Recently, poultry breeding has become a very relevant topic not only for rural residents, but also for townspeople who have ducks or geese in their summer cottages. This is due not only to the desire to have tasty meat on the table, but also to know for sure that it is environmentally friendly. The choice often stops at home duck, unpretentious in food, quickly gaining weight. It's just that novice poultry farmers face the difficult question of how to understand who is who in a duck family and how to distinguish a drake from a duck.
Instructions
Step 1
Definition for the development of the larynx
Take the duckling in your right hand and feel its ribcage. Take his head aside, slightly raise the beak so that the neck is straight. Place your left thumb against the last cervical vertebrae for support. Press lightly with the index finger of your left hand on the front of the duck's breast and define the triangle formed by the clavicle bones, the front end of the sternum and the shoulder blade.
Determine if a tubercle about 4 mm in diameter is felt in the center of this triangle, moving when the beak moves up and down, if so, it is a drake. In a female, this tubercle is absent.
Step 2
Voice detection
Take the bird in your hands, this will provoke it to cry. Listen to the bird's voice. The duck will begin to quack piercingly, while the drake will make loud hissing sounds with an admixture of whistling. Such vocal data of the drake are explained by the presence of a saccular expansion at the fork of the trachea.
Step 3
Definition by genitals
The male duck has one anatomical feature that is not inherent in most birds - a pseudopenis, which is able to turn outward. This method, of course, requires certain skills.
Stretch the outside of the anus with your left thumb and right index and thumb.
Place the thumb of your right hand on the edge of the cloaca and move it upward, while the cloaca will open and the penis of the drake is exposed in the form of a curved fold measuring 3-4 mm.
You can simply pull the tail towards the back, in most cases this will be enough to detect gender differences.
Step 4
Definition by appearance.
You can visually try to distinguish a drake from a duck from 2-3 months.
Look at the bird's neck, in the female it is more graceful, the shape of the head is close to round, and in the male it is relatively wide, which serves as the basis for a large oblong head.
Pay attention to the tail, unlike a duck, a drake has a ring of several feathers on its tail.
Step 5
Definition by behavior
During the flight of two representatives of the duck family and when they swim in the water, the duck is usually in front, and the drake is behind it. But you need to make an adjustment for the season: while sitting on the nest (incubating eggs), a couple of flying or swimming ducks may turn out to be just two drakes.
