Male Or Female? You Decide!!!!! ANYONE???

[BjsBestGirl]

I have 5 ducks; 1 runner, 2 rouen, and 2 ancona/magpie. I have researched how to tell their gender, but im still not sure. The rouen both look like females, but one has the "Drake" quack. They are brown with diamond patterning and white tip wings that are getting green. One of the two has dark tail feathers and is the one with the raspy quack. It will kinda stink if Benjamin Franklin ends up being a girl. "He" started getting a white ring around "his" neck a monthh ago when I named "him" but the ring went away.Benjamin Franklin is also bigger (by about a pound) than Princess Heart Star Christine-the other rouen. One Ancona (Flop) is about a pound bigger than the other and is getting green feathers all down it's back, but has a female quack. The other ancona (Flip) does not have the green but has the same quack. Finally, the Runner. Heathcliff is beautiful. Im 99% sure she is a she. She is very petite, and has a very loud quacky type quack.

So the only one with the raspy quack that the drake gets, is benjamin Franklin, but "he" looks just like a female rouen; and no neck ring, no grey.

Which are they? I COULD just wait till they start laying, but..... That is like 4 more months away..... MINIMUM!!!

Please help. Any advice is good advice!

-Christine

 

[luvmychix]

the best way to tell is their quack..... do you have pix?

 

[pishposh]

I was able to sex our anconas by voice at about 3 weeks. the color and size are variable. The males didn't get their drake feathers until almost 4 months.

 

[Goat_Walker]

Your Rouen might still look female but thats ok- if it is a he , he will get the drake coloring in a little later. Its the same with mallards.

 

[Sweetfolly]

Quote:
Yep - their juvenile feathers look the same as the female coloration - their nuptial plumage doesn't come in until a few months later. Here are two of my mallards when they were two or three months old - they're both males:

 

[BjsBestGirl]

OH, THANK GOODNESS! I wont have to buy any drakes. I thought, that's just me luck, I have 5 ducks and none are males. The pic of the malards look identical to my rouen ducks. Benjamin Franklin also has a hint if green on top of his head where Princess Heart Star Christine has just black. And my Ancona, Flop, has green all down his back. Do youthink he might be a boy? Im not sure what the males look like when they're older.

 

[BjsBestGirl]

They dont like me to get too close, but i think i might be able to get pictures if i feed them again. ill try and be back soon.

 

[Sweetfolly]

My Mallards both had a green sheen to their heads when they were juveniles. Once every year, they molt and go into "eclipse" colors, when they look like girls again until the end of the summer before molting back into their male colors. Your Rouen should do that too - he'll molt into the brown female colors and look like that for about a quarter of every year.

I dunno about your Ancona though - that's one breed I've never had!