Sexing Ducklings (Please check here first :D )

[Baggiebird]

Those sound bites are excellent! I'm now 99.99% sure that I have 2 girlies

 

[Wifezilla]

On the welsh harlequins, is the bill color and the dark spot used to tell the sex, when they are just a few days old??

I missed this earlier. Girls usually have an almost pink bill. It is very light colored. Boys have dark colored bills.

This one looks like a boy.

This is one of my girls at about 3 days old.

They say this difference is supposed to fade after a couple of days, but my girls bills were light for quite a while. They just turned from pink to yellow.

 

[Violet22]

Quote:
I guess they didn't tell this to whoever sexed my Welsh ducklings at Metzers! I had them sexed and got a drake......he was a mean one too, I had to give him away

. Sexing must be hard, because they messed up on one of my Golden Layers too. They'll replace them, but it can't make up for me having to give one away, and then finding more females. I really wasn't in the mood to do the brooder thing again this year.

 

[Dances with Ducks]

Sex-linked matings:
With certain parents it is also possible to tell the sex of the ducklings by the color of their fluff. These are called sex-linked matings. The drake needs to express the brown dilution and be mated to hens that are genetically black or grey. It doesn't work in reverse (chocolate hens to black drakes for instance). The offspring of sex-linked pairings will have males that are black or near black and brown or lighter in females.

To get sex-linked Harlequin ducklings:
You can mate a Gold Harlequin drake and a Silver Harlequin hen and the drakelets will be silver and the ducklets will be gold. Silver phase ducklings are yellow with a grey blush on their head and tail. Gold phase ducklings are yellow with a bit of brown blush on the head and tail.

To get sex-linked Campbell ducklings (these with be phenotypically Campbells but carry one recessive Harlequin gene):
If you have a Khaki Campbell male you can mate it with a Dark Campbell female and get Khaki ducklets and Dark drakelets.
Or you can mate a Gold Harlequin drake with a Dark Campbell female and get the same results as with a Khaki Campbell drake.
Or you can mate a Khaki Campbell male with a Silver Harlequin and the same results.

These drakes can be used in sex-linked matings:
Khaki Campbell
Gold Harlequin
Penciled Runner
Chocolate Runner
Chocolate Magpie
Chocolate Anacona
Chocolate Muscovy

These hens can be used in sex-linked matings:
Silver Harlequin
Dark Campbell
Black Runner
Grey Runner
Black Magpie
Black Ancona
Black Cayuga
Black Swedish
Silver Appleyard
Grey Rouen
Black Muscovy

 

[maralynn28]

Uh oh...I'm scared now. I just got my two WH's from Metzer. One looks darker than the other with a darker bill (I know there are some variences) so I 'm still hoping for two girls? I really can not have a drake and will have to rehome him if "she" is a "he."

Here are my babies at 5 days old...any ideas?

here's a close up of the darker wh, "stormtrooper rex"

Any ideas? If it's too early to tell, how soon should I be able to tell and what to look out for? Thanks!

 

[maralynn28]

Quote:
I guess they didn't tell this to whoever sexed my Welsh ducklings at Metzers! I had them sexed and got a drake......he was a mean one too, I had to give him away

. Sexing must be hard, because they messed up on one of my Golden Layers too. They'll replace them, but it can't make up for me having to give one away, and then finding more females. I really wasn't in the mood to do the brooder thing again this year.

You'd think they wouldn't rely soley on color and do vent sexing since there IS an additional cost. I really hope I don't have a drake.

**Please see above post**

 

[evansc3]

I have no idea what sex or breed my ducks are! I have 2 three month old ducks. My brother says that they sound distinctively different. I haven't heard that. They are both white ducks, about the same size. These are the typical looking white ducks you see in kids books about farms. They are storybook beautiful! The store where I bought them just called them "straight run" ducks. I found out later that the term only means unsexed. I would like to put a name to the breed so I could research their needs. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[columbiacritter]

Quote:
Probably Pekin if they are full sized ducks.

 

[evansc3]

Ah! Ok. Yes. They are full sized. Thanks! I'll look up some pictures and compare.

 

[evansc3]

At approximately 3 months old, should the tail feather already be curled if it's male?