Welsh - Duck Duck Drake or Drake Drake Duck?

[Minniechickmama]

I bought 3 Welsh Harlies for my son this spring. The sign said they could be sexed by bill color, so I was sure I got 2 ducks and a drake. Now I am not so sure that their information was right. The bill on the obvious drake is DARK like the KCs, but the other two's bills are yellow with some spotting. However, the color for the one is looking drakish to me, but the bill is like the obvious duck's.

Maybe they just have bad color issues, I don't know? I know little about ducks. I do know that when their tails curl into drake feathers who is who, but fair is a month away and we need to mark down who is going and who is not.

Drake with dark bill:

The three behind the KC:

Thanks for any help.

 

[KellyHM]

I don't know anything about color sexing them, but you can usually tell by their quacks. The girls are quite loud and boys sound hoarse. Don't know if that helps or not, but that's the way I do it.

 

[Wifezilla]

When they are first hatched, the girls should have pinkish/yellowish bills and the boys will have black bills. USUALLY. Sometimes you get a weirdo in the group OR you end up with a bloodline that doesn't have the genes that allow for color sexing.

When they are older, the boys should have an olive-ish/yellow bill. The girls bills will turn black.

That being said, 2 girls I got from Metzer had yellow bills with black specs on them until they got over 2. Then their bills started to turn dark.

You should be able to sex your birds now (or shortly) by voice. Who sounds like they are making a raspy peep (or reep reep reep noise) and who makes loud quacking noises? The big mouths are the girls.

If that doesn't help, in a bit more time, drakes will get one curly feather on their tail.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Of all the ducks in that pen (9 Calls and 5 Khaki Campbells plus these 3), the Welsh are the quite ones. I will have to listen closer or take them out and see what they do. Or I can just wait

 

[larkflying]

You really have to grab them and listen -- we couldn't tell ours apart until we did that. Then you hear QUACK QUACK! Or Queep, queep from the males. My WH's were just the same as yours -- I knew bills were a certain color as adults, but I still have one now with a yellowish bill that QUACKS. So she is a girl, despite her bill. I was impressed to hear that it took 2 years to change color . . . however, she is the one that looks least like the WH's are supposed to, so that may be it. I think she is much closer to a runner duck than the others are.

That being said, MOST of my males had yellowish beaks. All but one female had the dark beak . . . HOWEVER, as ducklings they were supposed to be the opposite . . . boys had dark bills and girls had the yellowish bills. But that was only supposed to be true for the first few days after hatching.

Hope that helps

 

[Minniechickmama]

I guess I will have to go out and grab each one and see what noise they make when I squeeze them

 

[tbitt]

Quote:

 

[learycow]

I had this same problem this year. The WH I ordered must not have been from purebred lines. I got a few with facial stripes and a few that look like yours.
With pure WH, the females have dark bills and the males have yellowish/green bills.
These, however, look like bright yellow bills. 2 of my unpure WH have bills like that, and ended up as females. I am only using them for egg production, not for breeding!

Your other duck in question is hard to tell right now. It looks like a drake, because the head is much darker and the feathering looks like a drake. But the bill makes me say female! I hate trying to sex this breed when they are young. It can be so hard, especially if you want to weed out the drakes early on. I've found that they ALL look the same until they loose their juvenile feathers and grow in their adult feathers. Then it's obvious who is who. This didn't happen to mine until they were a good 3 months old. I just weeded out mine from this year and ended up with 2 ducks and 6 drakes : ( Not what I was hoping for, but that's what you get when you order unsexed ducklings!

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful! They voice sexing is the best way to tell at this age, but sometimes even that can be confusing if you are unsure of what to listen for!

 

[Wifezilla]

A pure Welsh Harlequin can have facial striping, It doesn't mean they are mixed, just not good color quality. I have a pure Welsh Harlequin that has blue wing bars like a silver, but she is dark chocolate brown!

 

[Minniechickmama]

wifezilla, sounds like a throwback from the KC on yours.

I had to catch the ducks with the kids last night since we let them out to range yesterday. We have 2 drakes and a duck. Boo Hoo.
My son is unhappy, but there are more ducks out there to be had