Welsh Harlequins are here!

[CityChicker]

Our new duckies just came! Holderread's sent us 10 Welsh Harlequins. I will try to get my husband to help me take pictures when he gets home.

Six of them are lighter colored, similar to what others have posted here. They look a lot like Appleyard ducklings, yellow with just a tiny bit of smoky color (some are almost solid yellow). The other four are *much* darker. They have dark brownish black heads and smoky yellow bodies. I wonder how they will turn out once they feather. If I am reading correctly what Muscovy had said in another thread, the lighter ones should be Gold Phase?

It looks like of the darker ones, three of the four are drakes. Of the lighter ones, only one of the six looks like a drake (going by bill color). There are a couple though whose bills are sort of in the middle color wise. I will be very happy though if six of the ten do end up being ducks!

 

[Wifezilla]

 

[Cetawin]

You are supposed to be able to sex them by bill color for the first 2 or 3 days. Lighter bills are female darker bills are male. So far it is running true for my 6.


Not sure about the gold phase being lighter...my golden welsh from Holderread were darker than Wifezilla's and looked like this at 1 day old (varying in appearance):

The one in the middle is a Golden welsh Harlequin, the one on the left and right are Anconas.

The one at the bottom of the picture is a golden welsh harlequin

Now they look like this at almost 5 weeks old

Drake:

Female:

Congrats on your babies do post pics.

 

[Wifezilla]

Yes. Pictures of cute WH duckies are a MUST!!!

 

[CityChicker]

The pictures are coming! My hubby didn't have time tonight and I can't figure out the camera. How sad is that? LOL

The four darker ducklings look very similar to the one you are saying is a Gold, Cetawin. The rest are almost completely yellow. Anyway, pics coming soon!

 

[Cetawin]

all of mine are Golden Welsh Harlequins...so they are supposed to all be gold phase...hehehehe but I have 4 drakes and 2 females out of 6.

 

[CityChicker]

That is too bad you got so many drakes. They used to sell sexed ducklings. I wish they still did. Maybe you can get a few more ducks from someone like Metzers.

I think I really lucked out with the sexes. It looks like I have six females. One that I counted as a male is sort of borderline as is one I counted as a female. The others have pretty distinct bill color. I am keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[Wifezilla]

I paid extra to just get girls from Metzer. Since my limit is 6 ducks, I wanted to make sure I got exactly what I needed. It was a bit expensive, but totally worth it.

 

[pirtykitty]

My 3 welsh harlequins are growing like weeds. LOL.. they were 4 weeks old monday.. One is feathering out with a lot of gold or light brown like wifzellas, the other two are lighter.. one has a light colored beak and the other light with dark spot on tip.. the two cayugas are starting to show a little green in their heads..

how do you tell which is female and male at 4 weeks??? I did notice that the two cayugas's feet coloring are a little different.

all 5 of them are pigglets, share is not in their vocabulary.. It's every pig for itself when treat time comes..

 

[Wifezilla]

LOL...no kidding. They are pigs with feathers aren't they?