r/duck • • Apr 14 '26

Public Service Announcement drake feathers and what they indicate

Post image
155 Upvotes

there seems to be a recurring misconception about determining whether a duck is male or female by looking for drake feathers.

Having a drake feather indicates that the duck IS a male, but not having a drake feather means nothing, as all ducklings, all females, young males, certain breeds of adult males AND males in eclipse molt do not have drake feathers. Even within some breeds, like Pekins, some males may have a drake feather, while others will not. Drake feathers do not appear until after the first molt.

The only ways that are 100% accurate are the quack test, finding laid eggs or examining for a penis. Even duck on top/duck on bottom is no way to tell, as females sometimes mount females and males sometimes mount males.

The quack test relies on listening to the voice of the duck. With mallard derived domestic ducks, females will have loud, clear quacks while males will have softer, voiceless, hoarse 'waaak's.

Neither the quack test nor the drake feather is applicable to muscovies. Females will coo and trill while males emit voiceless, breathy huffs and chuffs and do not get drake feathers.

Rarely, some females can develop a drake feather if they are dealing with hormonal issues.

attribution: image shamelessly stolen from https://kingofdoodles.blogspot.com/2017/07/what-is-drake-feather.html.


r/duck • • Jun 22 '23

Public Service Announcement We Need Your Input - Duck Veterinarian List

Post image
42 Upvotes

r/duck • • 4h ago

Wild Ducks Some ducks dunking

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

44 Upvotes

There were hundreds covering the entire surface of Diamond Lake, OR.


r/duck • • 17h ago

Gooses! The Geese have joined the flock! Meet Willow and Sage.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

69 Upvotes

Earlier this summer we took 3 runner girls from the owners because they didn’t have the time to dedicate to ducks, and they asked if we’d take their geese, as well. We waited until we had the big house done before we picked them up, and I’m really glad we said yes to taking them. They are extremely friendly and social, and just super duper sweet. The ducks seem to be totally fine with them; no drama and it seems they’re happy that to follow their lead.🦆🪿


r/duck • • 12h ago

Wild Ducks ❤️❤️ Ducks in Temple

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

19 Upvotes

💕 Beautiful Ducks


r/duck • • 18h ago

Meet the Flock Seems it’s not that scary.

Post image
46 Upvotes

r/duck • • 1d ago

Wild Ducks Resting ducks

Post image
198 Upvotes

Yesterday afternoon I went for a walk in the park, and was surprised to see the amount of ducks resting on the lawn.


r/duck • • 20h ago

Breed/Species/Sex ID Can Someone Please ID These Ducks for me?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

28 Upvotes

I’m walking at my normal pond in Southeast Michigan, and noticed these cuties. Can someone ID these for me, I’ve never seen ducks like this here before, at least that I’ve noticed, and I’m always watching for feathered friend. Sorry for not the best quality video, had to zoom all the way in so I wouldn’t scare them. Thanks!


r/duck • • 9h ago

Wild Ducks Morgengymnastik

Post image
3 Upvotes

r/duck • • 1d ago

Wild Ducks Traveled to Arizona and got to see a new duck! Northern Pintail.

Thumbnail
gallery
265 Upvotes

r/duck • • 1d ago

Wild Ducks Cute gentleman 🦆

Thumbnail
gallery
242 Upvotes

Never had a duck this close to me before. I was with my boyfriend and really we did nothing to get his attention, just sat on a bench and this cutie pie approached! I guess he's still young, his head is not fully green yet.


r/duck • • 15h ago

Meet the Flock My dumbass cousin got us duck

Post image
0 Upvotes

r/duck • • 1d ago

Health Questions Ducks kept in poor conditions??

Post image
112 Upvotes

!!THIS IS NOT MY DUCK!!

I went to an Amish farm today (chose this place based off of there amazing reviews) to purchase a few more Buff Orpington ducks to even out my drake-to-hen ratio, and I have to say, I left pretty heartbroken.
I’ll be the first to admit I don’t have a ton of experience raising ducks, but what I saw really upset me. They kept bringing out ducks that were absolutely filthy, which honestly wasn’t even my biggest concern. Almost all of them had extremely puffy, crusty eyes that looked irritated and possibly infected. On top of that, these poor ducks were absolutely PETRIFIED.

I asked why their eyes were in such bad condition, and their explanation was, “We need to fill the water trough up today, and we haven’t yet.”
But to me, this looked like something that had been building up for much longer than a single day without fresh water. I ended up handing this poor duck back because I can’t afford to take home an animal in that condition. They eventually brought me two that appeared healthy, but I would honestly say 8 out of 10 ducks I saw had eyes like this.

What shocked me even more was that this farm has such good reviews. People getting these ducks as pets and I’m getting them for egg production

I completely understand that livestock is livestock. I’m not against raising ducks for meat, eggs, or breeding. But surely being livestock doesn’t mean they don’t deserve basic care, clean water, and humane living conditions?

Ducks need access to water deep enough to properly clean their eyes and nostrils. Seeing so many in this condition was genuinely upsetting. I’m so confused because the reviews were amazing, people talking about how friendly the ducks are, how clean and taken care of.

Am I overreacting, or would this concern other duck owners too? Has anyone seen ducks develop eyes like this simply from not having their water refilled for a day? This is just a rant I guess.


r/duck • • 1d ago

Brooders/Coops/Runs Help with rats eating eggs

Thumbnail
3 Upvotes

r/duck • • 1d ago

Good News/Recovery/Updates I am now a registered European Union duck importer.

Thumbnail
gallery
123 Upvotes

Those following Knight Bundty’s and Lady Lemon’s day to day trials and tribulations will know that they have a new home to move to abroad soon. They are so excited that they were partying from 3 until 5 this morning, and when I finally go some sleep, Bundty flew up to the couch, did a small poo, and promptly left again. Lovely to wake up to and clean up.

Their (and our) lovely new landlady has already arranged for someone to lend us their old duck house while look at other options for the longer term.

Part of relocating these two, and perhaps their siblings, involves a lot of bureaucratic wrangling, vet visits, and health sign offs, not to mention registration of the receiving address and someone to act as the importer, and a particular kind of vet to approve the whole box and dice 24 hours before we all hop in a truck.

We had been told the importation permission in our new home was likely to take 6 or so weeks and we got on with that last week as soon as we knew our new address… instead, I opened my inbox this morning to discover my permit has been granted already. So far, so good.

We still have to wait for the domestic registration of the new house to be transposed into the import registry, but things are happening and we may be on our way sooner rather than later.

I updated each of these two lovely babies on today’s developments, both were much too busy napping to give me or these developments much attention.


r/duck • • 2d ago

Meet the Flock Fall foraging

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

174 Upvotes

Volume up for cuteness overload. My babies are playing in their first fall leaves.


r/duck • • 2d ago

Breed/Species/Sex ID Duck ID in Georgia

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

148 Upvotes

Found this duck on the sidewalk while walking today. I don't know ducks well, but it seemed unusual. Might this be an abandoned pet duck, or is it likely wild?

Edit: Thank you for the quick responses! I am hoping it belonged to a house nearby where I saw it. I went back and did not see it, nor did I see anything in the road. Hopefully it found its way back home.


r/duck • • 1d ago

Beginner's Question Keeping Ducks Warm in New England Winter?

2 Upvotes

I’m currently in the design phase, no ducks yet but i’m planning on a small flock of four. I hear mixed opinions on whether a heater or lamp is necessary if you have a well-insulated coop. I was planning on putting a thermometer in the coop when it’s done and monitoring to see if they’ll need supplemental heating.

Any advice or knowledge on keeping ducks warm in a Massachusetts winter?


r/duck • • 2d ago

Wild Ducks Rare Egyptian geese (Nile geese) spotted by the river in Ukraine

Thumbnail
gallery
29 Upvotes

r/duck • • 2d ago

Brooders/Coops/Runs Will they trample the grass?

Thumbnail
gallery
17 Upvotes

I moved into my house a year and a half ago and have had my 4 ducks in their current run for about a year. I'm hoping to put in a fence soon and want to section off a bigger area for the ducks to roam (green box). In their current run size, they trampled the grass in like a week so now it's all pine shavings. The question is though, will they trample the grass in this big of an area? If so, I need to figure out a grass alternative if one exists for ducks.


r/duck • • 2d ago

Babies! Leg banding

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

105 Upvotes

I breed muscovy ducks and I am looking for a safe way to band ducklings. I want to hold some back for breeders, but I need to mark them based on parentage so no inbreeding occurs. Thanks in advance! Video included of this year's flock for the duck tax :)


r/duck • • 2d ago

Good News/Recovery/Updates Baby Duck flew away but has been found and returned home

Thumbnail
gallery
344 Upvotes

On Columbus Day, Oct. 12th, Baby Duck flew away to discover new worlds.

Baby Duck (real name Slow Poke, so named because he was long delayed in hatching) was born on June 11th. He was tiny and was a bra baby in the NICBU™ (neonatal intensive care bra unit) for several nights until we were sure he'd make it in the brooder with the others that had hatched before him. He sat with us many nights watching movies on teevee sitting in our laps. As he grew, he had a bed on the floor beside our bed at night.

From a couple days old, I would take him with me when I went to work, which involves driving all over to do electrical inspections. I had a cat bed with bath towels stacked up on the passenger seat. Feed and water nearby. Often he would sit on my lap and look out the window at passing trees and cars as we zoomed along. Once, while he was still small, he climbed up on the back of the back seat and spent about an hour just sitting there like a prince looking out the window as I drove.

He was an instant hit with the bank ladies when I went to the teller window and pulled out a tiny duckling from my pocket and placed him on the counter. The lady that works the counter at Southern States made a fuss over him every time I stopped there for feed and straw. She watched him grow into a full sized muscovy duck. He would walk around the warehouse and pick up errant pieces of corn.

I would get him out to walk around while I looked at electric meters and he was a great conversation starter with customers. He was the duck ambassador and many people learned for the first time about muscovy ducks and their friendly personalities. Many people had heard about that guy with the duck and were disappointed when I showed up and had not brought him along.

I took Baby Duck to one particular inspection and while the customer and I were admiring him standing there, he spread his wings and just like that (snaps fingers) he was GONE! I was dumbfounded and distraught and spent the next four hours traipsing over hill and dale, down into a large hollow in the wilderness of West Virginia, following streams and hidden places calling 'Baby Duck, where are you?' No response.

I put up reward posters at a couple local businesses, and people were concerned, but I got no response on sightings. People said the area was thick with coyotes. Several more trips to the hollow over the next few days calling and looking. Followed a stream down into the woods for almost a half mile, tripping over moss covered rocks. Up the hill on the power line right of way, snagged in blackberry bushes and tripping over stacked up brush, down the hill to the streams again. Nothing.

We had given up hope. After a week, I removed Baby Duck from our database of ducks and marked him as 'missing, no body to bury'.

Then on Oct. 23rd I found a message on the answering machine that someone had sighted a lone duck swimming on a pond way down an abandoned farm road in the woods. I jumped in the car and headed right out. I grabbed the coffee can of Mazuri and walked, then ran down that road til I found the pond. I called and called but saw nothing. I had turned and was starting back down the road to see if there was another pond further down that he might be swimming in, when I suddenly heard flap, flap, flapping and this large black form flew right past me and landed about twenty feet in front of me. It was Baby Duck!

I gathered him in my arms and hugged him. He was very excited to see me, dipping his head and biting at my sleeve. I opened the can of feed and he nearly choked devouring it, he was so hungry. I wrapped him in my sweat shirt and started walking up the steep hill to the car, nearly losing my breath from fatigue and exhilaration.

He sat on the cat bed dipping his head and picking up and dropping every item in the console as we headed home. The wife was on the porch hoping against hope that it was really Baby Duck that was sighted and that I was able to find and catch him. After a full belly and many loving pets, he fell asleep in the kitchen by the big slider door. He was so glad to be home. He slept that night beside the bed in his usual location and never stirred. A total of 11 days he was gone but Baby Duck was home! I wish he could talk and tell us all about his adventures.


r/duck • • 2d ago

Wild Ducks Kleines Model <3

Post image
16 Upvotes