What is the name of the female duck. Methods for determining the sex of ducks. Special distinctive quality

Ducks and geese are water birds. There are a lot of them and they live all over the world. These birds have dense plumage that helps keep them warm, and webbed feet that are well adapted for swimming.

Duck- this bird is small in size with a short neck and tarsus, covered in front with transverse shields, it comes from the order of new-palatine, order of anseriformes, family of ducks. In total, there are about 110 species of these birds in the world. The coloring of ducks can be both monotonous and several colors. The most common ducks are white or gray color.
All types of ducks have a weight of 2 to 5 kilograms, depending on age. They have short legs, on which they waddle amusingly when walking. On the paws are three webbed front toes and a free back toe. Most species of ducks live in fresh water. They feed on insects, worms and other plant food. Male ducks are called drakes. They have bright plumage that attracts females. Feathers of females are beige-brown.

Peking ducks can be found in villages and villages. Males have an impressive weight of 4 kg, and females - 3.5 kg. They can lay up to 120 eggs in a year. Young ducks gain weight in just 60 days.

One of best ways rearing ducks is duck(hen), which, together with the brood, swims in the pond, looking for natural and naturally clean food, teaches and protects the ducklings.
The most common ducks are: Mallard, Gray duck, or half-mallard, Pintail, Sviyaz, Teal cracker, Teal whistle, Broadnoska, Red-headed dive (blue black), Crested duck, White-eyed dive.

Goose belongs to the class of birds, the subclass of neopalates, the order of anseriformes, the family of ducks, the subfamily of goose and the genus of geese. Geese are usually larger than ducks and have longer necks. Geese have rather large beaks, with which they 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 colored orange or gray. The beak has great height, but its width is not large, the end of the beak is expressed by a nail with a sharp edge. Along the edges of the beak are small teeth. Geese have a neck, but it is not as long as swans, they also have high legs painted in orange or gray, and paws are a bit like flippers, which allows them to swim on the water.

geese have a large number of feathers and down. The main difference between males and females is only in the bone outgrowth (“hump”) at the beginning of the beak near the bridge of the male, as well as a slightly larger body size.

Almost all species of geese cackle or make murmuring sounds, hiss when threatened or irritated, and may bite. The most common are geese: wild geese, gray geese, goose, Canada goose, White-fronted geese, White geese, White goose, Red-breasted goose, Black goose, African geese.

You can leave comments on your behalf through the services below:

Very often we meet wild nature or in the household of different birds, but it is not always possible to determine not only their breed, but also their gender. Although it is sometimes very difficult to do this, there are still various signs that make it possible to understand whether we have a male duck or a female in front of us. And it is about the male sex of ducks that you will learn below. After all, they are beautiful birds.

First of all, you need to understand that ducks are waterfowl and are considered old relatives of swans. A few centuries ago, hunting for wild birds but not only because of sports interest, and also because of tasty meat and high quality down. If we talk about male field this bird, it is called a drake and has a number of small differences from the female.

Although drakes, like ducks, differ from their distant relatives in their smaller size. After all, their body length is no more than 35 cm, although in musky drakes this figure fluctuates around 85 cm. And all this is shown in the photo below.

Their average weight about 3 kg, but everything, of course, depends on the species. The down of ducks, and in particular drakes, is very thick and dense, so they tolerate low temperatures. Also, these birds quickly get used to their habitat, and because of the structure of the neck, they can easily dive and swim. Therefore, most drakes get food under water. Another distinguishing feature of this type of bird is that, due to their special flight, they have the opportunity to settle in places that are not accessible to others.

Appearance

It is worth noting that the difference between the female and the male is mainly represented by different plumage colors. Drakes differ from females in their brighter and more colorful feather colors, while ducks are painted in more gray and camouflage shades. It is also worth mentioning that their size is slightly larger, and the beak is not only yellow, but also red, blue and black. A male of any kind has a necklace around his neck. white color, at a time when shades of feathers can be yellow and green.

Females, on the other hand, choose their future couple, based on how bright the duck's beak is and it is desirable that it be yellow. Another feature that is inherent only to male ducks is that they have a special crest, which is also designed to draw the attention of the female to this particular male and make her the future mother of his ducklings.

habits

During the period when the time comes to build a nest and have offspring, drakes attract the attention of their future females precisely with the help of their colorfully colored feathers. It is also worth noting that despite their silence throughout their lives, during the time when the drakes are looking for a female, they behave quite loudly.

Special distinctive quality

In drakes, unlike other bird species and males, one can see features not only in appearance and behavior, but also in anatomical structure birds. It is in the walls of the cloaca that the drakes have a large penis, which you don’t immediately recognize, since it is modified, but quite impressive in size.

It can also turn outward, but this happens only during nesting and in mating season. Although it is this organ that makes the flight of a bird difficult and complicates its life, because its size is sometimes equal to the length of the body of a male duck, no matter what kind it is.

Value in nature

In addition to the fact that drakes are engaged in the fertilization of their females, they practically do not carry any special significance, except for excellent and healthy meat and warm thick fluff. At what such that it is used in the manufacture of clothing. Although it is worth noting that some species of male ducks are used to make a homeopathic remedy for sick and people in need.

Kira Stoletova

Every person, even those who are not related to farming and breeding poultry, knows that the drake and the duck are individuals of the opposite sex belonging to the same species. Thus, the drake is a male duck, which is quite large in relation to the female. For example, a female of a common egg and meat breed domestic duck reaches a maximum of 3.5 kg, while the male is able to grow up to 5.

Ducks are very popular with poultry farmers in our country. Few people will say that he does not like large eggs with a large bright yolk or the tender meat of this bird. However, it is important for poultry farmers to be able to immediately recognize the gender of ducklings, because for good egg production and selection, the ratio between females and males must be 4:1. Anyone who has been breeding birds for more than a year will determine what gender the chick is without much effort.

Sex determination in chicks

A male bird among grown chicks can be identified even from a photo - the child can handle this. The baby drake is the owner of a colorful plumage, while the feather of the female is gray and inconspicuous. But young animals begin to look like this at about 2 months. How to distinguish a drake from a duck when they are still quite chicks?

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

The method that allows you to determine the sex of even a two-week-old cub with the greatest accuracy is the so-called "Japanese method". It consists in the fact that the duckling must be taken with the left hand so that the chick is turned with its head towards the person holding it, and then gently massage the anal passage of the cub. To do this, slightly pull up the edge of the cloaca. If a small pseudopenis appears, you have a male cub in front of you. In the female, a membrane-covered opening of the oviduct is found, located on the left side of the cloaca. On palpation - small rounded seals. In the same way, gender is determined in geese.

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

Differences in adult males

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

Also, drakes differ from females in the following ways:

• Triangular beak with an outgrowth at the tip, the duck has a trapezoidal beak.
• Massive and irregular shape heads with an extension 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 up, 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.
• Stable immunity - drakes are less affected by pathogenic bacteria and viruses, stay strong and healthy longer
• Aggressive behavior. Males often they try to fly away or escape from the master's house, they fight for leadership.

The color of male ducks during the mating season

Drakes are distinguished by their bright coloration, which reaches its peak of intensity in winter and spring period- when ducks form pairs. So, for example, the male mallard, the progenitor of the domestic duck, has a remarkable dark green color with tints of the head, ending on the neck with a thin annular stripe. The back and wings are gray with brown tan, black uppertail, blue or purple mirror in the upper part of the wings. After molting, the drake differs from the gray duck only in its brown chest and yellow beak. It is better not to leave males in the same territory with laying hens also because the duck is a very shy mother, especially when the ducklings have just hatched and every chick is in her account.

Male Muscovy duck most often dark in color with light inserts, but there are also completely white individuals. hallmark The drakes of this breed are corals - abundant growths of red color on the head.

In the mandarin duck, a small woodland bird, the drake has a distinctive crest on its head, a contrasting golden-brown back, and white and purple striped wings.

The behavior of drakes during the mating season

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 Musk breed. Ducks sexually mature earlier, so the male should be 1-1.5 months older. In order to breed drakes, it is recommended to use them for 3 breeding cycles, after which the birds are no longer so good for procreation.

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

Gr. SLEEPOVAL - DRAKE

Drake is handsome!

Often, male Muscovy 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 a musky male is gray, then a female of an ordinary breed selected for him should also be gray. But it should be taken into account that musk drakes very indifferent to the performance of "marital duty", especially with females of other breeds, so most of the eggs may be unfertilized. There are no more than 4 ducks per one such drake.

So, the drake is not a separate breed of bird, not a subspecies of the duck family, but just a word that is called a male duck. It differs from the female in a number of ways, 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 colorful and bright "outfit", thanks to which they attract individuals of the opposite sex. Ducks, on the other hand, cannot boast of their beauty - their plumage is unsightly, gray, but it is excellent for camouflage somewhere in the reeds. For example, the male Indo-duck (musky duck) has rough red skin (growth) around the beak, which extends over the eyes, while in the female Indo-duck, the color of this skin is usually pale 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 weigh, respectively, more. They also have a noticeably more powerful bend of the neck, head, wider body.
3. Tail feathers. In females, the feathers on the tail are straight, while in males they curl up (this is especially clearly seen 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. More males always let the ducks go forward, while they themselves keep a little behind.
5. The sounds made different sexes, are different. Only a duck can quack. Drakes make hissing and whistling sounds.

According to these features, you can learn how to distinguish an Indochka from a drake, or Moscow, or Bashkir - any other breeds.

How to determine the gender 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 already a day after the chick hatches according to the following signs:

1. Small 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 already be distinguished by the signs of adults - voice, mannerisms, appearance and so on.

Useful information about breeding ducks

Since we are talking about the duck family, let's delve into this topic and talk about breeding ducks how about the opportunity to start your own economic activity and earn good money from it without spending a lot of resources.

This is a pretty profitable business, because it has several undeniable advantages:

• Birds such as ducks are completely unpretentious in terms of living conditions and do not require special care.
• Zero waste production- You can sell not only meat and eggs, but also feathers, down, as well as young birds for breeding. The manure is used as a natural fertilizer for beds and plants.
• Ducks are very prolific, on average, a female can incubate about a hundred eggs in six months.
• Finally, these birds are relatively inexpensive, and with proper housekeeping, you can reap great benefits from this.

Do not forget, of course, that for a good start, an enterprise needs initial resources, such as a vast territory (always 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 pasture, ducks need three meals a day in the form of finely chopped grass, tops, vegetables, grains, useful mineral supplements and water).

Also, if you want to establish your own production, you will have to run around the authorities and collect the necessary certificates and documents.

As best breeds for breeding, Bashkir, musky (Indo-datka), Saxon, Beijing and black white-breasted are distinguished. They possess good qualities both in terms of egg production and the taste of meat, as well as the ease of keeping and caring for them.

How to properly raise ducklings?

To begin with, the issue of hatching eggs. You can purchase a special incubator or go the natural way, leaving the care of the offspring to the mother hen.

In the first case, considerable equipment costs will go away, you will also have to constantly adjust the temperature and turn the eggs over 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 necessary, plus the female will take care of the newborn ducklings herself, dragging them insects and other pasture.

Everything today more people stick to proper nutrition giving preference to environmentally friendly products. Many people raise ducks for dietary meat, non-GMO homemade eggs, and a host of other chemicals. It is very important to be able to determine the sex of the bird. Given that the duck and drake are representatives of the same species, not every newcomer to poultry farming will be able to distinguish them. In fact, this is quite simple to do if you know about the sex differences in birds. Poultry farmers and hunters solve this issue very quickly and accurately.

Why distinguish ducks

All experienced farmers run their household, be sure to separate the bird by gender. This takes into account a number of points:

• Female ducks are completely non-conflict, unlike drakes.
• Males are endowed with strong immunity and are more resistant to various diseases.
• Males gain weight much faster, and it is more than that of females.
• When breeding poultry, it is necessary to maintain the ratio - there must be one drake for 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 pronounced bright color, her feathers are gray, dull in color. But the males are gifted by nature with a very beautiful outfit, which helps them attract individuals of the opposite sex. A rather long crest on the head of a drake can be seen even from afar. Some domestic breeds are characterized by a single 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 the neck - in males it is wide, while in ducks it is thinner and more delicate.

The head of females 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, several feathers on it are twisted up, while in females it is completely straight. This feature is manifested from the third month.

The size of the birds is also important. The male is almost twice as large. If the female weighs about three kilograms, then even 5 kg is not the limit that a drake can achieve with good care. The photo below shows this difference very clearly.

However, it also happens that, due to the diet or conditions of detention, it is not always possible to determine the sex of ducks by the signs 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 is always a dominant male in the pack. After watching him, you can easily identify the rest of the males, because it is them that he will not allow to the feeder and constantly fight with them. And females, on the contrary, pays special attention, skips ahead. Regardless of whether the ducks are in the air or on the water, the female is always in front, and the drake at a short distance ensures her safety.

The difference between the male voice

It is not necessary to see a bird to determine its gender. It is enough just to 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, not embarrassed. The drake emits only a dull hiss and whistle.

Differences in sex organs

By all the signs listed above, it is possible to recognize a female from a male after the chicks reach at least three months of age. For daily ducklings, they are uncharacteristic. They can identify the male by the genitals. A very rare difference, absent in most other birds, is the drake - it is a pseudopenis that can turn outward. From it you can find out the sex of the bird already 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 appears only two millimeters long, then this is a drake, and only spherical growths will be visible in the female.

If you do this procedure for a very early dates, and even for the first time, it is not always possible to distinguish, since the genitals of the chicks are very small in size. After a few weeks, they become larger, and then it is possible to determine the sex with confidence.

How to select ducks for a tribe

Both drakes and females must be in good health, meet all standards a certain kind: size, weight and color of feathers. Different deformation of the body is not allowed in breeding ducks.

In most breeds, puberty occurs only at the age of six months. They start laying eggs, then incubate them and

Not only the conditions of keeping ducks, the quality of feed, but also the ratio of females and males affects the quality of eggs. Therefore, the ability to distinguish where the duck is and where the drake is is one of the most basic that a novice poultry farmer should acquire.