and you can't ethically call them a straight run and scam someone else. At least you now know how to avoid getting drakes if you can find some ducklings to purchase on site from a local breeder since you had experimental subjects on which to test your sexing skills.

I sell straight run ducklings in groups of four or more with the buyer choosing by sight (no sexing) so statistically two will be girls and then I will sex the ducklings after they are purchased to make sure the buyer is getting what they expect. If someone wants just girls they are double in price so the cost should be the same with the boys included for free. I also do drake trades with other breeders to make breeding pairs in order to give more drakes a chance to live. I don't want drakes to get dumped on anyone unexpectedly so it is better for the buyer to know and make a plan for what to do with the drakes. I have sold drake groups of four or more for half price when I double the hen price so that is good for people who want all drakes.

 

[bondfamily007]

That's horrible! Just to provide a slight counterpoint, I ordered 15 straight run welsh harlequins from Cackle at the beginning of March, and I received 16 happy healthy ducks, which only 5 turned out the be drakes. I was also able successfully sex them all by beak color when they got here as well. Very happy with my 11 hens.

 

[Duck Drover]

That does happen. I know two people who got ducklings at the same time from the same place. They each had to order a minimum of 10 ducklings. One got lucky and ended up with 7 hens (she kept a pair and I got the 6 hens and 2 drakes from her) while the other ended up with 7 drakes (she sold off some extras to another friend before sexing them and ended up with only 1 hen to keep out of her order). It does happen that straight runs can be off statistically because the clutch is split between orders.

 

[Duck Drover]

The issue I see here is when a breed can be color sexed at hatching but is sold as a straight run, there should be some effort by the handlers to keep the orders as close to even as possible. One in six is not very good odds when it should be closer to one in two. When someone gets 6 ducklings it seems fair to expect at least two girls.

My daughter once picked out six ducklings from a group of fourteen and they all ended up being girls, to my pleasure. She was not trying to voice sex them but I think the louder girls probably caught her attention as she was chasing them around to corner them. I have been able to voice sex peeps before ducklings were big enough to vent sex.