looking for "old wives tales" for determining sex

[hfchristy]

Any have any questionable methods for determining the sex of ducklings?

I'm scared of vent sexing, but I'm not calling them all "it" for the next two months. I'm pretty sure even the most unreliable "method" has better odds than just "well, it looks like a boy to me". Or not.
I'm thinking we'll have everyone record their completely uninformed guesses, as well as any other indicators we can come up with and see how well any of them do. There's got to be a homeschool lesson in there somewhere, right?

I've seen things for chickens about rows of feathers, or some weird "pick them up above the wings and see if they lift their legs" test, and of course, the comb. Are there things like that for ducks?

Christy

 

[agregg15]

It depends on the breed. I know with WH the color of the bill for the first couple of days is a reliable way to sex them.

 

[hfchristy]

How does that work? I had 7 WH hatch last night!

 

[Kevin565]

How does that work? I had 7 WH hatch last night!

http://www.metzerfarms.com/WelshHar...h Harlequin&BirdType=Duck&ID=WH&CustID=909922.


2nd Paragraph.

 

[Oregon Blues]

Not quite sure why you want to try to sex your ducks with methods that don't work.

If you don't want to vent sex them, what works is to be patient until you can voice sex them. Or else you can pay for the DNA test for each one.

 

[hfchristy]

I noticed that we seem to call certain ducklings "he" and others "she" (different for each person in our house) and thought it would be fun to have a contest and see who guesses the most right. Then I thought it would be fun to use a bunch of different methods to try to figure it out and see how our guesses stack up against "methods".

It's not that I especially want unreliable methods, it's just that my understanding was that pretty much nothing except vent sexing was going to be even close.

 

[stoopid]

I've heard another "tale", the males voices are deeper, and the females higher... don't know how true for each breed.