Pekin bill color question...

[MotherOfChickensWA]

I have 3 pekins about 7 weeks old. I am trying to figure out what sex they are. Their quacks are still coming in and seem to peep and quack off and on. I googled and searched here and it seems the bill color could either be gender related or that one had an Aylesbury sometime in its lineage. Can anyone clear this up for me by chance? I have added a picture of Scooter and Fluffy Butt. Scooter has the pink bill. No curly feathers on any yet. My other pekin, Steve, has an orange bill like Fluffy Butt. I'm sorry if I missed the answer in another post.

P.S. I got them at Tractor Supply and of course they only sell straight run.

 

[Kgriffith0712]

Hi MotherOfChickens... at 7 weeks old you should be able to gather a good idea on sex. While they are both together, pick one up and start to walk away from the other. If the duck is "loud" and puts off a quack noise, its most likely a female. If its a softer - raspy sound, or no sound at all, its most likely a male. I incubate and raise quite a few ducks and this is my first way and so far has been my "sure way" of sexing. If you had a larger group of them, you would be able to gather more information of sex by size comparison. My males have always been heavier and larger than my females, even at 7 weeks. Drakes wont get their drake feathers until they are a bit older. As the males age, their heads will start to look rounder as well. I have never noticed any differences in bill colors either (but i knew my were all pekins). I believe a lot of that has to do with diet and vitamins. Hope this helps!

 

[chickens really]

Pekin have Orange Bills and legs. Alsbury have pink Bills and legs. Could be crossed?..

 

[PirateGirl]

I don't think Pekins can be sexed by bill color. Even with my Swedish, which either have either grey bills or green bills, either sex can have either color bill. Sexing by sound/voice I found to be tricky at first when I had no experience with ducks, but give it a try like once a day. The ducks will either sound the same as each other or different than each other. So you will at least know if you have all the same sex or two different sexes and what your ratio is. Once you figure that out you can listen more and you will be able to decide which is male and which is female. I had troubles because I would pick up one duck and the other 3 would start freaking out and making all kinds of noise and the one I picked up would be completely silent... the opposite of the way it's supposed to work, so while I heard different voices it took a week of this to figure out which voices came from which ducks. Good luck. Just keep listening. You will figure it out, especially since they are visibly different and you aren't trying to sex 3 identical looking ducks.

 

[Kgriffith0712]

After re-reading your post, I would agree with chickens really. I haven't seen a pekin duck with a pink bill like Scooter.

 

[MotherOfChickensWA]

Thank you all for your help. If Scooter is bred with something else, that would explain why my other 2 pekins have overtaken ber in size. They are 1 week younger and already slightly bigger then she is. I grabbed Fluffy Butt and she has a very definite quack. Scooter and Steve (my other obvious pekin) have a more peepy sound to them. I wouldn't say raspy though. Also I miscounted weeks and they are 5 weeks, while Scooter is 6 weeks.

 

[PirateGirl]

It's possible the 2 are male, or if they are more peeps, with their age, it's possible their voices hasn't fully changed. Listen again in a few days.