Breeding musk ducks at home is an interesting and profitable business.
The rural backyard is always filled with a variety of animals. Breeding duck ducks is beneficial for many reasons. Calm birds in the summer get half of the feed themselves with free grazing. The living conditions are a small pond and a green lawn in the summer, a warm winter hut in the winter. Slaughter weight is fattened up to the first molt, 13 weeks.
The origin and characteristics of the breed
- musky, for a specific smell from growths around the eyes;
- mute, for inability to shout loudly;
- Indo-duck is a duck from the Indians.
The musk duck is characterized by equanimity. She has a wide chest and short legs. The bird's wings are very powerful with beautiful plumage. They can be white and chocolate, there are even blue and two-color, variegated.
The advantages of mute ducks include:
- unpretentiousness in the choice of feed;
- they do not arrange noisy showdowns with other inhabitants of the courtyard;
- can do without reservoirs;
- rarely get sick.
To the requirements that must be met in conditions for keeping ducks must be attributed - to prevent dampness in the room, and the space - a square meter for 3 individuals. But even in winter, in the snow, birds must take sun baths every day for half an hour. By the time the eggs are laid in April, it is necessary to gradually create a 16-hour light period for them by supplementary lighting. It is no longer possible, cannibalism will wake up in relation to the hatched ducklings.
The homemade musk duck is prized for its calm nature and unpretentiousness in food. In a short time, the ducklings grow up, and from three months they can provide their family with tender dietary meat. An adult drake weighs 6, a duck about 3 kg. They are not fatty, they have red meat.
The peculiarity of Indo-Ducks is the ability to swallow everything that glitters. They can collect sharp glass fragments, scattered self-tapping screws, and then suffer from obstruction. Where Indo-women go, there must be cleanliness.
Indo-duck eggs are large, weighing up to 85 g. They rush in two periods, in spring and autumn. During the moulting period, ducks rest. In just a year, you can get 70-100 eggs. For eggs to be fertilized, one drake is needed for 4-5 females. Muscovy ducks are bred from spring clutches, and the earlier the eggs are taken for hatching, the greater the hatching percentage. Incubation lasts 32-35 days under the hen. In the incubator, some tricks must be followed in order to get fewer scraps, but more males are hatched in it, which is good for breeding ducklings for meat.
It is important to know that in summer muscovy ducks will be satisfied with keeping in a light shed with logs for the night. In winter, you need to have a room with warm dry bedding and perches. The temperature of the content should be at least 15, for ducklings above 20 0 C. In a warm season, birds should peck on the grass, everything that crawls in it and get duckweed, larvae, crustaceans in a nearby reservoir. Due to this, the muscovy duck at home eats 50% less than the food required for the diet.
Conditions for obtaining offspring at home
To obtain ducklings, the fertilized eggs of the first days of laying are taken. It is necessary to select eggs that are complete in appearance. They must be clean, of a characteristic shape and of approximately the same weight.The material is collected for incubation within 2 weeks, stored at a temperature of 110 On the side. At the same time, ducklings hatch faster from earlier eggs.
Brood brood ducks
With natural dilution, it is best to separate the mother liquor. A drake and 3-4 ducks are brought into a prepared separate room. Secluded places are necessarily created and dry leaves or sawdust are left.
Eggs laid by a duck must not be touched. The bird itself knows what to do.
Muscovy ducks are good brood hens, they sit on the nest when more than 10 eggs have accumulated in it. The embryo development period is 32-35 days. During this time, the mother duck repeatedly turns the eggs, sprinkles them with water brought in from the trough in the beak, removes the thick shell in layers so that air can enter the chamber. Under these conditions, the yield from the clutch is about 90%.
The first ducklings that come out when breeding with a musky duck, without human help, can freeze or die of hunger. The hen continues to sit, not paying attention to the babies. They should be deposited in a warm box heated by incandescent lamps, allowed to dry and taught to peck. Ducklings can only grab food in motion. Therefore, crumbs of a hard-boiled egg are poured onto the backs of the chicks. The ducklings move, the food rolls down, and the kids catch it in the fall. So they learn to eat on the first day.
After 35 days of incubation, eggs with undeveloped embryos are removed, and the duck will take care of the brood. For this, the dried and warmed ducklings are again planted with the duck in the evening. In the morning she leads the ducklings to the courtyard, and in a week they will already be swimming. Before that, the mother duck will carefully grease the feathers with fat so that the chicks do not get wet and drown.
Breeding ducklings in an incubator
Preheated to 38 degrees incubator in a horizontal position, the largest eggs are laid, after 5 hours - medium, after the same amount - small. Twice a day, the laid material is sprayed with a slightly pink warm solution of potassium permanganate to cool and accelerate metabolism. Wet eggs are wiped with napkins, removing the top layer of a thick skin instead of a brood hen. For cooling, you can simply open the lid for 30 minutes, as if the hen went to eat.
The turning of the eggs takes place automatically or manually. At the same time, to average the temperature of development, the clutch must be interchanged, shifting the outermost eggs to the center. The temperature in the chamber is gradually lowered, the coups are done by a certain degree, according to the table. The incubation of duck ducks lasts 32-35 days.
After, the brood is placed in a brooder and care is organized. Especially responsible for the first 10 days. Ducklings are taught to feed gradually. There is no need to be afraid of liquid droppings, this is a feature of Indo-duck chicks.
When breeding musk ducks at home, do not let fledgling ducklings near the water. They will get wet and drown.
To grow females from five months, it is necessary, contrary to nature, to lengthen the daytime, gradually preparing them for egg-laying. By spring the length of the day should be 16 hours. Then the productivity of females and their full fertilization will make it possible to obtain strong offspring of musk ducks when breeding at home.
When feeding young animals for meat, it is necessary to create conditions for rapid growth. It is economically viable to feed for 13 weeks, or until molt. When the bird loses feathers, weight gain stops. Of the livestock, 60% are guaranteed drakes, they will gain 3 kg of weight by 13 weeks. The remaining livestock of females can be transferred to winter keeping and prepared for spring brood.
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