When should I put a safety hole in a call duck egg?

[Cheems]

I agree with this.

I’d also add that it’s not scientific, but I seem to have observed the bigger, more angled-down looking bills at that stage seem to be drakes and the smaller ones seem to be girls. I bet the white is male and the snowy is female. Let’s see if this holds as they grow out.
I was wrong about one of my loner girls though. I suspected her to be male for several weeks before she proved me wrong.

I checked, and I am honestly not sure, they all look similar with their bill, the snowys are younger, but they look like females but again, they are younger and havent started that stage fully yet. But I am thinking the white and pastel are male, while the others are female. I am going to check again with better lighting though because im interested to add to the evidence that this does/doesnt work to see if this is an accurate way to determine a gender of a call duckling! I am hoping this is accurate and it is a 2:4 ratio of males to females, that would be optimal (I plan on buying more adult females later on if my ratio isnt great and there are issues, or making a pen for the drakes only)

 

[Cheems]

@WVduckchick @Overo Mare Ok, so I wasn't GOING to do this, but I think it would be good to know what you guys think about their gender, because im really having a hard time figuring it out, and id really like to know if its pretty accurate to tell their gender by bill at this stage, so here are the pictures! Let me know what you guys think

So we have, penciled, white, silver, and pastel, penciled and white are self explanatory of who they are in the pictures, but silver has the larger and darker bill, silver was from a different egg seller so he/she is more on the pet quality side of things, I think they are all more on the pet/breeder side of quality, but I guess we will see in the future as I dont think we can really tell now!

 

[Cheems]

Oh, also, the pastel one is growing its feathers, and they look kinda grey so far, so does that mean he is a boy? or do they grow their adult colored feathers later

 

[Painted Calls]

I don't see any pastels.

Going off of Nat's hypothesis, I'm going with penciled female, while male, silver male, maybe snowy? female.

 

[Cheems]

I don't see any pastels.

are you sure the pastel/snowy couldn't be a pastel? The seller I bought from labels their eggs and what color they are, and that was labeled pastel. But I also dont think that picture portrays the full colors of the pastel so I will take another picture

Its possible there was a mislabeled egg

Also they are having group cuddle time on top of their heater, im gonna take more pictures of that since its so adorable

 

[Cheems]

Ducklings!

also ignore how dirty their heater is lol, I just cleaned it yesterday but they spend so much time up there, same with their water, I change their water once a day but it still gets so dirty, anyone have any tips for keeping their water clean? I tried putting their water on a mat, but then they got the mat dirty and they just make such big messes

 

[Painted Calls]

are you sure the pastel/snowy couldn't be a pastel? The seller I bought from labels their eggs and what color they are, and that was labeled pastel. But I also dont think that picture portrays the full colors of the pastel so I will take another picture

Its possible there was a mislabeled egg

Also they are having group cuddle time on top of their heater, im gonna take more pictures of that since its so adorable

A pastel shouldn't have a dark bill and should be colored like a gray, but with a lighter blue hue. Correct me if I'm wrong @WVduckchick, and @shawluvsbirds .

 

[Painted Calls]

Ducklings!

also ignore how dirty their heater is lol, I just cleaned it yesterday but they spend so much time up there, same with their water, I change their water once a day but it still gets so dirty, anyone have any tips for keeping their water clean? I tried putting their water on a mat, but then they got the mat dirty and they just make such big messes

Tips for keeping water clean? Change it 3638594 times a day.

 

[Cheems]

A pastel shouldn't have a dark bill and should be colored like a gray, but with a lighter blue hue. Correct me if I'm wrong @WVduckchick, and @shawluvsbirds .

Want me to send a link to the seller I bought from? They have pictures of their pastels and they have the same color bill, although its only the females

 

[Cheems]

So, it has a bill like a female, the color bill of a female, doesnt look like a pastel, has grey feathers like a male, but also spins in circles occasionally? Interesting duck lol