Good old Call Duck thread

[MontanaChickDoc]

For me it's the quacking. I have a little grey blue one that hatched at the beginning of June that seems to have transitioned from a whistling to a quacking but maybe I am just being hopeful...the pekin crosses that hatched in the same clutch are gigantic but still whistling...neither rasping nor quacking. I remember the dad/ drake of the pekins was maybe 5-6 months before he sprouted his tail curl. Incidentally, do they molt that curl sometimes? Neither my white call drake nor my pekin seem to have their curls at the moment. What's up with that??

 

[shawluvsbirds]

For me it's the quacking. I have a little grey blue one that hatched at the beginning of June that seems to have transitioned from a whistling to a quacking but maybe I am just being hopeful...the pekin crosses that hatched in the same clutch are gigantic but still whistling...neither rasping nor quacking. I remember the dad/ drake of the pekins was maybe 5-6 months before he sprouted his tail curl. Incidentally, do they molt that curl sometimes? Neither my white call drake nor my pekin seem to have their curls at the moment. What's up with that??

Yes. They do molt them out during their summer molt.
I have an 8 week old call that is already quacking. Boys tend to take a longer time to lose their baby voice and start their raspy frog whisper.
Besides vent sexing about all you can do is wait for a quack. Drake feather takes a long time to come in and usually by then you will already know by voice.

 

[WVduckchick]

Yep I agree with Shaw. I notice drake feathers by 12-13 weeks, but girls usually quack before then.
I have a group with a broody now that will be 5 weeks old tomorrow. I heard a distinct female quack from one last night. But that’s pretty early for most of them.

 

[WVduckchick]

I started a thread about ducks molting, specifically drakes change in plumage. Several folks have posted good links about their moltings.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/drakes-eclipse-nuptial-plumage-pics.1258939/

 

[StormsnSaugeye]

I brought up the thread. I'll be perusing it between my work sessions (Working from home is great for multi tasking)
I took another look at the tea earl grey punishment duck, I can see a tiny little intact yolk sack at the bottom of the egg with some bright red veins around it. The red veins on the membrane have receded back a fair bit as well. so at 56 hours since he really began to hatch in earnest, he's still absorbing things.
Meanwhile there's a bunch of other positives happening. Of the 14 eggs in the incubator all but one have internally pipped. Of the 13 11 have at least externally pipped (With the 4 earlies sitting in their eggs still. I left the membranes covering them) with only two not having done so. For 2 of the external pips, they didn't quite break the membrane, so I lifted a little triangle piece and poked a small hole in it. I'm hands off again and not doing more for the next let's say 8 hours.
I will occasionally check the earl grey duck to see how it's coming along.

I think I'll break my naming convention for that one and call it Earl Grey

 

[shawluvsbirds]

External pips are awesome! That's great news

 

[StormsnSaugeye]

"Number 1, I demanded Tea, Earl Grey, Hot. There is no tea in this cup. As a matter of fact, why am I sitting in a cup?"

He finally opened his eyes. I'm not ready to let him out yet though. I still see red veins near the bottom and due to him fluffing out, I can't confirm that he has absorbed everything yet.

 

[StormsnSaugeye]

He's out of his egg.
I came out to check on him and he was trying to scramble out. After checking as much as possible, I could not see his yolk sac, nor veins.
His little umbilical can be seen on his belly though.
Welcome to the world Earl Grey

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Awesome sauce! Looks good!
Congratulations

 

[StormsnSaugeye]

Awesome sauce! Looks good!
Congratulations

Any clue why the area around the umbilical is still a bit puffy and yellow?