The Definition of Ducks

What Is Duck?

Ducks area unit medium-sized aquatic birds with broad bills, eyes on the aspect of the top, fairly long necks, short legs set way back on the body, and webbed feet. Males, referred to as drakes, area unit usually larger than females (simply referred to as ducks) and area unit otherwise colored in some breeds. Domestic ducks area unit omnivores, ingestion a spread of animal and plant materials like aquatic insects, molluscs, worms, little amphibians, waterweeds, and grasses. They inclose shallow water by dabbling, with their heads underwater and their tails vertical . Most domestic ducks area unit too serious to fly, and that they area unit social birds, preferring to measure and move around along in teams. They keep their feather waterproof by preening, a method that spreads the secretions of the oil gland over their feathers.
Pekin ducks

The Definition of Ducks

Clay models of ducks found in China chemical analysis back to 4000 before Christ might indicate the domestication of ducks materialized there throughout the Yangshao culture. even though this is often not the case, domestication of the duck materialized within the Far East a minimum of 1500 years ahead of within the West. Lucius pillar, writing within the initial century before Christ, suggested those that sought-after to rear ducks to gather bird eggs and place them beneath a broody, as a result of once raised during this means, the ducks "lay aside their wild nature and while not hesitation breed once shut up within the bird pen". Despite this, ducks didn't seem in agricultural texts in Western Europe till concerning 810 AD, after they began to be mentioned aboard geese, chickens, and bird of Juno as being employed for rental payments created by tenants to landowners.

It is wide united that the duck (Anas platyrhynchos) is that the ascendant of all breeds of domestic duck (with the exception of the duck (Cairina moschata), that isn't closely associated with alternative ducks). Ducks area unit farmed principally for his or her meat, eggs, and down.As is that the case with chickens, numerous breeds are developed, chosen for egg-laying ability, quick growth, and a well-covered carcass. the foremost common business breed within the uk and also the us is that the Pekin duck, which might lay two hundred eggs a year and may reach a weight of three.5 kg (7.7 lb) in forty four days. within the Western world, ducks aren't as common as chickens, as a result of the latter turn out larger quantities of white, lean meat and area unit easier to stay intensively, creating the worth of chicken meat below that of duck meat. whereas common in cuisine, duck seems less often within the mass-market food business. However, things area unit completely different within the East. Ducks area unit a lot of common there than chickens and area unit largely still herded within the ancient means and chosen for his or her ability to search out adequate food in harvested rice fields and alternative wet environments.