Conclusion of ducklings under a duck. Breeding Muscovy ducks are good hens. Feeding and watering

If desired, ducklings can be taken from an adult bird half an hour after hatching the entire brood. Place the chicks in a small box with good heating. The bottom should be covered with straw or shavings. Light a lamp over the ducklings.

Maintenance, care, cultivation

Only hatched ducklings are not yet able to eat and drink, and all their reflexes will be directed to everything that moves. Therefore, you can boil a hard-boiled egg, chop it finely and sprinkle it on the backs of the chicks. For ducklings it will and hunting, and feeding, and entertainment simultaneously.

Outgrowths on the nose of the indochka in chicks are absent and will appear only in period of puberty. The old drake has more such formations on the face than the young one. In the latter, growths occupy only a certain part of the face.

So, it does not involve large financial costs, the presence of specific conditions and nutrition. You can breed a bird of this breed both at home and on farms.

Muscovy ducks are quite a popular bird for home breeding, they are unpretentious in care and feeding, and the meat and eggs of this bird have excellent taste and high dietary properties. Keeping musky ducks does not require special knowledge and skills and is well done even by beginner poultry farmers.

Features of keeping a musky duck

Muscovy ducks are often called indo-ducks because of the peculiar growths on their beaks. However, this bird has nothing to do with turkeys. Muscovy duck is called because the glands located in the growths secrete a secret with a specific smell.

Another popular name is the mute duck, due to the sounds it makes: unlike noisy relatives, musky ducks emit only a quiet hiss. This feature allows you to keep an indout in a country house or in a private house without fear of neighbors complaining about noise.

Muscovy ducks do not have a pronounced need for swimming; a pond or other body of water is not needed when breeding them. However, the bird drinks a lot, so required condition content - a constantly renewable supply of clean drinking water all year round.

This bird comes from America, from there it spread throughout the world. Initially, musky ducks were bred in warm regions, and they still retain a genetic feature - they do not have a thick fatty layer that protects the body from hypothermia.

Therefore, winter maintenance implies the construction of a capital poultry house, protected from frost, drafts and dampness. In the summer, the musky duck can be successfully kept in plank and even collapsible sheds; she does not like the heat.

For successful breeding, indo-cats definitely need walking, as well as good lighting in the house. In summer, a bird can be outside all day, in winter - at least half an hour. When kept outdoors in the warm season, feed consumption is reduced: the bird nibbles grass, eats insects and worms, due to which its body is saturated with vitamins and mineral elements.

The weak point of musky ducks is the legs. When kept in dampness, especially in winter, frostbite quickly sets in, and the bird dies. Therefore, the poultry farmer needs to take care of the correct design of the floors in the house and thick, dry and warm bedding.

Subject to all the above rules, keeping musky ducks is a fairly simple and profitable business, both for home consumption and for the sale of the resulting marketable products. Starting with a mini-farm, many poultry farmers gradually increase the livestock to several hundred heads.

Description of the breed and colors

The appearance of the Muscovy duck is very expressive - the variety of colors and the invariable "turkey" growth on the beak make the bird very elegant and attractive among nondescript relatives.

It is distinguished by an elongated squat body with short legs and a broad chest, well-feathered powerful wings, a thick short neck crowned with a rather large head. The weight of an adult drake is 5.5-6 kg, ducks - up to 3.5 kg.

Ducks have a calm character, do not make noise, rarely fight among themselves, but they can conflict with birds of other breeds. Unlike other waterfowl, in the absence of a reservoir, weight gain is not reduced. The breed is distinguished by good health and immunity, ducks practically do not get sick, problems arise only from improper maintenance.

Breed advantages:

• musky ducks are unpretentious in food;
• they eat little, can eat mainly pasture;
• do not need a reservoir;
• don't make too much noise.

Disadvantages:

• need a fairly spacious room;
• do not tolerate high humidity, dampness, crowding;
• rather long fattening - more than 2 months.

The colors of the bird are very diverse, while there are certain standards. They are described in the table.

Such a variety of colors allows the poultry farmer not only to get dietary meat and eggs, but also to engage in an exciting business - selection. Muscovy duck will decorate any poultry yard, its young are actively bought up for keeping in subsidiary plots.

Indoor room

For the successful cultivation of this bird, it is necessary to take care of a comfortable, spacious and warm room that meets all the requirements for keeping this breed.

1. The room for all-season maintenance should be insulated, even in winter the temperature in it should not drop to negative temperatures. The optimum temperature of the content is from 15 to 20 degrees Celsius. In winter, in cold regions, heating or the use of biodegradable bedding that generates heat is necessary.

   
   

2. Before buying young animals, you need to take care of arranging a comfortable poultry house with a range. For little ducklings, the most important requirement is warmth, for which they make a draft-proof compartment in the house, over which they hang infrared lamp. In the first week of life, lighting should be around the clock. In this spectrum, ducklings are warm, they eat better, behave more calmly. In the second week of life, lighting is reduced by 1-2 hours a day and gradually brought to natural light.

   
   

   

3. Shavings or sawdust are poured onto the floor. In the box, it is necessary to install feeders and drinkers in such a quantity that all ducklings have free access to them. Ducklings drink a lot from the age of one day, so the drinkers should be deep enough so that the beak is completely immersed in them.

   
   

   
   

4. Adult ducks are kept on non-removable bedding or on a mesh floor. They do it this way: on 60% of the floor area, a mesh flooring is made of mesh or wooden gratings in the form of removable shields. Sawdust, straw, shavings are poured under it. Falling into the net, waste products mix with the bedding and begin to decompose, releasing heat.

   
   

5. To maintain dryness and eliminate odor, the litter is regularly sprinkled, first with lime, then with fresh sawdust. This measure allows you to completely eliminate moisture.
6. To provide access to fresh air, the house is equipped with natural, and with a large population and forced, ventilation.

   
   

   Poultry "in the mind"

7. For successful fertilization and egg laying, musky ducks need a long daylight hours. Therefore, the poultry house is equipped with windows facing the south or southeast side, which saves on artificial lighting.

   
   

8. As a perch for indouts, a narrow bench is used, installed at a height of about 20 cm from the floor. Its width can be 15-20 cm, with a mandatory distance from the wall of 30 cm.

   
   

9. Nests are best made in the form of boxes with a hole at a height of 10 cm from the floor. Hinged lid make egg collection and nest cleaning more convenient.

   
   

10. From the poultry house, it is necessary to equip an exit to the yard for walking. The area of ​​the walking yard should be at least 1 m? for 5-6 goals. It is better to arrange the paddock so that the bird has the opportunity to hide in the shade from the hot sun and under a canopy in case of rain.
11. With limited space and lack of walking, it is allowed to keep musky ducks in multi-tiered cages, however, this method of keeping worsens the taste of meat and eggs.

    

How to start breeding livestock?

One of the features of the breed is poor breeding in the incubator. It is due to the fact that the shell of musky duck eggs has a very strong shell that does not allow air to pass through to the embryo. When hatching, the hen constantly turns the eggs over, comes into contact with them with her body, and the shell gradually becomes thinner, opening the pores.

By the end of incubation, the shell loses its strength, and the chicks are born without any problems. It is difficult to create such conditions in an incubator, even with regular turning. Therefore, having decided to start a musky duck, it is better to buy not an incubation egg, but ducklings, aged from one day.

Ducklings are very demanding on heat, so for their transportation it is necessary to prepare a box made of plywood or thick cardboard. The dimensions of the box depend on the number of ducklings: for every 20 heads, a space of 30x30 cm is needed. A large box needs to be sectioned. The height of the walls is from 20 to 25 cm, holes for ventilation must be made in the upper part. Dry sawdust, shavings are poured onto the floor.

It is better to transport ducklings in a car with an air conditioning system to ensure the required temperature. In the absence of such, in the winter you need to take care of heating, and in the summer they transport them in cool weather or at night to avoid heat and overheating.

Sorting by sex is possible in musky ducks already at a daily age, when buying unsorted young animals, it must be taken into account: about 60% of the chicks will turn out to be males. This is important when planning the number of livestock for breeding, in it there should be from three to five ducks per drake. The rest of the drakes at the age of 13 weeks are allowed to be slaughtered to obtain a marketable carcass.

Ducklings can be sorted independently. They do it like this:

• the duckling is placed on its left palm on its back, while its spine should be located along the line of the palm on the middle finger;
• with the right hand, gently pull the skin on the cloaca towards the stomach;
• they look at the mucous membrane - a tubercle is noticeable in the anterior part of the drakes, it is not in the ducks.

With some skill, the method allows you to sort the chicks reliably, with an accuracy of up to 99%. For novice poultry farmers, this method seems complicated, and they do not see the differences. In this case, sorting is done later, when differences in behavior become more noticeable: males begin to grow more actively, fight among themselves. By the slaughter age, the difference becomes obvious - the difference in body weight reaches 1-2 kg.

Video - Muscovy ducks. Care and maintenance

Feeding the young

Proper feeding and care is the key to rapid growth and good immunity. Muscovy ducklings have one feature that will require close attention of the owner: at a very early age, they do not know how to eat from the feeder, and only grab what moves with their beak.

This instinct is used to teach the chicks to feed.

Daily ducklings are fed as follows:

• hard-boiled eggs are cooled and finely chopped;
• scatter them directly on the backs of ducklings;
• they grab the crumbs that roll over their fellows, taste the food and become accustomed to it.

This should be done often, with an interval of 3-4 hours. Already by the second or third day, ducklings will learn to recognize food and peck it out of the feeder. Further diet is shown in the table.

In the future, ducklings are gradually transferred to the diet of adult ducks, including vegetables, compound feed or crushed grain, grass or silage. Be sure to use from the first day of mineral and vitamin supplements, meat and bone or fish meal. In a separate feeder, you need to constantly keep chalk, fine shells, coarse sand or gravel. The water in the drinkers must be regularly updated and topped up; without water, the chicks quickly die.

In the warm season, starting from the 10th day, ducklings are taught to walk, starting from 30-40 minutes and increasing the duration every day. Walking should also have access to drinking water.

After two weeks of age, the difference in the size of males and females leads to uneven feeding of the latter. Therefore, it is advisable to divide the livestock and seat it in different departments of the house. Density of an adult livestock - no more than 3 heads on 1 m?.

With such a regimen of nutrition and maintenance, by 70 days the young animals reach a marketable weight and are subject to slaughter. It is not worth delaying with it - already at the age of 75 days, molting begins, in which it is impossible to pluck the bird, “stumps” from feathers remain on the skin. In this case, the bird is slaughtered after the end of the molt, after a month and a half, which leads to an increase in the cost of its content and the accumulation of fat. Therefore, in 65-70 days, it is necessary to finally sort out the ducks that form the breeding stock, and put them in a separate paddock.

Families, egg laying and incubation

After sorting, the ducks are provided with good conditions and ensure their full feeding. Walking is required throughout the year. In winter, ducks need to be outside for at least 30 minutes to avoid frostbite on their feet; dry bedding can be equipped on the paddock. Access to the reservoir during the cold season should be excluded - the sebaceous glands of ducks poorly lubricate the feather with fat, and it can freeze.

Muscovy ducks begin to rush twice a year - in autumn and spring, usually at the age of 6-7 months. In autumn, for high-quality fertilization, it is necessary to artificially maintain a long daylight hours. To do this, include additional lighting, increasing its duration by 15-20 minutes a day. Gradually, you need to bring the lighting up to 16 hours. You can’t do this abruptly - you can cause an attack of cannibalism in birds.

Ducks lay eggs weighing about 70 grams, their number per year can reach 100-110. Therefore, it is necessary to plan the incubation in such a way as to obtain from the duck the maximum number of marketable eggs and hatching eggs.

The female sits on the nest when it accumulates from 10 to 15 eggs, and at the same time she stops laying. At the same time, older eggs give a better hatch in the incubator, fresh ones - under the brood hen. It is advisable to collect the first duck eggs and use them for incubation or for food.

After stopping the collection of eggs, the female will sit on the nest. Incubation lasts 32-35 days. Ducklings hatch unevenly, sometimes with an interval of a day or more. It is necessary to monitor the duck and remove the hatched young under the lamp in time, otherwise it may leave the nest. Indians are not very good mothers, and it is better to raise ducklings on your own according to the above recommendations.

Muscovy ducks are the perfect bird for beginner poultry farmers. Its maintenance is practically devoid of difficulties, it is enough to create good conditions for the indo-cats, and they will grow rapidly and successfully breed.

Video - Muscovy ducklings

Video - Muscovy ducks

Like the rest of the young, ducklings are born completely wet. Therefore, before taking them away from the mother hen, let the chicks dry under the warm duck plumage. Then place the young in a box or box, the bottom of which should be lined with a warm cloth. Keep the temperature in the boxes within 26-28 degrees. While the chicks continue to hatch, let them dry a little - and immediately into the box. Use electric heaters to provide additional heat. Only after all the young are hatched can they be put back under the brood hen. Mother duck will also accept incubator babies, but their number should not exceed 30 heads.

It must also be remembered that ducks are much more selective than other poultry. If the young that you plant with ducks is too old, then the bird will not accept it. Ducks drive away other people's ducklings and do not want to raise them. Therefore, try to plant chicks in the first days of their birth.

By themselves, ducklings are unpretentious and will not cause you much trouble. Just like adult ducks, young ducks are resistant to cold. But still, the temperature in the house should not be below 5 degrees. The room for growing ducklings should be warm, dry and without drafts.

You can divide the poultry house for young animals into two parts. The first should be young for three weeks. This part of the room must be well heated. And in the second compartment of the house, ducklings should be transplanted, which have already grown up and do not need additional heating. Moreover, too high a temperature can spoil the ducklings. They will get used to it, and as a result they will easily catch colds and get sick.

Hang a thermometer in the house at a height of 10-15 cm from the floor and monitor the temperature. If suddenly you hang a thermometer higher or lower, then it may show a false temperature, and you will draw the wrong conclusions from this. And the ducks will pay. If in the first three weeks of the life of ducklings the required temperature should be 22-28 degrees, then the young animals are kept at 18-20 degrees. As soon as the time comes to release the young animals into the water, the temperature in the room should be gradually equalized with the outside temperature.

The stocking density of young animals is 12-13 ducklings per 1 sq. m. In the first week after withdrawal, daylight hours should be 20-22 hours. Then gradually it is necessary to bring daylight hours to 14 hours.

Young growth and without a brood hen grows well. The room in which the ducklings will live must be thoroughly washed, but do not allow dampness and high humidity in the house. Some novice poultry farmers believe that since ducklings love to swim in the water, the dampness will only harden them. This is an erroneous opinion. Ducks, of course, love water, but not so much! By the way, due to the fact that these are waterfowl, ducklings splash a lot of water when drinking. After all, they want not only to drink, but also try to flounder a little in the water. And this becomes another reason for high humidity. Therefore, drinkers should be protected with removable grates so that they can be easily removed during cleaning.

Ducklings can be raised on deep litter, mesh floors and in enclosures. As a rule, young animals are kept in enclosures for up to three weeks to protect them from cats and other predators, and then they are transferred to deep litter. For cellular content, use floors with cell sizes of 15 x 20 mm. Muscovy ducklings can also be grown on slatted floors, which consist of individual slats 20-25 mm wide and 50 mm thick. Planks must be nailed at a distance of 25 mm from each other.

Of course, it is best to keep young ducks on paddocks, where there is some kind of body of water. But first, ducklings need to be taught to land walking in dry and warm weather, where they must get used to the sun's rays. The sun has a beneficial effect on the growth and development of young animals, but still make sure that the chicks do not have heat stroke. Ducklings, which are not yet five days old, are very afraid of the sun. Therefore, it is better to keep them in the shade for now. And soon they themselves will begin to run out under the warm rays of the sun.

If ducklings are brought up without a hen, then they need to be released into the water at the age of three weeks. First, let them swim for 2-3 hours, and then, starting from the fourth week, the ducklings can swim for at least a whole day. The fact is that before this age, the coccygeal gland still functions poorly in young animals, with the fat of which they lubricate their plumage.

Teach your ducklings to come home from ponds on their own. To do this, constantly feed them in the evening. The young must know that delicious food is waiting for them at a certain time, then he will have an incentive to return to the house. This task is facilitated if an adult bird swims with the brood. She will teach them wisdom.

When raising young animals, think carefully about the safety of ducklings - foxes and other wild hunters, if they find your farm, will not be left alone until they eat everyone. Geese and ducks feeding away from home are easy prey.

Dear readers! I want to introduce you to the experience of growing indoutok from Olga. I really liked her blog.

In my opinion, these ducks are very capricious. They categorically do not tolerate the intervention of people in their lives. Hence our mistakes.

- The nest should be placed immediately in the place where the duck will incubate eggs.. When moving a nest with eggs to another place, the indo-cat throws out all the eggs from it. When a person tries to return the eggs to the nest, the duck will throw out the eggs again and arrange a nest for itself in another place.

- The nest is best placed in a dark corner of the house, you can fence it off from the entrance with plywood, a wide board - this way it will become more secluded, and the ducks will like it. There should be a lot of straw or hay in the nest, as ducks bury their eggs 5-6 cm. I use a potato box for the nest, removing the bottom from it. I put a brick in front of the end wall so that it is convenient for the ducks to enter the nest (they have short legs, and the sides of the box are high). Before sitting down to incubate the clutch, the duck will cover the clutch of eggs with fluff. This, as I noticed, occurs 1-2 days before incubation.

— At first, ducks rush to one nest . As a rule, they rush at night or early in the morning. During the day, they go to check (as if they consider whether all the eggs are in place). As soon as there are 13-15 eggs in the nest, one of the ducks will sit on the clutch. For another duck, you must immediately put another nest, 3 meters from where the mother hen sat. Otherwise, the second duck will try to carry in the same nest, driving the hen. She will have an attempt to incubate the eggs in the same nest where the mother hen is already sitting.

I noticed that if you take eggs from the nest every day, then the duck will lay for a long time. And if you don’t take it, then after laying 13-15 eggs, the duck will cover them with fluff and sit down to incubate.

- In the first days of incubation, the mother duck often leaves the nest . Walking, eating, swimming.

Apparently, a strong film that covers the shell of the eggs does not allow the latter to cool. In the last weeks before the brood, the duck rarely comes out: after 2-3 days. In total, duck eggs take 33-35 days to warm up.

There should always be a container of water near the nest. If during the incubation period the air temperature becomes very high, during the heat, the duck finds a way to cool the eggs so that the embryos do not bake in the shell. I noticed how the duck moistens the eggs: it comes out, approaches the container with water, diligently wets the feathers on the abdomen and hurries to the nest ... to cool, moisturizing, the eggs.

- Do not touch the eggs with your hands . The duck immediately notices that you touched the eggs, and leaves the nest, begins to lay eggs in another place. When incubating, the duck checks the eggs and she herself will take out all the bad ones (unfertilized, with frozen embryos ...) from the nest; human intervention during this period will disturb the hen. She can break all the eggs or kill the already hatched ducklings.

- Hatched ducklings do not need to be taken from under the duck . They will quietly bask under it until all the ducklings hatch from the remaining eggs. Trying to pick up the ducklings can make the duck angry. I have a duck, after my attempt to count the hatched ducklings, took the duckling out of the nest and drowning it in a container of water, began to eat it. Frightened by her actions, I took the ducklings, leaving them not yet hatched. When the duck brought the brood out of the nest for walking, she brought her the first ones that she had taken from her. Fortunately, the duck did not show aggression, accepted all the ducklings in peace.

The duck takes all hatched ducklings out of the nest for the first walk. Then, returning to the poultry house, she does not lead the brood to the nest, but settles down with the ducklings in a dry, bright, warm place. Therefore, as soon as the duck brings out the brood, the nest must be removed, and the litter changed to dry.

The duck does not warm the ducklings , like a chicken or a turkey does. And she stands in such a position as in the photo, and the ducklings huddle under her in a bunch both on the paddock and in the house. Therefore, in the early days, if the weather is cold, it is necessary to provide air heating in the poultry house and not let the ducklings out for walking, putting water and food in the poultry house. We made small “summer” poultry houses (height 80 cm, width - 60 cm, length 1.5 m) especially for ducks to incubate eggs and raise young animals, and next to them we fenced a small area for walking.

I noticed that those ducklings that did not have enough warmth in the first days of life will very soon fall on their legs.

- In the early days, she fed the ducklings with compound feed (special compound feed for ducklings during the first 10 days of life). Gradually translated them into wet mash from crushed grains of corn and wheat, adding wheat bran. They love ducklings and porridge. But the porridge should be crumbly. Viscous porridge clogs their esophagus and, as a result, digestion suffers. From the first days gave duckweed. This is a very nutritious food; duckweed is rich in vitamins. Ducklings adore her at any age. The grass was given in cut form: sow thistle, dandelion, nettle, plantain. They love ducklings and earthworms. But, I think that at an early age they cannot be fed to ducklings, since the body is not set up to digest them. According to my observations, it was from the fact that they could not digest the worms that the ducklings died - 4 out of 8 of the last brood.

The walking area should be cleared of any debris: broken glass (especially small), carnations, wires, slivers, pieces of rope, twine, polyethylene, rags ... It is young ducklings that swallow it all during walks. And, as a result, he dies.

Indians are herbivores. Therefore, grasses should be fed to them a lot.

-Already in the first days of life, ducklings bathed with me . A baking sheet (regular, for baking pies) and a shallow frying pan served as a pool. The depth of the containers did not exceed 3 cm, so the ducklings could only wet their legs and tummies. In general, they did not get wet, the fluff remained dry, and they were not threatened with death.

The story about Senya and Marusek

In March of this year, I bought a family of musky ducks: Senya the drake and two Maruska ducks. Soon the ducks began to lay.

A month later, a split occurred in the duck family. The smaller duck clearly stands out. The stronger Maruska began to offend her: she drives her away from water, from food, ... Selezen could not resolve the conflict. Senya is very big, slow, hisses a lot, but not effectively.

Ducks rushed to one nest. Soon the egg-laying became large, but no one from Marusek wanted to sit on it. Experienced poultry farmers reassured me: "... the ducks will figure it out themselves ...", no need to interfere. And they finally shared the responsibilities. But how!
Senya and a stronger duck forced the baby to sit on the eggs. They pecked at her from both sides, driving her into the nest. Maruska sits on eggs, and a drake and a second duck sit at the entrance, guarding.

As soon as the mother hen leaves the nest to drink water or eat, the “guardians” of order begin to peck at her, forcing her to return to her place. Little Maruska's wings and neck became very pecked.
April and May were very hot. During the day the temperature reached +25, +30 degrees. The poultry farmer, from whom I bought the family, warned that without water it would be difficult for the duck to maintain the desired incubation regime, and the eggs would simply bake (burn out) in hot weather.
I noticed how the duck moistens the eggs: it comes out, approaches the container with water, diligently wets the feathers on the abdomen and hurries to the nest ... to cool, moisturizing, the eggs. And also, in order to reduce the temperature of the eggs, the duck pushes them away from the center of the nest - the temperature on the sides is lower than under the belly.

Going out for a walk, the hen every time started a conversation with a free-roaming duck, apparently offering her to share the duties of incubating eggs. But the aggressive actions of the second Maruska returned the first to the nest again.

There are times when a musky duck - a mother hen - breaks all the eggs because of resentment towards the second duck, that she does not help her incubate. Such is their character.
It was, according to my calculations, the 35th day of incubation. Human curiosity has brought sad results today. In the morning it seemed to me that the smell of a rotten egg was coming from the nest. Experienced poultry farmers advise not to pick up eggs, namely indo-duck, as she can, in the end, just take them out of the nest.

Usually I didn’t look into the nest, I didn’t disturb the duck. And then, while she was walking, she "climbed" into the nest, began to check for a bad and crushed egg. I counted 6 already hatched, live ducklings and touched all the eggs, checking.
Angry that her nest had been disturbed, two hours later the duck carried the duckling out, drowned it in a basin of water, and began (as I understood it) to eat it.
Shocked, I “climbed” into the nest again and took the ducklings out of it, fearing that she would do the same with the rest.

Muscovy ducks are very smart mother hens. They, unlike the other poultry, they themselves identify bad eggs (infertile, frozen, cracked or alien) and take them out of the nest. But I found out about this later.
Yesterday the duck finished incubation, took the last hatched ducklings out for a walk. I quickly brought her the first ones, which I took from her 2 days ago. The mother duck assumed a fighting stance, prepared to defend her offspring from me. But, seeing how I “poured out” six ducklings in front of her, who squeaked, looked at them, as it seemed to me, accepted them in surprise and peacefully. A day later, I noticed that the mother duck was no longer afraid of me.
Ducklings bathe together in a pan with water, eat duckweed and feed. They follow their mother.

Unfortunately, duck mothers do not like weak ducklings. They, as I noticed, step on them, throw them away with their paws, do not take them under the wing. And they soon die. Turkeys, for example, are more attentive to their children.

Muscovy ducklings

Last year, my attempt to raise Muscovy ducks did not end well. Many mistakes were made.
Today is the last day of July. A brood of ducklings is about to appear. I want to describe the events so that later I can analyze the results of the work on their cultivation.

More than a month ago, for the third time this season, a Muscovy duck attempted to sit on a clutch of eggs to hatch ducklings.

The first time it happened at the end of April. I decided to move the nest with the duck to another room. As a result, the ducks destroyed the nest. And all attempts to persuade them to sit on the masonry were answered with an unconditional refusal.

The second time the duck sat on a new laying in May, in the room that they, the ducks, liked. She served three weeks. But, then a young goat frightened her away, who got off her leash, jumped into the room with the ducks and began to chase the hen around the corners.

I thought there would be no third time. She placed two ducks and a drake in a separate enclosure, in which neither goats nor chickens could interfere. The ducks started laying again. On June 22, Maruska covered the nest with down and on June 24, in my understanding, sat on the eggs.
The ducks' nest was formed by themselves from the straw with which the floor of the room was covered. The place was chosen at the very door, apparently because it is very hot outside. Senya periodically checked the nest in which the duck was sitting for the presence of eggs in it: he would stick his beak into the straw under the duck and “count” the eggs.

And today, finally, the ducklings began to hatch. According to my calculations, this is the 37th day from the beginning of incubation. All sources say that Muscovy ducks hatch ducklings for 33-35 days? So how long do they hatch them? 33? 35? 37?

In the photo, ducklings have a few hours of life.
In the morning, when the duck went out to the drinking bowl, there was only one duckling in the nest among the eggs. By 10 o'clock there were about five of them. The duck threw the eggshell out of the nest, moved away from the ducklings, apparently so that they were not very hot, and waited for the rest to hatch. How? - I do not know. And the ducklings diligently cleaned their feathers, or rather fluff. What a nature! They just hatched, and they are already cleaning up.

I cautiously approached the house to take a picture. new life. Through the camera window I saw that the ducklings were sleeping, the duck was calm. After taking a picture, I decided to move closer. Seeing me a meter from the nest, the duck got excited, the ducklings opened their eyes, everyone started moving. No frames were received. I was afraid to scare the duck. Finally managed to catch the moment without duck gestures. And I left her alone, having managed to notice that the drake Senya was standing nearby, raising her crest menacingly, ready to defend her family.

By 4 pm, there were already 10 ducklings in the nest and 2-3 more eggs lay. The nest became crowded and hot. The duck came out of it and stood nearby, carefully watching the ducklings and controlling the process of "birth" of the ducklings. Apparently due to the fact that the nest was filled with live lumps, the duck, fearing to hurt the ducklings, left it. Senya perched next to the nest. His attention, like that of the duck, was directed to the nest. He, too, was waiting for the birth of the remaining ducklings. All birds feel and hear the emerging life in the eggs. Well, let's wait for the morning.

A new day has come, and with it new challenges. In the morning I noticed that the duck's voice was cut through, and it makes well-audible sounds, and does not hiss. The mummy duck made inviting sounds when she left the house. So she called the ducklings, invited them to leave the nest and go outside to her. But, the ducklings were sitting in the coolness and darkness of the house, closely clinging to each other.

An hour later, the duck managed to lure out five ducklings. With a fragile gait, the "sailors" moved to the water (in a baking sheet) and began to bathe. The plate with mixed fodder did not even interest them. Seeing that I went into the aviary, the duck and ducklings went into the house together. After pouring duckweed into the water and replacing the dishes with food for a flatter one (a lid from an old toilet bowl), I began to observe the behavior of the drake.

Senya checked with both his beak and paws the ladder that I built from the boards for the ducklings to easily overcome the threshold. Then he tried the mixed fodder and began to empty the duckweed in the pan, despite the fact that there was a bowl of duckweed for him three steps away. I had to remove him from the enclosure.

It took the mother duck another hour to bring out the rest of the ducklings. Finally, everyone came out to her call. There were 12 ducklings. Bypassing the compound feed, everyone plopped down into the water. Looking at the duck, they tried to eat duckweed.
Senya behind the net was very nervous. I decided to launch it. He went to friendly company. Having carefully examined the children, he began to catch duckweed with them. It has a beak the size of a duck. Therefore, along with duckweed, either a paw or a duckling's head fell into his beak. The duck did not like this state of affairs and she began to peck at the drake's head when he lowered his beak into the water.

Senya didn't last long. Angry, he dispersed all the ducklings from the "reservoir".
I had to remove it again and for a long time. Otherwise, the ducklings would have been left hungry and would have developed a persistent fear of large birds. The duck took the ducklings to the sun. The little ones, tired of the impressions and having worked their little paws by walking, fell asleep. The duck stood nearby, guarding the children. I must say that throughout the day the duck did not leave the flock of ducklings. When she changed places, they minced after her in a chain.

Finally, the attention of the ducklings was attracted by the food. They sat down in a bowl and diligently began to peck at him.
Toward evening she allowed Sena to return to the enclosure. Drake, apparently, is not stupid. Remember why he was removed. Therefore, he peacefully passed, bypassing both the compound feed and the “reservoir” to a flock of ducklings that were sitting under the duck. Calmly laid down next to him. In the evening, at 19.30, both the drake and the duck with their brood set off for the night on their own.
Photo of the day (captured all the events described above):

Today the duck led her brood very carefully. We ate, swam, basked in the sun, rested in the shade and ate again, swam ... Ducklings follow their mother in a friendly crowd. She stands steadfastly near them when the kids are resting, and carefully monitors the surrounding space - if there is any danger. She lay down several times to rest, carefully pushing the ducklings apart with her beak, making room for herself. And then she got up, as if on alarm: here the cat ran; the second mother duck went for a walk and came close to a flock of ducklings; the turkey stopped at the net of the enclosure and carefully examines the neighbors ... I have an amazingly caring mother-duck this year.

Drake Senya also showed increased attention and care for the family. He was always next to the brood and the duck, at a distance of half a meter - the outer "line of defense". This lout weighs seven kilograms, but he walked carefully so as not to step on the ducklings. I did not forget about the second mother duck, which sat down to incubate eggs a week ago. He visited her nest, sat near the duck. Caring father of the family.

But the second duck upset us very much with its behavior. Yesterday, on a walk, she did not show attention to the ducklings. I only checked the contents of all new containers in the aviary. And today she did not sit in the nest. Several times during the day, the duck came out of the house and began to chase the mother duck around the aviary, trying to drive her into her nest. Senya was sitting near the ducklings and did not interfere in the fight. Hearing the squeak and noise of wings, we hurried to settle the conflict and return mommy to the children. They could not understand the reason for this behavior of the second hen. Further observations of the development of quarrels suggested that the second duck wants to take away the brood from the first, to force her to sit in the nest so that she continues to incubate her eggs.

I remembered the situation of the last year, when a stronger duck, not wanting to sit on eggs, forced a smaller duck to stay in the nest (the post of Senya and Maruska). The drake helped her then. This year the situation repeats itself: the stronger one wants to force the weaker one to do the work for her. But the drake is now neutral. Oh those ducks! I will think what to do.

Ducklings are one week old today. I feed them only starter feed and duckweed. They obviously love duckweed more than compound feed. They are trying to pinch off the greens from the leaves of the quinoa grass. At this time of summer, only quinoa and salvia have delicate green leaves. But they don't like salvia.
Finally, I was able to put a real feeder for the ducklings (see photo at the end of the text) - they have grown up and can get food through its side (side height is 4-5 cm) or jump into the feeder for convenience. Large ducks cannot get inside the feeder, they also cannot turn it over. Feed now practically does not spill out on the ground.

It is very hot outside, ducklings and ducks sit in the shade of an apple tree all day. From time to time, two or three hungry hustlers will move away from the flock, have a bite to eat and run back into the shade. Yesterday (08/06/2012) it was so hot that even the shade did not help the birds. By chance, I witnessed how a duck mother cooled her children: they all stood under her, and she, spreading her wings, waved them continuously, as if blowing them with a fan. Just think what ingenuity! I always think in such cases: "And why do they say that birds have no brains?".

The drake Senya is attentive to the kids, tries not to crush, bypasses them. He constantly, like a duck, protects the space from possible predators or annoying chickens.

Today the whole family hid from the sun in a shed where they spend the night. The duck at the entrance, as always, stood guard. Senya was lying in the depths, and the ducklings were next to the duck at the threshold. After some time, Senya decided to leave the shelter, but the ducklings interfered. I stood and watched: will it come or not?
Senya stood and waited. The ducklings did not react in any way to his silent request to give way. Then he lightly pecked one, he quickly jumped aside, and Senya was able to put his foot on the threshold. I thought for a while, pecked the second and was able to advance the second leg. He safely carried his large body out of the shed without crushing anyone.
Photo of the day:

Ducklings are in their second month. I am glad that everyone is alive, active, grown up.
All month they were fed with compound feed. A week ago, they began to add ground corn to the feed.
We continue to give quinoa grass every day. They peck her willingly and a lot. When there is duckweed, we delight ducklings with duckweed.
For several days we offer zucchini to ducklings. We cut a small zucchini lengthwise into two parts and put it on the ground. Ducklings settle around in a circle and together, diligently peck at it. They liked the zucchini.

I'm afraid to give grated zucchini, as the esophagus can become clogged. And this, I know from experience, ends badly for ducklings. For the same reason, I do not give wet mash.

Photo of the day:

The ducklings are in their third month.

Diet: wet mash (corn and wheat turd 2:1; cake, mineral vitamin supplements, fodder yeast, mixed fodder), grated pumpkin and fodder beet, greens of various weeds that still grow in the garden. I also offer whole grains of corn in a separate feeder. Together with adult birds, ducklings peck corn.

Sometimes we give ducklings earthworms, which we find in the garden when processing beds, and fish giblets. Their digestive system already copes with such food.
Photo of the day: (in the first photo, a young drake and mother duck are the same size)

It's cold December outside. Ducks 5 months old. All are alive and well. Young drakes weigh 3-4 kg. Ducks are small. They are equally divided - 6 × 6 heads.

Ducks winter separately from other birds, in another poultry house. Since they do not want to sit on a sidal (and after all, ducks are arboreal, it would seem that it is not difficult for them to sit on a sidal; especially since the claws on their paws are large - more than any other bird), winter on a deep litter. In order to reduce dampness, they built a tray under a bucket of water. The pallet is a frame made of wooden bars (1m x 1.5m) 12 cm high, on which a metal grate of the appropriate size is installed. The grate is thick enough not to sag under the weight of the ducks, the cells are 1 sq. cm. We put some coarse clover hay on the grate so that the paws of ducks do not freeze to it. All the water that the ducks spray flows through the rough stems and meshes of the grate into the pan. The wooden frame can be installed on a tin sheet with curved edges. We, since there is no sheet of this size, set the frame on a layer of straw, the thickness of which is 15cm. Replace wet straw from time to time with dry straw.
The diet of ducks remained mostly whole corn. They do not want to peck another grain. I also give a mix in the form of a dry mixture of cereals, cake, mineral supplements, but ducks are reluctant to eat it. Since there is still a pumpkin, I rub it on a coarse grater, mix it with corn slurry. Today for the first time I gave boiled fodder beets; previously kneaded it, mixed it with cereals.
When the air temperature is not lower than -7 degrees, I let the ducks out of the house for a walk. They walk reluctantly, their paws quickly freeze and they try to quickly return to the room.
Photo of the day: (pictures were taken a month ago, in November)

My husband and I have been prescribing for more than 12 years and reading with interest the magazine “Dim. Garden. City". Interested in all sections on any subject.
In No. 9, September 2012, I carefully read an article by Alexey Lashka about growing Muscovy ducks in household plots. I also grow mute. Observations of the life of ducks suggest solutions to some of the problems of their maintenance.
Like Aleksey, I am a supporter of rearing these ducklings under a mother duck. However, I cannot agree with some of his recommendations.

In particular, in his article, Aleksey points out that when several ducklings hatch under a hen, she begins to rise from the nest, the rest of the eggs cool down, and the ducklings die in them. Therefore, he advises the hatched ducklings, which have dried up, to be taken from the mother hen, so that the duck sits more tightly on the eggs, and the rest of the babies would hatch normally.

Against. This year I observed the appearance of ducklings from eggs, photographed the process. Twelve ducklings were born one after another during the day. Having dried a little under the duck, they moved with the help of the duck to the front of her torso. In this part, the pressure of the body of the duck is minimal.
Periodically, the mother hen got up from the nest, threw out the egg shells from it, carefully moved the ducklings, and again sat on the remaining eggs. Not a single duckling was crushed. The ducklings received the necessary warmth and avoided the stress of human intervention in their lives.
The drake, in turn, sat around the clock next to the nest “on guard”.

Further, Alexei notes that the ducklings, together with the mother hen, are released for walking in good weather on the third day, and they can be released to the reservoir only from 20-25 days of age; if this is done earlier, they will get wet and overcooled.

My observations and experience in rearing Muscovy ducks prove otherwise.
I have repeatedly observed how a mother duck takes her brood of ducklings out of the nest: she actually waits 1-2 days until all the ducklings dry out, stand on their paws, become mobile, and only then takes them out of the nest.
The process itself is interesting. The duck leaves the nest, moves away for some distance and begins to make rather loud sounds (although they are mute), calling the ducklings to go to her. The bird makes calling sounds until all or several ducklings leave the nest. Then he returns with them to the nest and, having rested together, repeats the same actions. When all the ducklings come out to her call, the process of learning to leave the nest ends.

This year, my duck incubated eggs in the hottest month of the summer - July. She took the ducklings out of the nest on the third day after hatching. The first actions of ducklings and mother ducks were water procedures - bathing, not eating.
I make a pond from an old deck, the height of the sides of which reaches 3-4 cm. When swimming, ducklings can only wet their tummies. When they are a week old, I put the container deeper, about 7-8 cm. And when it rains, the ducklings conquer puddles of different depths.
And despite the fact that the coccygeal gland does not yet produce fat to lubricate the feathers, and the feathers themselves are still missing, the ducklings do not die when they get wet.

I know that the health of ducklings, especially if the brood is obtained closer to autumn, directly depends on the feed.
I consider it the most successful solution to feed ducklings from the first day, when the duck brought them out of the nest, with starter feed (until this moment they do not eat food), and then with finely granulated feed (up to 1 month). It is expedient to feed compound feed only dry.
From the age of one month, ducklings should be gradually transferred to the mash. If the mash is waterlogged, it will become fatal for ducklings, clogging the esophagus.
Duckweed is very useful for young animals, it strengthens immunity in babies. I advise you to give duckweed to ducklings, if possible, from the first days.

Separately, I want to say about nests for ducks. I stopped making them myself. Noticing where the duck in the house chose a place and began to lay eggs, I put more dry straw or hay there - so much so that the duck can cover the eggs well. Muscovy ducks deeply, up to 8-10 cm, bury their eggs in the straw.
The mother hen independently makes a recess in a hill of straw. Having accumulated 14-16 eggs, he covers the nest with fluff and sits down to hatch ducklings. Additional eggs can be added to the clutch, of course, if the bird agrees to accept them. It is better to lay eggs in 1-2 pieces for several days until the nest is covered with fluff.
Usually, Muscovy ducks do not allow any human intervention in the incubation process.