Confused with Welsh Harlequins

[Caprice_Acres]

I read that at hatch, WH's are usually autosexing - males born with dark bills, females born with light. They then switch as they reach adult hood - males mature to light bills, females mature to dark bills.

So, at hatch I thought I might have a drake and two hens. I still THINK that I have one drake and two hens from plumage, but the bill color never changed. Since these are my first WH ducklings, I thought I'd post a pic and see what others thought.

SORRY THE PICTURES ARE POOR QUALITY. I took them with my camera phone because my actual camera broke several weeks back and I haven't gotten around to replacing it yet. The 'hens' (light bills) have more beige coloring on the shoulder area, but the camera just whites it out. It's actually quite plentiful. The 'drake' (darker bill and plumage) seems to be getting a darker head, and generally has much darker plumage over the entire body.

These guys are 6 weeks old, they'll be 7 weeks this coming Monday (7/12).

 

[shelleyb1969]

I think you've got 2 drakes and 1 duck. I've got 8 week old WHs that were sexed from Metzers. My drake has a light bill and my 3 ducks have dark bills. But these are my first WHs, too, so I may be wrong.

 

[ChickenToes]

Females have dark bills, so I am going to agree with shelleyb1969 on this one. Here's a pic of mine when they were younger, the 2 in front with light bills are drakes.

 

[shelleyb1969]

Here's mine...the drake is in the back on the left with his head down.

 

[littlehenny]

I think your duck's are gorgeous! I love WH.. This is my Hannah and Grace. I'm not sure they are pure WH though. They are both girls.
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/oo13/itsmeemaw/HannahandGracie.jpg" border="0" alt="HANNAH AND GRACE"></a>

 

[littlehenny]

Hannah and Grace

I used the wrong code before on the picture..

 

[Caprice_Acres]

Plumage-wise, they make me think 2 girls, one boy. I think the head on the dark billed bird is feathering in green... hard to say as it's just starting to feather.

These are my first non-muscovy ducks. I've heard quacking out of all of 'em, but I THINK the light billed ones are quieter... they're all loud compared to 'scovies though, haha. So that makes me think 2 boys, 1 girl.

I've read that SOMETIMES the bill sexing doesn't work... but I'm not sure if it meant at hatching only, or if it meant for life. You can see on the one with a dark bill, that I THINK it's feathering in with a dark head!

Darn critters can't make it easy on me, can they?

*sigh*

 

[Cetawin]

From that picture, I see 2 girls and 1 boy. Here are Golden Welsh from Holderread's, they were about 6 - 8 months old at the time of the pictures:

2 drakes and hen on right

Drake face:

Hen face:

 

[Wifezilla]

Once they are older...
Light bill and light feet = boy.
Dark bill and dark feet = girl.

I see 2 boys and one girl.

I did have one duckling that hatched with a bill that was a bit dark so I thought it was a boy. Turned out to be a girl, but all the others have been easy to tell.

 

[rockyspringsfarm]

According to the information on Holderread Welsh Harlequins....don't know about any other line....at one day old they can be sexed by bill color with about 90% accuracy.....light bills are females, dark bills are males. The bill color is supposed to change as they mature to be opposite what they were born with. Since the ones I have are my first I sure can't testify to that...BUT...I have 5 light bill ducklings and 6 dark bill ducklings, just starting to get feathers, which I assessed to be 5 females and 6 males......I will report on them as they feather in and we will see how accurate that truly was...I can say that the light bills have darkened up considerably. These were hatched on June 28. Whichever way, all the pictures are gorgeous and I can't wait for mine to get "real" feathers !