Welsh Harlequin Breeding Thread - People who are breeding or want to breed their WH's talk

[elight23]

Would someone be willing to tell me if my Holdereds silver drake that I hatched looks like he'll be a handsome bird conforming to the standards? - if possible.
He's 8 weeks and we're trying to decide who to keep to breed and for 4h (for my son) and who to sell
(For some reason the picture won't load - ill update later)

 

[hokankai]

Ok Welshie people, I have a conundrum. I have 1 3-week-old duckling (Jasper) and 3 2-week-old ducklings. All 3 of the youngsters had very obvious pink bills with the black tip, and I thought that Jasper was pretty obviously a male. However, "his" voice is changing and he's been honking occasionally and I'm pretty sure I heard quacking this morning! He only does it when he's calling for me, otherwise he has a raspy peep. So is it possible for young drakes to honk? Or is my boy a girl???

I took some videos of the noises I could get this morning (I couldn't record fast enough to get the quackish sound). I'll also post his baby pic, and a pic of a male/female pair of youngsters. Unfortunately I sold all the drakes...LOL. That's okay though.

Jasper as a baby





Sound vid

 

[Ravie]

In my opinion, Jasper is still too young to voice sex accurately. Where did you get him from? Sexing by bill color is no longer accurate in many Harlequins due to the fact that many of them are poorly-bred hatchery birds (not conforming to the standard) and the fact that Dave Holderread has mostly lost the bill-sexing trait in his birds. You could try vent sexing. I like to do it to day-olds, but have done it in older birds too. In fact, I learned to vent sex by practicing on adolescents in the 4-6 week range. Their "parts" are bigger and easier to see!

 

[hokankai]

All were hatched by me. The 3 youngsters are from K&S Waterfowl, and Jasper is from a trio of Exhibition Quality Holderreads birds.

I guess we'll just play the waiting game

 

[Ravie]

I have birds from K&S Waterfowl and from Holderreads, too. This year is the first I've hatched out birds from those two lines and so far, bill sexing has been accurate.

 

[hokankai]

Ok so doe his look dark enough to be considered a male as a day old (top photo)? His wasn't as dark as the K&S boys but definitely not girly pink...LOL. Either way I'll be happy! He imprinted on me and helped get the girls bonded to me, so he definitely ha wormed his way into my heart

 

[Heidisgran]

my duck eggs didn't hatch but a few days later I purchase 2 khaki Campbell day olds....brother and sister....what little loves!!

 

[hokankai]

Another question, will the ducklings feather in with their adult colors or do they have a "juvenile" pattern first? Jasper has feathers slowly coming in and they look like female colored feathers (white and black)

 

[hokankai]

I'm am now 90% sure Jasper is a hen! We all heard very distinct quacking this morning!

Here's a video of the noises I was able to capture on video. Not as clear as the ones we heard...but quackish still the same!

 

[WH fan]

Hi. Sorry to say, but WH should have orange legs, not black.