Hen turning into a drake???

[Welshies]

Hi, so this is Storm, my mixed breed duck. I thought I had one drake already, because he doesn't quack, just cheeps, but he doesn't have a curly feather forming yet. However, Storm quacks (sometimes, not as much as the others), but she- or he- has developed a curly feather! I just noticed it today. Is it curly, or just half plucked out???
All my ducks are 14 weeks.

 

[Pyxis]

That's not a drake feather, just a loose feather

 

[Welshies]

That's not a drake feather, just a loose feather

Why is it curly then?
Silly duck... she's not even molting anymore.

 

[Pyxis]

Because it's loose and has flipped upside down

 

[Ravynscroft]

That's not a drake feather, just a loose feather

X2

Drake feathers are very tight and narrow too... and they won't come in until their full adult molt either...

 

[Welshies]

X2

Drake feathers are very tight and narrow too... and they won't come in until their full adult molt either...

Like I said, they're done molting. They've had their first and second (eclipse) molts already.

 

[Ravynscroft]

Like I said, they're done molting. They've had their first and second (eclipse) molts already.

It's just a twisted or loose feather, it happens...

Btw, eclipse doesn't happen until after they have their adult feathers and go through first breeding season... eclipse is when they go from their brighter colors to muted shades...

 

[quackingdom]

One of Daphne's largest feathers somehow got broken or twisted half out, and she walked around for several WEEKS with this large flight feather poking up in the middle of her back. I didn't want to just yank it out, I was afraid it might hurt her, but it was funny. Every time she walked by, we sung, "But the one little duck, with the feather on her back, she led the others with a quack, quack, quack..."