Welsh Harlequin

[learycow]

Its hard to tell in the pictures, but I think you have 3 hens and 1 drake.
You can't always go by bill color because I've found that not all females have dark bills so they can easily be mistaken for a male. But by looking at yours, you have 3 dark bills (females) and 1 light bill (male).
I can see why you would think all drakes, because of the pattern on their heads. But a lot of the females (hatchery ones) have a dark head to start off with. If you look closely, around their eyes and the very top of their head, if drakes, the feathers will start turning green and their whole head will eventually be fully green. The females won't get green heads.
Also, if drakes, they will get a curly "sex" feather at the base of their tail. Your look like they are still too young for the sex feather, but that should show up around 3 1/2-4 months old.
Also, they look big enough for voice sexing. If you pick them up, the females will have a very loud, almost ear piercing quack. The males will either make no sound at all, or they will have a quieter, more raspy sounding quack.


I think i ended up with 4 drakes?

 

[DirtyAnkleDucks]

We just added Welsh Harlequins as our 9th breed of duck.......have 2 dozen eggs incubator now excited about our first welsh ducklings, we bought juvi's and some eggs so excited to see what we get!

 

[Herducks]

Thank you for giving me hope, when they all got dark heads I was so sad!! I will try the quack test!

 

[tbitt]

Don't give up yet........give them a bit more time to grow up.... Mine all had the dark heads when young.

I can see you have some yellow and some darker billed babies..... just going off of that you should have a mix.

Darker bills should be girls
Lighter bills should be boys

These are both YOUNG girls

 

[Herducks]

i have 2 yellow bills and 2 dark. So maybe two of each which is fine with me. I think they are the prettiest ducks! I have indian runners too, but I like these better, not quite as flighty!

 

[Goose and Fig]

Yeah- they all go through that androgynous color phase. It will happen every time they molt too. If you pay attention to their butts, the boys will have a solid black butt/back end eventually, where the girls will not. Sometimes that shows up before all the adult coloring does.

 

[Herducks]

Do they start laying around 20 weeks like chickens?

 

[Herducks]

I just tried quack sexing them and that did not work for me!! Maybe they need to be a little older? Some are still peeping. (I was trying with the indian runners too!) They all sound about the same to me except the ones still peeping. One of the yellow billed W.H. is peeping hoarsley, but the other three are all quacking about the same.

 

[Goose and Fig]

Boys are much more quiet- they sound like the old school Froggy from Little Rascals. The girls are have a much louder and clear "WHACK" that almost sounds like they are laughing.
Can't remember when mine started laying, but once they did- wooo- buried in eggs!

 

[Muse7]

Most start to lay at about 22 weeks. You don't want them to lay before 20 weeks, because it can shorten their
laying years.

Someone asked about how to cook them yesterday. I have found that if I put the eggs on the counter for 2 days
and then put them in the fridge and they hard boil just fine. I haven't had any problem with shelling when I do that.
Just have to start at the air sack end.

Our Blue Runner started laying 2 days after 22 weeks, and our eldest WH started laying 4 days after 22 weeks.

Best,

Liz