advice on choosing Muscovy ducklings?...pics of the 3 I picked added

[PlumTuckered]

Muscovy coloring can be tricky! My two that were mostly yellow turned out to be Blue Barred. My yellow and Brown one turned out to be a Blue, my dark brown one turned out to be a Black Bibbed.

Michelle

 

[jamband]

ha ....sounds like a gamble on colors......i will try for the biggest and 2-3 smallest for the sexing. Color not as important. The people will also "exchange" the ducks if i dont get what i want which i find to be very nice.........is there something with bill color as well? I thought i read it but cant find info?

 

[Birdcrazy]

My drake was always smaller than my hen when they were ducklings and same age, but he always had a bigger beak and thicker legs. He slowly out grew her and his beak and legs became heaps more noticably bigger. When I'm picking out ducklings I go by beak and leg size, its worked so far although its pretty unaccurate. Sometimes you've just gotta cross your fingers!

 

[Caprice_Acres]

Unless the people have any chocolate/lilac drakes running around, it's a good bet that any chocolates or lilacs will be female. Chocolate is a sex-linked trait. Now, there is a different chocolate diution gene that males can get... but it's more unusual or so I've found here in Mi. I personally had a chocolate drake once, and didn't keep any of his babies... I'm kinda happy, because it's nice to tell people that chocolates/lilacs are females, blues and blacks could be either.

 

[jamband]

picked em up. Got one full yellow, one with th black mowhawk and dots and one with more brown/gray mowhawk and dots. They all looked very close in size still.

 

[Birdcrazy]

You'll have to post some pics up!

I dunno if its just my luck, but I usually get way more females in a hatch than males so maybe your chances on more females out of the three will be better.

 

[ian4379]

i personally cant pick ducklings sexes on size, the smallest duckling from my last batch turned out to be a drake, i had four from another batch that i thought were boys till 8 weeks old, they just turned out to be really nice big girls with a broader face! i've given up and just wait now. although if someone really wants them at 3 weeks or so you would generally pick the biggest one for a boy and the smallest ones with petite looking heads for the girls, i also make sure i explain to buyers that you cant be 100% sure on the sexing at a young age, that its just an educated guess, had no complaints so far!

 

[jamband]

Ill post a few pics of them later today. Hey I was wondering if you all give your muscovy ducklings swim time and at what age ? only a short time I assume?

 

[Birdcrazy]

I filled up a bucket of warm water for my ducklings at three days old in a warm room (as its winter here) and they jumped in and out of that with encouragement, then the next day i filled up the bath tub with warm water and put them in that. Been doing that everyday since - they love it! I usually just sit with them and leave my hand in the water so they can perch on it every now and then, they give pretty obvious signs when they are done swimming.

 

[jamband]

cool. and just make sure they have a dry warm place to go back to? or should I get them with a towel a little?