Khaki Campbell Ducks and Drake(?)

[NewJourney]

My five Khaki Campbells are now 24 weeks old. I am getting 3-4 eggs per day. Sometimes I get a double-yolk egg! I've had two so far in the 2-3 weeks that I've been getting eggs from them. I believed (until I got 4 instead of 3 eggs) that I had two drakes. Two of my birds have very orange feet. They seem to have raspy voices but at least one of those two also quacks loudly sometimes like the others. Sooo. I'm confused.

I've seen some mounting occasionally but they never seem to actually do it right, or what would appear to be "right" to me, a new duck owner. They never make proper contact with their reproductive parts. I've raised them since they were a few days old. I bought them at my local TSC in July.

Here is a video I just recorded earlier a couple of weeks ago:

It's difficult to tell which duck is which other than a few of them by the color and shape of their bills. One is very dark, one is very light, one is very greenish, and the other two are basic browny, one of them with a hint of green that's barely noticeable. Their bodies all basically look the SAME. One has what looks like sun bleaching - but it's on the underside of the duck. I don't understand how that happens since I never see any of the ducks lying on their backs LOL.

Here are some pics, which may or may not have the same or different ducks in them.

I live in southern Nevada with what is called "poof dirt" as my "soil". We don't have grass, yet. We want to grow grass, clover, or similar type of ground cover but it'll take some planning since we also have chickens. And, as you know, they destroy plants of all types.

That low mound that they are on is the bedding we pull out of the coop (pine shavings) and we pile it here to compost. It's not a great compost pile since the chickens are constantly spreading it out, but it has actually started to create some actual healthy compost under there. I'm impressed with it.

Does anyone want to take a guess at whether I have 4 or 5 females?

My ducks tend to be very nervous. I hear it's quite common with the Khaki Campbell breed. They are slowly getting used to us bending down and gently petting their chests, they still tend to shy away when we bend down but usually come back if we have something yummy for them.

I love these ducks. They are so adorable and goofy. And they provide me wonderful breakfast, lunch or even dinner each day.

Also, one of them lays green-tinted eggs. The others are standard white.

 

[User635240]

Hard to tell from your photos, but the drake with have a curly q feather by his tail (sort the same place as saddle feathers on chickens), and his head will be all dark green. These feathers come in at three months. I didn't see any Drake looking ducks in your photos. To me it looks like you have five females.

 

[User635240]

If you're getting 3-4 eggs a day then it makes sense you have five females. They lay around 200 eggs a year. I'm not sure about the odd mounting behavior. Maybe just a duck thing.

 

[Hykiko]

This is my pair of khaki’s left one is male daddy right one is female mommy, I’ve noticed males have a “hood” pattern males also have orange legs and a deeper quack. He’s also very protective of all the females including my hens, he bullies my rooster who is bigger then him. My female tends to follow his lead everywhere as well, if she walks off he doesn’t follow so much but if he walks off she’ll run to follow him.

 

[Jenbirdee]

Drakes get a curly tail feather and I dont see any on yours.

 

[Miss Lydia]

This is my pair of khaki’s left one is male daddy right one is female mommy, I’ve noticed males have a “hood” pattern males also have orange legs and a deeper quack. He’s also very protective of all the females including my hens, he bullies my rooster who is bigger then him. My female tends to follow his lead everywhere as well, if she walks off he doesn’t follow so much but if he walks off she’ll run to follow him.View attachment 3715748

Is daddy nice to his kids? Many drakes aren't. I love that picture.

 

[NewJourney]

None of mine have a curly tail feather. Several have noticeably darker heads and necks but none are green. They are all khaki brown. Two have orange legs and feet while the other three have khaki brown.

It’s been confusing since I cannot for the life of me believe I didn’t get a drake from TSC in the assorted duck bin lol. I’m kind of happy that they all may be females because they are too nervous for me to want to breed. I am planning on getting some Silver Appleyards in the spring and plan to breed those and sell the hatching eggs. I know they are an endangered breed and I want to help repopulate them. They’re beautiful and supposedly have fantastic personalities and aren’t near as skittish as Campbells.

 

[Hykiko]

Is daddy nice to his kids? Many drakes aren't. I love that picture.

He killed the first two babies that hatched, before I had woken up. And the little one that you see after it hatched mom picked it up by the foot and threw it because it’s 8 days younger then her sister. When I let the babies out with the parents I keep an eye on them because the parents do bite at them from time to time.

 

[Hykiko]

None of mine have a curly tail feather. Several have noticeably darker heads and necks but none are green. They are all khaki brown. Two have orange legs and feet while the other three have khaki brown.

It’s been confusing since I cannot for the life of me believe I didn’t get a drake from TSC in the assorted duck bin lol. I’m kind of happy that they all may be females because they are too nervous for me to want to breed. I am planning on getting some Silver Appleyards in the spring and plan to breed those and sell the hatching eggs. I know they are an endangered breed and I want to help repopulate them. They’re beautiful and supposedly have fantastic personalities and aren’t near as skittish as Campbells.

If you had the chance when they were younger you could of sexed them, I sexed mine with accuracy.

When they are still little is better, you gently put their butt in the air, with one hand gently push the tail away with the other hand place your fingers next to the opening pull out gently then push inwards gently, if something white pops out it’s a male if nothing pops out it’s female. Do know they will poop a little as you do this, so don’t confuse the poop with the males part.

Also my male’s tail feathers didn’t start to curl till almost 2-3 weeks before they were 6 months old.

 

[NewJourney]

If by six months old all drakes will be visibly different than the hens then yeah I have five hens. I'm thankful, honestly. I know that drakes can harm or kill chicken hens by mating with them - and since our ducks and chickens are combined together in one area and in one coop at night the last thing I need is more coop drama than we've had recently. We had to "dispatch" two of our remaining three roosters all within a few days because of them fighting each other. Thankfully all of that is settled, so we hope that the coop will be happy and healthy going forward. And without having a drake it should make our lives easier. Though I kind of do want to have a drake but I plan to get some Silver Appleyards that will be in a separate fenced in area and I'll have a drake with those hens.