Questions about Pekin Ducks

[CrazyCrttr75]

I have 6 ducks. I have 2 Rouen (1 male and 1 female), 1 female Mallard and 3 Pekin Ducks (that I thought were all turning out to be males but now I'm not so sure) that are 13 weeks old. They recently went through their moult (omgosh feathers, feathers everywhere lol). The female Rouen is a definite quack. No doubt that she is female. The male Rouen is a definite male (raspy quack and his male feathers have come in as well as has his drake curl). The Mallard is a definite quack and I have no doubt that she is female. She is so loud! So that's all to say that I'm just confused on the Pekin. Do Pekin quacks have a tendency to be quieter than other breeds? I also notice that one of the Pekin has a distinctive drake curl going on. The other 2 don't. All of the quacks sound kinda raspy to me. Is it normal to have one develop their male traits at different times? I thought that the drake curls would come in after their moult? Pekin are so hard to tell apart. They all look the same! What can I look for other than the curl and voice? Or the eventual egg? They are only 13 weeks old and with winter coming on.... I assumed that eggs would not be happening until spring. Unfortunately, hormones and mating will be here before then so I need to figure this out. I'm going to go see if I can get a video of them vocally and will add to this thread in a bit.
Until then, breaking down my questions, basically I am wanting to know
1: If it's common for some male Pekin to get a curl before others when they are all the same age?
2: Are the quacks of Pekin ducks quieter or naturally a little more raspy than other breeds?
3: Is it as easy to tell the difference between a male and female Pekin duck as it is in other breeds?

These may seem like silly questions but I appreciate your feedback.

 

[Table4Six]

1. Curly tail feathers appear according to individual birds' development, so, yes, they could develop their male traits at different ages.
2. Definitely not, I have a Jumbo Pekin and regular Pekin hen and they are very loud, including the separate noise volume of their quacking.
3. If you're just going by feather color/traits then, no, it's not. But if you're going by voice, sometimes size, and physical structure, they are just as easy.
Other than a video, you can post pictures and I can probably help you out just by looking at those.
Just a side note: If you want a better explanation on what I mean by physical structure, I can post some pictures of the difference, especially in the face, between my male vs. female Jumbo Pekins.

 

[llombardo]

My pekin was super loud. Nothing was quiet with her.

 

[CrazyCrttr75]

1. Curly tail feathers appear according to individual birds' development, so, yes, they could develop their male traits at different ages.
2. Definitely not, I have a Jumbo Pekin and regular Pekin hen and they are very loud, including the separate noise volume of their quacking.
3. If you're just going by feather color/traits then, no, it's not. But if you're going by voice, sometimes size, and physical structure, they are just as easy.
Other than a video, you can post pictures and I can probably help you out just by looking at those.
Just a side note: If you want a better explanation on what I mean by physical structure, I can post some pictures of the difference, especially in the face, between my male vs. female Jumbo Pekins.

I would very much appreciate seeing pictures! Like I said in my post, I thought that all of my Pekin were males because to me, their quacks all sound raspy. I am pretty convinced that Gomer (yellow band) is male. It's the other 2 that I'd like confirmation one way or the other on if at all possible. I apologize if this isn't the greatest video. It's just me here at the moment. I'm going to include pics that I just took as well. I don't know if they will help or not but I figured I would include them anyway. Thx!

ps...Believe it or not, I just filled their pool with fresh clean water about 2 hrs ago.

Gomer (yellow)

Goober (red)

Forrest (green)

Gomer and Forrest

Forrest (top) Gomer (middle) Goober (bottom)

 

[Table4Six]

Beautiful ducks! I totally understand your pool dilemma. Very, very messy animals, lol.
Gomer: definitely drake
As of right now, I see no curly tail development on the other two, so I would guess that their hens. The video is not working on my computer so I could not go off of voice.

 

[CrazyCrttr75]

Beautiful ducks! I totally understand your pool dilemma. Very, very messy animals, lol.
Gomer: definitely drake
As of right now, I see no curly tail development on the other two, so I would guess that their hens. The video is not working on my computer so I could not go off of voice.

Yes they are very messy! They love noodling around in mud. They have pretty much destroyed all of the grass around their pool. We will end up taking it down for the winter and redo the set up come spring. We're wanting to put in an actual pond instead of using the kiddie pool. We'll see how that goes and how ambitious we get.
Sry about the video. It's working fine for me. Do you see any definitive male/female body structure type clues? They all look the same to me lol

 

[Table4Six]

This might help with comparison:

Eeyore, my jumbo pekin drake:

Winnie the Pooh, my jumbo pekin hen:

And Winky, my regular pekin hen:

 

[Table4Six]

Yes they are very messy! They love noodling around in mud. They have pretty much destroyed all of the grass around their pool. We will end up taking it down for the winter and redo the set up come spring. We're wanting to put in an actual pond instead of using the kiddie pool. We'll see how that goes and how ambitious we get.
Sry about the video. It's working fine for me. Do you see any definitive male/female body structure type clues? They all look the same to me lol

Very true. Yours look so much alike usually they all have their own differentiating traits, but yours could be triplets.

 

[SkyeT]

My goodness, the foghorns! We had 2 female Pekin and the WHOLE neighborhood could hear them. I swear they were louder than the hound dogs on the other side of the neighborhood!

I loved that they would get so excited to see us outside, but because they were so loud, they couldn't stay in our yard. Thankfully, they were taken back to the farm to be sold.

 

[CrazyCrttr75]

My goodness, the foghorns! We had 2 female Pekin and the WHOLE neighborhood could hear them. I swear they were louder than the hound dogs on the other side of the neighborhood!

I loved that they would get so excited to see us outside, but because they were so loud, they couldn't stay in our yard. Thankfully, they were taken back to the farm to be sold.

I just got done rounding the ducks up and shooed them in their coop for the night. And I watched and I listened. They kind of sound like frogs croaking. I don't know how else to describe it. Maybe I am going to luck out and have more females than I originally thought. I don't find them loud at all. They get excited to see me. They love to come over and quack my ear off. I think it's mainly to see if I brought them any goodies but that's ok. My chickens treat me the same way lol. Now the littlest one out of the bunch, Luna. She's a domesticated Mallard. She is LOUD! You can hear her all the way across the yard and I am sure the neighbors can hear her. She is so loud. I need to get a video of her. It's ridiculous lol! Anyway, maybe I am just lucky and my Pekins aren't as loud as others. Or compared to Luna.... everyone just seems that way. Idk.