Backyard Farming Forum
Bringing food production home

i know the males are quite larger than the females, the males have a spiked hairdo. can females have the spiked heads too? i have some that i wish to cull out all the same size but some are smooth headed and some are spiked. i do not wish to see if any of them get larger than the others . i want to keep the females and cull the males down to two birds i have two big bruisers and 15 smaller ones but hard to tell because i had multiple hatches, any help available?

Hum. I've been able to identify the males from the females of nearly grown but immature Muscovy Ducks by looking at the feet. Not very accurate if you have animals that have hatched all at different times but when I was able to look at the feet and legs of different gender birds side by side, the males definitely appeared to have heavier legs and bigger feet while the females legs were more slender with smaller feet.

I've usually not had hatching closer than two weeks apart so it has normally be easy to tell which clutch was which.

As to the mowhawk, my birds usually let their feathers lay pretty smooth on top of their head. The big male definitely spikes up more than anyone else but I have seen the females occasionally tense up the feathers on top of their heads too though very rare.

Once the birds are big enough to start flying, it is generally very obvious who the girls are and who will soon be too big to more than flap over the fence. The Females fly very well and take to perching on top of things and landing on the roof if you don't clip a wing. I've never seen a male get much more than say 5-6 feet off the ground and with that feet comes a big flapping sound.

I used to tell mine apart because the males would never leave the females alone, or the chooks and even looked at the dogs sideways. Muscovy drakes have a strong labido.

the girls have a spiked hairdo, the drakes are down to two now, and soon to be replaced by fresh blood lines. i am building a duck pen from a 20' high tunnel frame....i bought a tube bender and make my own hoops

Hi Everyone

The way we sex ducks is by looking at the tail feathers.

Drakes have 1 or more (normally no more than 3) curly feathers that curl back over towards the head.

As also noted, the drakes are bigger than the hens at an early time (about 6 or 8 weeks).