How soon can you tell if a peep is a roaster or an hen?

[albrightbears]

What characteristics can i look for to tell if a peep is going to be a roaster or an hen? I have 6 peeps that are about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks old and they all have half to all there feathers in. I would like to get some tips on how to tell if they are a roaster or an hen. And how soon would you be able to tell which ones are what?

 

[allgoaton]

Are you talking about chickens or ducks, here? Chickens you can start picking out roosters by their combs at a pretty young age as well as things like stocky feet, etc.

For ducks, male is called a drake. 3 weeks is a bit early to tell, but soon some of your early blooming females will start quacking. If they quack, they're girls. Personally, I've got four ducks that are sexed to be females... they are four weeks old, three we've heard some "peep-peep-peep-QUACK" from, the fourth is hopefully a girl too but is just the smallest and perhaps is going to take a little longer to quack.

Once they are fully feathered, and there are ducks who aren't quacking, they're probably drakes. Drakes don't quack like females, but they do make a hissing noise or a deeper quack noise. You can look online for audios of the sound. Drakes will also develop a little curly fail feather.

 

[albrightbears]

thanks for the info. I already have the duck down the duck eggs haven't hatched yet but i do have some chicken peeps right now that are almost 3 weeks old and i am trying to figure out or find out which ones will be roasters or hens

 

[allgoaton]

Then you should visit a chicken area of this site instead of the duck forum! They can help you figure out if your chickens are roosters or hens.