Welsh Harlequin

[Muse7]

Depending on how old they actually are, Teenager is not a good reference, number of weeks since hatch is much easier to follow.
At any rate, They could still be hens. THis looks like their first feather and they can change drastically in the next feathering.
Are they quacking or peep rasping?

If they are between 4 and 6 weeks you should be able to pick them up from behind and they will honk quack for you if they are hens.

Liz

 

[ibarbidahl]

Well- honestly it's because they are all different ages I've got 4 1/2 - 9 weeks old. It is the oldest that just started making a different sound. I've got a link back to my blog with a video of this sound in the other post.

 

[Zombified]

Ok- so I have teenaged WH and it seems I either have managed to get a whole flock of nothing but drakes or it's a mixed flock, but all super dark hoods. I'm going to post pictures of them now - and a quick video. The first one stopped peeping yesterday and it's making a honking sound. Not a true quack, but then again it's only been a day since I've ever herd this sound from it. See below and tell me what you think. Do I have 4 drakes and some have feminine feathering, or do I have a mix and the hens have very dark hoods? Either way how will this coloration affect their next generation? I like darker coloration anyway...








Sorry for the bad video- my daughter is insane...go here to see 2 videos.... I can't embed or youtube from here.

Quack or not?

Thanks for any help. Until I heard that last night I was sure I had all drakes... now I'm not sure. LOL

Hmm... I can't really say for 100% certainty, but they do all appear to be drakes. However, if you heard one honking, chances are it's a girl. Going by bill color, I'm going to make a somewhat educated guess and say you have two drakes and two hens. I say that because in all of the pictures, it appears that two of your ducks have olive-toned bills, and two have black bills.

Or, you could have all hens. I had a hen who we all thought was a drake, all the way up til all of my WHs (drake included) were feathered out completely, and our one drake had all of his pretty drake colors, and Thoth still looked like a hen. Sadly, she was taken by a bobcat over a month ago. ):

Here are some pictures of her while she was still feathering out:






This is what her colors were like when she died:


She got A LOT lighter, though she was always the darkest of my hens. After coming out of their first molt, my two remaining WH hens have a lot more brown on their chests, and in general seem darker. It makes me wonder what Thoth would have looked like after her molt.

 

[webwad]

went to the store to get Cayuga ducks but they switched the signs at the store and I ended up with welsh harlequins. I ended up loving them, and they are so pretty. mine haven't started laying yet they are only 10 weeks old to this day. so far I love mine and hope to have them for a long time.

 

[webwad]

I have 2 WH and they are ten weeks old. I have a male and female, the male has a bright yellow beak while the females has a dark one like yours do!

 

[PeepnQuack12]

How do you tell if you got gold or silver WH ducklings??

 

[Adorkable]

How do you tell if you got gold or silver WH ducklings??

These are my ducklings. The 5 ducklings on the left are welsh harlequins. If you look at them closely you will see that 3 of them have black fuzz on their heads... those turned out to be silver phase. The 2 ducklings that don't have black fuzz on their heads have a very light brown color fuzz on their heads that you can hardly notice in this picture... those turned out to be gold phase. I'm not sure if this is the same for anyone else and it's just what I noticed with my ducks. When they get older you can tell by their speculum feathers. The golden phase ones should have bronze or green speculum feathers and the silver phase ones should have blue speculum feathers.



These are some of my girls. The duck in the back is gold phase and has bronze colored speculum feathers. The 2 ducks in the foreground are silver phase and have blue colored speculum feathers. Hope this helps.

 

[arnaudgf]

Hi everyone.

So we got a Welsh Harlequin duckling a few weeks ago from mcMurray.. They only had straight run so we were not sure what we were getting. When it got to us it had a yellow beak with a dark tip so we assumed it was a hen, but now we are not sure anymore
It's 7 weeks old now, and it's beak is bright yellow as you can see in the picture. While some of the other breeds we got have started quacking, this one hasn't. It's still chirping though so I can't say it's definitely a raspy drake quack.
Does anyone have experience with Welsh Harlequin and is it too early to figure out the sex?
I believe we'll keep it no matter what, but depending on its sex we'll have to switch our Rouen Drakeling with a Hen (we'd like to avoid having 2 drake for 5 hens).

Thanks a lot

Well, a month or so later, there is still no quack but a clear raspy voice which sounds very like our former Rouen Drake. So we assume our Welsh Harlequin will be a drake
Everyone started to molt so we should have a confirmation idea once the molting is done .

 

[webwad]

I have two WH and my drake has a bright yellow beak and a little black on the tip, my hen has a dark beak and dark feet

 

[PeepnQuack12]

My WH pair arrives Monday!! I'm so excited and can't wait!! I think I will name the drake Wingman, but the hen still needs a name, any suggestions??