Out of curiosity, how does duck gender get decided?

[Going Quackers]

Is it temperature? the drake? the duck? I am meaning for ducks allowed to hatch with a live duck not man made incubators. I suppose i am trying to sort this out for making future choices, in other words allowing another hatch next year. Thanks!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Same as chickens. The female deposits the genetic material that determines which sex the hatchling will be.

 

[Kevin565]

Same as chickens. The female deposits the genetic material that determines which sex the hatchling will be.

X2

 

[Miss Lydia]

Very interesting

 

[Oregon Blues]

It is out of your control, so no way to manipulate it. At least not in poultry. You can pay a lot of money and purchased sexed frozen semen for artificial insemination in cattle. They do embryo transplants in cattle, too. All of it way too expensive to be used in poultry. So in poultry, you get what you get.

 

[learycow]

I agree with everyone above. You get what hatches
I did read that people have tried to hatch in incubators using different temps. Higher temps yielded more males while lower temps yielded more females. I didn't believe it but had to try. It did not work, haha, no surprise. Each hatch was about 50-50. It's mother nature, I do not believe a temp change can determine the sex!

 

[Going Quackers]

It is out of your control, so no way to manipulate it. At least not in poultry. You can pay a lot of money and purchased sexed frozen semen for artificial insemination in cattle. They do embryo transplants in cattle, too. All of it way too expensive to be used in poultry. So in poultry, you get what you get.

Wasn't trying to manipulate it, rather just wanting to know what determined it.

 

[Going Quackers]

Same as chickens. The female deposits the genetic material that determines which sex the hatchling will be.

So are some ducks then more prone to laying one gender vs another ? or is it just the roll of the dice that hatch lol

 

[Going Quackers]

I agree with everyone above. You get what hatches
I did read that people have tried to hatch in incubators using different temps. Higher temps yielded more males while lower temps yielded more females. I didn't believe it but had to try. It did not work, haha, no surprise. Each hatch was about 50-50. It's mother nature, I do not believe a temp change can determine the sex!

Interesting. yeah, i like duck raised i am not daring enough to try incubation.

 

[Going Quackers]

To Clarify I am not out to alter things i do want to know what determined a ducks gender and now finding out it's the ladies whether there are some prone to laying a specific gender? Reason, is easy... Although i did get 10 live babies this year.. 9 are drakes and despite being raised by different birds, the eggs were all from the same duck.