PoultryTalk.com

Hi, can anyone tell me why my mini appleyard female duck seems to be having a sex change with her feather colours, shes even got a curly tail which normally male ducks have . Shes just changed like this over the last couple of months, can anyone help?

Hello,
How old are they? Could it be that it was always a drake but is only just maturing into his colours?

I was also going to ask how old she was and she may be growing into a drake if has male feathering and curly tail - does s/he properly quack or is it more of a raspy noise?

Does your flock have any other drakes?

yes there are 4 drakes and 6 girls.

And she is two years old.

She also laid eggs last year.

Females can take over the male role and grow tail feathers but in your case hummmm......any problems in the flock......are they all same age, paired up, none being picked on, left out etc....?

They are different ages, but the female with the male colour is paired up with a male the same age as her, around two years old ,they are older than my other mini appleyards, and were the first ducks i brought . She still quacks like a female.

Was wondering if she would abopt any other drake traits, stop laying and mating with her mate etc......interesting that she should adopt these colours though. If there are no problems in the flock even more perplexing. I supose the only down side is that she may not lay any eggs for you , you'll just have to see what happens come autumn. I will be following your post. Sorry I couldn't have been of more help to you.