Do Rouen ducks feathers change color?

[TonyaS]

Hi everyone! My family and I have slowly been starting a little farm with chickens, guinea's and ducks. We originally adopted 4 ducks when they were about 6 weeks old, they are a mix of Cayuga and Rouen. Two days after we brought them home a male (we assume) Rouen just showed up on our property. We put postings out to make sure he didn't just accidently get away from his own property but no one claimed him. He seemed to introduce himself to the ducklings and just made himself at home. A week later another duck showed up not far from our property, identical to the one we now had so we realized someone is dumping ducks where we live. The ducklings are now 14 weeks old and are pretty much the same size as the one that showed up. In the time he's been here his beautiful feathers have changed, he seems to be losing all those beautiful colors, even the white stripe around his neck. Since I'm new to having ducks can someone tell me if this is normal? Did we assume wrong that this is a male? Also, when should we be able to tell if the 4 ducklings are male or female? I have attached pictures of the Rouen when he first showed up and what he looks like now. You can also see the 4 ducklings in the background. Thanks for all your advice!!

 

[sourland]

Immature drakes and adult drakes after the breeding season have eclipse plumage - more female in nature. He will eventually molt back to his nuptial more colorful plumage. Your birds are in beautiful condition. They are old enough that you should be able to 'voice' sex them. Hens will have a loud quack whereas drakes will have a raspy more quiet voice. Bill color sexing sometimes works. Drakes will have a paler/more green bill and hens will have darker bills.

 

[cheezenkwackers]

Male ducks only have their bright colors during the breeding season. Afterwards they get new feathers called eclipse plumage. It is more like a female to help them blend in. He will get his pretty colors back in the spring.

 

[junebuggena]

Beak color doesn't always correlate with gender when it comes to mixed breeds...

 

[BaJa]

mixed breeds: 1 male, 3 female
Rouen: male

 

[TonyaS]

Immature drakes and adult drakes after the breeding season have eclipse plumage - more female in nature. He will eventually molt back to his nuptial more colorful plumage. Your birds are in beautiful condition. They are old enough that you should be able to 'voice' sex them. Hens will have a loud quack whereas drakes will have a raspy more quiet voice. Bill color sexing sometimes works. Drakes will have a paler/more green bill and hens will have darker bills.

Oh ok! That makes perfect sense now, I guess they don't need to show off those pretty colors when it's not breeding season. I was concerned it was something he was eating or he wasn't healthy. They free range but I also give them "treats" from my garden every day. I tear up small pieces of celery leaves and things like that and toss it in their pool. It doesn't usually last more than 5 minutes before they've devoured every last piece.
I'll have to try to listen closely to determine which one makes which sound but I know I have heard the two different sounds coming from them. Several of them are quite loud, we've learned they make great guard birds! They let us know a few times when a bear climbed our fence and got close to our house. Do I need to be careful with the male to female ratio? I read that with my guineas I need to make sure I have more females than males so I don't have issues with them bullying my chickens, just curious if ducks are the same way.

 

[BaJa]

yes, you got to keep an eye on ratios. it looks like you got 2 male, two female, and the Rouen Duck. if you could put a good close-up picture of them, I can tell if they're male or female by there beaks. you got some pretty nice ducks

 

[sourland]

Beak color doesn't always correlate with gender when it comes to mixed breeds...

Yep, and that's why I said 'sometimes'.

 

[chickens really]

That Drake looks like a Welsh Harlequin ....

 

[junebuggena]

Yep, and that's why I said 'sometimes'.

Was referring to @BaJa's comment about sexing by beak color. You, @sourland, at least put the qualifier that it might not be completely accurate.