"Female" chocolate runner ducks with green sheen and chasing other ducks??

[SummerBird225]

Hi! Does anyone else have chocolate runner ducks? We ordered four females from Metzer farms and now we are wondering if two of the four are males. They are a little over five weeks old and two are noticeably larger than the other two and have a lot of green sheen to the feathers on their wings. Also, we just introduced them to our adult pair of ducks and one of them chased the older male duck away repeatedly and aggressively. The two in question have been slightly bigger since we first got them, and they are also the most enthusiastic about diving in the water. The other two are smaller and have only a tiny bit of green sheen and show no aggressive behavior. No curly drake feathers on any of them yet, and they all seem to be in-between a peep and a quack with the noises they make. I haven't noticed any raspy drake quacks, but that might be hard to tell at this point. So, what do you think? Do I have two drakes and two ducks? Do I have four girls with one very energetic assertive female? Is it too early to tell yet? Thanks in advance!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Did you use the side by side intros? where the adults and new ducklings are kept side by side but with fencing in between so they could not chase or pick but where they could get use to each other. Ducklings can be assertive to older ducks so this may just be the younger wanting to show dominance. If you can put up some pictures maybe we can help?
I don't have chocolate Runners I have blk though and the girls have green sheen on their feathers. or they did until they began to molt in white. They are 6 yrs old.

 

[ShelbyCiave]

I think it’s very possible you got a few boys in there based off my recent experience with Metzer. Almost 8 weeks ago, I ordered 4 female blue Swedish, got the ducklings from the post office, opened the box, and discovered 8 ducklings (4 non blue Swedish). I already have 2 one year old drakes. From comparing my older boys to these 8 ducklings, you can definitely tell female vs male pretty early on by sound. That is my opinion. My 4 blue girls started quacking between 3-4 weeks. The 4 non blues are raspy at almost 8 weeks old and I can see drake feathers coming in. For the extra ducklings, 3 are khaki’s and 1 is golden 300 cross. The khakis had a green sheen early on and the golden had bright color changing green to purple on its wings. I don’t know about runners, but currently I have a 1yr old pekin drake, 1yr old Rouen cross drake, 4 blue Swedish females, the 3 khaki’s and 1 golden and I definitely can notice differences in male vs female now. I did read that it can take girls a little longer to quack, but there may be distinct signs to tell male/females apart with runners. Hopefully Metzer gave you all girls!!

 

[SummerBird225]

Thank you, @Miss Lydia and @ShelbyCiave! @Miss Lydia, we released them to free range on our pond with our existing pair of older ducks, and the two groups are getting along pretty well. We didn't have the older ones cooped up, so we couldn't do a gradual introduction, which wasn't ideal, but it's working out fine.
After watching their behavior the last couple days, we are positive we have one male and three females. They all have the green sheen to some degree, so I'm thinking that's not an indicator of sex. We have one that will chase the older ducks away from the rest of the little flock and who is also standing guard over them in high alert at night. I'm still waiting to see if "he" develops a curly feather in his tail, but we are pretty sure it's a boy. Thank you so much for your helpful response!!

 

[Awaytome]

I also ordered and paid for female chocolate runners from Metzer earlier this year and ALL of them have turned out to be males. If it wasn't the entire order that was wrong I might think it was just the difficulty of sexing, but since all are males I think the problem is either gross incompetence or negligence. I wrote yesterday asking for a refund, but I needed females this summer and have no idea what I am going to do with all these drakes. I am so disappointed and really disgusted with Metzer Farms. A refund doesn't come close to covering the cost of their mistake.

 

[Awaytome]

I now have two females and seven males, and one of the females is quite old. I don't know if she'll make it through another winter so I'll be down to the one female. We're on the north Olympic Peninsula. So my choices are to cull the males; or try to rehome the girls and keep an all male flock which I don't really want; or keep them separate which requires making permanent housing for two flocks at a time when my husband is experiencing life threatening health issues, is unable to help, and I have little time to put into anything but his care.

 

[ShelbyCiave]

My Swedish at 5 weeks I could tell the girl from the boys by her quack
As for tail feathers usually 3-4 months
My Swedish are 2 months now and no curly drake feather on the boys yet but they are definitely male by the raspy voice and she is louder then any of my other females lol

My blue Swedish are my females also and they are LOUD! They make it known they are around

 

[ShelbyCiave]

I also ordered and paid for female chocolate runners from Metzer earlier this year and ALL of them have turned out to be males. If it wasn't the entire order that was wrong I might think it was just the difficulty of sexing, but since all are males I think the problem is either gross incompetence or negligence. I wrote yesterday asking for a refund, but I needed females this summer and have no idea what I am going to do with all these drakes. I am so disappointed and really disgusted with Metzer Farms. A refund doesn't come close to covering the cost of their mistake.

I know how you feel. I had only ordered the 4 blue Swedish females and paid $70 or something for a small order fee. I only wanted 4 more ducks and I needed them to be girls. Metzer followed instructions giving me 4 female blues, but they also tossed in 4 drakes of different breeds. None were banded and I emailed asking if they were all females and the breeds and they said “if they aren’t banded, we sent all females and you received 4 extra females by mistake” I tried telling them that they aren’t all blue Swedish and kept emailing them pictures and finally they said “sorry, those are drake KC and some drake hybrid.

 

[ShelbyCiave]

From all I have read about Metzers this isn’t the norm

I Was ordering from Cal Hatchery first. My neighbor got a few chicks, my friend got a few chicks and I ordered ducks. With everything we ordered, we were above the amount for the small order fee. After I made the purchase, my ducklings got cancelled because they have to be ordered separately and I was left in charge of safely delivering the chicks to the proper homes. Once the ducks were no longer coming, I decided to order from Metzer because their small order fee is less than Cal Hatch. While reading reviews, I saw all very great things people had to say. From the moment I opened the box and saw double ducks and then even until this day, I’m just constantly confused, flustered, and kinda bummed. I love the ducklings and I think im going to keep the males despite having too many males already (sorry future hubby), because I know I’ll figure something out and give them a far better life than if they were to get rehomed elsewhere. BUT the future hubs who is not fond in the slightest of having poultry, has agreed to go pick up some pullets to integrate into our zoo. The existing male ducks did kill one chicken, but my other chicken I think had a preexisting internal issue which caused her to die in my arms. So from having 4 hens, I’m down to 2. Life isn’t perfect, but it’s all gonna be ok.

 

[Awaytome]

I checked Metzer and saw mostly positive reviews, so placed an order feeling confidant they had the expertise to sex the birds, but I surely regret that decision now. I can't even begin to tell you how much. This complicates my life at a very bad time, and I'm heartbroken at the choices I am now forced to make.