Any idea on gender?

Tasjo

Chirping
Oct 31, 2021
28
78
59
Our pekin sat on eggs and hatched 10 ducklings... we are fairly sure they are not all hers lol
The only drake we have is a Buff Orpington, the ducks are pekin, swedish blues (dark and lighter blue, and call ducks)
We don't think there were any call duck eggs.

I've had a look at the colour sexing and while I know its not absolutely to be relied on, I think the darker brown ones are girls... and we have at least a couple of drakes?

Just not sure on the rest!
 

Attachments

  • bert_4mths.jpg
    bert_4mths.jpg
    826.6 KB · Views: 17
  • ducklings2_nov2022.jpg
    ducklings2_nov2022.jpg
    300.2 KB · Views: 9
  • ducklings_nov2022.jpg
    ducklings_nov2022.jpg
    353.3 KB · Views: 9
  • buff_3swedish.jpg
    buff_3swedish.jpg
    559.1 KB · Views: 10
Buff, like chocolate brown, is a sex-linked trait. If all of your females carry only black, and not brown or buff, then, ducklings who inherit the buff allele from dad are girls.
Your Swedish only carry black. The first problem is with your Pekin. She could have black, brown, or buff. She also has two recessive, white alleles which do not allow any color in her feathers si what other alleles she has for color are hidden. It seems like many Pekins carry only black. So, if that is the case, you have sex-linkage.
The second problem is figuring out who has the buff allele. I agree the brown ones do, but I think you might have some others too. If they have blue and buff they are going to be lighter brown or golden. Her is a picture of a Swedish Khaki mix of mine. She has blue but brown instead of buff. Hope this helps.
A7B2D22A-7F21-4610-AE91-408E5ACCC379.jpeg

PS. If the light almost white duck duck on the right side of the last picture is what you are calling “light” blue, I think that might be silver (two blue alleles).
 
Last edited:
Not entirely sure if the one on the far right is the swedish blue or just a little bit of the white call... if it's the swedish they are both more 'blue' than they look in the previous photo... this is closer to their colour when not moulting lol
IMG_20211026_221855_806~2.jpg
 
For the bigger ducklings - that are growing at a faster rate too - I'm also going on head and bill shape and colour, how noisy they are, how much our Buff drake 'harasses' them (till 'mum' puts him in his place). There's some that are definitely different to the pure pekins we have had in the past.

Similarities also though in growth rate for what we think are the ducks vs drakes, noise levels now they are approaching 3 weeks and head and bill shape differences. The drake also definitely puts the possible drakelings in their place more than the ducks.
 
For the bigger ducklings - that are growing at a faster rate too - I'm also going on head and bill shape and colour, how noisy they are, how much our Buff drake 'harasses' them (till 'mum' puts him in his place). There's some that are definitely different to the pure pekins we have had in the past.

Similarities also though in growth rate for what we think are the ducks vs drakes, noise levels now they are approaching 3 weeks and head and bill shape differences. The drake also definitely puts the possible drakelings in their place more than the ducks.
So, do you think just the brown ones are little girls or others? They look like they are going to be really pretty ducks!
 
We think the brown ones are girls plus some of the white ones... I'll try and get a new photo tomorrow.

Fairly sure at least one drake (which is fine - We will keep him, we love his colouring).

3 are going to a new home on Monday regardless of gender, 2 or 3 others are going to go to balance someome's flock
 
Here they are this morning... one of our call ducks has taken over mumma duties now lol, the pekin has mostly gone back to the flock.

We think we have decided which ones we are keeping so hopefully will be able to figure out which are ducks and drakes so we can responsibly move on the rest.
 

Attachments

  • 20221204_083601.jpg
    20221204_083601.jpg
    674.2 KB · Views: 7
  • 20221204_083645.jpg
    20221204_083645.jpg
    675.7 KB · Views: 8

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom