Growing ducks for meat at home: a guide to building a business

The maintenance of ducks on the plot is very profitable. In a year from one individual alone, you can get more than 100 eggs and about 50 ducks. Of course, growing ducks for meat at home is a procedure that requires compliance with certain rules. In particular, they should be adhered to by those who decided to breed this bird in order to obtain additional income. In the review, we will tell you what you need to know the beginning businessman and how to create your own business.

What kind of breed to choose: musk ducks

Of course, starting a business follows the choice of a bird species. One of the reasons for not so high popularity of duck meat in the market is its fat content. Therefore, in recent years, farmers increasingly pay attention to a breed such as musk. The meat of these ducks is lean and at the same time juicy.

Under the beak or above it, the musk-type species have red skin growths. Plumage is usually white or black and white. Because of this unusual appearance among the people, these birds were called indoctrines. The weight of an adult duckling of this breed can reach 2.5 kg. Drains grow larger - up to 5 kg. This bird is an ideal option if you decide to tackle such a thing as growing ducks for meat at home. A photo of a specimen of musk breed see below.

Moscow white

This fairly new breed was obtained by crossing Peking ducks with hakikempbells. One of its distinctive features is a long head and a broad beak. The weight of drakes of this breed can reach 4 kg, ducks - 3.5 kg. One of the absolute advantages of Moscow's white is delicious tender meat.

Ukrainian breed

These birds in household plots are also quite common. Their color can be gray, clay or white. The most common last option. The mass of Ukrainian drakes - on average 3.5 kg, ducks - 2.5 kg. In a year from one hen you can get up to 220 eggs.

What should be the house

Of course, the cultivation of ducks for meat at home is possible only if there is a fairly large shed. The bird house can be skeleton, stone, stone, etc. The floor in the barn is best made stone or brick. Small animals - ferrets, mice, rats, etc. - ducks can hurt very easily. Before laying bricks, the ground in the house must be carefully compacted.

On top of the hard floor arrange a soft litter. You can make it from hay, straw or sawdust. You can also fill the floor in the shed with dry sand. Necessarily need to arrange in the utyunik lozah above the floor. They are necessary so that the bird can freely enter the barn and leave it.

In the mammal you need to install feeders, drinkers and nests. Next to him, they arrange a fenced small enclosure. Here you also need to put a couple of drinkers and a feeder. The first can be made from buckets (not galvanized), having dug them into the ground. As feeders are usually installed special troughs. It is important to choose their sizes correctly. One head should account for about 10 cm of the perimeter of the rim. Drinkers should be deep enough for the bird to be able to wash the nasal openings.

The size of the shed is determined on the basis that 2-3 ducks should account for about one square meter of space.

Sockets

Farmers, wondering how to grow ducks for meat at home, should be aware of and what should be the nests of this bird. Eggs of ducks are slightly smaller than chickens. However, it is of course necessary to provide special places for masonry in the shed. Nests for ducks are quite large - 50x50x35. They represent ordinary boxes with a straw bottom covered with straw.

Basic Content Rules

Of course, those who decided to engage in breeding this bird as a business, you need to be aware of how to take care of it. First of all, it should be borne in mind that the cultivation of ducks for meat at home is a procedure that necessarily requires compliance with the regime. This directly affects the productivity of the bird. Usually in private households such a method is practiced:

• In the morning the bird is released on the pond. You can open the client only 10 hours beforehand. Bird eggs are usually carried in the morning.
• After 5-6 hours, the ducks are pounded into the paddock for feeding.
• Then they are released again into the pond.
• In the evening before going to bed, the troughs are again filled with food.

At night the bird is driven into the shed. Soon ducks get used to this routine and come from the pond to the poultry house at the time of feeding.

Slaughter

Cultivation of ducks for meat as a business is a very profitable business. For a season, if desired, you can grow 3-4 broods. Whole summer ducks, like chickens, do not hold. They are usually killed before the first juvenile molt - in the 50-60-day-old age. Carcasses of such ducks have a commercial appearance, because they are absent hemp. There is another reason for this early slaughter - it is purely economic. The fact is that up to two months of age the amount of feed that is expended per individual during a month is only about 2.5-5.5 kg, depending on the age of the bird. Individuals grow older are eating very much, gaining fat. By 3-5 months. Ducks should be given up to 20-25 kg of feed. Two-month ducklings weigh about two kilograms, six-month ducklings weigh 4 kilograms. Therefore, contain ducks more than 2.5-3 months. Is inappropriate.

All summer, the same brood can be kept only if the farm is on the shore of a large pond, where ducks can get themselves enough food themselves. However, even in this case, many owners of such business prefer to drive the bird earlier. In large ducks, meat is usually too fat.

Growing ducks for meat at home: feeding

As already mentioned, food is usually given to this bird twice a day. In the morning you can feed with concentrated fodder (crushed). In the evening, give me some bread. The latter can consist of fresh grass, root vegetables, vegetables, etc. You can also use kitchen waste, whey, meat or fish meal, mineral additives, etc.

The proportion of cereals and mealy in the diet of ducks should be about 80%. The remaining 20% fall on wet pouches and various additives.

How to get ducklings

The question of how to grow ducks for meat is reduced, among other things, to how you can get your own young. Neighbors these birds are not as good as chickens. However, some individuals still sit on eggs. The way out can be found in the event that no duck does this. Very often the eggs are simply placed under the chickens. The duckling is breeding only a few days after the chickens.

To look after babies the hen will be. But the young, raised by a club, usually do not let go to the pond. The sight of the floating "chickens" greatly traumatizes the psyche of the hen. In any case, run the kids into the pond, if they are grown without a duck, it is impossible until they come down and no real plumage appears. The fact is that there are no subcutaneous fat in very small chicks. So they can just get cold.

Sometimes ducklings are also given in incubators. In this case, they will be more difficult to feed them. But it's worth trying. Laying eggs in the incubator, you need to be prepared for the fact that the chicks will not be released from all of them. The yield of young animals in any case (under a duck, hen or in an incubator) is usually not more than 50%. The fact is that in the protein of duck eggs there are no antibacterial substances. As a result, many embryos die at the stage of development.

Care for ducklings

Of course, young birds of this bird, like any other, need to provide optimal conditions for growth and development. Immediately after hatching, the ducklings are usually brought into a warm room and contain several days at a temperature of at least 20-25 g. However, it would be better to put them in boxes or cages (20-25 pieces per 1 m2), with heating not less than +30 g. You can achieve this air temperature with conventional incandescent bulbs. They are placed in the lattice cells. After three weeks, the ducklings are seated in different pens in such a way that they do not exceed 12 pcs per square meter. At the same time, the temperature is lowered to 16-18 g. (gradually). Lighting newborns are arranged around the clock. By the age of three weeks, its duration should be about 16 hours.

How to grow ducks for meat. Than to feed chicks

The diet of newly hatched ducklings usually includes boiled eggs and very finely chopped oat groats. From the second - the third day of life in the diet include cottage cheese, and from 5-6 - finely chopped greens and aquatic vegetation (in a ratio of approximately 0.5x1). From the age of ten in the dandies, ducklings can already be added potatoes and finely chopped roots.

At first, the food is given to the kids 6-8 times a day. From the 10th day to the month of age, the number of feeds is reduced to 5-6, then to 2-4 times a day.

The content of ducks in winter

Private farmers cultivate ducks for meat at the dacha only in the summer is practiced most often. Farmers, who breed this bird for the sale of carcasses, usually keep it in the winter. At this time of year, certain rules should be followed for successful cultivation.

Feed the bird in winter not two, but at least three times a day. In the morning and in the day they give mash-ups, in the evening - cereals. Cold ducks suffer quite well. However, you can not allow the air temperature in the poultry house to fall below 5 degrees. Also it is necessary to protect ducks from drafts. If the litter in the shed is damp, their egg production will decrease. Therefore, on the floor in the poultry house you must occasionally pour dry hay or sawdust. In this case, putrefactive processes with release of heat begin to occur in the lower layers.

In the pond for bathing ducks in the winter, you can make a hole. The complexity of its equipment consists primarily in the fact that to prevent the birds from getting under the ice, its edges will have to be fenced with a grid. But you can keep ducks in the cold season and without bathing.

In order for the ducks to go better, additional lighting should be arranged in the poultry house. Lamps are included in the mornings and evenings. Do not lower the egg-laying of a duck in winter only if there is light for at least 14 hours a day.

What should be the pond

Sometimes this bird is kept in the land way (in cages or enclosures). It is this method that is practiced in the event that ducks are grown for meat in industrial conditions. But for small farms free-riding is still considered preferable. The reservoir intended for this bird should have a fairly large area and a small depth. Ducks very well dive and can take food from the bottom to 1 m. It is not recommended to arrange very deep ponds on the site. In this case, the duck droppings, sinking to the bottom - where the layers of water do not mix - begins to decay with the release of methane. As a result, the lake "blooms." In the flow ponds, the density of the planting of ducks can be significantly reduced.

Helpful Tips

Well, at the end, we will give a few recommendations, which, perhaps, will be useful to beginning poultry farmers-businessmen:

• The daily routine for ducks should be observed without fail. Otherwise, the bird will reduce productivity.
• Do not transfer the ducks to another room when the laying period comes. Otherwise, the bird may begin to molt. Eggs duck in this case will not be postponed.
• The bird is very shy. Therefore, you should treat it with care.

As you see, growing ducks for meat at home is not particularly difficult. The main thing is to arrange a comfortable barn for the bird, to properly develop a diet and to observe the regime. In this case, you can get for the season tens of kilograms of delicious, environmentally friendly and expensive duck meat.