Domestic ducks are waterfowl from the family of ducks that swim well, while flying rather poorly, doing so with great reluctance. However, in agriculture, this bird is considered one of the most popular. There is a huge variety of breeds grown for meat, eggs, feathers and down. Let us dwell on the description of the features of keeping ducks at home in more detail.
Features
Domestic ducks outwardly look like their wild mallard relatives. These birds are distinguished by a powerful body, a rather wide back and chest. The dimensions of the head and neck vary depending on the species, the same can be said about the color of the plumage. Most often, ducks are with a uniform color. – either dark or white, red and variegated varieties are extremely rare.
Ducks and drakes have very large, well-developed wings with a fairly wide span. The tail is shorter and slightly raised. The legs are not long, very strong. The beak is large.
The feathers of domestic ducks are coated with an oily liquid, making them waterproof. This prevents the birds from getting wet and improves their ability to move through the water. A special gland is responsible for the production of an oily secret, which is located under the feathered tail.
Breeding ducks in the household is primarily aimed at obtaining meat, which differs in many ways from chicken – it is darker, fatter, has a rich taste and a coarse-fibred structure. When keeping ducks, you can also get eggs, but they have a very peculiar taste, so they are rarely used for food. Most often, duck eggs are used in the manufacture of mayonnaise and other sauces, in addition, eggs are incubation material.
By-products of keeping birds are fluff and feathers. – they are quite valuable materials and are widely used in sewing home textiles.
Performance indicators
In breeding birds in private backyards and farms, Peking ducks are usually used. This bird has a fairly high productivity. The mass of females reaches 3 kg of net weight, and drakes weigh about 4 kg, while the share of the edible part is 70-75%.
Each duck brings about 150 eggs a year, about 100 ducklings hatch from them.
Since ducks have been bred in our country for quite a long time, many regions have bred their own breeds. For example, lovers of softer and juicier meat should opt for a musky duck, better known as an indo-duck. These are large birds – the weight of a drake approaches 6 kg. In addition, this duck is hardy, unpretentious, has a rather quiet and docile nature.
As a result of crossing Peking and Muscovy ducks, a rather interesting breed of mulard was obtained. These birds are characterized by high growth rate and high weight. Although they do not give offspring, therefore they are grown exclusively for slaughter.
Varieties
Let us dwell in more detail on the features of ducks of different breeds. It is known that there are about 80 varieties of domestic mallard in the world. Several varieties are considered the most popular and popular.
Peking duck
The birds of this breed were bred in China almost 300 years ago. This breed is considered one of the most productive – an adult bird reaches 4,5 kg of weight, the egg production of breeds is high.
The birds of this species have a rather powerful body, the chest and back are wide, the head is large, the neck is short and curved. A distinctive feature of the Pekingese is a convex orange, rather flat beak. The wings are large, the tail, on the contrary, is small. The color of plumage in most cases is white, cream-colored Peking ducks are less common.
Indian runners
It is believed that ducks of this breed were grown almost 2 millennia ago in India. Each female lays 200 to 250 eggs annually.
Runners differ from all other ducks in a rather unusual body position: they hold the body high and at the same time stretch the neck as much as possible. The beak and tail are short, and the colors can be very different – from snow-white to piebald, there are breeds with brown mottled.
Khaki-Campbell
The breed was introduced in England in the XNUMXth century, the author is the breeder Adele Campbell – it was he who crossed the Indian runners with the Rouen duck and received a new variety of birds with high egg production parameters.
The color varies from fawn to dark gray or, conversely, whitish. The mass of a drake approaches 3 kg, and the female weighs more than 2,5 kg, egg production in comfortable conditions reaches 350 eggs per year.
Muscovy duck
Muscovy ducks were obtained from the domestication of wild South American wild individuals. The mass of a drake is 5-6 kg, females weigh about 3-3,5 kg.
The plumage of ducks can be the most diverse – white, dark gray. Near the beak there is a red growth.
Blue Favorite
This is a meat breed of birds, already at the age of six months, the female weighs about 4 kg, and the male reaches 5 kg. The meat is very pleasant and tender in taste. These ducks lay about 250 eggs a year. This is one of the most hardy breeds, which is almost not susceptible to bird diseases.
Conditions for keeping and care
For breeding ducks, you can use any room. If it is made of logs, it will be necessary to carry out additional plastering and caulking, but if the corral is built from a board, then additional plywood protection is used, reed mats are coated with a mixture of straw and clay. These measures significantly increase the comfort of the corral, making it optimal for keeping ducks. It is advisable to raise the floors above ground level by 20-30 cm, which will prevent the penetration of rats and mice into the house.
It is necessary that the duck house be warm in cool weather, and cool in the summer heat.
The floors in the duck pen must certainly be lined with flooring with a layer of 30 centimeters or more. It is best to spread straw, hay, sawdust, sedge or peat. Bedding material should be stored in a warm, dry area.
The egg production of ducks is greatly influenced by the length of daylight hours and the level of heat in the room. It is very important that in winter the heating level is not lower than +5 degrees Celsius – otherwise the ducks simply stop laying. If the situation is aggravated by dampness and unsanitary conditions, then the consequences can be much more deplorable, up to the mass death of birds.
Birds need at least 15-16 hours of light per day, so in the winter they may need additional lighting. Maintaining a sufficient level of light is very important for birds, because under the influence of ultraviolet rays in the body of birds, there is an active production of vitamin D and red blood cells, which increases hemoglobin, increases the activity and productivity of birds. In cold weather, it is advisable to turn on the lighting twice a day – in the morning and evening hours. If this is not possible, then you can limit yourself to lighting only in the evening.
When keeping ducks in a private house or in the country, it is necessary to equip a cage for walking birds, it can be equipped both on water and on land. Usually, a wide variety of materials are used for fencing, but a mesh with small cells is considered optimal, you can even use fishing nets. The height of the fence is about 1 meter. If the corral is located in a reservoir, then it is necessary to extend it 70-80 cm below the water level, if this is not done, then the ducks can dive and swim away.
In winter, walks are carried out in places well protected from snow drifts, necessarily covered with a thick layer of straw. If the weather is calm, then the ducks can be on the run all day, if the weather is frosty, the time spent by pets in the air should be reduced. Keep in mind that birds cannot be forcibly kept outside, especially if the temperature drops below -10 degrees Celsius.
It is important to keep the duck house clean. Perform daily cleaning, sterilization of feeders and replacement of water with clean water. The bedding must certainly be dry, otherwise serious health problems in ducks cannot be ruled out.
How to make a duckling with your own hands?
To grow ducks, absolutely any barn can fit. It is only necessary to make it as suitable as possible for birds: insulate the walls, ensure the presence of sunlight, equip ventilation and limit the penetration of small rodents into the room.
Some breeders keep their birds in greenhouses in winter – where the birds breed quite successfully.
If the number of ducks is small, then it is quite possible to keep them in the same pen with chickens, but if the number of ducks exceeds 20 individuals, then it is advisable to give them an independent pen.
If you intend to build a duck house with your own hands from scratch, then you should follow the recommendations of experts.
The trench under the foundation is dug shallowly – on the bayonet of a shovel, then the formwork is constructed, and the trench is covered with gravel and poured with concrete. Experienced poultry farmers add glass fragments, small nails, blades and other cutting objects to it – this will protect the chicken coop from mice and rats.
For walls, it is desirable to use wood or brick. The simplest option would be to build a frame with subsequent firmware boards. All cracks are sealed from the outside with mounting foam, coated with tow from the inside.
The roof can be equipped with any: in the form of an attic or shed, and in either case it should be insulated, all the cracks should be caulked through which moisture or snow can penetrate into the corral.
It is very important to properly equip the duck house, and first of all, feeders should be installed. You can buy them in a specialized store, or you can make your own. For this, boards or trimmings of plastic pipes are suitable, in the most extreme case, any container will do. The main thing is that the bird can climb on it with its paws.
As a rule, feeders are installed near the wall.
Drinkers are an indispensable element of the duck house. The animal needs constant access to clean water, and each duck consumes about 1,5 liters of fluid per day. Drinkers are mounted at a height of 15-25 cm so that the birds do not splash moisture. Containers can be made by yourself or purchased ready-made.
For the breeding of birds, it is necessary to provide for the presence of nests in the duck house, this is especially important when breeding birds with high egg production rates. They are installed opposite the feeders.
For a dozen ducks, you need about 5 nests 70×70 cm in size or 6 nests with parameters 50×50 cm. Straw is certainly laid out inside, which must be changed daily.
Food
In the nutrition of ducklings, compliance with the feeding regimen is of fundamental importance. Food must be offered at the same time. If you correctly draw up a diet for feeding birds, they quickly begin to gain weight and height. For the first week of life, ducklings need to be fed 6-8 times a day, with the first portion of food offered to them in the early morning, and the last one after dusk. During this period, low-fat cottage cheese and boiled eggs are suitable for them, it is imperative to ensure the presence of water in the drinker.
5-6 days after the birth, the ducks are given a mash – wheat turd and ground wheat are added to their usual cottage cheese and eggs. At 14 days, cottage cheese and eggs are removed from the diet, and duckweed is included instead. In a month, bone or fish meal, chalk, crushed shells, fodder yeast and sunflower cake are added to the composition of the mash – in this way the birds are fed until the moment of slaughter.
It should be noted that the grain component must be pre-soaked for 10-15 hours in water, dry grains will not be digested in the duck’s body.
It is very important to provide the bird with a source of vitamins. It is best to use young juicy greens for this – ducks eagerly eat young nettles, alfalfa, clover, as well as beet tops and weeds. It will be useful to include silage, beets, boiled potatoes and carrots in the diet.
Breeding
For duck breeding, beginners first of all need to form a selection of birds according to body weight and plumage characteristics. It is advisable to pick up birds of the same weight category and approximately the same age. As a rule, there are up to 1 ducks per 8 drake. It is important that hybrid ducklings do not get into the herd – they are incapable of reproduction.
For breeding, they take energetic and mobile birds with well-developed muscles. Usually one laying hen is used for 6-8 months, after which the productivity of the bird decreases.
When keeping the parent flock, it is extremely important to monitor the cleanliness of the premises. – the litter in the duck house and nests must be changed daily, otherwise the quality of the hatching eggs suffers. During the survival period, do not allow birds to move to other rooms. Particular attention should be paid to feeding the birds. It is necessary to increase the doses of the proposed products and be sure to introduce supplements containing calcium and other beneficial trace elements.
For breeding, week-old eggs are selected and moved to a special incubator, where they are stored at a temperature of 8-12 degrees, it is important to make sure that there is no damage. When creating favorable conditions, the survival rate of the brood is about 70%. Keep in mind that duck eggs contain a lot of fat in which pathogenic microorganisms can settle, which leads to deterioration of the material. Affected eggs can be detected using a special ovoscope device or by an unpleasant odor. Upon detection, such eggs must be immediately separated from the main masonry.
When raising ducks at home, it should be borne in mind that individuals of the Peking breed have a mild incubation instinct, they sit best on the eggs of indo-ducks and other outbred birds.
It is quite simple to single out a duck that is preparing to hatch eggs from the main herd – it begins to spend a lot of time in the nest, to improve it, it can begin to pull out fluff from itself and line the litter with it. At this point, it is necessary to put fake eggs in the duck – this will help keep it in the nest, after which they are carefully replaced with incubation material. Usually, a clutch of 15-20 eggs is formed for one duck, making sure that the bird completely covers them.
Eggs should be turned every hour, this improves the survival of the chicks and increases the percentage of the total brood.
In large farms, artificial incubation is used. In this case, on the eighth day, the eggs are examined on an ovoscope – if a pronounced blood network is noticed, then the eggs contain an embryo. On days 13 and 25, the inspection is repeated, and if the embryos develop correctly, then the eggs are transferred to the hatch.
Possible diseases
For any health problems, the bird first of all reacts to changes in appearance and behavior. Sick ducks are characterized by apathy, refusal to eat, loss of feathers and some other symptoms.
Most often, birds are affected by viral and bacterial infections, with which they are charged from other domestic birds or wild animals.
If the conditions for keeping pets are not observed, in case of insufficient cleanliness of the premises, the use of dirty equipment, high or low temperatures in the duck house, excessive humidity or unbalanced nutrition, the birds also get sick. But these states, as a rule, are corrected when the conditions for the existence of birds change to comfortable ones.
Worm infestations and other parasitic infections are also not uncommon in ducks.
In the treatment of feathered pets, antibiotics are used, tetracycline, sulfadimethoxine and some others are highly effective – they are given to the feathered along with water or food.
To prevent diseases, ducks need to add probiotics to feed – they suppress pathogenic microflora in the intestines, thereby helping to strengthen the immune system.
See the video below for the most profitable ducks to breed.
