Here at BYC, in the Duck Forum a lot of People ask what the gender of their duck is, while this answer can be acquired from other Backyard Chicken members, there are a lot of easy ways to tell by yourself! Here are some easy ways to tell the Gender of your duck:
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One way to tell is by voice. At About six weeks, the voice of a drake (a boy duck) changes. It no longer has a "quack", but has instead acquired a "whispery" voice that some say sounds like "wongh". So basically if it "quacks" it is a girl.
Another easy way to tell is by "Drake Feathers". Drake Feathers are feathers by the tail that are curled. Drakes get these feathers at about six months, along with the rest of their mature feathers. If you see these feathers on any duck, that duck is a boy. Here is an example of drake feathers;
See the curled feathers?
Another way is simply by the looks of a duck. Though this is not true with all breeds of duck, in many types of duck the boy and the girl look different. A good example is the Mallard, the boy has a bright green head and lots of light coloring while the girl is almost all brown. Other breeds in which the boy and girl look different include Welsh Harlequin, Buff Orpington, Appleyard, Rouen, Saxony, and Khaki Campbell. Breeds in which the boy and girl can not be told apart by plain looks (looks not including the drake feathers) include;
Magpie, Ancona, Pekin, and others.
(As you can see a boy and girl Magpie do not look significantly different)
In some breeds, whether the boy and girl look different depends on the color of the duck. For example, a Runner. If you had a grey runner ( grey is the mallard coloring ) you would easily be able to tell the gender of the duck by looks, but if you had a black runner, you would not be able to tell the gender by looks. Another breed in which whether or not you can tell the gender of a duck by looks depends on color is Calls, which come in many different colors.
A little less easy way to tell the gender of a duck is by weight. I say it's a little less easy because you might not have a way to properly weigh your ducks, but if you do, this is one way to tell the gender of your duck, though you need to make sure your duck or ducks are full grown before you use this method or you probably will not get to the right conclusion on the gender of your duck. Here is a "chart" of approximately how much different breeds of duck weigh:
Weight in Pounds
Breed: Male: Female:
Call 1.6 1.4
Mallard 2.5 2.2
East Indie 1.8 1.5
Campbell 4.5 4.0
Runner 4.5 4.0
Harlequin 5.5 5.0
Magpie 6.0 5.5
Ancona 6.5 6.0
Orpington 8.0 7.0
Cayuga 8.0 7.0
Swedish 8.0 7.0
Appleyard 9.0 8.0
Saxony 9.0 8.0
Aylesbury 10.0 9.0
Pekin 10.0 9.0
Rouen 10.0 9.0
Muscovy 12.0 7.0
Muscovies
Muscovies are pretty much mute, do not get drake feathers, and the boy and girl look pretty much alike, so we cannot use most of the tricks I just showed you for distinguishing boy from girl in Muscovies. So how do you tell the gender of a Muscovy duck? Thankfully the gender of Muscovies can be identified by the female's smaller facial skin patch but also by the male's larger size, and by the difference in weight. As it is said on the chart above, Male Muscovies weigh about twelve pounds and Female Muscovies weigh about seven pounds.
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I hope this article will help you out in identifying your Ducks! Have a great day! Thanks for reading!
