Quack, quack, HONK!

[Sara Ranch]

Boys quack, girls honk. I know. I've read that information many times!

At about age 3 weeks, one of my beautiful ginormous Pekins started to honk. It surprised everyone, including her! I was so excited - one girl out of four ducks! Yeah!!! The honking slipped out more and more often. I didn't mind. I kept thinking she's going to be a momma duck one day...

At about age 6 weeks, the OTHER ginormous Pekin duck made a honk noise. No!!! You're suppose to be a boy duck to be a daddy duck. It's kinda a requirement - boy duck meets girl duck, make baby ducks... It turned out to be a rather weird honking day. After that day, he/she didn't honk again that I heard.

Now they both quack LOUDLY. Very seldom do I hear a honk. Actually, the sound they make is in between a quack and a honk, but not distinctly either one. The one day honker actually went through a period of his/her voice lowering/getting deeper. Now I can't tell whose who by noises anymore.

Is this normal for Pekin ducks?? Both are very vocal. The one I thought was a girl is definitely more talkative to me.

I have two Pekin ducks and two Khaki Campbells. They get along pretty well together. The bossy one is the Khaki Campbell (and she's like 1/3 the weight of my Pekin!)

Edited to add this question - one Pekin has a tight, slightly pointed tail feather back end. The other Pekin has the tail feathers fanned out almost all of the time. Are either of these indications of the duck's gender? I know it's too soon to see the drake curl.

 

[itsasmallfarm]

i thought females quack and males have a soft voice, (just what i have heard online/ through sounds)

but i have read pekins are a very noisy duck breed

 

[TheKindaFarmGal]

Actually, female ducks are the ones that quack. Lol

 

[GeeGi]

Yippee!!! I have mostly females, I was also backward on this quacking and upset about all males and only 1 female. LOL Thanks guys!

 

[Sara Ranch]

Sounds like I had it backwards too! (Girls quack, boys honk). Well, whatever the gender, I love my duckies!!! Even the loud noisy Pekin.

TSC has room for improvement - the sales people should know and tell the customers what type of duck they are buying. I just got, "You know these ducks will be white when they are grown up, right?" I said that was fine. I wasn't going to throw them away because they were white and not the same yellow as when they came home with me. When I got the brown ducks (different store), "You know these are brown ducks, right?" Yep - they look brown to me - here's your sign. I asked both employees what kind of ducks they were and neither knew. Sorry, yellow/white duck and brown duck don't really answer the question.

 

[Sara Ranch]

Ducks lay eggs without a fella, right?

 

[TheKindaFarmGal]

Ducks lay eggs without a fella, right?

Females will lay eggs without a male.

 

[Bills vs Beaks]

I asked both employees what kind of ducks they were and neither knew. Sorry, yellow/white duck and brown duck don't really answer the question.

they never know
If you are still wondering, the yellows are pekin and the brown khaki

 

[Sara Ranch]

Thanks. Yeah, I spent HOURS on the internet googling different things to figure it out. I JUST figured out that my Khaki Campbells were just that. I thought they were Indian Runners for the last month. After someone on this site posted pictures of Khaki Campbells, I realized what my brown ducks were. Just had to register on the site after that... (thanks poster who put up pics of the Khaki Campbells!)

 

[duckduckgoose86]

sounds like you may have 2 lady pekins! I have 6 different breeds and one of my lady pekins daisy is the LOUDEST of everyone haha! but also probably my favorite (shhh) it can be a bit tricky voice sexing until you hear it clear, and then its generally pretty easy to pick em' out lol.