Can you tell a male from a female?
Most domestic breeds are difficult to tell apart until they are old enough to quack. Ducks (females) quack, drakes kind of whisper-honk. Experts can often tell by vent-sexing, but it has to be done very carefully not to injure the duckling. I bought eleven runner females. There is a 10% chance of a drake or two in the mix. But that is an okay ratio - no fewer than 3 females per drake, or the drakes will possibly hurt the females being too "romantic."
How long until they stink if we keep them in the house? Mine have been in the house five weeks and you can only detect stink (more like a mild aroma) if you are the chambermaid (that is me) and have to get down on hands and knees to clean up. So, five weeks, and no stink in the house. I clean the brooder three to five times a day. But I have no other options, and I love these little birds. The tallest are already 20 inches, by the way.
We already have a flock of chickens, can we put them together? Some people are quite successful putting them together. It depends on your setup. You probably would need to, at least, put the chickens' waterers up where the ducks cannot reach them, because ducks instantly muddy up water, and go through it very quickly - drinking some, splashing some.
Are ducks friendly? If handled gently and well and regularly, very friendly.
Will they scare my dumb idiot dog? The "i" word is very strong language, but we won't really know until they meet each other. I kept my cats away from the ducklings entirely until the ducklings' eyes were taller than the cats' eyes. I supervise the cats when they watch the birds from a distance, now, and the cats do not seem inclined to mess with eleven very tall critters.
And how long until they start to lay eggs? That depends on the breed, their housing and feed, the weather . . . they can start laying around 4 or 5 months from what I have been told, but I have heard of them taking longer.
