Male? Female? Whaaaa?

[Duckiewuckie]

My three female khaki Campbells were purchased as ducklings, supposedly sexed. I know this is not an exact science. One duck, always larger and more aggressive than the others, has a white spot on her chest. They very recently reached laying age, and I thought they weren't producing eggs, but now on a slightly unrelated note I've discovered rats in the coop so..... Anyways, I saw this one stand on the back of another one in their kiddie pool in the morning and bite the back of her neck. Is this definitively male behavior? I haven't noticed a penis or whatever, but haven't really been looking for one .. Thoughts?

 

[Duckiewuckie]

My three female khaki Campbells were purchased as ducklings, supposedly sexed. I know this is not an exact science. One duck, always larger and more aggressive than the others, has a white spot on her chest. They very recently reached laying age, and I thought they weren't producing eggs, but now on a slightly unrelated note I've discovered rats in the coop so..... Anyways, I saw this one stand on the back of another one in their kiddie pool in the morning and bite the back of her neck. Is this definitively male behavior? I haven't noticed a penis or whatever, but haven't really been looking for one .. Thoughts?

Also I had to run off to work pretty quickly so didn't have much time to observe

 

[Quacking Pigeon]

Could you upload a few pictures?

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

Sexing is pretty precise, but people make mistakes. Females will mount other females.
What does their quack sound like? If they are just coming to age to lay, you might not get any eggs due to it being fall. Pics would help too.

 

[Callender Girl]

I added three baby "females" to my duck flock this spring because my drakes were keeping my girls way too busy. I sat with the breeder as we went through many, many one- and two-day-old runner ducklings, since nearly every one I chose revealed a tiny penis when she took a close look. Finally, I left with three.

But almost from the start, one was a little bigger and talked a little more softly. Yup, Lane turned out to be yet another drake. By the time I was certain he was a he, Lane was mounting his coop-mates in the baby pool. To her credit, the breeder offered to exchange him for a hen, but I decided to just stick with Lane.

Over the summer, the drakes were actively breeding the hens, and duck penises were an every day sight. Now that both the weather and duck hormones are cooling off, mounting is much more rare; it would be difficult to tell genders if not for the much louder voices of the hens.

I have not seen any of my females mount each other, but two of my younger adult hens -- who have been buddies since they were acquired last year -- have recently begun to go after each others' head -- like the video where giraffes will swing their necks and strike each other with their heads. No one seems overly aggressive, no one is getting hurt. But it just looks crazy.

 

[cheezenkwackers]

My girls have mounted each other, it is a dominance thing. You can easily sex Khaki Campbell’s by looking at the feathers just above the tail. Males will have dark, solid feathers. The females will have lighter two-toned feathers. The female is on the left, male on the right.