Mandarin Duck thread ( for posting pictures and discussing)

[chickenlisa]

update:
Baby Hope died the first night in the brooder box...despite us drying her off and feeding her electrolyte/vitamin water, she was dead in the morning.
The other 5 are doing GREAT though. They are growing like weeds and eating/drinking like little pigs. I'm now trying to figure out if they are males or females and have been told males have redder bills and legs than females. They all look the same to me (they are ~12 days old now)
Anyone know how to tell which are boys and girls at their young age, other than sexing them? I'd love to be able to see visibly....they do not like me catching and holding them! They are just too darn cute though!

 

[KansasKid]

You have to wait a little bit longer for the pink to show through.
Its really not that hard to vent sex them and the odds of sexing them right are better rather than waiting for them to get fully pink bills.
Although i don't know how long it took pink to show in mine, im thinking it wasn't that long, i'll see if i can dig out some pics with dates on them. Maybe someone else can give you a better estimate.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

yep Kansaskid's right
no way to tell with out time and age unless you flip them over and vent sex them. It's quick and easy, just takes a second.
I'm pretty sure the first 5 pages or so on the migratory and ornamental waterfowl thread has all the details on how to do it, or PM me and I'll personally talk you threw it.
At around 4-5 months you should start to see the bills changing color though, Hens will stay about like they are now, males will start turning pink to red on you

Just at a quick guess, and a guess at this point is all it is, I'd say you have 2 pair and a unknown

ones facing camera, male in back, male in front, two hens in middle cant see the face of the one with the butt turned to us. Notice how the base of the bill on the two suspected males is already showing a pink under tone to them.

 

[chickenlisa]

Thanks Aubrey! I'll take whatever I get! They are precious and I'm just so glad they hatched!
Here's another question...if any ducklings hatch from the other nestbox, can I put them in the same brooder box with these ducklings? I candeled 4 of the eggs last evening and 3 of them looked so ready to go....the 4th looked mostly clear. I can't pull them and finish in my incubator b/c I've got 4 goose eggs in there at lower humidity....I'm trying to run those with a dry or mostly dry incubator until lockdown...our humidity is pretty high here lately anyways.

Will the 2 week olds be good with newly hatched Mandarins? I'm hoping so, and that they can teach the new kids how to eat right off the bat too!

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

yes as long as it's not more than 2 weeks or so difference in it, it's fine. I do it all the time with all my different birds. No one who hatches every week like me can possibley have brooders for each week, so it's kind of one of those you just have to deals. Only thing to watch is if you had some super tiny species like teal , you'd need to watch doing it with them with larger species just so they wouldnt get squished.
also you can bump that humidty for a few day even with the goose eggs and finish them in the incubator. It's not going to hurt a thing. Waterfowl of any kind take pretty high humidity anyway. Agaian I do it every week in 4-5 incubators, when hatch time comes for the weeks eggs, they just get bumped for a few days , works fine for any type of egg, chickens, waterfowl game birds, etc. A few days doesnt hurt a thing. I have to or the house would be wall to wall incubator and hatchers.

 

[chickenlisa]

Here's another couple of pictures taken 10 min ago...they are 2 weeks old today or tomorrow...

I took a video too, (but have to get it onto youtube first) with very cute little noises they make!

a few questions:
1)how soon can I put the tiniest colored zip ties on their legs?
2) can I put newly hatched Mandies in with them if they hatch over the weekend?

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

yep from what I can tell, looking like 2.3 on them

 

[chickenlisa]

Aubrey, what does 2.3 mean? Sorry...

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

oh sorry
that's the way people in the waterfowl and gamebird business talk about sexes of birds
first number is the males, the second number is the females
so 2.3 is 2 males and 3 females

 

[SuperPeacockman]

Quote:
How can you tell?