Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Flighty:
The tendency of a particular breed of bird to be excitable and nervous
Free-range:
When birds are allowed to graze rather than being raised in confine-
ment
Grain elevator:
A place where farmers store and sell their grain
Hatchery:
A place where eggs are hatched
Molt:
An annual process in which a bird loses its feathers and replaces them with
new feathers
Nesting Box:
A box in a pen where females can lay their eggs
Pen:
A farm building for housing poultry, also called a coop. They can be portable
as well.
Pinfeathers:
Also called blood feathers, these feathers contain a blood vein and if
pulled will cause a bird to bleed.
Variety:
In birds, this will be a unique characteristic that occurs in a certain branch
of a specific breed. An example would be different feather coloring or a plume of
feathers on top of the head.
History of Ducks and Geese
Ducks are closely related to swans and geese; in fact, biologists have had difficulty classifying
the three species into different categories. The three species belong to the biological family
Anatidae, meaning birds that swim, float on the surface of the water, and (in some birds) dive
in water for food. For the most part, the birds in this group eat plants and grains and are
monogamous (one mate) breeders under natural conditions.
It is no wonder biologists have trouble classifying the three species, as there are more than
100 species of wild ducks alone. Despite the large number of wild ducks, all domestic ducks,
except for the Muscovy duck, were domesticated from the wild Mallard. The Mallard belongs
to a group of wild ducks called
dabblers
. This describes their feeding habit of dabbing their
bill in the water to filter food particles from the water. Mallards have an appetite for grasses,
insects, bugs, worms, small fish, toads, snails, frogs, and even snakes.
The Chinese are credited with first domesticating wild Mallards around 2000 B.C., but ducks
also were domesticated around the same time in the Middle East. Ducks were first domestic-
ated for meat and egg use, although later ducks were used to control pests in rice paddies.
Even today, people will herd flocks of ducks to the rice paddies. In the field, the ducks feast
