Interesting Outcomes (PIC HEAVY)****UPDATES***

[missred871]

So I posted a while back about my baby ducks, many said they had a few known colorings..... well...... they are feathering out into INTERESTING colored ducks....

I know they are.... rowen, swedish, pekin, runner, and cayuga since they hatched out from my own eggs and this is what the ducks I have are.

now..... any ideas on how the HECK the brown colored ones can have a ring around their necks? I thought the rings were going to be male then they started feathering out like females..... what the heck is up?! HOWEVER.... they are sooooo purdy!

well I have more pictures but that is all I will post for now.


Any theories?

 

[4-H chicken mom]

but they are purdy.

 

[KansasKid]

The ones with the ring are most likely going to be drakes. They won't get the drake color till later on. Just like the adults go into eclipse plumage during the summer.

 

[missred871]

Quote:
good to know. However, I hope that isnt true since everyone of the brown ones have ring necks..... also they are the prettiest.

 

[KansasKid]

quickest way to know is to vent sex em. are they mixed or pure?

 

[missred871]

Quote:
very much mixed lmao the parents are mixed as well except the pekins.

Parents:

swedish/rouen/cayuga hens x3
2 aylesbury hens
1 pekin drake
1 chocolate runner hen (full blooded)
1 chocolate runner drake (full blooded)
2 runner/swedish/rouen drakes

those are the parents.

ETA: Can you still vent sex at this age with no harm done? I read on Metzer it was best if sone in the first week.

 

[FenDruadin]

At this stage you don't need to vent sex. Just pick 'em up one at a time and listen to them quack. Boys will have a quiet raspy sound, girls will let out a real Quacky yell. This begins to be clear around 4 weeks, and by 6 weeks of age it's usually quite clear.

They're pretty, all right! Good luck with them!

 

[Funky Feathers]

I vent sex mine (except calls) from 3 days on up to adults. If you do it right it doesn't hurt them. I wait until 3 weeks with the calls as they are so tiny & fragile.

 

[missred871]

Quote:
it is too early yet for that. I will have atleas another week or possibly two before they start with the voice changes. Only one has and it was the one that was two weeks older than everyone else.... she's a girl thankfully.... I really hope I end up with more girls than boys....

 

[Goat_Walker]

No - the ring does not mean they are male. It just means they have rouen or mallard mixed in

Rouen in your case. When my 'Mallard' drake ( who i am conviced could have been a rouen because he was pretty big ) was my main sire to all my ducklings over half would come out with mallard coloring or the ring around their necks. I think that tha Mallard/ ROuen coloring is just a dominant trait.

My buff , magpie , and cayuga hens would hatch out ducks that would be female with the white ring

As for sexing - you should be about able to hear the different variations in the quacking like the others have posted

Boys will have a softer almost croaky quack where as the females will have a very unmistakably loud and almost protesting quack, lol. If you cant tell by now they might still have a little bit of a squeaky quack but with in at least two weeks you should know for sure.

THe way i used to do it when i had bigger groups of ducklings like that is have them all in one little corral with two pens on the side. Pick them up and when they quack in protest make your decision - boy or girl - and set ehm in the boy pen or the girl pen. That way you can kind of have a picture of who is who and then just put them all back together. But then at least you have an almost accurate count.



My mutts - the chocolate is my cayuga / mallard. The black bibbed is magpie/mallard, and the other two are buff/mallard. All hens. And as you can see, Bertha , the one with the white ring around her neck , was the LOUDEST hen ive ever owned, lol.