Dominant behavior.

[MommaDuck]

My Pekins are 5 weeks old. Yesterday I brought them inside for a swim in the tub. We are planning on getting a kiddie pool soon. As they were swimming I noticed that Ming Ming kept putting his(I think he could be she though)neck over Daisy's. Once it looked like he tried to mount Daisy. I figure it is more a a domination thing. Also when do they start to quack? I have heard that you pick them up and the female quacks while the male sounds raspy. They both sounded raspy when I picked them up to take them to the tub. Although Ming Ming quiet down and Daisy will not while being held. As I took them back out side they were both much louder but not really a quack either.

 

[Apyl]

My pekin "quacks " all the time. I am pretty confident she is a girl. She is now 4 1/2 weeks old and has be quacking since she was about 2 weeks old and VERY loud peeping at a day old. She has a very loud defined "Quack". Here is a video of her taking a bath in the tub, it was cold and muddy outside and she was filthy so I brought her in the clean up. In the tub with her is one of our Mallards.

 

[MommaDuck]

Mine sound nothing like that. They still chirp. A couple times I thought one was starting to quack, wasn't very loud, sounded kinda croaky.

My pekin "quacks " all the time. I am pretty confident she is a girl. She is now 4 1/2 weeks old and has be quacking since she was a day old. She has a very loud defined "Quack". Here is a video of her taking a bath in the tub, it was cold and muddy outside and she was filthy so I brought her in the clean up. In the tub with her is one of our Mallards.

 

[Apyl]

Mine sound nothing like that. They still chirp. A couple times I thought one was starting to quack, wasn't very loud, sounded kinda croaky.

I think she started to do the deep quack by 2 or 3 weeks old. Before that her quack well peep was really really loud. Some of the Mallards I have that are a week old have super loud peeps and a couple have quiet peeps, I'm crossing my fingers a couple are boys do to the low peeps.

 

[MommaDuck]

anyone else?

 

[Amiga]

Around three weeks of age some of my runners started, well, honking more than anything. It was a few more weeks before they all had that loud lusty ah AH ah ah!

And I think some of that breeding behavior is just for fun. The neck thing appears to be an invitation, from what I have seen. And I have seen a bunch of it. These girls are uninhibited.