How to breed and care for mute ducks
On farms and plots, you can increasingly see mute ducks walking. Ducks have won the recognition of poultry farmers for their unpretentiousness and tasty, but at the same time lean meat.
Mute ducks
Homeland of birds
The homeland of mutees is South America, where the peoples who lived here raised birds. After the Europeans discovered the New World, birds were brought to France. About 30 years later, the birds, along with the former slaves returning home, entered Africa. On the hot continent, ducks are nicknamed "Guinean" and "Barbary" in the north.
Mute ducks have many names. One of the most famous nicknames is "musk duck". This name was suggested by the famous Carl Linnaeus due to the fact that birds secrete a secret with the smell of musk. In fear of the unpleasant smell, poultry farmers were even advised to cut off the bird's head during slaughter. According to another version, the creature inherited its name from the Muisca tribe of Indians.
In the USSR, the mutees reached only in 1981-1988. They were brought first from the GDR, then from France. A characteristic feature of these birds are fleshy growths, akin to those worn by turkeys, because of this external similarity of mute bears began to be called "indocks". Not everyone supports this point of view. According to another hypothesis, the birds received a peculiar nickname, thanks to the Indians who first domesticated them.
Characteristic features of Indo-women
The muscovy duck has an elongated body and a long tail, but a short neck and legs - their distinctive features are clearly visible in the photo. Drakes gain weight on average up to 6 kg, and females - up to 3 kg. Compared to other feathered Indouts:
- They are hardy and rarely get sick, they quickly adapt to the new climate. True, if the ducks are not taken care of, they will catch the infection, like any other bird.
- Unpretentious. They eat little, but almost everything, which is not always good. Sometimes curious birds swallow pieces of glass and injure themselves.
- They grow quickly and do not complain about fertility.
Ducks have many other beautiful features and for novice poultry farmers, breeding a mute at home seems to be the best choice. The love of poultry houses helped to conquer duck meat - usually fatty, but in musky ones, dietary, tender. At the same time, mute ducks do not even have that specific shade of taste that other waterfowl have.
Ducks are found mainly in black and white, white, black and blue colors, although birds in other colors can be found in Europe. An interesting breed with the following pattern: black spots scattered over a white background. Brown with white and brown with chocolate tint are also very beautiful. Mute bills usually have red beaks.
Rearing ducks
Before you start breeding and raising birds, you need to prepare a duckhouse for them. Indoor female walking area should be large enough so that they can walk on it without interference. 3 ducks per 1 sq.m. are placed in the nest. The tightness of the birds harms the well-being of the birds as much as the cold.A drop in temperature by several degrees reduces the productivity of the mute - it will lay fewer eggs.
Mute especially do not like the winter season. So that nothing threatens their life in the cold season, the ducklings need to be insulated with straw. The optimum temperature to be maintained is 16 ° C. The humidity level during all months should be no more than 60%. Ducks are sloppy birds, and in order to humidify the air in the summer, you will have to hang up wet rags - as a result, the floors in the house will get wet. Mesh floors are a good solution.
Shipunov should not be left in the dark. In order for them to grow and reproduce, you need 14 hours of daylight. In the summer, light can enter through the windows, and in the winter, you need to take care of artificial lighting. The room should be ventilated daily. Poor care leads to the fact that the birds begin to wither, and sometimes it happens that they completely stop rushing. Sometimes problems arise during incubation: sometimes the duck flatly refuses to sit on the clutch. This often happens due to improper care.
What feed to pick up
Indo-women do not have a good appetite: they eat little and are not too picky. However, if breeding birds is not so much a pleasure for you as a business (and you can build a good income on mute ducks), you will have to select special rations. A bird, depending on age, health, season and mood, needs various nutrients that strengthen its body and, therefore, have a beneficial effect on the taste of its meat. An overabundance of substances, as well as their lack, interferes with the full and rapid development of birds.
Although Indo-girls are not gluttonous, if the trough is full of food, they can overeat, which is just as bad as malnutrition. On the other hand, high-quality elite feeds, which are difficult to obtain in your area, are also not worth chasing. Building duck houses and purchasing ducks and drakes is a small part of the cost. Feeding will mostly hit the wallet.
- Experienced poultry houses usually feed half of the daily allowance to the birds in the form of unprocessed grains, and the other half of the ration is made from a mixture of the same grains with herbs and vegetables;
- Cereals are primarily wheat and barley; you can also give ground corn. The ducklings should be fed with crushed grains.
- Green grass with dandelion, clover and other beneficial plants has a beneficial effect on the body of birds, but feeding should be carried out only with freshly cut grass.
- Vegetables: mashed potatoes, grated pumpkin and carrots.
- As additives, cake, bran, fish oil, chopped fresh fish, feather meal are suitable. Sometimes it is recommended to feed ducklings with fermented milk.
Please note that during feeding, ducks begin to hiss and fight for food with birds of other species, and they can also pick up garbage and try it on their beak.
Breeding secrets
Mute breeding is exactly what they are usually bred for in business. The risks are high enough: the bird can die without leaving offspring. It happens that Indo-Ducks begin to rush badly - this usually happens if the care and feeding were incorrect. If the birds are bred incorrectly, this also greatly affects the number of eggs. The devil is not as scary as he is painted - at home you can take care of ducks and learn to breed them as efficiently as they do in poultry farms. You can see the secrets of breeding in the video.
First of all, so that the cultivation does not go to waste, you need to find healthy and strong birds for the tribe: only such can become good hens and bring good offspring. The selection of strong individuals and weeding out of weak ducklings should be ongoing and soon become a habit. One male will suffice as long as the farm is small.
Eggs begin to lay in March-April.The birds lay especially often at night and in the morning, so they should not be allowed to walk until 10 am, otherwise they will wait in vain for eggs in the nests. When the clutch is filled with a dozen eggs, the mute hens suddenly become caring hens and sit down to incubate. For birds that sit for several days, poultry farmers begin to lay other people's eggs from ducks, which can hardly be called exemplary hens.
How many duck sits on eggs depends on many factors, for example, with the onset of winter months, the duration of incubation increases and vice versa. On average, babies begin to hatch at 30-35 days of age. The chicks are left with their brooders for half an hour, then they are taken and placed in a box specially prepared for them, where it is warm and cozy. It is better if the bird incubates eggs, because chicks hatch poorly in the incubator. Hatching has another notable feature: most of the chicks will be male.
Raising chicks
After the duck has successfully hatched the eggs, the chicks leave the nests (with the help of the farm owner) and move to a special warm place where they can grow stronger. How many days they need to do this depends on the state of the duckling after birth. Babies grow quickly, and after only 60 days they can be slaughtered. When feeding chicks, it is important to consider several points, but do not be afraid that raising small birds at home is doomed to failure.
What can be done so that the ducklings can safely turn into adult ducks?
- In the first days of life, the birds, which are still sitting in a box, are fed with chopped boiled eggs mixed with compound feed. The first few times you will have to feed the kids with strength, then they will learn by themselves. The age of the ducklings depends on how many times a day to feed them: the smallest - as often as possible, at least 8 times. Care should be taken to accustom to a drinker, because the duckling can get wet and get sick.
- A little greenery and vitamin and mineral supplements can be mixed in the diet of chicks that have been living for about 3 days. Birds at this age begin to be released into the yard for a short time.
- A feathered child, who is already 10 days old, can finally taste the mashed potatoes and canned food that adults enjoy.
Pros and cons of business
With the combination of fast growing chicks and their cuddly meat, raising mute ducks at home looks like a promising business plan. However, in order to sell the carcass more profitably, it is worth waiting with the slaughter for several months until the bird acquires an appetizing appearance. But young animals older than 4-5 months are usually not sold, since the price of such individuals falls.
Fortunately, you can find another way to recoup the cost of ducks - selling eggs.
At home, mute spikes rush briskly and bring 110 eggs, 70 g each, every year. Ducks fly twice a year. If the hen is successfully hatching the ducklings, but you do not want to wait for the flock to grow, you can sell them small. Mute ducks can make a good profit, but only if you take care of the birds and do not spare money on feed. Now you know how mute breeding takes place.