Today, more and more people adhere to proper nutrition, preferring environmentally friendly products. Many are engaged in breeding ducks in order to obtain dietary meat, domestic eggs that do not contain GMOs and many other chemicals. It is very important to be able to determine the sex of the bird. Considering that the duck and the drake are representatives of the same species, not every beginner in poultry farming will be able to distinguish them. In fact, this is quite easy to do if you know about the sex differences in birds. Poultry farmers and hunters resolve this issue very quickly and accurately.
Why distinguish ducks
All experienced farmers manage their farms, always separating poultry by gender. A number of points are taken into account:
- Female ducks are completely non-confrontational, unlike drakes.
- Males are endowed with strong immunity and are more resistant to various diseases.
- Males gain weight much faster, and it is greater than that of females.
- When breeding poultry, it is necessary to maintain the ratio - there must be one drake for every four ducks. This is a very important condition for egg productivity.
Differences in appearance
First of all, you can distinguish ducks by their plumage. Like many other birds, the female does not have a distinct bright color; her feathers are gray and dull in color. But males are naturally gifted with a very beautiful outfit, which helps them attract individuals of the opposite sex. The rather long crest on the drake’s head can be seen even from afar. Some domestic breeds are characterized by a single color color - males and females can be completely white.
Another way to distinguish a drake is a bright wart on the beak, which is absent in females. You can also recognize it by its neck - in males it is wide, while in ducks it is thinner and more delicate.
The head of female individuals is smaller and has a rounded shape, but in drakes it is oblong.
The tail also has significant differences. If you look closely, you can see that in drakes it has several feathers curled upward, while in females it is completely straight. This feature appears already from the third month.
The size of the birds is also important. The male individual is almost twice as large. If the female weighs about three kilograms, then even 5 kg is not the limit that a drake can reach with good care. The photo below demonstrates this difference very clearly.
However, it also happens that due to diet or living conditions, it is not always possible to determine the sex of ducks based on the characteristics listed above. It happens that females grow much larger than drakes.
How to distinguish females from drakes by behavior
There are some features in the actions of birds that directly depend on their gender. There will definitely be a dominant male in the pack. After observing him, you can easily identify the rest of the males, because it is they who he will not allow to the feeding trough and will constantly fight with them. On the contrary, he pays special attention to the females and lets them go ahead. Regardless of whether the ducks are in the air or on the water, the female is always in front, and a drake a short distance away ensures her safety.
The difference between a male and his voice
You don't have to see the bird to determine its gender. It's enough to just listen. An experienced hunter knows how to distinguish a duck from a drake, even if the birds hiding in the reeds are not visible. The female quacks loudly, without embarrassment. The drake emits only a dull hissing and whistling.
Difference in genitals
Based on all the characteristics listed above, it is possible to distinguish a female from a male after the chicks reach at least three months of age. They are uncharacteristic for day-old ducklings. The male can be identified by their genitals. The drake has a very rare difference, absent in most other birds - it is a pseudopenis, capable of turning outward. Using it, you can find out the sex of the bird within a day after hatching. It is enough to stretch the skin around the cloaca a little and direct it towards the tummy. If a spiral-shaped penis only two millimeters long appears, then it is a drake, and in the female only spherical growths will be visible.
If you do such a procedure at a very early stage, and even for the first time, you will not always be able to tell the difference, since the genitals of the chicks are very small. After a few weeks, they become larger, and then the sex can be determined with confidence.
How to select ducks for breeding
Both drakes and females must be in good health and meet all the standards of a certain species: size, weight and color of feathers. Various body deformations are not allowed in breeding ducks.
In most breeds, sexual maturity does not occur until six months of age. They start laying eggs, then hatch them and
Not only the living conditions of ducks, the quality of food, but also the ratio of females and males affects the quality of eggs. Therefore, the ability to distinguish between a duck and a drake is one of the most basic skills that a novice poultry farmer must acquire.
So, the drake is not a separate breed of bird, not a subspecies of the duck family, but just a word that is used to call a male duck. It differs from the female in a number of characteristics, which we will tell you about in this article. In addition, it makes sense to consider the basic requirements that must be observed when breeding ducks at home.
Main differences:
- Coloring. Drakes have a motley and bright “outfit”, thanks to which they attract individuals of the opposite sex. Ducks cannot boast of beauty - their plumage is unsightly, gray, but excellent for camouflage somewhere in the reeds. For example, a male Muscovy duck has rough red skin around its beak that extends over its eyes, while a female Muscovy duck usually has a soft pink skin between its beak and eyes.
- Birds can be distinguished by their size. Drakes of any breed are always one and a half to two times larger than ducks and, accordingly, weigh more. They also have a noticeably more powerful neck curve, head, and wider body.
- Tail feathers. In females, the tail feathers are straight, while in males they curl upward (this is especially obvious in the Bashkir breed of ducks).
- There is an obvious difference in the behavior of individuals: drakes behave aggressively at an early age, they can attack other male ducks and bully each other. Females, on the contrary, are completely conflict-free and, at any hint of a fight, tend to hide in a corner and not take part in it. The males also always let the ducks go ahead, while they themselves stay a little behind.
- The sounds produced by different sexes are different. Only a duck can quack. Drakes make hissing and whistling sounds.
Using these features, you can find out how to distinguish an Indian duck from a drake, or a Moscow duck, or a Bashkir duck, or any other breed.
How to determine the sex of a duckling?
Let's let's figure it out How to distinguish ducklings of different sexes from each other.
Poultry farmers with sufficient experience can do this within a day after the chick hatches based on the following signs:
- Little drakes have larger heads than ducks.
- The neck of females is more graceful, thinner and shorter than the neck of males.
- The lower larynx of drakes is slightly expanded and shifted to the left; ducks do not have this.
Grown-up ducklings can be distinguished by the characteristics of adults - voice, manners, appearance, and so on.
Useful information about duck breeding
Since we're talking about the duck family, let's delve into this topic and talk about breeding ducks as an opportunity to start your own business activity and earn good money from it without spending a lot of resources.
This is quite a profitable business, since it has several undeniable advantages:
- Birds such as ducks are completely unpretentious in terms of living conditions and do not require special care.
- Waste-free production - you can sell not only meat and eggs, but also feathers, down, and young birds for breeding. The droppings are used as a natural fertilizer for garden beds and plants.
- Ducks are very prolific; on average, a female can hatch about a hundred eggs in six months.
- Finally, these birds are relatively inexpensive, and with proper management you can get great benefits from this.
Do not forget, of course, that for a good start an enterprise needs initial resources, such as a vast territory (necessarily with at least a small body of water), room with a certain temperature (each breed and age has its own) and good ventilation, the availability of the necessary food for birds (except for pasture, ducks need three meals a day in the form of finely chopped grass, tops, vegetables, grains, healthy mineral supplements and water).
Also, if you want to establish your production, you will have to run around the authorities and collect the necessary certificates and documents.
The best breeds for breeding are Bashkir, Musk (Indout), Saxon, Peking and Black White-breasted. They have good qualities both in terms of egg production and meat taste, as well as ease of maintenance and care.
How to raise ducklings correctly?
First, you need to resolve the issue regarding hatching eggs You can purchase a special incubator or go the natural route, leaving the worries of caring for the offspring to the hen.
In the first case, considerable costs will be spent on equipment; you will also have to constantly adjust the temperature and turn the eggs after a certain period of time (usually several hours).
In the second case, there are much fewer problems - the ducks have a developed maternal instinct, the temperature under the hen is always the right one, plus the female will take care of the newborn ducklings herself, bringing them insects and other pasture.
It is important for many poultry farmers and rural residents to be able to distinguish a drake from a duck. At first glance it seems that this is impossible. This is especially difficult to do with newly born ducklings. People who have been raising this bird for a long time can determine the sex quickly and without errors.
There are a lot of recommendations and tips on the Internet on how to distinguish a drake from a duck. When it all comes down to practice itself, it becomes clear that in fact, there are not so many differences, especially when it comes to chicks. Let's find out what methods are used to identify the sexes of ducks.
Indian girls. Duck or drake?
Main advantages and differences in appearance
Why do you need to distinguish ducks by gender? In fact, experienced farmers farm according to gender.
What exactly is taken into account:
- female ducks do not strive to fly away, unlike males, they are not conflicting;
- males have strong immunity;
- the male duck is hardier than the female, more resistant to disease;
- drakes weigh much more than females;
- Egg productivity will depend on the sex ratio (1:4) - there should be more females.
In terms of sexual dimorphism, ducks differ in their plumage. Like many animals, the female does not have a bright color, most often it is gray and dull color of feathers. The male, on the contrary, is gifted by nature with bright and colorful colors to attract the opposite sex. The drake has a long and bright crest on its neck. One of the differences is the beard, which female ducks lack.
The tail is also slightly different. If you look closely at the very tip, you will notice that in males the feathers are curled upward (usually this is the tail of the Peking and Bashkir breeds), while in females the tail is straight. Males begin to curl their feathers from the age of 3 months. The drake weighs almost twice as much as the female. So, if the male weighs about 5 kg, then the female weighs up to 3 kg. The drake's forehead is wider, and the beak resembles a triangle. Females have a trapezoidal expansion.
Additional external differences between females and males:
- the beak of drakes has a growth located upward;
- the bones of the forehead are more massive in males, expanding from the beak;
- the head of females is rounder than that of males;
- the neck of females is shorter and thinner;
- the body of females is narrower;
- the leg muscles are not as developed as in males.
It happens that external differences are practically not noticeable. This will depend on the conditions in which the birds are kept and their diet. It even happens that females are found larger than males. It is also not always possible to indicate the exact sex of ducks by plumage. Color depends on the species and breed. For example, domestic ducks are characterized by the same color for both males and females - white.
Behavior of males and females: what is the difference
In a flock of ducks, you can notice that the weaker sex is not the leader and always goes somewhere to the side or behind. This happens both in flight and while walking. Poultry farmers often notice aggression from drakes. Dominants often fight for food or females with other males. Experienced farmers have learned to distinguish a drake from a duck by its voice: the loud quack of a female is difficult to confuse with the hissing and whistling of a duck.
Muscovy ducks (drake - top)
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During the breeding season, it is quite easy to identify the male. He feathers all over and becomes attentive to his chosen one. Additional sexual characteristics may appear that were not previously noticeable. For example, if he previously did not have a beard or mustache, this all appears during the mating season. By using these methods, birds attract the opposite sex. In order for the female to pay attention to him, he constantly hovers around her and conflicts with other contenders. Mating games may be accompanied by dancing and singing. It is worth noting that not only the drake can take the first step towards “acquaintance”, but the female can also initiate mating.
In small chicks, sex is more difficult to determine. It is usually only at 10-12 weeks of age that sexual dimorphism begins to appear. For many poultry farmers, gender is an important consideration when purchasing birds. Therefore, many have adapted to using a special ultrasonic device that can attract individuals of only one sex.
If you hold a duckling upside down by its paws, the female will be motionless, and the young drake will make attempts to look around. Of course, this does not guarantee gender determination, but it’s worth a try.
If ducks are not fed correctly and kept in inappropriate conditions, same-sex pairs can form. The dominant female can even completely copy the behavior of the drake. Males can also form pairs with each other. This is why the behavioral method of differentiation is unreliable.
Differences by gender
It turns out that if you really want to, you can even distinguish the sex of day-old chicks. To do this, you need to take the duckling with your left hand (head towards you) and massage its anal passage. If a small pseudopenis appears (about 3 mm in size), then you probably have a young drake in your hands. If nothing like this appears, then it is a female. In female representatives, small balls (like growths) will be visible.
Duck or drake - sex determination
This method is called Japanese. It gives a 98% guarantee. But everything will depend on the correctness of the process. Only an experienced specialist will be able to determine the gender using this method with 100% accuracy.
When a farmer knows how to distinguish ducks by various characteristics, he begins to rationally plan nutrition, feed distribution, and egg productivity. All this knowledge influences the reproduction of poultry; the development of meat or egg production depends on it.
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Video: Determining the sex of goslings (similar with ducklings)
Ducks and geese are waterfowl. There are a lot of them, and they live all over the world. These birds have dense plumage, which helps retain heat, and webbed feet perfectly adapted for swimming.
Duck- this bird is small in size with a short neck and tarsus, covered in front with transverse scutes, it comes from the order Newopalatines, the order Anseriformes, and the family Anatidae. There are about 110 species of these birds in the world. The colors of ducks can be either monotonous or several colors. The most common ducks are white or gray.
All types of ducks weigh from 2 to 5 kilograms depending on age. They have short legs, on which they waddle funny when walking. The paws have three webbed front toes and a free rear toe. Most duck species live in fresh water. They feed on insects, worms and all plant foods. Male ducks are called drakes. They have bright plumage that attracts females. The feathers of females are beige-brown.
In villages and villages you can find Peking ducks. Males weigh an impressive 4 kg, while females weigh 3.5 kg. They can lay up to 120 eggs in a year. Young ducks gain weight in just 60 days.
One of the best ways to raise ducks is duck(mother hen), who swims along the pond with her brood, searches for natural and naturally pure food, trains and protects the ducklings.
The most common ducks are: Mallard, Gray Duck, Pintail, Wigeon, Teal, Whistling Teal, Shoveler, Red-headed Pochard (Blue Duck), Tufted Duck, White-eyed Pochard.
Goose belongs to the class of birds, subclass of neopalates, order of Anseriformes, family of Anatidae, subfamily of Anseriformes and genus of geese. Geese are usually larger than ducks and have longer necks. Geese have rather large beaks, which they use to pull grass out of the ground. The beak of ducks is flatter - it is convenient for them to catch food from the water.
Geese, unlike other birds, have a beak that is orange or gray. The beak has a large height, but its width is not large; the end of the beak is expressed by a nail with a sharp edge. There are small teeth along the edges of the beak. Geese have a neck, but it is not as long as swans, they also have tall legs that are colored orange or gray, and their feet are a bit like flippers, which allows them to float on water.
Geese have a large number of feathers and down. The main difference between males and females is only a bone growth (“hump”) at the beginning of the beak at the bridge of the male’s nose, as well as a slightly larger body size.
Almost all types of geese cackle or make muttering sounds; when in danger or irritation, they hiss and can bite. The most common geese are: wild geese, greylag geese, Bean goose, Canada goose, White-fronted geese, White geese, White-breasted goose, Red-breasted goose, Brent goose, African geese.
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Both hunters and farmers need to be able to determine the sex of ducks. During the hunting period, shooting of drakes is permitted. The females are left so that they can later breed offspring, increasing the number of livestock within their breed. Farmers raise ducks for both meat and eggs. Males gain body weight faster. In a short period of fattening, they show better productivity.
For meat production, it is preferable to breed males rather than females. At the same time, females are taken to produce duck eggs. Males in poultry farms are kept to create bird families and to obtain hatching eggs. How to distinguish a duck from a drake? What should you pay attention to?
More than 150 species of ducks live in nature. Some of them are commercial. Drakes of wild ducks are distinguished by their bright plumage. During the mating season, the color of their feathers becomes rich and bright. Females, on the contrary, are modest in their attire. Most often it is monochromatic, gray, brown, red. Feathers form an ornament on the body that is characteristic of a particular breed.
In spring, drakes shed their bright plumage and look like a female. In this case, the size of the individuals matters. Males are always larger than females. During the winter molt, they are again covered with beautiful feathers, which remain until the mating season. Ornithologists note distinctive features in individuals of different sexes:
| Breed name | Characteristics of the drake | Characteristics of the female |
| Mallard |
|
|
| Gray duck |
|
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| Teal-whistle |
|
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| Teal |
|
|
| Wigeon |
| body 45 cm; weight – 1000 g; light gray body; The chest and abdomen are light brown. |
Experienced hunters and ornithologists can recognize a drake and a female by their voice. Ducks most often quack abruptly. Males can hiss, whistle, crackle, and produce intricate trills. It is especially important to pay attention to the voice of wild birds after the spring molt, when the drakes lose their bright feathers.
Characteristics of domestic ducks
Farmers need to know how to distinguish males from females in a duck herd. This will allow them to properly form a herd and prescribe the appropriate diet. To determine the sex of ducks of domestic breeds, external differences between the drake and the female are important.
This is especially visible in the spring, during the mating season. The male duck is bright. His behavior is active. Males begin to court females. They spread their wings, attracting ducks with their bright plumage. By the behavior of birds in a flock, one can distinguish the sex of individuals.
Some ducks of domestic breeds show obvious sexual dimorphism in plumage color. Gender differences are visible in photographs presented on the Internet:
- Muscovy ducks. The main differences between the breed are the growths around the eyes and at the base of the beak. In the drake they are bright red and look like large warts. In ducks, the growth is small and has a pinkish tint. The male's plumage is black and white. The head and chest are green. Females are uniformly variegated;
- Khaki Campbell. The plumage of the birds is light brown. The boy can be recognized by the dark feather on his head and light wings. Girls are uniformly brown;
- Bashkir duck. Looking at pictures of birds, you may not immediately recognize them as domestic ducks. The bird pair is more similar to the mallard family. Individuals have identical plumage color. Getting to know them better, their distinctive features are clearly noticeable. Domestic ducks are much larger, weighing more than 4 kg.
Unfortunately, it is not always possible to determine the sex of birds by external characteristics, by the color of their feathers. There are individuals with snow-white plumage. It is difficult to recognize a female and a male in the following breeds: Agidel, Moscow White, Pekingese, Cherry Valley. How to create a duck meat and egg flock in this case? Experts resort to the Japanese technique. It allows you to determine the sex of individuals from birth. They don't pay attention to external signs. The chicks' down looks the same on most breeds of ducks.
According to the Japanese method of determining the sex of ducklings, it is proposed to inspect the cloaca of individuals and find the genitals. They are poorly developed, but anatomical differences in chicks can be detected. How to distinguish a duck from a drake by primary sexual characteristics? In the male, a protruding tubercle is clearly visible on the inner wall of the cloaca on the left. It is oblong. These are the beginnings of the penis. When examining females, no tubercles are visible.
The fallopian tube is closed by a membrane. It is a thin skin growth. An experienced specialist can determine the sex of 600 chicks with great accuracy in an hour. Inexperienced birders will need some time and skill to inspect the ducklings' cloaca. What actions do the homesteaders need to implement, how to determine the sex of chicks:
- pick up the chick. Place it on your palm, back down;
- perform a light massage of the lower abdomen;
- lightly press on the stomach. The mucous membrane of the inner wall of the cloaca will appear;
- inspect the left inner wall;
- the male will have a 2 mm long process;
- the female has a fallopian tube on the left. A smooth mucous wall will be found on it.
You need to act carefully. Lightly press on the abdomen, slightly pushing out the mucous membrane. Otherwise, there is a risk of the intestinal walls being squeezed out of the cloaca, which can lead to the death of the duckling. Experts advise contacting a veterinarian for help. This technique is used to determine the sex of geese, turkeys, and chickens.
Palpation of the larynx
There is another way to determine sex in birds. Anatomical differences in the structure of the larynx are noticeable between ducklings of different sexes. The duck drake has an expansion on the larynx. It has the shape of a ball. Females do not have this feature. The spherical expansion can be detected by palpation:
- The duckling is picked up. Place the stomach on the palm;
- with one hand they stretch his neck;
- with the other hand they feel the expansion in the upper part of the chest;
- the procedure is painless and safe.
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