Feathers help????

[HorseMadWhovian]

Hi fellow poultry keepers,
I have four five week old silver appleyard X khaki campbell ducklings, they've just started getting their breast and wing feathers. When will they get their 'sex' feather and green heads if they're drakes, apparently even females get the blue stripe down their wings if they're silver appleyards, when will they get that? Silver appleyard female apparently have dark toenails and sometimes a dark bean on their beak, on of mine has both of those but rarely peeps/quacks and is incredibly large with big feet, does size indicate gender?
Thanks in advance
Ruby, Annabeth, Daisy, Rose and Percy

 

[Going Quackers]

I am not familiar with either of those breeds BUT i have call drake, so i found with him it was his voice long before his head turned green(he's a grey) or his drake curl appeared. All my other mallard derived ducks are female and i knew them by voice before colouring too.

 

[DuckyGurl]

I think voice is the first indicator. Low and raspy is a drake, a more full-on "quack" is a duck.
HTH! Also, I think there are videos somewhere on here if you look.

 

[HorseMadWhovian]

Thanks, mine are in the middle of quacking and peeping so they all sound strange

 

[Amiga]

It can take up to 7 months or so for a drake feather. Majestic Waterfowl has a page with a recording of a drake's voice.

 

[EggsnQuackers]

Voice is a good indicator. I've used it while the birds were still in the brooder with good results.
I've raised Silver Appleyards for 3 years now and I have noticed on the males they will get dark feathers around their bill quite early. It's a very thin line that traces the upper bill. I'd have to go home and check my notes on exactly what age that started. I know they were out of the brooder but they weren't showing any other sex-linked plumage (no drake feather on the tail, no green heads etc..).
I don't know how crossbreeding would affect this.

 

[HorseMadWhovian]

I found a website that says silver appleyard ducks sometimes get a black bean, but khaki campbell drakes do as well so two of mine have that and one is a duck, the others a drake, finally figured out their genders, the quack has come through on two of them, the others are started to get a red chest (silver appleyard) Khaki bills (KC) and raspy voices, my names are so messed up, now Percy is Annabeth, Daisy is Percy, Annabeth is the Doctor and Rose is Rose, I'm happy with two drakes two ducks though, better then four drakes