Age they start breeding?

Sylviaanne

Crowing
7 Years
Sep 17, 2012
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Ozark, MO
I just went and read on: Sexing Ducklings (Please check here first :D ) to see what a drake feather was.
I have a juvenile duck that my drake seemed to be attacking, like he was trying to drown her(?) in the water. It did not look like he was trying to mount her.


I read that the hens will have a loud honk and that is one way to tell if it is a hen. I have 4 juveniles and the drake doesn't bother the others. 3 of them look so similar that I can't tell which one is honking from the back. The grey one that the drake attacked was the leader of the young ones but the dynamics of their little clique changed and one of the black ducklings seems to be the leader now and I am pretty sure it is a hen if the honking is true. The grey one used to honk but seems to be silent now.

They are about 12 weeks old and I did not know about the drake feather so I am going to go see if I can get close enough to the grey to see the tail feathers.
 
I just went and read on: Sexing Ducklings (Please check here first :D ) to see what a drake feather was.
I have a juvenile duck that my drake seemed to be attacking, like he was trying to drown her(?) in the water. It did not look like he was trying to mount her.


I read that the hens will have a loud honk and that is one way to tell if it is a hen. I have 4 juveniles and the drake doesn't bother the others. 3 of them look so similar that I can't tell which one is honking from the back. The grey one that the drake attacked was the leader of the young ones but the dynamics of their little clique changed and one of the black ducklings seems to be the leader now and I am pretty sure it is a hen if the honking is true. The grey one used to honk but seems to be silent now.

They are about 12 weeks old and I did not know about the drake feather so I am going to go see if I can get close enough to the grey to see the tail feathers.
Drake feathers occur when they are 20 weeks... the female that you think, may be a male. Or he might be mad because she isn't allowing him to mate with her
 
Drake feathers occur when they are 20 weeks... the female that you think, may be a male. Or he might be mad because she isn't allowing him to mate with her

At what age do ducks mate properly? I went and looked and all 4 of the young ones have sloping tails like the adult hens. They are not at 20 weeks yet and this time I did see the drake try to mate to the grey and I couldn't tell if it was one or 2 of the black ones.
 
At what age do ducks mate properly? I went and looked and all 4 of the young ones have sloping tails like the adult hens. They are not at 20 weeks yet and this time I did see the drake try to mate to the grey and I couldn't tell if it was one or 2 of the black ones.
Can you post any pictures??
 
Can you post any pictures??

I took pictures earlier so I could get a close up of their tails, since they won't let me get close enough to see. Problem is: I didn't have a memory chip in the camera and I have a little outside drive to put it in that lets me see the pictures on the screen. I put the chip in and took some more and here they are.








No curl yet but the Cayuga is also their father so his tail really curls up. He wouldn't be still or stay out from under stuff for me to get a picture of his tail.
 
I took pictures earlier so I could get a close up of their tails, since they won't let me get close enough to see. Problem is: I didn't have a memory chip in the camera and I have a little outside drive to put it in that lets me see the pictures on the screen. I put the chip in and took some more and here they are.








No curl yet but the Cayuga is also their father so his tail really curls up. He wouldn't be still or stay out from under stuff for me to get a picture of his tail.
The first pic and the second and the third look like my Rouen Ladies tail: 4- months) and the last pic looks like my mallard-5 months:)
 
At what age do ducks mate properly? I went and looked and all 4 of the young ones have sloping tails like the adult hens. They are not at 20 weeks yet and this time I did see the drake try to mate to the grey and I couldn't tell if it was one or 2 of the black ones.
5 months too a year... (20) weeks maybe even longer,
 
My just about to turn 5mth old Pekin drake is trying to mate now and has so for that last few weeks... he's sloppy though lol usually at closer to 6mths plus they have better ability. Ducks do mount on another as a form of dominance, i have seen females do this. Drakes curls are the last way to tell a young drake, voice(and in some cases colour) are the first indicators.

As birds reach sexual maturity the entire dynamic of the flocks changes, pecking orders will cement and aggression amongst males will come through. By voicing you feel you have 3 ducks and 1 drake?
 
My just about to turn 5mth old Pekin drake is trying to mate now and has so for that last few weeks... he's sloppy though lol usually at closer to 6mths plus they have better ability. Ducks do mount on another as a form of dominance, i have seen females do this. Drakes curls are the last way to tell a young drake, voice(and in some cases colour) are the first indicators.

As birds reach sexual maturity the entire dynamic of the flocks changes, pecking orders will cement and aggression amongst males will come through. By voicing you feel you have 3 ducks and 1 drake?

I have 4 adult ducks, 3 are hens and one is a drake. I hatched 4 eggs and did a gold ring test on them and it said they are all girls but when they got outside and started running around the grey duckling was the alpha so I thought it might be a male. Yesterday, it didn't look like domination. The first time I saw the drake go for the grey, they were in the pool and I thought he might be trying to drown the grey but the grey got away and kept away from the drake so I didn't worry about it. Sometime the dynamics of the ducklings changed and one of the black ducklings seems to be the alpha but the drake doesn't seem to be actually attacking another male. I think maybe the ring test worked this time. Or maybe I was just lucky? LOL We don't like to eat duck eggs so if I have 7 hens, I have no idea what I will do with so many eggs.
 
The first pic and the second and the third look like my Rouen Ladies tail: 4- months) and the last pic looks like my mallard-5 months:)

They are all the same age within a few days, 3 months. They all look the same to me. What do you see different? Thanks.
 

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