Sexing Ducklings

[Sachasmom]

How soon can you tell sex on ducklings? I have a herd of ducklings, I'm keeping the Buffs and Cayugas, but I'd like to only keep one male and two females per breed. I'm hesitating to sell any of them, because I am sure I would sell all the girls then! But I really really don't want to feed 20 odd ducks for another three months either until I'm sure on sex!

They're all about two months old now and starting to feather out. I wanted to show some of them at our fair next month, only I need to enter them as the correct sex. (There is no age limit on entries) They should be almost four months at the time of the fair, will I be able to tell then? I am wondering if I can't tell, will the judge be able to?

So, any tips on what to look for? Size? A lot of them are big, probably means they're all boys.

I also have to sex the Silkies for the fair too, So far, not a clue on those either!

 

[chasing ducks]

They should be old enough by now that quacking is evident. If they quack, they're female, if they have a much hoarser voice then they're male. Only way I can tell at this point

 

[Natermotor]

The only method that is 100 percent reliable at a young age is vent sexing. By 3-4 months, the males will have a curly tail feather. Also, at about 4-6 weeks, the females start to quack, and the males make a raspy noise.

 

[Sweetfolly]

Quote:
Yep, it should definately be easy to sex them by voice at this point. Pick them up one by one and walk them away from the others. If they let out a loud "QUACK!" it's a girl, if they're hoarse and quiet it's a boy.

 

[Sachasmom]

OKay, then I have mostly girls, LOL Lots and lots of Quacking going on out there, there are a few that I thought sounded kinda funny, those are the boys huh? I just thought hey, some of them Quack differently!

Now, would someone like to come help me pick up ducks one at a time to Quack sex them? I only have 30ish to go thru, shouldn't take long if they stay still...