Muscovy face flesh

[Quackers08]

Do boys of girls get this facial flesh first? My ducklings are starting to get some and do boys or girls tend to feather out first?

 

[Kevin565]

Yes they both get it. Males just get more caruncles than females.

 

[Wokawidget]

Hi,

I have been asking similar questions recently. Here's what I have learnt.

It also depends on the individual duck. Some have more, or less, than others of the same sex...but females will generally have less wartier ones than males.
Females will generally start to develop the face flesh after they are fully feathered.
They feather out at a similar rate...but females will grow in their flight feathers before being fully feathered all over, where as males will be fully feathered but have no flight feathers.
Females have thinner legs.
Females are shorter and smaller after about 6+ weeks.

All of the above are just pointers to the sex and not direct proof....which has frustrated me for weeks

I was unsure about the sex of my Muscovy and went back to the farm last week to compare her and the difference was "obvious"...but non had started to get warty faces.

How old are your ducklings?

I'm posting a week by week picture update of my Muscovy duckling for people to compare with:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...vy-duckling-weeks-5-6-and-now-week-7-included

How do yours compare to this?

cheers,

Woka

 

[Quackers08]

Thankyou. I have been keeping up with your thread Woka and i think my ducklings are about 6 maybe 7 weeks old and the 'drakes' are very big and have feathers coming and facial flesh as well. I think some of the 'ducks' also have flesh coming but not all of them. Thanks Kevin

 

[Wokawidget]

Do you happen to have some photos you can upload of them?
Would be interesting to compare similar agef ducklings...plus others on here will be able to have a go at figuring out their gender.

cheers,

Woka

 

[Quackers08]

The pictures arent too great...



In this one you can see the flesh

 

[Going Quackers]

Facial flesh is pretty much useless to go by in young birds. I have 7 drakes left from my hatch in June, mostly drakes, they vary on the facial flesh yet obviously are of the same age. Leg height/size and overall size is the best guide for gender with Muscovy.

Do full body pictures and compare with the rest of the flock, use your eye.. does someone look bigger overall, taller/thicker/bigger in the leg? all of these will point to drake. This picture below show my June hatch, 9 babies total.. one duckling, 8 drakelets... the little duckling is the only chocolate in the group towards the back, middle off to the left. These ducks were all 6+wks in this picture.





Another shot to compare, you can see the little duckling easily enough.

 

[Quackers08]

Mine must be younger than yours as they are much smaller than the ones in your pic. I am pretty sure that 3 are drakes, 3 are ducks and there is 1 un between that i am hoping is a duck because i am quite fond of little cocoa i'm not actually 100% sure their age tho

 

[Going Quackers]

Mine must be younger than yours as they are much smaller than the ones in your pic. I am pretty sure that 3 are drakes, 3 are ducks and there is 1 un between that i am hoping is a duck because i am quite fond of little cocoa i'm not actually 100% sure their age tho

My birds grow pretty large here lol but they are all hatched here so i know there dates, i found it didn't take to long to see how the legs on most of the babies started to exceed the height of the duck raising them i knew we were done for them being girls.

Hopefully you little cocoa turns out to be a girl for you!

 

[Quackers08]

Hopefully! With any luck ill know for sure soon