Peking ducks how to tell sex of bigger birds?

[Yetti]

I was curious to know if you can see the difference in the males as compared to the females? I think I have 5 males and on female if its based on size = gender. plus the smaller one has a slender head & neck as compared to the others as well.

 

[duckyfromoz]

How old are they ? The size difference between sexes is more noticeable as adults- as ducklings the growth can vary a bit so is not a reliable way to sex them in my experience. Of course by the time they have finished growing.. the drake will have the tail curl and the females will have the louder voice as well.

 

[Yetti]

If I am guessing right they are about 8 weeks. the smallest one has some tail curl but they all do. the smallest also has some gray feathers on the left side of the tail. the other thing I see is the thickness of the neck. the one has slim neck as compared to the others.

 

[Horsefly]

At 8 weeks their voices should be changed. If you separate one from the others if it has a loud quack it is a girl and if it is low and raspy it is a boy. If you really only have one girl you should seperate her when they get older so she doesn't get overbred by all the males. Or get alot more females or give some males away.

 

[Swbuda]

These are my Pekin Ducks, Bella and Edward. He is about 5-months-old, notice the curled tail feathers..

I'm not sure of her age, maybe a year.. Someone brought her to us. She had been abandoned at a park with some geese, and was going crazy.. They brought her to us and she settled right down..

Also, Edward was 'hatched' from some eggs from Iowa,, a northern Boy, hee hee, suppose to be a Mammoth Pekin ? , He is quite a bit bigger than she is... We'll see.. Guess who rules the roost? It sure isn't him

 

[Yetti]

mammoth Peking? could be. that might be why someone originally had them signed as Goslings in the pen I found them in. yesterday I booted them from half their big pen. I have 6 week old Embden's and they needed to get out so I put screen panels on the front half. the Pekin's are beside themselves this morning when they went to get in the pool and the gate was shutting them out. I had to pull out the corner post at the rear of the pen to let them in the back half. they immediately jumped in the pool and were happy again.

 

[mandelyn]

Now when they were protesting about that gate, that was the time to voice sex them. When mine started changing voices (they're only 5 weeks for the oldest) I cornered them in the coop and would pull one away at a time. I have 3 for sure girls at this point. My Saxony and Mallard male be boys. The 4 I rehomed had 2 known boys, but I keep hearing that whistle from someone I still have. It has to be one or two of the youngest, since the others are making girl noises.

Boy ducks sound like this, sort of raspy, lacking an actual quack...

Found this site, it has both male and female noises.

http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/artquacks.htm

The first time I hatched ducks, I got 5 out of 11 eggs, each and every one of them was a girl. I went round and round trying to figure out gender and it was impossible.

Until someone came over and told me I had ALL girls. So weird! That's why there wasn't a difference between any of them. I was looking at bill width, some were thinner and sleeker. Was looking at size, 3 were bigger. But duh, they all quacked the same. I thought originally that's how ducks sounded, all of them.

Not even thinking about the noises the male mallards make at the park. Cause you know, maybe wild ducks sound different than domestic? haha.

 

[Yetti]

Interesting stuff about the voice in the ducks. I have heard a raspy quack from most but there is a heavier "Quack" I pick up now and again. just haven't nailed down which ones are making it.
here's a couple pics of them playing in a new mud hole where the wood pile had just got cleaned out yesterday. I let the sprinkler run so as to they could loosen the ground and get the grubs out.

if it helps to give the ducks scale the dog in the pick is 53lbs. the blue thing is a flexible flyer saucer sled they love to play in.