Sexing 11 week old mallards?

[Kaitie09]

Both our ducks will be 11 weeks tomorrow, and we still have no idea what they are. Neither of them have drake feathers, and they hardly quack at all. When we go out there, they just talk to each other in that low peeping noise. When they do quack, it will either be the low raspy one, or a high normal one, they both will do both when they get separated. We noticed one of them has their back feathers changing. The brown feathers are becoming less defined and are turning more of a gray than anything else. I also heard you can tell a little by beak color, but both of them have completely dark beaks with a little yellow here and there. We still see no green tinting on their heads. Both of their speculums range from blue green, to purple blue, to true blue, it just depends which way we are looking at them. These are our first ducks so we have no clue what we should be looking for and at what age.

 

[1234duck]

Mallards look A LOT like Rouen Ducks, & I have a Rouen Drake & Hen. (theres a creek at the beginning of our street and we often see a Mallard Drake & Hen swimming and just chillin. The 1st time i seen them i had to hurry home and check to see if my ducks were there). Also I have a 10 week old Rouen that I hatched in the incubator. I had just also tried to get info about the Drake & Hen. The drake has a yellow beak and a white ring around the neck. The Drake makes a raspy noise and the hen Quacks loud. Here is pictures of my Rouen Ducks. Do yours look anything like these

This is the 10 week old, name is Lucky Ducky. I thought it was a girl but he's a boy...yellow beak & white ring around the neck also makes a raspy sound.

this shows the beak color, even though he is just a little bit younger in this picture. Hope this helps. Good luck, ~Julie~

 

[Kaitie09]

Its been raining all weekend but I went out yesterday to get some pics

Look at the closest one, you can see his.her back feathers are becoming less defined and more gray

Up close of the feathers

The other one. No changing in feather color.

So you can see both of them. I'm thinking they have a glare on them, and that is why both of their heads are shiny. It was a crappy day out and it was about to storm, so the sky was not exactly the right color either.

No idea if this makes a difference, but one of them has bigger eyes than the other.

 

[NYRIR]

If it's raspy...it's a boy.I know how hard it can be,especially since I have one mallard who is quiet...meaning he/she never makes a noise in front of me

I keep seeing my mature mallard drake chasing it down and mounting it though...so I'm leaning towards girl

unless it's a territorial thing

Anyway,if you can catch them one at a time and take it a bit away from the others...they usually will make noise trying to locate the others.
ETA: the females are the only ones who can Quack...the males cannot physically make that noise so they sound like they have laryngitis...

 

[1234duck]

Pretty or Hansom not sure which on the same ones you aren't sure about

but they are very pretty. The last picture I'm saying both are drakes with the tint of color on top of their heads. yes and listen for the raspy voice for drakes. I was gonna say yes to first picture being the female, it looked a lot like my Rouen female. Good luck with your pretty birds. ~Julie~

 

[Kaitie09]

these guys hardly ever quack. Every once in a while I will hear a couple loud ones in the morning like a hen would do, but I am never outside to know which one it is. When I am outside, they either just peep to each other or they both have low quacks. They seriously think they are partial chickens and they only ever make a fuss when the chickens are talking, so it is kind of tough to figure it out right now. Also, our rooster has taken these two on as his own and even takes treats to them. I do not know if he is just confused about their sexes, or if they are hens.

 

[desertdarlene]

I'm still learning, but, to me, it strongly looks like you have one boy and one girl. In a few more weeks, you will have a more definite answer. It is possible you have two drakes, especially if you have green tint on both of their heads.

 

[Luciesbuddys]

I am having the same exact issue but i have 4 ducks and no clue what they are and one of mine even has larger eyes hopefully we both will get definite signs soon.

 

[THunter]

Quote:
You have one drake and one hen. Congratulations. The front one in this picture is the drake.

 

[ChickyChickyBaby]

With our mallards, we could only tell by quack until about 3-4 months old. Then our drake started feathering out with gray like in the pic posted above.

Our drake had actually feathered out like a hen, then molted to his "boy feathers" and drake curl.

Matter of fact, every drake we have or have had- runners, mallards, etc, has been that way.