Khaki Campbell Sexing

[Ravie]

Hi everyone,

I know this has come up a million times before. I have read the sticky about sexing ducks. I have listened to the sound bytes of both drakes and hens.

I have a Welsh Harlequin duck and an 8-week-old unsexed Khaki Campbell. The KC is fully feathered. It is a uniform color with very light lacing throughout. The head is the same chocolate color as its body. Its bill is slate with a dark bean, its feet and legs are a very dull orange-brown. There are no white feathers at all on this bird. There is no tail curl (yet). It is a VERY quiet bird and is about the same size as the WH which is definitely a female and is only a week older. The thing is, this bird still does a lot of baby chirping and it probably sounds more masculine. It does quack quietly on occasion, but it never produces loud quack like the WH is capable of. My husband said that's just because the WH never shuts up long enough to let KC get a word in edgewise!

I would guess that since this is a hatchery duck, color sexing is far less reliable than voice sexing. What do you think? My main reason for being concerned is for the ducklet. If I have a KC male and only one hen, I'm afraid she'll get hurt. I might be able to talk my husband into ONE more duck, but duckling season is coming to an end. I am running out of time. If it's a male and I can't locate another duck, we'll have to eat him. The KC is my favorite of the two!

 

[nivtup]

I think you have a while to wait on anything other than quack sexing. The bill and leg color differences are not real apparent until later.

We are currently working on learning vent sexing of KC but so far I am not so sure I can manage it. This morning all I got was poop.


Good luck.

 

[Totes Quackers]

Sounds exactly like my khaki campbell.. i was sure i had a girl until 2 weeks ago when the 'cheeping' stopped and a dry raspy sad attempt at a quack could be heard.. but only if I am very close! He will be 16 weeks tomorrow and he's chocolate coloured head has some green coming through! He does have some white through the wings but not much. No curl in the tail feather as yet. He is a very quiet, placid boy.

 

[MjChickens]

I was on the Metzer Farms website over the weekend and they have a video on sexing ducklings. They should how to vent sex. I watch the video went out to the brooder and tried it on my ducklings.

OMG! vent sexing ducklings is so much easier than baby chicks. You should check it out.

 

[Eveyander]

OMG that does look sooo easy!!! lol I would go out and check my ducks but they are already 3 months old. I'm pretty sure I have at least 2 males but still not sure since they hardly make a noise. But when they do I can tell witch ones are the girls lol. This will come in handy for when we get our baby duckies next year!!

 

[Amelia-DarkWing]

Can you send me or post a picture of your baby khaki campbell with known sex? I've been vent checking mine and its so questionable? it looks like a little white thing is popping out sometimes but its so much smaller than the Metzer video, and it doesn't look the same and i really need to know? they say that there are patterns in color as babies. Sometimes babies are darker and female, lighter in male and other times its vice versa depending on the breed. Only i can't find which rule fits khaki campbell. SO i figure if you post a pic of your baby i can compare it to my baby. Is yours definitely a boy?