Are These Rouens And Is One A Drake??

[ladychicken&Ducklover]

Hi everyone,

I bought 3 ducks from TSC last April and was told they are Rouens but unknown sex at that time.

One of the ducks was a Pekin, also unknown if drake or duck at that time.

I was under the impression that the male Rouen is very similar to the Mallard, with the green head and colorful body etc.

So, as they grew up, I still was not sure what sex I had on any of the 3 as I havent Ever seen a Drake feather on any, Plus, No green head .

The only differences between the 2 Rouens is that one has a Wide white collar.

At present, my Pekin and the Rouen Without the white collar, lay 3 eggs daily.

I am Seriously doubting that :

1..The Rouens are NOT Rouens afterall , and

2..NO Drake feather has ever appeared .

Please view my pic of the 2 Rouens and I really would love to know if I ACTUALLY do have Rouens , hybrids, mutts or what ?

Thank you all..

P.S..Ive tried several times, to make these pics larger, but. I used a cell phone.

If you click on the pic, it will become larger.

Bonnie



Clyde

 

[ladychicken&Ducklover]

Any guesses?

 

[dumb_cluck]

You have one hen and a drake, but as far as Rouen........they look a bit smallish. Regular Mallards weight about 4lbs and Rouens about 6 to 8.

Clyde is definately a Pekin.

 

[ladychicken&Ducklover]

Hi. Thanks for your input.

If u are saying that Clyde is A Pekin, I had forgot to mention that I do have a white duck that is a confirmed Pekin

Could u be saying that even one of the dark ducks is also a Pekin?

 

[aoxa]

Only the white one is a pekin. I can't tell you if the rouens are drakes or hens, but I really don't see anything that says they ARE drakes. From the images, I don't see the drake tailfeather

 

[ladychicken&Ducklover]

Quote:
That's what I'm thinking .

I have a chicken cam set up in their house and I have witnessed the white Pekin and the dark "'Rouen " , the one WITHOUT the white collar, lay eggs.

The one with the white collar has not.

I'm just curious if the 2 dark ones are what I was "'told " they were... Rouens.

I had thought that the male rouen would be Very colorful, with the green head etc, but I see No difference between the 2 dark ones except the collar.

So, I'm wondering if they EVEN are Rouens at all.

It doesn't matter to me, I'm just curious

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

They look to small to be Rouen, maybe a mallard or mix. Very pretty though.

 

[Amiga]

Don't mallards follow the "if it's a girl she quacks loudly, if it's a boy, he whispers and mumbles?"

How are their voices?

 

[duckdad]

Its been discussed many times, having an actual pure Rouen or a pure Mallard is most likely....not likely.

Most that we see in the avg stock are mixes that can carry one gene or the other as the dominant with the other recessive. I have a little mallard girl that was born of a rouen flock, but shes tiny, flies like a bird (imagine that) and is marked like the typical mallard hen. Then she has cousins here that are over twice her size, fly a lot less, but are marked exactly as she is. Shes like a pocket size duck....more mallard.
So IMO most of these birds are mutts. A mix. Theres nothing wrong with that at all...they are fine birds and can be very beautiful. Even though all my little mallard girl has the basic brown thatch her bright blue racing stripe stands out and highlites the wing with the snow white underneath.

How to tell which way your birds are leaning? Size. A mallard M/F will be small. 1/2 the size or less of something thats more rouen. A bird thats more rouen will be 10 lbs or close and big chested with little desire or ability to fly because of their size & weight. My rouen drake CAN fly...but its an effort and he saves that for paying customers and when he just wants to aggrevate me a little...Like yesterday morning. At 5am I look outside to the pen and there are no ducks in there...Its cold, wet and I can hear the splashing in the pond. After a couple hrs pass they come waddling back home, looking at me for a ride back OVER the fence. Breakfast is sitting there...fresh water, cut greens, even cucumber. I WANT them to think about this and understand that IF they "go over the wall" they can certainly figure a way to get back inside...But, I get soft and pick them up and help, as usual. Wet ducks and 40 degree temps. Yep...FAT wet ducks. These are 2 rouens ..I'm guessing about 80% rouen.
It doesn't take much to dilute the bloodline. If a mallard were introduced to a full blood rouen female, that mallard gene could acct for 25% of the influence for the next couple generations until its slowly bred out of the bloodline, but something of a tiny percentage will remain in future generations. That means that the next generation could go either way...its a matter of odds. Completely random. Since rouens came from mallards there is always the mallard gene hiding somewhere in the ducks DNA. They say ALL current duck breeds can be traced back to mallards as the point of origen, so that says the genetics will always be influenced by the mallard, somehow.
Regarding sexing...after 4 months you should see color changes regardless of season. A bird in eclipse may be a little slower to show if he's male since his colors will be more melded into each other for a short time. The voices....as they develope their voice a Drake will "whaaaaack whaaaack whaaaack" slowly like he has a sore throat. A Duck will Quack Quack Quack loudly, sharp tones, sometimes ear piercing loud. Ducks will chatter very quickly when alerted, drakes will seem to 'bark' softly when alerted to someone entering their space.

Rouen AND drakes DO share another tell-tale sign of sex....the BEAK color.
Males will have a semi-solid yellowish beak color with a black point on the tip where the egg tooth is/was. The female(duck) will have a more brownish darker beak color with that black tip.

Rouen or Mallard....love 'em either way. They're all fun.

 

[dumb_cluck]

I thought (from what you posted) that the white one you knew was a pekin....... my mistake. The other two however are at least Mallards, Mallard derivatives, but NOT Rouen.