Breeding white ducks at home. Growing ducklings for beginners at home. Advantages of domestic ducks and the advantages of their breeding

The most common meat that can be found in stores is chicken. This is easily explained by the fact that it is simpler and more profitable, and the products are more accessible to consumers. Chickens are also common in their backyards, laying hens are grown for eggs, and broilers for meat.

But no less tasty meat and eggs from another type of poultry - ducks. It was ducks that were domesticated by our ancestors among the first. They are mainly grown for meat, but small, but very tasty eggs are no less valuable.

If you want to diversify your table with tasty, healthy, juicy meat, nutritious eggs and start growing ducks at home, then this article is for you. Read to the end to find out how and where to start breeding ducks in your backyard.

Anyone can start breeding ducks. But before that, you should study some of the nuances and features of their maintenance and cultivation. At the start, you will need a small financial investment and some preparation work. First you need to decide on the breed, then choose a room, equipment, prepare food, study the issues of proper feeding and maintenance. Everything in order in this article.

Where to start breeding ducks: choose a breed

Before choosing a breed, decide for what purpose you plan to raise ducks - for meat, for eggs, or for both.

The most common breeds in Russia are musky(indos) Beijing ducks. Birds of these breeds are distinguished by endurance, rapid growth, unpretentiousness, adaptability to our climate. For beginner poultry farmers, these breeds are the most optimal.

Useful video:

Incubator, young or adult bird?

There are three ways to start breeding ducks. The first is to buy a hatching egg. To do this, you need an incubator and knowledge of this process. It should be noted that there is a certain risk when hatching in an incubator, and if you have little experience, then first carefully study this issue.

Buying young animals is a more fan-shaped way, but also more costly. Choose healthy ducklings as young as one week old. Young animals will need special care and feed. You can find detailed information on the pages of our magazine.

The third way is the acquisition of adults. It has a number of advantages, including:

• Minimal risk of death;
• Faster growth and production (meat, eggs);
• For an adult bird, no special food is needed.

The only negative is the higher financial costs. By the way, if you don’t want to make a mistake with the purchase and want to get a healthy productive bird, then it’s better to contact a person who has encountered the acquisition of ducks. Either in detail and slowly study this issue on the site.

Preparing the room

Any breed of ducks needs proper maintenance and care. The room for growing poultry should be warm, dry, without drafts. To begin with, you can prepare an old barn or, if possible, build a new poultry house.

The floors in such a room should rise 20-40 cm above the ground, otherwise ducks can freeze their paws in cold weather. Another condition is bedding, for which you can use dry hay, straw, sawdust. Try to thoroughly insulate the walls and floor, and also limit the entry of rodents into the house.

Natural light should get into the room with ducks, so the presence of a window is a must. It is even better if this window opens and closes so that it is possible to ventilate the house. In summer, the room should not be too hot, and in winter too cold. The minimum temperature in winter is 5 degrees Celsius.

Ducks should not be kept only in a barn; in summer it is necessary to give them the opportunity to walk in the fresh air. To do this, you can attach a special pen upholstered with a net to the poultry house. In this case, the bird should have free access to the barn and back.

How to properly breed ducks at home: content

For proper cultivation the poultry house should be provided with everything necessary. The first step is to make a feeder. You can buy it in a specialized store or make it yourself from boards. All that is needed is three boards about 10-15 cm wide. We knock together an oblong trough from them, close the ends with scraps. We nail a bar in the center from above so that the ducks cannot climb into the feed with their paws. The feeder can also be made from plastic sewer pipes.

Ducks need a lot of water, so the first priority is to drinker installation. One individual consumes 0.5-0.7 liters of water per day. Drinking bowls can be built by yourself or purchased at the store. The simplest and most inexpensive option is a vacuum drinker, which is a special plate into which an inverted three-liter jar is inserted. Duck water should always be clean and fresh.

Another necessary element of the house is nests. They are pretty easy to make by hand. To begin with, a frame is made, which is then sheathed with boards. One cell should measure approximately 40 by 40 or 50 by 50 cm. Nests should be installed at a distance of about 50-60 cm from the ground. Before entering the cell, a threshold must be installed so that the bird can easily climb in and out of the nest. Three ducks require one slot, so if you have 15 ducks, you will need nests with five slots.

Breeding ducks at home: proper nutrition

Every poultry needs proper and balanced nutrition. The diet of ducks should include the following products:

• Wheat;
• Oats;
• Millet;
• Corn;
• Barley;
• Fish and dairy products;
• Vegetables and fruits;

You can feed ducks with compound feed, which is presented in a wide range in specialized stores. If you breed ducks for meat at home, for example, in the country, then there should be no problems with food. After all, birds are usually grown in the summer, when there is plenty of green grass, various vegetables, plants, etc. You can find more detailed information and proper feeding of ducks in the relevant section of our website.

Growing ducks at home: maintenance and care

Ducks are water birds, so in the summer they need some kind of water container or pond in which they can swim. If there is a pond or lake nearby, then the problem is solved - the bird will receive not only the condition necessary for proper development, but also the necessary microelements that are found in natural reservoirs.

In a private courtyard, it is easy to build a small pond yourself by digging a hole in the ground and filling it with concrete. If there is some kind of container, then it can be dug into the ground to such a level that the bird can easily access water. You can make a pool for ducks from old car tires. It is advisable to find a tire from a truck or tractor, cut it lengthwise into two parts and fill it with water. This will give you two containers of water.

Conclusion

In fact, breeding and raising ducks is not difficult and even exciting. Watching the growth and life of these birds is very interesting. In a short period of time, ducks reach the age at which they can be put on meat. It is enough just to organize proper care, maintenance and feeding. All necessary information you can get in the section of our magazine "".

Useful video: keeping ducks

Most homeowners raise various types of domestic animals. Ducks are among the most popular birds. They have long been domesticated and now they can be seen in almost every private home. They do not need to create special conditions for keeping. It is believed that such a business for a novice farmer is low-cost, so it is very popular and profitable. Where to start breeding ducks at home and how to grow them correctly?

The purpose of keeping and breeding Peking ducks

Poultry farming can bring good profit. This does not require huge cash investments after all, for example, keeping ducks will cost little. For a business to be profitable, choose the right bird breed.

Domestic ducks are a profitable business, because poultry meat is considered tasty and healthy. Ducks lay eggs and you can also get excellent fluff from them. You can also make good money selling young ducklings.

Many people raise ducks to have delicious meat on their table. It is darker in color than chicken, more fatty, has a larger fiber and a rich taste.

Ducks carry large eggs, but for cooking homemade food they are used very rarely. They are mainly used in the food industry, for example, they are added to mayonnaise. They serve as good incubation material.

Such Domestic bird appreciated for its fluff. On its basis, various items of clothing and home textiles are produced:

• down jackets;
• pillows;
• blankets.

Duck manure is also distinguished by its useful qualities for fertilizer. It is believed that among the litter of other poultry, it is the best.

Before buying ducklings for rearing, you should decide on the breed of ducks. Most people prefer poultry meat that is not too fatty, so they try to choose a variety with leaner meat.

This breed belongs Muscovy duck. The bird has red leather growths under the beak and above it. They are distinguished by white or black-and-white plumage and for this reason they are called indouts in the common people. An adult can weigh up to 2.5 kg, and an adult drake averages 5 kg. They are a great option for beginner poultry farmers to grow at home.

Moscow white considered a young breed. To get it, breeders had to cross Pekin duck with khakikampbellami. Distinctive features of this variety:

• long head;
• wide beak;
• tasty and juicy meat.

A drake can weigh up to 4 kg, and an adult duck about 3.5 kg.

Ukrainian breed, quite common among poultry farmers. Their plumage may be:

• white;
• grey;
• clayey.

Most often, ducks with white plumage are bred. The mass of an adult drake is 3.5 kg, and ducks are almost 2.5 kg. For a year, 1 hen can produce up to 220 eggs.

The Peking duck breed is popular. Its feature is fatty meat. Females can weigh up to 3.5 kg, and the weight of a drake is 4 kg. A laying hen can produce up to 150 eggs per year. It is believed that Peking ducks are undemanding to care for, so they are often chosen for rearing. They quickly gain weight and after a couple of months you can get good carcasses of meat.

To start growing ducks, you need to have an equipped poultry house, and quite spacious. The shed can be:

• stone;
• wooden;
• frame.

The floor in the house is best made of stone or brick. If small rodents, such as a mouse or a ferret, enter the house, they can seriously harm the bird. The floors of the room must be covered with flooring. For this, they usually use:

• hay;
• straw;
• sawdust.

Often the floors are sprinkled with fine dry sand. The room must be equipped with drinking bowls and bird feeders.

Basic rules and content features

Before you think about breeding ducks, you need to learn as much information as possible about keeping and caring for ducks. For this species, feeding is the main feature for obtaining high productivity. Here it is necessary follow a special diet. The scheme is very simple, which is used by many in their personal plots:

After eating, ducks can be driven into the house to sleep. If the birds follow the daily routine, they will soon get used to it. At the right time, they themselves will approach the pond and feeders, go into the barn.

In the morning ducks for food provide concentrated feed(crushed), and in the evening they are fed with a mash. As part of the evening meal, mainly vegetable products:

• roots;
• vegetables;
• fresh grass.

At home, the owners often use ducks to feed various food waste and be sure to add to duck food:

• whey;
• bone meal from meat and fish;
• minerals.

Almost 80% of the diet of ducks should be grains and mealy foods, and only 20% of other additives.

Breeding ducklings

It is believed that ducks not so good good hens for breeding offspring. Chickens are much better in this matter, so duck eggs are often pinned up for hatching by hens. There are still cases when a duck allows eggs to be laid under itself and sits quietly on them. Young ducklings appear a few days later than chicken chicks.

If a chicken hatches ducklings, then the first time after the appearance, she is frightened when the ducklings begin to willingly approach the water. It is believed that until their fluff has come down, a new plumage has not appeared, it is impossible to let them go into the reservoir. During this period of time, they did not gain the necessary subcutaneous fat and this can cause the disease.

Ducklings are also obtained with the help of an incubator, but it is much more difficult to feed and raise them without a hen. In an incubator, you cannot get 100% brood. From the laid eggs it will be possible to get 50% of the young. This is due to the fact that at the stage of embryonic development there are no antibacterial substances in the protein of duck eggs.

For the first time after birth ducklings need comfortable conditions. For growing, they need a warm and dry room with a temperature of 20-25 ° C so that they grow healthy and strong. It is best to create even better conditions for them by planting them in special cages with heating at a temperature of 30 o C. Ordinary cages can also be used, but incandescent bulbs must be installed in them.

After three weeks, they can be seated in spacious pens, with a temperature that can be gradually reduced to 16-18 ° C. It is advisable to create additional lighting for young animals, it should be for 15-16 hours a day.

The diet of small ducklings should include boiled and finely chopped eggs, crushed oatmeal. After three days of life, you can add cottage cheese and finely chopped greens with aquatic vegetation.

At the age of 10 days include potatoes on the menu and finely chopped root vegetables. Ducklings should be fed 6-8 times in the first days of their life. After ten days of age, the number of feedings is reduced to 5-6 times. As the ducklings grow, they can be fed 2-4 times a day.

Keeping in winter conditions and growing for meat

In a private homestead, ducks are mainly grown only in the warm season. Those who professionally breed poultry keep them in the same way in winter. This is mainly done for the purpose of obtaining meat. To get good carcasses, the bird should be fed three times a day. In the morning and afternoon, ducks are given mash, and in the evening they are fed with grain.

In the cold season, birds tolerate a decrease in air temperature well, but in the poultry house it is necessary to create special conditions. Temperature should not fall below +5 o C. Ducks are afraid of drafts, so the room should be warm and well protected from drafts. The bedding should also be kept dry. The productivity of the bird will depend on this.

Additional lighting will help increase the egg production of ducks in the cold season. The optimal number of hours with lighting should be at least 14 hours a day.

Breeding ducks is a useful and profitable occupation for a family with a small piece of land. A little knowledge, experience and a couple of months of housework allow you to get the necessary annual smell of meat and a significant income. Ducks are hardy birds, unpretentious in care, quickly gaining weight. They get along with all kinds of birds in the rural courtyard. Reproduction of ducks is meat, eggs and fluff. Anything that can be converted into money or usefully used at home.

Goals of duck breeding

You can grow ducks for the following purposes:

1. Obtaining natural meat. It is darker and fatter than chicken, has larger fibers, rich taste;
2. Collection of eggs. They are larger than chicken ones (the weight of one is about 90 g), they are great for making mayonnaise, pastries, salads;
3. Getting fluff. Pillows and blankets are made from it.
   All these derivatives can be taken by resellers, if they are in excess. An additional "bonus" can be considered duck manure, which is a higher quality fertilizer than that produced by other domesticated birds.

Site preparation

If the chicks were purchased before the onset of heat, then it is important to buy a special lamp that will warm them. As the temperature outside grows and rises to a minimum of 18 ° C, ducklings can be taken out into the yard by building a corral from a fishing net or chain-link in a sunny place. From above, it also needs to be covered, since there are a lot of feathered and fluffy hunters “for game” around. At the bottom of the grid, it is important to dig in the ground or arrange boards so that there are no gaps through which the chicks can exit.

For winter maintenance, it is necessary to build a full-fledged insulated barn, providing it with artificial lighting. Productive cultivation of ducks is possible only indoors without drafts and dampness. The latter greatly increase the chances that the birds will start to get sick.

Inventory

Caring for ducklings at home implies the presence of feeders and drinkers in their habitat. The watering hole should be checked regularly as chicks and adults drink a lot and splash water. It is always important to keep it clean, otherwise there is a risk of bacterial infections.

The feeder should be made in the form of a gutter so that the chicks do not trample on food, thereby making it unusable. If a place is being arranged for adult birds, then it is important to take care of nests that are plentifully lined with straw. For 3 layers, one secluded corner is enough.

Breed selection

Almost all domesticated birds are divided into egg, meat and universal meat and egg species. Breeding ducks at home for beginners is possible only after choosing a breed that satisfies its characteristics. The most popular among farmers are the types:

• Beijing;
• Musk or Indian;
• Black white-breasted;
• Gray Ukrainian;
• Moscow white;
• Bashkir color;
• Blue favorite;
• Indian runner;
• Khaki-Campbell;
• Mulardy.

All of them gain weight at different rates, and lay eggs at different rates. These breeds differ in their behavior, taste characteristics of meat, the possibility and characteristics of breeding. For example, mulards, being a hybrid, are not able to reproduce.

How to choose healthy ducklings

Successful rearing of ducklings at home for beginners is possible if you purchase a full-fledged litter with a high survival potential. To do this, at a poultry farm or a specialized poultry house, select chicks according to the following criteria:

• Brilliant eyes without opacities;
• Smooth paws without defects;
• Uniform plumage, exclude ducklings with "bare" tummies;
• Clean buttocks without traces of diarrhea;
• Healthy appetite. Check this by offering the ducklings a hand with food;
• Mobility, noisiness and curiosity of chicks.

Breeding conditions

• Balanced diet;
• Warm and dry "housing" without drafts.

Dampness and cold air are the causes of paw diseases and weak immunity of birds. Growing ducks will become impossible due to their mass mortality or poor weight gain caused by the banal neglect of the conditions for keeping immature chicks.

Walking is necessary for ducklings, but only after they reach a week of age, provided that the minimum temperature outside is 18 degrees Celsius. It will be good for them to build a reservoir from any trough, but only birds that have reached the age of one month are allowed to it.

Duck nutrition

Feeding ducklings at home for beginners is to purchase a balanced dry food. It contains all the necessary nutrients, vitamins and even antibiotics. If you want to save money or feed young animals only with healthy food, include in their diet:

• boiled eggs;
• Fresh herbs, in particular nettles;
• Algae, such as duckweed;
• Cottage cheese;
• Cereals and legumes, in the form of ground cereals and bran;
• Meat and bone meal;
• Vegetables,
• Fish fat;
• feed yeast;
• Vitamin supplements.

For grown-up chicks, waste from the kitchen can be added to the feed. Uninterrupted keeping and breeding of domestic ducks is possible only with their good nutrition. Make sure birds don't eat spoiled food. We are talking about wet mash, which stood for several hours in the sun.

IMPORTANT: Very young chicks who refuse to eat from a common feeder are forcibly poured from a pipette with a mixture of raw yolk and milk. This improves their survivability.

Winter keeping of ducks

Experienced farmers know how to keep ducks at home in winter and get an early spring brood. To do this, it is important to observe the following rules:

• The temperature in the barn is not lower than 5oC;
• Artificial lighting, providing daylight hours lasting up to 16 hours;
• Three meals a day;
• Daily sprinkling of dry flooring, such as hay or sawdust, so that dampness does not increase.

Walking in the winter season is allowed if the temperature outside does not fall below 10 ° C, there is no strong wind. Snow near the barn is recommended to be removed. Year-round cultivation of ducks is impossible without proper care for them in the winter.

Disease prevention

Proper care of ducks at home involves taking care of their immunity. On the first day, it is necessary to drink them with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Chicks are quite resistant to various types of infections, but it is still better to give them an antibiotic. You can choose Grisin and dilute it according to the instructions. Weekly ducklings should be watered.

Receiving offspring

Knowing how to breed ducks at home can be gained by gaining years of experience or right now. You should start with the selection of birds for the tribe. You need to choose moving ducks of the same age and weight. Only healthy birds will bring quality offspring.

Egg selection

Growing ducks at home for meat does not exclude the possibility that several adults will remain to obtain young. Eggs must be selected carefully, excluding all with a deformed shell. You need to store them before putting them under the duck when room temperature no more than 10 days. Eggs that have been in the refrigerator are not good.

natural incubation

How to breed ducks with minimal participation in this process? It is enough to collect the eggs and put them under the duck at the right time. It is easy to determine the hen: she begins to stay apart, in the chosen place she equips herself with a nest, pulling out her own feathers. You need to put no more than 20 eggs under it. Depending on the breed, the hen will hatch them for 28-35 days.

Provide her with a feeder and drinker inaccessible to other birds. When the ducklings begin to hatch, take them into a box so that the mother hen does not press down. Only when shells remain from all the eggs, return the chicks to the mother. Ensure dryness and a temperature of 24°C in the barn with young animals.

Using the incubator

After collecting a sufficient number of eggs, they must be placed in an incubator. It depends on its functionality whether you need to turn the eggs, independently check the temperature and humidity level, and ventilate the container. When mastering the cultivation of ducks at home for beginners, keep in mind that the offspring from the incubator are weaker, worse fed and, in general, the birth rate is lower.

Before laying the container must be warmed up. All the subtleties of change temperature regime and the level of humidity for hatching ducklings of a particular breed must be obtained separately from the breeder so as not to spoil the eggs or get a weak brood.

Offspring evaluation

The ability to carefully select strong chicks will allow you to become an expert on how to raise ducks at home. Young animals are evaluated according to the following criteria:

• Brilliant eyes;
• Wings pressed to the body;
• soft belly;
• Non-bleeding umbilical cord;
• Fluffy uniform plumage;
• Weight from 50 g.

Rearing of young animals

If the ducklings have been hatched by a mother hen, then they remain with her in a dry and warm house. The duck herself knows when to warm the chicks, and when it is already possible to lead them to the water. If the young animals were purchased or obtained by incubation breeding, then they must be kept in a daily cleaned box at an air temperature of at least 24 ° C.

For each square meter the area of ​​​​the fence used should be no more than 20 ducklings. Otherwise, they will crush each other and there is a risk that the weakest will be trampled to death. If the box is too large, then the ducklings will become cold, which is also harmful for them.

Proper cultivation of ducklings at home for beginners implies compliance with the rules of nutrition for this type of bird. You should know not only the diet of young animals, but also that the frequency of their feeding in the first week should be maximum - 7-8 times. They are transferred to a normal diet when they get stronger.

Any household starts with a specific purpose. Therefore, before buying a bird, decide whether you need it for meat, eggs or the sale of chicks. It completely depends on which ducks it is better to breed at home specifically for you. Meat breeds do not need a winter barn - they are slaughtered when gaining the desired mass. Other ducks will have to pay attention year-round. In any case, this is an absolutely justified occupation.

Viable offspring is the key to further successful breeding of ducks.

Growing ducklings is an interesting and not too troublesome activity, which at the same time can bring good benefits.

Ducks are unpretentious, so it is not difficult to create comfortable conditions for the chicks and provide them with suitable food, the main thing is to know how to do it.

Proper and balanced nutrition is the most important condition for the health and rapid growth of ducklings. As used:

• grain - corn, wheat, oats, barley;
• legumes - usually use peas;
• animal products - such as cottage cheese;
• waste from the table;
• greens - dandelion, clover, carrot or beet tops;
• special compound feeds designed for feeding chicks.

It is very convenient to use, all that needs to be done is to choose the mixture according to the age of the bird and give it to the young several times a day. However, farmers who raise ducks at home usually prefer to prepare their own feed from the products mentioned above.

In this case, grains, which are a valuable source of carbohydrates, should form the bulk of the diet. In daily nutrition, up to 50% can be occupied by corn, which is very well suited for feeding ducklings.

Barley, grains of which have a poorly digestible shell, must be soaked for at least 10 hours before giving it to the bird. The same goes for oats, most varieties of which also have a hard film.

Supplements and vitamins

It is impossible to achieve high productivity of the flock if there are not enough vitamins in the diet of the bird. In order for the nutrition of ducklings to be complete, it is necessary either to choose their diet very carefully, making it varied and including a large amount of greens in it, or use various vitamin complexes.

Mineral additives are also of great importance - meat and bone and fish meal, shell, chalk, coarse sand, salt.

Rules for feeding chicks

When growing duck young, feeding is normalized according to three age groups:

• up to 10 days;
• from 10 days to 1 month;
• after 1 month.

Feeding ducklings in the first 10 days

In the first days of life, hatched chicks need to be fed often - once every two hours. The first portion can be given as soon as the babies dry. As food for chicks up to one and a half weeks old, use:

• hard-boiled finely chopped eggs - they can be given from the first day;
• greens and wet, which are added from the third day of life;
• from the fourth or fifth day, animal products and mineral supplements can be included in the diet of ducklings - low-fat cottage cheese, milk, meat and bone and fish meal, chalk and shell.

For the manufacture of wet mash for fattening ducklings in the first 10 days of life, it is better to use corn, ground cereal grains, cake and bran.

The diet of ducklings aged 10 days to 1 month

At this time, the nutrition of young animals should provide him with good health and activate growth processes. Here is an example of a balanced diet for ducklings under 1 month of age:

• corn - about 50%;
• waste received during the processing of sunflower - 20%;
• wheat - about 13%;
• fishmeal - 7%;
• fodder yeast - about 5%;
• herbal flour - 4%;
• feed fat - 0.5%;
• fodder chalk 0.5%.

After 1 month

After reaching the age of 1 month, it is necessary to ensure rapid weight gain. Based on this, a diet is selected, for feeding, you can use the following formula:

• corn - 45%;
• cake - 17%;
• wheat - 13%;
• barley - 8%;
• fodder yeast - 5%;
• fishmeal - 4%;
• feed fat - 1.5%;
• meat and bone meal - 1,5%.

It is very important that ducklings at this age spend a lot of time in the pasture, where they will nibble on fresh greens.

Diet for chicks of meat breeds

Ducklings that are raised for meat require more protein so that they can gain weight as quickly as possible.

The diet must be selected so that the proteins are at least 20% - this is the main difference in the nutrition of such a bird.

In this case, the same feeds that are used in the cultivation of other ducks are suitable - grain, greens and animal products. By time, fattening lasts up to 2.5 months - keep birds meat breeds longer is impractical.

Fattening ducks for meat

When two weeks remain before slaughter, the bird is transferred to a special diet:

• grain - 100 g per day;
• greens - 80 g;
• grain cereals and grain waste - 40 g;
• bran - 40 g;
• meal and cake - 20 g;
• shells - 6 g;
• gravel - 2 g;
• meat and bone meal - 3 g;
• fodder yeast - 1 g;
• salt - 1 g.

How to raise chicks

In order for ducklings to be strong and healthy and quickly gain weight, in addition to proper nutrition, it is necessary to create comfortable conditions for them. To do this, you need to equip the poultry house and make a pasture for walking.

Arrangement of the premises

The room in which ducklings are grown must be heated. This is especially important in the first two weeks of a chick's life. They also need a lot of light, so you need to install lamps. To make the kids comfortable, the lighting should not be too bright.

Light bulbs with a power of 60 watts are well suited, which need to be hung in the house at a height of about two meters. One square meter of space requires 5 watts of power, using this formula it is easy to calculate the required number of lamps.

It is also necessary to arrange a deep litter. It is this method of floor preparation that is usually used when raising ducklings in a household environment, while a mesh floor is used in poultry farms. To create it, you can use:

• wood shavings;
• straw;
• crushed corn kernels.

First, fluffy lime is poured onto the floor in the amount of 600 grams per 1 square meter, after which the litter is laid, the thickness of which should be at least 6 centimeters.

To give ducklings food, it is convenient to use trough feeders. If trays are used for this, the bird will trample the food, making it unfit for consumption.

How to make a drinker for ducklings with your own hands

The bird must always have access to drinking water, therefore, last but not least, you need to take care of a good drinker. It can be made from a plastic plumbing pipe of a suitable diameter. For this you need:

• cut rectangular holes along the entire length of the pipe;
• close one end of the pipe with a plug;
• on the other end, install a plastic elbow with an angle of 90 degrees.

On this, the drinker is ready, it remains only to fix it motionlessly so that the hole in the plastic knee looks up - fresh water will be poured through it. To install a drinker on a pasture, it is enough to stick four wooden or metal rods into the ground.

Pasture

In addition to the poultry house for ducklings, it is necessary to prepare a good pasture. For this, a site on the south side of the farm, which receives the most light, is best suited. It must be fenced with a net and divided into several sections.

Well, if there is a reservoir in this territory, in this case the ducklings will independently find up to 50% of the food in it, and this will significantly reduce costs.

In order for the ducklings to feel comfortable, not get sick and quickly gain weight, it is very important to maintain the optimum temperature:

• in the first week of life - 30 degrees;
• the second week - 20 degrees;
• starting from the third week, the temperature can be reduced to 15 degrees.

It is possible to determine how comfortable the temperature for ducklings is not only by a thermometer. If they gather in piles and squeak strongly, the room is not warm enough. When the temperature gets too high, the chicks breathe with their beaks wide open and drink a lot.

Until the ducklings reach a week of age, the daylight hours should be about 20 hours, then it is gradually reduced to 15 hours. At night, low lighting is left - about 2 watts per square meter of area.

To prevent the bird from getting sick, it is necessary to constantly sanitize the room where it is kept. Once a week, it should be washed with hot water and disinfected. For

Raising ducks at home is economically beneficial because the birds reach a suitable weight for slaughter at the age of two months. To do this, you should choose precocious breeds and feed the birds correctly.

A detailed description of the cultivation, maintenance and nutrition of ducklings will be given in this article. You will learn how to properly feed the young, depending on age, and how to properly prepare the house for keeping the chicks.

Rules for feeding daily ducks at home

Most often, on the first day after hatching, ducklings are not able to eat without the help of others and may die in the absence of food. According to this factor, ducklings must first be forcibly watered with a pipette with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Then sprinkle crushed boiled egg and thick gruel on dark-colored cardboard. In addition, you need to sprinkle the ducks with food, as they will learn to catch moving food.

During the subsequent feeding, the ducks are forcibly watered and later given a semi-liquid mixture, adding milk to it.

During the first three days chicks are able to consume food without outside help. And with the content Muscovy ducks, it must be taken into account that their litter is watery, so you should not be afraid and think that they have some kind of digestive difficulties.

The first days of ducklings need to be fed with mixtures of crumbly and moistened consistency, which must include these feeds:

• Mineral;
• Cereals;
• Feed of animal origin;
• Vitamin.

Ducklings should be fed with fresh herbs from a third of the day old, adding it to flour mixtures. From 10 days of age boiled potatoes are added to the menu of young animals.

Feeding methods

After 15 days, the young are allowed to be released into the water, and the ducklings should be fed three times a day. In addition, at the age of one month they make the transition to a two-time feeding with grain.

The first feeding occurs in the morning (at about 10 o'clock), however, the chicks, in any case, are forbidden to feed their fill. The second time the food is served after the ducklings are driven to spend the night, and then it must be plentiful. . Correct is of great importance equipping duck feeders so that birds can get to food without any barriers.

During the day, when the weather is hot outside, ducks tend to lose their appetite, because of this, you need to change the feeding schedule: the 1st meal at dawn, and the 2nd with the onset of dusk. When young animals of thirty days of age visit a reservoir in which there is a lot of natural food, it is allowed to feed ducklings in the morning and in the evening with ground seed, as well as high-grade grain waste.

Mineral supplements should be given in strict order, such as:

• Limestone;
• shell;
• Shell.

crushed shell can be purchased ready-made, and as for mineral supplements, then from eggshell it is possible to make it yourself by grinding it.

Ducks are watered from drinking bowls with running water at a temperature of twenty degrees. In addition, you must always remember that the duck drinks three times as much water when eating food. In depth, the drinkers must be such that the ducks have the opportunity to rinse their nasal openings in them. Nowadays, the industry produces a wide variety of special drinkers for ducks, but you can equip such containers without the help of others, using ordinary plastic bottles or basins.

Necessary conditions for maintenance and care

Daytime ducklings need in special care and feeding. First, they need to provide high quality heating. To do this, little ducklings can be placed in a box or cardboard box, and a lamp should be installed on top.

4 days after the ducklings have hatched, they become quite strong and are ready to be transferred to the poultry house. It is better to allocate a separate territory for them, or limit the place in the common house, so that feeding and maintaining a suitable temperature is more convenient.

Feeding ducklings at home for beginners includes such fundamental points:

Keep the house warm and dry. The bedding must be very clean. In addition, it is better to prevent drafts from appearing in the room.

The temperature is recommended to be maintained at +20 degrees. In addition, you need to predict the right lighting. During the first week existence, the duration of daylight hours should be about 20 hours. Subsequently, this period is reduced by an hour every week.

You need to look after the cleanliness of the litter. Despite the fact that ducklings are distinguished by the highest vitality, they must be kept clean in order to prevent the appearance of diseases.

The most important role is played by feeding. On the 1st day, ducklings are fed with a boiled egg with low-fat cottage cheese. After about two weeks, the birds are gradually transferred to a normal diet, giving crushed grain and greenish feed.

In order for the feeding of ducklings at home for beginners to be successful, it is necessary to strictly follow all the rules of keeping and feeding. Otherwise, the young may fall ill and die..

The main diseases of ducklings and methods for their prevention include:

Feeding ducklings at home for beginners

It is strictly forbidden to delay fattening for a long time, because young animals older than 60-70 days begin juvenile molting. During this period ducklings become prone to weight loss, as well as the formation of the rudiments of new plumage (hemp), which are difficult to remove during the processing of the carcass. In addition, long fattening increases feed costs per unit of production.

Feeding young animals can be divided into two periods:

1. During the first period, young animals need a relatively high air temperature.
2. In the second period, the thermoregulation of the body of ducklings (approximately 3 weeks of age) is regulated, because of this, significant heating is not needed.

On the first day, well-developed ducklings weigh approximately 50-60 grams, they stand firmly on their feet, have shiny yellow down, their stomach is taut, their eyes are shiny and bulging, and the chicks themselves are quite active. Please note that ducklings with a huge tummy are not suitable for feeding.

If young ducklings are grown without a brood hen, then during the first 5 days the temperature in the room must be measured at 22 degrees, and on the 6th day the temperature is lowered to 18 degrees. Presence of warm temperature has a positive effect on the activity of the chicks, they confidently move or sit, while not huddling together.

Feeding methods

The most suitable mother hen for ducks is the duck, because she will move around the pond with her brood and teach them how to find food, and will also protect them.

It is quite common to encounter with damage to eggs during the period of incubation by a duck. This happens due to the lack of antibacterial properties in the protein in duck eggs (there is a similar property in chicken eggs). Duck eggs are spoiled due to infection of the inside of the egg, especially mold, and eventually the protein decomposes. Such eggs have an unpleasant odor - they give off rottenness, hydrogen sulfide. As soon as spoiled eggs have been found, they must be removed from the nest to avoid infection of other hatching ducklings.

Muscovy ducks are not very good at training young animals, for this reason, ducklings should be taken care of immediately after the ducklings are born.

The area where the young will be housed should have continuous lighting installed after hatching to help adjust to the environment. Already after the second day, the duration of daylight hours should be reduced by 45 minutes, and then gradually reduced to 11 days of life, so that in the end 16 hours of daylight hours come out.

The young are raised on deepest litter , which requires grass, sawdust, covered with arable lime. It is not recommended to use shavings in the first 4 days of life, as ducklings peck at it and this can become a prerequisite for a malfunction in the functioning of the digestive organs. If the ducklings are kept on a damp and dirty litter, the plumage of the young will not be clean, and it will also be poorly protected from changes in ambient temperature.

The daytime brood is kept on the floor or in cages at a stocking density of 20 units per square meter of floor, but from the 20-day period the stocking density should be reduced to 10 units. Cells for young animals can be made independently using improvised materials.

Duckling Care: Personalities of Duckling Feeding

Feeding and raising ducklings depends on the purpose for which they are bred - for a tribe, or for meat. Depending on this and that what to feed day old ducklings.

The best time to breed ducklings is April. During the spring and summer, they will have time to accumulate the necessary body weight for slaughter. But for rational use breeding of females and males is advised to be carried out in three steps:

1. In April;
2. In July;
3. In September.

Breeding per tribe

For this type of breeding, healthy young males and females are used. It is recommended to keep those individuals that hatched in April. Such individuals will have time to fully get stronger by the winter and will perfectly tolerate the cold.

Chicks are selected for the tribe without physical flaws. It is best to make selection at the age of 3 days after the individuals hatched, and also 2 months after hatching. The maintenance and feeding of ducklings, which are selected for the tribe, is carried out in accordance with the general rules.

For meat

Ducks are rapidly gaining weight suitable for slaughter. Usually, 2-3 months will be enough for this. In order to fatten the bird, it is necessary to ensure rational conditions of detention and balanced feeding.

During the first three weeks, young chicks are placed in a separate warm corral and artificial daylight is threaded. They feed on juicy and grain feed, and also give root crops, greenish grass and aquatic vegetation. Be sure to include mineral supplements and feed of animal origin in the nutrition menu.