rouen duck/ducks built a "nest"

[jsdspif]

I'm the guy with the 2 rouens and am still trying to sex them. They are now about 5 months old and still look identical,except, the bill colors are different,one is the orange/black and the other is the "olive green" also their legs are a different shade of orange ,I guess. One ducks legs are kind of a bright orange like a pumpkin and the other one's legs are more like they've been tanned or smoked ,they kind of have a brownish duller look. Anyway,they've been out in their house for about 3 moths,their area is a floor that is about a foot off the ground and on the floor there is a large rectangular box that is removable,in that box I first put pine shavings and then straw and up until now they just sit on that. Now today when I opened the back door of their house I noticed there is an area in their bedding that has been hollowed out into a nest shape that looks like the size of one duck,but maybe both ducks could fit into it. Does that mean something or did they just now figure out they can make it a little "cozier" by making a nest type of hallowed out space?
I have a mini pig outside now also and those ducks really like the pig. I could swear they one day I went out there the ducks were sucking the pigs teats as the pig was sleeping but once they saw me they stopped. Another day when I went out there the pig came out of her house and I was looking for the ducks and I couldn't find them and then I yelled out "duck duck" and the ducks came running out of the pigs house. Other times they nap at the door of the pig house. They are pretty interesting animals.

 

[DucksOhio]

How cute!
Sounds like their getting ready to nest.
Let us know what happens

 

[Trimurtisan]

That's pretty neat that your ducks like the pig.
At five months old, you should be able to sex them by sight and sound.

Do either of them have curled tail feathers? If so, those are called drake feathers, and a drake is a male.

In regards to sound, females have a much louder "honk" when they quack, while males have a more gusty sound like your squeezing air out of them. Personally, I can't even hear my males if the ladies are quacking.

If you've got a picture of their fluffy butts you could post, it should be pretty easy to sex them.

 

[Miss Lydia]

That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all day. Thank you for sharing their story.

 

[Trimurtisan]

These are drake feathers. Otherwise, the feathers would be smooth with the tail.

 

[Miss Lydia]

And by now voice sexing is possible , females quack loud and drakes sound like a frog.

 

[jsdspif]

I've been watching the tail feathers and neither are curling up. At least one of them quacks very loud, like you can probably hear it a half mile down the road,but I can't tell if it's one or both. I have tried taking photos of them but that didn't work, they don't exactly pose for photos. I just mainly thought it was weird that they just hallowed out that area after being in their house every night. It makes me think at least one is going to lay an egg, but I don't know anything about ducks laying eggs/duck behaviour.

 

[Miss Lydia]

5 months is around the time to start seeing eggs so if you have one quacking loud I’d say your going to see eggs soon. We would love to see some pics.

 

[Daphne_loves_mealworms]

Well, you definitely have at least 1 hen! I laughed at the part about being able to hear her 1/2 mile down the road as I can very much relate with my Rouen, Daphne! My guess is that your duck with the orange/brown beak and orange legs is your hen. Here’s my Daphne for comparison. It’s not the best picture, but you can see her beak and leg coloring well.

 

[Trimurtisan]

Well, you definitely have at least 1 hen! I laughed at the part about being able to hear her 1/2 mile down the road as I can very much relate with my Rouen, Daphne! My guess is that your duck with the orange/brown beak and orange legs is your hen. Here’s my Daphne for comparison. It’s not the best picture, but you can see her beak and leg coloring well.

View attachment 1872414

Daphne is quite the beautiful lady.