Looking for advice with my new venture "Pekin Ducks!"

[wondernurse]

I'm trying to guess the age and sex of my babies (they "quack" non-stop if it helps) as well as gain advice on incorporating 2 more younger ducklings I'm adopting that are only a few days old. Of course they will be kept in doors for a couple weeks, but ducks are new to our family. We also have 14 chickens and a rooster. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[redsoxs]

Greetings from Kansas, wondernurse, and

! Pleased you joined our flock! Pekins seem difficult to gender ID to me so I will defer that as well as other quacker questions to the knowledgeable folks in the Ducks Forum:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/42/ducks
And here are some useful duck articles you might enjoy: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/256233/ducks-sticky-topics-index
And if you would like to chat with some local poultry peeps, find your state thread in this link: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/270925/find-your-states-thread
Best wishes and thanks for joining BYC!

 

[drumstick diva]

 

[Ducks4us]

I'm trying to guess the age and sex of my babies (they "quack" non-stop if it helps) as well as gain advice on incorporating 2 more younger ducklings I'm adopting that are only a few days old. Of course they will be kept in doors for a couple weeks, but ducks are new to our family. We also have 14 chickens and a rooster. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

I commented on your other post as well. But they look to be about 5 ish weeks. And only girls make a loud quack. Boys around 5-6 weeks are usually still peeping/ or starting to make the quieter raspy sound that males make

 

[wondernurse]

What advice can you offer for introducing new ducklings to my current older babies?

 

[Teila]

G’Day from down under wondernurse

Welcome!

As you have already received links to some great starting points, I will just wish you all the best.

I hope you enjoy being a BYC member. There are lots of friendly and very helpful folks here so not only is it overflowing with useful information it is also a great place to make friends and have some fun.

If you would like to share pictures and stories of your flock, you have come to the right place. BYC’ers never tire of these and do not back away slowly or commence eye rolling when the photo album or home videos come out

 

[Ducks4us]

What advice can you offer for introducing new ducklings to my current older babies?

Be careful and do it very slowly over time. Let them see the new babies thru a cage they cant reach thru for a while.
I wasnt able to introduce ducklings with this same age gap untill the babies were 3-4 weeks old.
When they are tiny the bigger ducklings are too rough, i had a 5 week old grab a baby by the neck. Thankfully i was right there.
So give them time to get used to seeing and hearing each other before you let them see face to face.
And only under supervision

 

[N F C]

Ducks4us has given you some good information on integrating the younger ducklings to the older. Thanks for including a photo in your intro...pretty ducks!

 

[Chicken cas]

I put my younger or new ducks in cages beside the older ones. After a few weeks I let one group out to free range while the other stays penned. I'm slow to integrate them but I start by letting them forage together, put everyone back in their respective coops, then when everyone is friends I put them all in a new coop. For me the new coop is often a necessity as their old coops are too small for the joined flocks.
As for sexing, really it's hard to tell even by the quack. Males will get one-3 curly feathers that stand up on their tails at about 8-12 weeks (might be longer depending on breed and growth). That to me is the best way to tell.

 

[Ducks4us]

For us the voice difference is really easy. My ducklings last spring all turned out to be boys. And we bought more ducklings and there were a couple girls in the mix and the voice diff was huge. I could tell by 3 weeks old i had girls. The sounds they make were much diff than the boys.
But what can be hard is figuring out who is making the noise, depending on how many you have.
This time i have 3 unsexed khaki campbells and 10 sexed females. At 2 1/2 weeks the sexed females are already starting what i call a 'honky' sort of noise. And one of my khakis does it too. The other khaki doesnt every make any noise excpet for baby noises so im thinking he is a boy. But will know in another couple weeks when he loses his voice.