What's the name of the duck boy? Drakes Review: The Importance of Male Ducks in Nature. Description of wild males

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:

1. 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 Indian duck ( Muscovy duck) has rough red skin (growth) around the beak, extending over the eyes, and in the female Indian duck, the color of this skin is usually soft pink and is located between the beak and the eyes.
2. 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.
3. Tail feathers. In females, the tail feathers are straight, while in males they curl upward (this is especially evident in the Bashkir breed of ducks).
4. An obvious difference in the behavior of individuals: drakes are already in early age behave aggressively, can attack other male ducks, 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.
5. Sounds made different genders, 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:

1. Little drakes have larger heads than ducks.
2. The neck of females is more graceful, thinner and shorter than the neck of males.
3. 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 economic 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.

As best breeds For breeding, they distinguish the Bashkir, musk (Indot), Saxon, Peking and black white-breasted. They have good qualities both in terms of egg production and taste of meat, and 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 - ducks have a developed maternal instinct, the temperature under the hen is always the right one, plus the female will look after the newborn ducklings herself, bringing them insects and other pasture.

In some bird species, it is quite easy to distinguish a male from a female. As for ducks, such differences are not always obvious. If you don’t know certain nuances, then in most cases it is impossible to determine the sex of ducklings, but distinctive features in appearance and character still exist. The following information will help you easily distinguish a girl duck from a boy duck.

What is a male duck called?

The male duck is called a drake. And this is not a separate breed or subspecies, but just a term used to call a male duck.

They are distinguished from females by a number of features.

Did you know? The newly hatched ducklings mistake for their mother the creature they see immediately after hatching.

How to distinguish a male from a female

Today you can find many tips on how to recognize a drake and a duck. But when it comes down to it practical application, it becomes clear that there are not so many of these signs.

The most difficult place to look for males and females is among the ducklings. It is necessary to distinguish chicks by sex, since it is necessary to correctly select the sex ratio in the agricultural population.

The ideal proportions when raising birds for meat or for obtaining eggs vary somewhat. However, choosing them correctly will help achieve maximum efficiency.

The most accurate methods are the following recognition methods.

By appearance

Basic visual differences drakes from ducks are as follows:

• males have brighter plumage than females, which most often have a gray, dull color;
• males are always larger than females;
• males usually have a wide forehead in the shape of a triangle, females have a thinner forehead with smooth outlines, more like a trapezoid in shape;
• males have a small crest on the neck;
• In males, the tip of the tail is rounded; the tail of ducks is almost always straight;
• males have a larger beak;
• drakes are decorated with a feathery beard.

By voice

It is worth paying attention to the sounds that birds make. Ducks usually quack, while drakes mainly hiss. Moreover, the female’s voice is always louder (this is how she attracts ducklings), and the male’s voice can be heard extremely rarely.

Important! IN wildlife drakes are much larger than ducks, but in poultry this condition is not always met. Sometimes males are smaller than females - it all depends on growing conditions and nutrition.

By genitals

Unlike other birds, drakes have anatomical differences from ducks. It is in males that the large penis is located in the walls of the cloaca. It may not be immediately noticeable, although it is quite impressive in size.

During nesting or mating season the genital organ can turn outward, although it is precisely this advantage that seriously complicates the life of the bird, because its length is sometimes equal to the length of the body itself.

Differences between ducks and drakes by genitals

Habits of males

In a group of ducks, you can see that the females do not try to be leaders at all: they always stay either somewhere to the side or behind. Moreover, this rule is observed not only while walking, but also in flight.

Often, even when breeding poultry, aggressiveness on the part of drakes is noted. They often start fights over females or food.

Important! Behavioral Traits, as well as external features, by which gender is determined, appear only 2–3 months after birth.

To attract a female, the drake constantly hovers around her and comes into conflict with other males. Marriage games can be accompanied by serenades and dances. The duck itself can initiate mating.

Apart from the fact that drakes fertilize females, they have no other significance in nature. From a practical point of view, they have healthy, tasty meat and warm fluff, which is used to make clothing.
In Peking ducks, the drake has curls at the tip of its tail, the duck does not.

How to choose a male for the tribe

Correct definition gender will allow you to correctly determine the feed and choose the direction of development of the poultry house. In order to choose a good drake, you should consider its structure.

It is desirable that the bird meets the following parameters:

• flat, wide, without curvature keel - it should be parallel to the ground;
• the chick must be healthy - healthy drakes behave noisily, actively, their plumage near the cloaca is clean and dry;
• You only need to purchase individuals over 7 days old - by this age the ducklings have time to get stronger.

Did you know? Some people determine the sex of ducks in a funny way: they take the duckling by the paws and lower it upside down. The boys will struggle and turn their heads, while the girls will remain hanging quietly.

As you can see, it is not difficult to detect the differences between a drake and a duck; you just need to take a close look at the birds.

How to distinguish a drake from a duck: video

That's all today more people adhere to proper nutrition, giving preference to 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 They 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 this procedure very early stages, and even for the first time, it will not always be possible to distinguish, 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 standards a certain type: size, weight and color of feathers. Not allowed breeding ducks different body deformations.

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.

Kira Stoletova

Every person, even those not related to farming and poultry breeding, knows that a drake and a duck are individuals of the opposite sex, belonging to the same species. Thus, the drake is a male duck, distinguished by its rather large size in relation to the female. For example, a female common egg- meat breed domestic duck reaches a maximum of 3.5 kg, while the male is capable of growing up to 5.

Ducks are very popular among poultry farmers in our country. Few people will say that they don’t like the large eggs with large bright yolks or the tender meat of this bird. However, it is important for poultry farmers to be able to immediately recognize what sex the ducklings are, because for good egg production and selection, the ratio between females and males should be 4:1. Anyone who has been breeding birds for several years will be able to determine what gender the chick is without much effort.

Sex determination in chicks

A male bird can be identified among older chicks even from a photo - even a child can handle this. The baby drake has variegated plumage, while the female’s feathers are gray and inconspicuous. But young animals begin to look this way at about 2 months. How to distinguish a drake from a duck when they are still just chicks?

The drake chick is more active. Anyone who lives in a village knows that if you lift the baby by the legs and leave it in a head-down position for some time, the female will be calm, and the male baby will turn his head and try to pull himself up to his legs. Of course, it is impossible to know for sure what gender the bird is, but there is still a certain probability.

The method that makes it possible to determine the sex of even a two-week-old baby with the greatest accuracy is the so-called “Japanese method.” It consists in the fact that you need to take the duckling with your left hand so that the chick’s head is turned towards the person holding it, and then carefully massage the anal passage of the cub. To do this, you need to slightly pull up the edge of the cloaca. If a small pseudopenis appears, this is a male cub. The female has a membrane-covered oviduct opening located on the left side of the cloaca. On palpation there are small round compactions. In the same way, gender is determined in geese.

Pseudopenis is a distinctive feature of drakes, since most males of other poultry species, such as roosters and turkeys, do not have it. This organ looks like a small fold up to 4 mm wide. Sometimes it can be detected in a cub simply by pulling the tail towards the back. This and the Japanese methods give an almost error-free result if you act carefully and correctly.

Differences between adult males

It is not at all difficult to distinguish an adult male from a female in a duck family. In addition to the fact that the drake is distinguished by its bright plumage, it is also much larger than a duck, weighing twice as much.

Drakes also differ from females in the following ways:

• A triangular beak with a growth at the tip; the duck's beak is trapezoidal.
• Massive and irregular shape heads with expansion from the forehead, in contrast to the rounded and small heads of females.
• The muscles of the legs are more developed, just like the muscles of the back and wings, which is why their bodies are longer and larger compared to the bodies of females.
• The feathers at the tip of the tail curl upward, forming a ring in some breeds
• Drakes, unlike ducks, do not quack, but make peculiar hissing sounds and whistles. The duck, with the help of its loud voice, calls ducklings and attracts males during the mating season.
• Sustained immunity - drakes are less susceptible to the influence of pathogenic bacteria and viruses, remain strong and healthy longer
• Aggressive behavior. Males often try to fly away or escape from their master’s house and fight for leadership.

Color of male ducks during mating season

Drakes are distinguished by their bright colors, which reach their peak intensity in winter and spring period- when ducks form pairs. For example, the male mallard, the ancestor of the domestic duck, has a remarkable dark green head color with iridescence, ending on the neck with a thin ring stripe. The back and wings are gray with brown markings, black rump, blue or purple mirror in the upper part of the wings. After molting, the drake differs from the gray duck only in its brown breast and yellow beak. It is better not to leave males in the same territory with laying hens also because the duck is a very timid mother, especially when the ducklings have just hatched and every chick counts for her.

The male musk duck is most often dark in color with light accents, but there are also completely white individuals. Distinctive feature The drakes of this breed are corals - abundant red growths on the head.

The mandarin duck, a small forest bird, has a distinctive crest on its head, a contrasting golden-brown back, and wings striped with white and purple.

Behavior of drakes during mating period

During the mating season, ducks and drakes of ordinary breeds behave equally actively. The ratio of ducks to drakes is 4 to 1, especially in the Muscovy breed. Ducks mature sexually earlier, so the male should be 1-1.5 months older. For breeding purposes, it is recommended to use drakes for 3 breeding cycles, after which the birds are no longer so good for procreation.

Under no circumstances should you force the molting process in males! The drake may lose potency and will not trample ducks and fertilize eggs. As a result, it will not leave offspring - and how much effort of the breeders will be wasted! To avoid such an unpleasant situation after egg laying, it is better to transplant it to recently moulted ducks.

Gr. FORESTRY - DRAKE

The drake is handsome!

Often, male musk ducks are used to breed so-called mulards. To do this, it is necessary that the female and male match each other in color. That is, if the musk is a male gray, then the female of the ordinary breed selected for him should also be gray. But it is worth considering that musk drakes They are very indifferent to fulfilling their “marital duty,” especially with females of other breeds, so most of the eggs may be unfertilized. For one such drake there are no more than 4 ducks.

According to the classification, the duck (Anatidae) belongs to the class of birds, the order Anseriformes, the family Anatidae and the genus of waterfowl.

Description of the duck

For all the numerous representatives of the Anatidae one can call character traits, distinguishing them from other birds:

• flattened and streamlined body;
• rather short neck;
• small head;
• a wide and flat beak with horny plates or teeth on the sides;
• the presence of a subcutaneous layer of fat;
• powerful paws equipped with membranes that resemble flippers.

Biological features of the duck

One more characteristic feature What distinguishes ducks from other bird species is the significant difference in the color of males and females. The male duck, the drake, in addition to being much larger than the female, has more variegated plumage. All representatives of ducks have a contrasting and bright spot on their wings, which is called a “mirror”. It serves so that birds of the same species can identify each other among other birds.

Due to the fatty lubricant secreted by the coccygeal gland, the outer plumage of the duck is waterproof. Thanks to this, waterfowl can take off even after long periods of “ water procedures».

Types of ducks

Ducks can be divided into two main groups: wild and domestic. In turn, wild ducks are divided into diving ducks, which obtain their food at the bottom of reservoirs, and river ducks, which obtain their food in shallow water. It is believed that domestic ducks had one common ancestor - the mallard.

All the variety of duck breeds bred by man can be divided into four classes: meat, meat-egg, egg and decorative.

The weight of meat breed drakes can reach four kilograms, and the average egg production of egg-class ducks exceeds 250 eggs per year.

Where do ducks live?

The distribution range of ducks is very wide. You will not find them only in the harsh conditions of Antarctica. The main condition for existence wild ducks is the presence of a body of water, since it is a source of food for these birds.

In addition, an obligatory factor is coastal vegetation (shrubs, reeds, wind-fallen trees, etc.), which hides the nest with masonry from prying eyes. It’s easier with representatives of poultry - they live where conditions have been created for them.

What does a duck eat?

When it comes to nutrition, representatives of the duck family are absolutely unpretentious and can easily adapt to circumstances. In early spring When the reservoirs are still covered with a crust of ice, ducks find food in the polynyas. Later, when the water is freed from winter shackles, duckweed, small fish and tadpoles, crustaceans and adults are added to the ducks’ diet. The latter helps to curb the uncontrolled reproduction of these insects.