Is this duck a Drake?

[Ducks_4_me]

They are a little over a year old. What threw me off was the different beak color

Beak color has nothing to do with sex.not in ducks anyway

 

[casportpony]

Both appear to be hens. Mating behavior between duck hens when no drake is present is very common.

x2

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

Beak color has nothing to do with sex.not in ducks anyway

I thought that with welsh harlequin ducklings you could determine sex by their bill color most of the time?
https://livestockconservancy.org/index.php/heritage/internal/welshharlequin

 

[Khota]

Bill color can sometimes be used for sexing younger rouens before they get their 'boy' feathers. The males will have a more greenish bill and the females will have a more brownish one.

As mentioned above, young welsh harlequins can also be sexed by their bill colors. They can actually be pretty effectively sexed upon hatching from their bill colors.

Some ducks can be sexed by their bill colors, however it typically just depends on the breed of duck whether this can be an applicable way to sex them or not.

 

[Ducks_4_me]

Bill color can sometimes be used for sexing younger rouens before they get their 'boy' feathers. The males will have a more greenish bill and the females will have a more brownish one.

As mentioned above, young welsh harlequins can also be sexed by their bill colors. They can actually be pretty effectively sexed upon hatching from their bill colors.

Some ducks can be sexed by their bill colors, however it typically just depends on the breed of duck whether this can be an applicable way to sex them or not.

These don't appear to be Welsh harlequins

 

[Lil Drake40]

I think they are fawn an white an white runners

 

[Khota]

Haha I didn't say that they were - Someone else had said that ducks cannot be sexed by their bill colors, and I just used Welsh harlequins as an example towards the fact that some breeds can be. With runners, I believe the only way to tell (without vent sexing) would be the duck's stature, voice or the curly tail feather drakes tend to get.

 

[Ducks_4_me]

here is a thread on byc https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/sexing-ducks-by-bill-color.71342/

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

Here is the excerpt of the book, Guide to Raising Ducks, where Holderead talked about sexing ducklings and ducks - I took a screenshot of where he mentions bill color of purebred ducks.
https://books.google.com/books?id=o...holderread sexing ducks by bill color&f=false