Mallard duckling

[ChcknLady]

My 4 week old mallard duckling is getting what seems to be blue feathers on the tips of the wings. Does this indicate sex at all? Please help-I'm trying to name them and it is hard when you don't know if they are girls or boys!!!

 

[Punk-Rock_Chicken]

No...both male and females have the blue on their wings. Best way to tell is males have a solid black beak. But somethimes it's hard to tell when they a by themselves. When there are a bunch together you can see the differance and pick out the males.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Ummm, how about the curl in the tail of the boys? Of course that develops later, but as adults anyways, the males have orange beaks while female beaks are black.

 

[ChcknLady]

Well that's not good! Two totally different opinions on beak color-eeek! It has no tail curl....yet!

 

[Pidgey104]

thats what I was thinking tooo two differnet when the beaks. which is which.

 

[WalkingWolf]

My mallard/pekin started developing black feathers around his beak at about 4 weeks. It quickly developed by two months and he had the greenish black head.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/NDG/Ducks/BRKMallards.html

 

[Chickiezz]

I have 2 mallard ducklings and a pekin duckling so I would like to know too. One of the mallards has more black on it's beak then the other one, but still has a little bit of white too on its beak. I don't know....

 

[Chickiezz]

males do have yellow beaks...

 

[Punk-Rock_Chicken]

Yes as adults they have yellow beaks Sonoran is correct on that...but it's my expierence(and I was told this by a breeder) that as ducklings, the male has a black beak. Look at the site that Sonoran posted and scroll down to the pics of multiple ducklings... you can see that there is a difference. I told you it's kinda hard when there arent others to compare it too. It's better to know how to tell the difference at the time you are picking them out from the flock...much easier then. When we bought ours, we wanted a drake but did not know how to tell them apart at that time. We ended up with a hen. However, it turns out that she is still just as beautiful as the drake. I have helped a friend pick out a couple(a drake and a hen) and we were correct. I hope this helps.

Mark