male or females???

[mjeglosky]

I have 3 ducks that I got late this spring. Ive been questioning the sex of them...been waiting for the tell tail curled tail; but hadn't seen anything to indicate male or female. My husband and I have both seen one of the ducks mounting the others, so we assumed it was male, however they've just started laying (this last week) and I'm pretty sure that Im getting 3 duck eggs a day. (hard to be 100% because we also have chickens that have been laying in the duck nest).

Is it common for a female to mount other females? We've only seen it a couple of times, and theres been no other remarkable behavior amongst them.

I'd appreciate any "expertise" info from you other duck lovers!

thanks!

 

[Spyderk117]

Hi welcome to BYC! Hens are loud and quack. Drakes have a raspy quiet quack.
So pretty much hens are louder than drakes.
Are you able to post a picture of them?

 

[Ghibli]

Yup! Mounting is normal, I believe it's usually a dominance thing between females. I have a Drake but my girls mount each other as often if not more than he does! So I'd say if you think you're getting 3 duck eggs, it's probably three hens, try the voicing method suggested by Spyderk Males and females sound very distinctly different.

 

[mjeglosky]

These are my three "quackers". Im pretty sure that they're all female, since we've been finding eggs in the corner of our chicken coop. A couple of my chikens have started to lay there as well, but I'm fairly confident that I can tell the duck eggs from the chicken eggs. The only confusion for me is that I have seen one of the ducks mounting the others. Is that common?

 

[mjeglosky]

ok, good to know. Thank you!

 

[Spyderk117]

Duck eggs are much bigger than chicken eggs.