Duck question?

[crossbeak]

Hi,
Are female ducks always more vocal then the drakes?
How old before they get there drake feathers?
I have 5 Khaki Campbells 3 months old
6 Anaconas, 5 Black Cayugas, 7 Call Ducks 1 month old and hatched 2 call ducks last Thursday under a foster hen. Ducks are COOL!! We also have 30 chickens.

Thanks, Lee

 

[FrankBlissett]

Don't know exactly when they get their grown-up feathers. You should be able to make a good guess right now using their voices though.

-Frank

 

[rosyposyosy]

isnt it supposed to be 30 days? dont trust me i read that somewhere but i dont really believe it, the ducks at a local pond take forever (in my opinion)

 

[WindyOaksYokes]

My ducks are now 15 weeks, I have Khaki Campbells along with a few others. To answer your question my drake got his curl on the tail at about 10-12 weeks. As for the colors, he is now starting to get his dark feathers... the dark browns and blacks. You can tell the difference in Khakis by their colors. I noticed a big difference between the males and females at about 5 weeks. The drakes are more of a darker tone then the hens. Here are a couple of pictures so that you can see the difference. If you look closely you can see the drake feather starting out on the darker Khaki, the other which is a more of goldish tone was my hen (she fell victim last week). I will try to get a close up of the drake later on today and put it up for you to see.

Good Luck, Hope this helps
Tes

 

[GoodEgg]

My two drakes got their curls on the same day, the day before they turned 3 months old. It was only a couple of tiny curls at first. I almost missed them.

I also noticed differences in color and voice for some weeks before the drake feathers, so I was fairly sure who was duck and who was drake. Although one drake lost his voice a couple of weeks after the other.

I have always heard that females have louder voices than males. It is VERY TRUE for our bunch. I have also heard that females typically don't quack all day, but that males often do. Our males do tend to keep a quiet chatter up all the time, that you don't even notice much. It's very quiet. And one female quacks only when necessary. The other female however quacks LOUDLY about half of the time. It's really quite annoying because it's so loud. But she has alerted me to a dog and a cat in the yard. Problem is now she's starting to use the "alarm quack" several times a day when nothing is there, so I don't always check on her anymore.

Someone else posted that they had a female duck who quacked all the time and didn't ever lay an egg. All of mine are displaying breeding behavior EXCEPT this loud female. So I wonder if something with mess-up hormones causes females to "act like males" in quacking all the time, while they ARE females, and have the loud voice and no drake feathers.

I'm still a newbie. Just wanted to let you know what I've seen, so far.

trish

 

[SandraChick]

Someone else posted that they had a female duck who quacked all the time and didn't ever lay an egg. All of mine are displaying breeding behavior EXCEPT this loud female. So I wonder if something with mess-up hormones causes females to "act like males" in quacking all the time, while they ARE females, and have the loud voice and no drake feathers.

That was me! Unfortunately, a fox got her last week (and my other hen last night

).

I do really wonder about the ever talking female. She seemed to be very protective and defensive...more of a male behavior.

Sandra​

 

[GoodEgg]

Sorry about your girls, Sandra,

I used to LIKE the foxes playing down at the bottom of the yard in the old house. I dread seeing any now.

My female duck also chases the cat, along with the drakes. I have 2 ducks and 2 drakes, so I hadn't thought of it like that. I just thought the other female was shy since she's the only one who doesn't chase the cat.

I guess the aggressiveness is more of a male trait, and Baka is definitely acting like a male then.

Yesterday everyone got excited in the pool, and one of the drakes tried to climb on Baka by mistake. Boy, did SHE complain!

Guess I might have a noisy duck with no eggs after all.

Sorry again about your girls. I hope that fox doesn't come back.

trish