Is my muscovy an it?

[sourland]

Conformation looks male.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I think so too. So now to find some females for him

 

[Kessel23]

Does he hiss?

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

Conformation looks male.

Could he just be a late maturer? Has always been same size as hen and carnucles on breeders other drakes were those massive ugly kind.

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

I think so too. So now to find some females for him

Thats why I wanted to confirm. A work mate offered us a quad once we get coop upgraded (fox attack last week, this guys only survivor) and I've been thinking about it alot last few days.

 

[sourland]

Why are you certain that previous eggs were not fertile ? Did you incubate any ?

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

Why are you certain that previous eggs were not fertile ? Did you incubate any ?

She also sat on chicken eggs, which we candled. The chicken eggs developed, the duck ones did not and went bad.

 

[Kessel23]

I am actually leaning towards hen. I have seen some nice quality Muscovy hens and drakes before, some hens that I have seen have more caruncle than my drakes. Caruncle is not the best way to sex, the easiest way is by sound. Drakes and hens sound completely different. You can also sex by looking at body shape, similar to geese, and size.

here is a muscovy drake compared to a decent sized hen.

Here is my smallest drake compared to hens, still clearly larger.
For body shape I have always noticed hens have a lower hanging rear and stomach, compared to the drakes who are usually very flat.

hen

drake

drake

The low hanging rear is something that I have noticed to be common in mature Muscovy hens who have laid eggs.

Here is a female that has not laid yet. The curves on the rear are still clear to see though.

So did the two birds sound the same? If they did then they were both hens, there should be a very clear difference in the voice, more clear than mallard derived ducks.

 

[Kessel23]

To be more specific, I am looking at the drop off behind the tail, in a drake it is nearly flat while in a hen it is curved.

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

They both made female noises. But this one also makes alot of different noises. I will see if I can get a video of it talking at lunch time and hopefully that helps.