Ducks: breeds, breeding, keeping and feeding

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Ducks in household plots are kept, of course, less often than chickens. However, such a bird is also very popular among summer residents, farmers and villagers. The advantages of these waterfowl include, first of all, unpretentious care and high productivity. But, of course, duck breeding will only be successful if they are properly cared for.

Varieties

You can breed meat and meat-egg ducks in suburban areas. The main advantage of the breeds of the first group is the rapid weight gain. For 2-4 months, a broiler bird can reach 4-5 kg.

Meat-egg ducks don't grow as fast. Their carcasses usually weigh much less than broiler ones. However, such birds carry more eggs and are less whimsical in terms of diet and conditions.

Very often, the owners of suburban areas are bred in their backyards and indoutok. Such a bird also boasts a fairly rapid weight gain. At the same time, in comparison with other varieties, indokas have one important advantage - not too fatty and very tasty meat.

Best broiler breeds

Each variety of domestic duck thus has its own merits. Owners of suburban areas who already have experience in keeping such living creatures and who want to quickly get a lot of meat should purchase broiler poultry. Novice farmers can practice on some more unpretentious breed. For such owners of farmsteads, most likely, for a start it is worth buying meat and egg chicks. Indo-outs, on the other hand, are perfect for both experienced farmers and beginners.

Breeds of ducks of all directions of productivity were bred by breeders a lot. So the farmer should not have any special problems with the choice in this regard.

The best duck meat breeds today are:

1. Elsbury. These ducks were bred in England in the 19th century. Today in the UK, this breed is bred on an industrial scale. It is also used to breed new varieties of highly productive poultry. The weight of drakes of this breed can gain up to 5.5 kg, ducks - up to 3.5 kg. Incubate Elsbury eggs on their own.
2. Peking duck. This breed is considered by many farmers to be the best of meat today. These ducks were also bred a very long time ago, about 300 years ago in China. Beijing drakes can gain weight up to 4.2 kg. Ducks fatten up to 3.8 kg. Like many other old meat breeds, this bird incubates its own eggs.
3. Swedish blue. This breed is most widespread in Germany. But in Russia, Swedish blue ducks are also quite popular. Adult birds of thisbreeds can reach a weight of 3.6 kg.

Also, farmers, including Russian ones, breed ducks such as:

• Rouan;
• black white-breasted;
• white Moscow.

Quite often, in the backyards of the owners of suburban areas of the post-Soviet space, one can also see clay, gray or white Ukrainian ducks. A bird of this breed can reach a weight of up to 3.5 kg. Ukrainian ducks are also popular with farmers because of their dense plumage. Such a bird is not afraid of cold at all.

Best meat and egg breeds

Beginning farmers should consider purchasing:

1. Indian runners. These ducks are native to Southeast Asia. The breed is called so for the long legs of its representatives and their ability to run very fast. Such egg-laying ducks gain weight on average up to 2 kg. At the same time, they can carry up to 300 eggs per year.
2. Saxon ducks. This bird was bred by crossing the Peking with the Rouen breed. Saxon ducks can gain weight up to 3 kg. They carry up to 200-250 eggs. per year.
3. Cayugi. This breed of ducks was bred in the 19th century in America, not far from the lake of the same name. The weight of this bird is fattening up to 3-3.5 kg. At the same time, Cayuga females can carry up to 150 eggs per year.
4. Mirror ducks. The bird of this breed was bred in Russia in the middle of the twentieth century. The weight of adult mirror ducks can reach up to 4 kg. This breed was named so for its very beautiful shiny plumage.

Varieties of indoutok

Such a bird is otherwise called musky. On farms, both domestic and wild Indochkas can be bred. Such a bird differs mainly in the color of its plumage. In the farms of different countries, including Russia, there are Indian women:

• white and black and white;
• wild brown;
• blue;
• domestic and wild blacks, etc.

Some varieties of Muscovy ducks can gain weight up to 5 kg. At the same time, such a bird is relatively unpretentious in care. Feeding and keeping musky ducks is a simple matter. They grow a bird of this variety using the same technology as ordinary breeds.

Mulards

The bird of this breed has recently become more and more popular with Russian farmers. They are mulards a mixture of meat Peking ducks with musky ducks. The advantages of this breed, farmers include low-fat tasty meat, as well as the ability to gain a lot of weight very quickly.

In terms of productivity, such ducks can surpass even the famous Peking ducks. Adult birds of this breed gain weight up to 5.5 kg, and with the right content, up to 7-8 kg. By the third month of keeping, the weight of this bird reaches 4 kg.

Growing and keeping ducks: feeding

The productivity of these waterfowl depends very much on how well their diet will be composed. It is also important to follow a bird feeding schedule.

You can make a duck stirrer, for example, like this:

• finely chop soft grass, willow leaves,duckweed, algae and put the mass into a basin of 10 liters, filling about half;
• fill the mass with boiled water or reverse;
• leave the mixture for about half an hour to settle (until the greens soften);
• add one large bowl of cornmeal to the basin;
• sprinkle two bowls of discriminating flour;
• mix well.

Also a good option for feeding ducks would be this mixture:

• potatoes, zucchini trimmings, boil the waste from the table, finely chop and put in a basin;
• add chopped apples;
• pour wheat milling into the masher in an amount of about ¼ of the volume of the entire mixture;
• add table s alt to the food (about 1 tbsp. for two buckets).

There are many recipes for duck mashers. But in any case, the finished mixture for this bird should not be sticky. Otherwise, the ducks will clog their noses when feeding.

Michael these waterfowl are fed 1-2 times a day. Crushed dry concentrates should be in the ducks in the feeders all the time. This is especially true for poultry meat breeds. Ducks in this productivity group should be able to eat at any time.

What should be the house

A shed for such waterfowl is built at the rate of at least 1 m22 area for 2-3 heads. It is desirable to erect a duckling in a high place. In any case, this room must be absolutely dry. When erecting a duck house, care should also be taken to ensure that subsequently in it nocase there were no drafts.

As a material for the walls of the house, you can choose timber and board, brick, foam blocks. The main thing is that the walls of the duck house are warm enough. The floors in such sheds are usually simply poured with concrete. Straw is used as bedding to keep the ducks warm.

Of course, a barn built for poultry should definitely have electricity. It is not necessary to illuminate the duckling too much. For a small poultry house, for example, just one bright light bulb will suffice.

For ventilation in the barn, of course, you need to provide a window. In the event that ducks are supposed to be kept in winter, electric heaters or, for example, a small potbelly stove should be installed in the house.

Of course, you should equip the duck house and feeders. Containers for mixers and crushed concentrates are best made from tin. This will make it easier to care for the feeders later. Experienced poultry farmers do not recommend installing drinkers directly in the duck house. Such containers are usually placed in an aviary equipped next to the poultry house.

Ducks are known to love water. They can try to swim, including in drinking bowls. Therefore, if such structures are installed directly in the barn, the bird will breed dampness. And this, in turn, can lead to the development of various kinds of diseases.

How to breed

The chicks of this bird are usually bred in simple chicken incubators. Devices of this variety of many brands are supplemented with special grilles,designed specifically for waterfowl eggs.

The incubation regimen for this bird looks something like this:

• in the first week, the machine maintains a temperature of 38 degrees and a humidity of 70%;
• until the 25th day, the parameters are set to 37.8 degrees and 60%;
• From the 26th to the 28th day, the temperature is reduced to 37.5 degrees, and the humidity is increased to 85-90%.

For 26 days the eggs in the incubator are turned 4-6 times a day. Then this operation is stopped.

Chicks diet

Duck breeding is relatively easy. However, care for hatched ducklings, of course, must be carried out correctly. At first, the chicks are fed 4-5 times a day with a mix of chopped eggs and cottage cheese with the addition of kefir. After a couple of days they are offered some greens.

Week-old ducklings are fed compound feed with the addition of cottage cheese, kefir, finely chopped nettles. Approximately in the second or third week, when the chicks fledge, they can be released into the pond. Previously, it is not recommended to allow ducklings to bathe if they are raised without a brood hen. The fact is that fledgling waterfowl chicks do not yet have subcutaneous fat. In the water, the ducklings will simply become supercooled. And because of this, in turn, the chicks can get sick and even die.

If there is no reservoir near the farm, the amount of green fodder should be increased in the diet of 2-3-week-old ducklings. Ideally, from this time on, young animals should be fed, including duckweed. The amount of cottage cheese offered to ducklings in thistime is reduced. Completely on an adult diet, chicks are transferred at the age of 3-4 weeks.

When they score

For quite a long time only duck-producers are kept on farms. Young animals grown for meat are slaughtered already at the age of 2.5-3 months. It is simply unprofitable to keep such ducks longer. From the age of 4 months, these waterfowl begin to consume a lot of food. At the same time, the bird does not gain weight too quickly.

In any case, ducks should be slaughtered before juvenile molt. If you do this later, the bird carcasses, unfortunately, will lose their marketable appearance due to numerous coarse stumps. In addition, it will be difficult to process them.

Helpful advice

Before slaughter, ducks are usually not fed for 12-16 hours. At the same time, water is given to the bird in unlimited quantities. Actually, the slaughter itself is produced by cutting the carotid artery. Experienced farmers advise starting plucking the carcass no earlier than 2 hours after this procedure.