As any experienced duck owner knows, a healthy male to female ratio in a flock is crucial to keeping the peace. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to tell the sex of a duck. Here, we’re going to go over how to sex ducks, whether they’re still in the egg or have already reached maturity.
How to Sex Duck Eggs
When possible, it’s best to test for sex while a duck is still incubating. Doing so allows you to sell or consume unwanted eggs as opposed to hatching and culling. It’s a much more humane solution for backyard poultry enthusiasts looking to raise hens exclusively.
The most popular method of sexing duck eggs is known as candling. The candling method is often attributed to Mrs. Noda Fry of Missouri, though it’s likely to have originated much earlier. There are centuries-old accounts of people using similar testing methods.
Candling involves holding up a strong light to an eggshell, allowing you to see inside. By doing this, you can identify early sex characteristics such as wing sprouts. Candling is a popular method of testing sex before incubation because it’s cheap, fast, and relatively effective. While it doesn’t have a 100% success rate, studies have found that candling is generally 96% to 98% effective at determining sex.
Unfortunately, traditional candling may stress or even disrupt the growth of sensitive embryos. Sexing in ovo using infrared fluorescence and Raman signals is a much safer, albeit more expensive, way to sex unborn chicks. Male blood visibly fluoresces more than females, making results accurate and easy to read.
How to Sex Ducklings
While in ovo, sexing is possible but most ducklings aren’t sexed until they hatch from the egg. It’s easier, cheaper, and more accurate than trying to sex embryos. There are several different ways that you can sex ducks as hatchlings.
Vent checking is one of the most common methods of sexing after hatching. Trained professionals can gently palpate the cloaca to feel for reproductive organs inside the duckling. While vent checking is fairly accurate, it can pose a risk of injury to young, fragile hatchlings.
As chicks develop in their first few days, it can become easier to tell the sexes apart. While males tend to grow larger than females more quickly, young hens develop feathers before their drake counterparts. Females also start quacking earlier and tend to have a louder, more raucous voice.
Bills and feet can provide another subtle clue. Male ducks tend to have wider, flatter beaks than females, and coloration may differ depending on the breed. Drakes also tend to develop large, mature feet earlier than female ducklings.
How to Sex Ducks Breeds
Knowing which breed of duck you’re working with can make the sexing process easier. Many breeds have distinctive, gender-determined characteristics as both ducklings and mature adults.
How to Sex Pekin Ducks
Pekin ducks can be difficult to tell apart as babies. Both sexes share similar characteristics, including bright yellow plumage. It’s easiest to wait until ducks have reached maturity to determine gender.
In Pekin ducks, the easiest way to tell the sexes apart is by listening to their quack. Females are louder than males, often producing more of a honking noise. You can also tell males apart visually by the distinctive curled feather tipping their tails.
How to Sex Muscovy Ducks
Sex differences in Muscovy ducks tend to show up a few weeks after hatching, most often in the juvenile months. The most clearly visible difference between males and females is body proportions. Male Muscovies tend to have larger feet, a bigger body, and a more prominent chest than females.
While male juveniles grow more quickly than female Muscovy ducks, keep in mind that young hens often show plumage before males. Feathers are often similar in color, though males may have darker areas around the eyes.
How to Sex Runner Ducks
Runner ducks can be a challenge to differentiate between, as there are a wide variety of colorations that can vary between sexes. However, in many runners, males tend to have a dark green or black bill, while females often have a lighter orange bill.
Perhaps one of the best ways to tell mature runner ducks apart with accuracy is by looking at the rump. While drakes have a curled tip to their tails, hens typically have flatter tails. Drakes also tend to have darker coloration on plumage around the rump area.
How to Sex Cayuga Ducklings
Cayugas can be difficult to sex as ducklings. Both genders are often a similar size, and they both share a dark, iridescent coloring. Once ducklings reach maturity at around eight months, you can begin to see more dramatic changes in their morphology.
Males develop a curled drake feather on their tails, while females remain flat. Females also tend to make a louder, much more jarring sound than the quiet rasp of Cayuga drakes. As they age, hens also begin to lose their iridescent color and develop white feathers, making them easier to distinguish.
How to Sex Rouen Ducklings
Rouen ducks are one of the easiest breeds to sex at maturity. Many people are familiar with both the male and female coloration, as Rouens commonly live near humans on lakes and in parks.
Male Rouens have a white ring around their neck, emerald green heads, and a gray body. Females are slightly less colorful, with a brown, slightly speckled body. Males also tend to be larger than females, with big heads and thick necks.
Can Ducks Change Gender?
It may surprise you to know that, unlike most mammals, ducks can change gender over the course of a lifetime. Females that lose their ovaries to injury, infection, or age may begin to start producing male hormones as a result. Over time, the hen will begin to display traits typically reserved for drakes of her breed.
Don’t worry if you notice one or more of your hens undergoing such a change. It’s perfectly natural and not necessarily unhealthy or dangerous. Just keep in mind that more male hormones equate to more male behaviors. Females that change genders may become more aggressive and may even harass other ducks in your flock.
In Conclusion
Sexing ducks can help backyard poultry owners to maintain a healthy male-to-female ratio in their flock. As long as you know what you’re doing, you can accurately sex ducks from the time they’re in the egg to the time they reach maturity.