The Impacts of Female Access during Rearing on the Reproductive Behavior and Physiology of Pekin Drakes, and Flock Fertility.

ABSTRACT: Commercially housed Pekin ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) are typically reared in same sex groups to facilitate separate diet provisioning. Several female ducklings are sometimes mixed into the otherwise all-male pens. This practice is thought to increase flock reproductive success. To evaluate this hypothesis, we reared ducklings in alternating same-sex groups (150 hens or 30 drakes/pen; 8 groups/sex) and evaluated the impacts of rearing on drake mounting behavior, testosterone levels, and flock fertility. At 12 days, three females were placed into four of the male duckling pens. At 20-22 weeks of age, adjacent male and female pens were moved into pens within a breeder barn, and combined to form mixed-sex pens. The number of correctly aligned mounts performed by 10 focal drakes per pen

SUBMITTER: Broadus LJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9657275 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature