MALLARD THREAD...not rouens, Mallards!

[muus]

Hi
My mallards have their head feathers green with only one month old, that is normal? They are the males, when they were young, I sexed them but I only found one male, the other I thought that was a female, but it's a male. I can see a very big difference between males and females. The girls altrhough are bigger than the boys, they have the plumule, the males don't have it, when it starts to appear the feathers, the plumule fall.
I see this today when we were at the ravine walking, and I taked some photos with the sun, It's difficult to see but the feathered part of the head is totally green like an adult, and the rump haves green:



Ocurrs the same with the wing feathers, I don't know if that is normal with young males. I need to see that the biggest duckling I have, It's a female and she haven't any feathers in the head yet, and one of the males is one of the smallest I have and he haves feathers in his head.
Thanks

 

[cymbaline]

Sorry Muus, those ducks are way too young to be getting green head feathers. Boys will always feather in just like the girls at first, and then molt a month or two later. See my three young ones below, and then a few weeks later the fellow in the middle of the first pic looked like this.You can see the green starting around his eyes, and the gray coming in on his body...his bill is also yellowed as well.


Sometimes the black feathers on ones of this age can look like they have a hint of green to them - I saw it on my girls and was very concerned I had chosen a bunch of boys, lol - but the green you're seeing is nothing compared to the green the boys will eventually have.

They are getting to an age where voice-sexing can help assure you of the genders. If you hear one start doing this:

then you've got a girl. If they hit 7-8 weeks and aren't making such loud honk-quacks yet, then you'll likely hear them make these sounds later:

which means you've got a boy. (Obviously this is not a mallard, lol, but it's a male)

Hope of all this helps!

 

[muus]

Sorry Muus, those ducks are way too young to be getting green head feathers. Boys will always feather in just like the girls at first, and then molt a month or two later. See my three young ones below, and then a few weeks later the fellow in the middle of the first pic looked like this.You can see the green starting around his eyes, and the gray coming in on his body...his bill is also yellowed as well.


Sometimes the black feathers on ones of this age can look like they have a hint of green to them - I saw it on my girls and was very concerned I had chosen a bunch of boys, lol - but the green you're seeing is nothing compared to the green the boys will eventually have.

They are getting to an age where voice-sexing can help assure you of the genders. If you hear one start doing this:

then you've got a girl. If they hit 7-8 weeks and aren't making such loud honk-quacks yet, then you'll likely hear them make these sounds later:

which means you've got a boy. (Obviously this is not a mallard, lol, but it's a male)

Hope of all this helps!

My ducks are difirent to yours, because they have a green feathers in their head, it's not normal that 5 ducks that haves 5 weeks old, ones have more growth than the others(about the feathers) The suposed males, don't have the same feathers.
I will tell you the differences between the suposed males with the suposed females.
Males: Green feathers in their head(now I can see the green without sun light), more feathers, black beck.
Females: No feathers in their heads(they don't have the bald head that the males have when the feathers start coming out), without the chest, all the females are recovered with featherbed and one of them is more big than all the brothers, the beck is orange.
With this features, I can tell that I have 2 females and 3 males.
It's very dificult to listen them when they call, all the time they are together and for now, when I call them all they do the same quacking. They are some of them That do loud sounds, I will try to listen themm better.
Maybe you think that I'm crazy, because it's not a normal thing what I'm telling, about our ducks is that, yours have the common brown feathers, and mine have a schocking green. Tomorrow I'll tray to do a better photo because my camera is not good...because of this in the photo you see a black head and not green but all the black zone is really green
Thanks

 

[smonkeySK]

Probably a double recessive genetic trait that both parents contributed to.

Probably wouldn't have seen half as many if one of parents were different.

I have a mallard that bred with a bibbed blue call.
I got colours I wouldn't have seen if I'd used a mallard type call instead of an actual mallard.
Mallard genes can be pretty mixed up after many years of randy males raping anything that moves!

 

[RacerWife7]

My "Harriet" seems to have turned out to be a HARRY!!!! AHHHH!!! Now, I have 3 drakes and 2 ducks! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Correct me if I'm wrong, but, all those gray feathers + the yellowish-greenish bill = male. Not to mention the male-sounding voice. *Sigh*... These were supposed to have been sexed, too.

...I am, now, wondering something: When I ordered these ducklings, I ordered 2 female mallard ducklings. I was shipped THREE (in an effort to ensure that at least 2 of them made it to me alive, I believe). I wonder if the little one who didn't survive the trip was my girl and Harry was meant to have been the sacrificial duck? He came to us with only one eye. Well... he has two. But, one doesn't work and he tends to keep that eyelid closed most of the time. You can see it's closed in this picture. Maybe they thought he wouldn't make it. I don't know. And I probably never will, for sure. But, now I have the problem of too many drakes. That being said, my original 3 are living together, happily even though they are 2 drakes and 1 duck. My duck in that group is really large (a Swedish blue) and the drakes are a Swedish blue drake and a mallard drake. In early spring, I had some issues with the boys fighting. But, now, they've settled down a lot. My 2 mallard babies are in one section of the run and the older 3 are in another section. The original plan was to put the mallard "girls" with my mallard drake. Looks like that plan is out the window.

 

[Rhandi74]

My "Harriet" seems to have turned out to be a HARRY!!!! AHHHH!!! Now, I have 3 drakes and 2 ducks! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Correct me if I'm wrong, but, all those gray feathers + the yellowish-greenish bill = male. Not to mention the male-sounding voice. *Sigh*... These were supposed to have been sexed, too. ...I am, now, wondering something: When I ordered these ducklings, I ordered 2 female mallard ducklings. I was shipped THREE (in an effort to ensure that at least 2 of them made it to me alive, I believe). I wonder if the little one who didn't survive the trip was my girl and Harry was meant to have been the sacrificial duck? He came to us with only one eye. Well... he has two. But, one doesn't work and he tends to keep that eyelid closed most of the time. You can see it's closed in this picture. Maybe they thought he wouldn't make it. I don't know. And I probably never will, for sure. But, now I have the problem of too many drakes. That being said, my original 3 are living together, happily even though they are 2 drakes and 1 duck. My duck in that group is really large (a Swedish blue) and the drakes are a Swedish blue drake and a mallard drake. In early spring, I had some issues with the boys fighting. But, now, they've settled down a lot. My 2 mallard babies are in one section of the run and the older 3 are in another section. The original plan was to put the mallard "girls" with my mallard drake. Looks like that plan is out the window.

Yes Harriet is indeed a Harry he looks just like my drake Pie. Quite funny and awkward getting their drake feathers in. I accidentally gave my duck away and now have 2 drakes and 2 ducks. I am going to wait and see and if I have to I will get rid of one drake, hopefully not because I love them all.

 

[RoboDuck]

So I picked up 8 Pilgrim geese today. I get them home (sort of but it's a long story) and I'm acclimating them to being handled. There's a guy bailing hay in the field and sees me with the geese. And just out of the blue asks me if I want a bunch of Mallard ducklings. Well HE!! yeah I want them. When can I get them I ask. Tomorrow at 3:30 I pick up about 8 that are from 2 weeks old to one that was just hatched today. SCORE!

Out of all the duckling breeds we've had, Mallards have been my favorite. They are so full of themselves and have the best personalities.

 

[buff goose guy]

My new babies that were supposed to be half Cayuga. Half mallard I picked up out of the wrong best by my pond ended up with mallards full fledged aperently my brother collected the for me but it was a mallard nest not my cayugas nest .

 

[muus]

Probably a double recessive genetic trait that both parents contributed to.

Probably wouldn't have seen half as many if one of parents were different.

I have a mallard that bred with a bibbed blue call.
I got colours I wouldn't have seen if I'd used a mallard type call instead of an actual mallard.
Mallard genes can be pretty mixed up after many years of randy males raping anything that moves!

I need to say something:
The suposed males, make loud sounds, female souns and the suposed females, don't quack yet, make duckling sounds.
All the ducks have green and brown feathers in the rump. The head is dark green.



They are 6 weeks old.
Their fathers are mallards.
What gender start couloring first their bek
Thanks

 

[smonkeySK]

There's no real way of sexing from looks (except the look of the vent!) until they get older. Anything that quacks is definitely a girl!
I'd say that you have some odd colours is all, another week at most and you should be able to voice sex them all.