Sexing Rouen ducks by bill color???

[Paganrose]

Is it possible to sex rouen ducks by thier bill color? The ducks I have/had the males had lighter bills and the female had dark ones. Has anyone else experianced this??? Or is just a fluke in my small flock???

 

[shelleyd2008]

The adult males have yellow bills and adult females have black or black and yellow bills. I'll have to look at my babies to see if it's the same for young ones but I don't think so. I believe the drakes' bills lighten as they get older. I'll check my pics

ETA: Of course none of my pictures show their bills very well. I've got a pair of young rouens (about a month old), but they are outside with some baby geese. The goslings just went outside today after being inside for the first 3-ish weeks of their lives, so I'd rather not bother them now and get the goslings all upset

I will check tomorrow but I'm pretty sure they both have dark bills now. However, the different colors on the adults' bills is normal

 

[hennyannie]

I have noticed that the two I have do have differant colored bills. I was wondering why.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Perfectly normal for adults. You can kind of see my drake's bill in this pic:

And here are some of his girls:

 

[Paganrose]

I noticed the different bill color when they were young (before they were fully grown and had different colors) But I do not remember if they had the different colored bills as chicks.....

 

[shelleyd2008]

Mine are both about a month old and I just got them today. But I don't think theirs are different at this time, I will check them tomorrow.

 

[hennyannie]

I got mine on 3/11 and the noticeable differance was there shortly there after.

 

[Paganrose]

here is a pic of some of my ducks a few weeks before getting their colors. The two lighter beaks in front are males, (of the ones that can be seen) the darker beak in back behind the geese is female.

Seven weeks give or take a week~dark beak

seven weeks give or take (same day as above) ~light beak

I dont have any pics of them younger than this, although I have one duckling that just hatched with a dark beak, and 4 more due next week..... I will have to keep an eye on it.

 

[shelleyd2008]

I did look at mine and at 4-5 weeks old both the male and female have dark bills.

 

[Paganrose]

Must happen when they are a bit older then..... I will have wait and see with my duckies......