Male Vs Female Ducks (How to Tell them Apart) 

gotta love my Molly eh, she sure is like a little kid. The ducks too have a special place in my heart lol they were the first animals on our farm. Thanks Leona. Cheers, Chad

Yes I’ve heard Muscovies are the outlier. Very quiet breed, they may fly a bit and no curly tail. They are a nice & big duck though eh 😉

Thanks bud, I have a slew of videos on the ducks. I love keeping them, very skittish but funny creatures…and they lay just as good as the best chickens. Two of our hens just hatched 16 ducklings and two of them are yellow. Never seen that before. Either my geese mated with the duck or it’s an albino or something. I’ll keep everyone posted.

haha. duck hens quack, duck drakes grunt.

@@HiddenSpringFarm yes, you mentioned that in your video but thank you for the recap all the same. 😜😂 BTW, seeing that drake's bright yellow beak among the dark ones made him look like he was in his own rap video! 🤣

That’s the perfect ratio. Enjoy the little quacksters!!!

@@HiddenSpringFarm thank you

Yeah I can’t picture our place without ducks

Awesome, magpies eh?? Is that down under?

Yeah ducks are comical little quacksters!

Haha I loved that show growing up. Thanks for watching. Cheers, Chad.

Welcome!! Glad you enjoyed it. Have a great day, Chad.

Awesome! Thank you!

Thanks for subbing! Glad to have you. I do have a good amount of videos on our ducks. Building my ultimate duck house, ducks free ranging in the orchard, hatching duck eggs etc. Feel free to watch and if you ever have any questions I usually answer all my comments. I'm happy you're looking into ducks, they are great fun and I don't find them any more messy than chickens. Kc's are very hardy and lay just as many eggs as chickens do. Ducks eggs are a bakers dream too, plus we eat them. You're right though...gotta protect them. Be sure to use a hard wire fencing or hardware cloth for the run...chicken wire is only for keeping poultry in, not keeping predators out. Good luck in your planning. Chad

2 drakes eh that must be fun. And you're so right on they make me laugh pretty much daily. I have a bunch of little kc's that I hatched out a while ago and they're getting close to being integrated into the flock. That'll be interesting hopefully it goes ok. Thanks for watching. Chad.

it's a delicacy to the dogs lol

Haha thank you. Harlequins sure are beautiful I hope you get em. Cheers, Chad.

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haha yeah he got me good lol. Thanks for watching. If you have a good ear you can tell when they're very young by the sound they make. Hens quack and drakes kind of grunt. The colours really start to differentiate after a few months. Enjoy your little quacksters when they hatch. Cheers, Chad.

haha they r pretty soft especially when they're ducklings.

You’re on the right track. Too many drakes will over stress the hens. At this time we have 4 drakes for 13 hens with 5 more young hens still growing. The first harvest is the hardest, but you just have to learn to mentally separate pets from food. We did 30 chickens and 8 ducks this year but we also prepare some fresh food for our two sheepdogs. All the best to u and your new flock. Chad.

That's awesome, ducks are a lot of fun even though they're pretty quirky and sketchy lol. The earliest way to tell the drakes is by their sound, but it's pretty difficult when they're all peeping and quacking together. They don't start to mate until a few months in.

Evelyn Rogers 😊 🦆

very, I'm sure they're descendants.

😉

You can tell the difference by the sound they make but it takes a very keen ear. Takes a couple of months before you start to see a difference in the feathers and the colours of the bill.

Well their feather colourations and bill changed slowly around 3 months, but each one is different depending on pedigree even as adults. Plus I notice the colours change slightly with the seasonal changes. More dull in winter and much more flamboyant in spring as they wanna attract the ladies. 🦆 Very cool animals.

They all look alike at 7 weeks Marc. Some people say they can hear different sounds but when all the ducks are together and quacking they all sound the same to me, but males definitely make more of a grunt than a quack. It took a few months to determine the sex based on the colours. If you only have one you should be able to tell by the sound..males have a raspy grunt females have an actual quack, but it’s not easy until they mature.

Ours are Khaki Campbell ducks

@@HiddenSpringFarm I’m trying to find out what breed mine are not sure if English brown is just a slang name. Thank you for the reply

We expect at least 50% male to female but it's not always the case. Out of 12 we hatched last spring only 4 were female. Some of the drakes beaks are greyish, yellowish or greenish I think any is fine, it's just their genetics. Keep in mind that Khaki Campbells descend from the common Mallard duck too. Cheers, Chad.

Okay 👌 Thank you 😊

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Haha you found out the hard way eh

pekins are tough they are so much alike. You may be guessing right with the sound they make but you may need to keep an eye on them when they start mating...then you'll know for sure

@@HiddenSpringFarm ...when do they start to mate? Worse case i'd have to females who lay eggs because if I have 1 male and 1 female, I'd have to get more females..lol.i don't want no more ducks.

@@flowersintheattic128 hard to say but maybe between 4-6 months. Hens usually start laying 6-8 months. But if u have 1 boy and 1 girl they can just be a pair no need for more females unless you notice he’s mating too much and the hen looks in rough shape.

More questions..like I originally said they both have different quacks, if I have a male, when would he get his male feather. The "quack" is the leader and the raspy one follows..is that a better guess on who is what sex? Lol

Yeah she eats too much, it's almost like it tastes good or something. lol

It is an option. We did harvest them for meat along with chickens last year. You gotta be able to separate the livestock from the pets though. Once one makes a decision and strive to be more self reliant, be prepared. It's not for everyone though. We just want to have more of an input as to where our meat comes from and what kind of life they live before that one bad day.