It is known that it is profitable to grow Muscovy ducks. They are unpretentious to feed, willingly consume almost any, whether it is a weed from the garden or kitchen waste. Excellent meat, universal gastronomic qualities of carcasses make their meat more and more popular with the population from year to year. Therefore, in Lately breeding and rearing of musky ducks is becoming one of the priorities in meat poultry farming.
The technology for growing Muscovy and Peking ducks is basically similar. Both those and others can be grown in the same type of premises with the same technological equipment. But at the same time, there are features in breeding and raising musk ducks for meat. For example, due to the large difference in live weight (males are almost 2 times larger than females) and the difference in slaughter age (77-70 days, respectively), musky ducks and drakes are fattened separately.
The basis for determining the sex of daily young muscovy ducks is the Japanese method, which is also used by livestock breeders of our breeding plant. The essence of the method is to establish the presence in the cloaca of a bird of small tubercles and folds or rudimentary genital organs, which are different in females and males. By gender, ducklings are separated when sampling from the incubator, since later they undergo changes in the shape of the cloaca, which makes sorting difficult and reducing its accuracy.
Sorting by gender is carried out as follows: the duckling is taken in the left hand, held with its back to the palm and head to itself. Then, with the thumb of the left hand and the index finger of the right hand, the cloaca is carefully opened and stretched, slightly twisting its wall from the side of the abdomen, where the genital organ is located. In drakes, it has the form of a small tubercle - (a well-defined rudiment of the penis) 1.5-2 mm in size in the form of a curved gimlet hidden in the fold of the mucous membrane of the cloaca. In ducks, only flat spherical or hemispherical thickenings are visible.
With the necessary skills, the worker determines the sex of daily young animals at a rate of 500-600 heads per hour with an accuracy of 98-100%. The sex of daily ducklings can also be determined in another way - by the presence of a spherical expansion in the drake in the lower part of the larynx. It is located at the entrance to the chest cavity in the center of the triangle formed by the two upper joints of the clavicle with the shoulder blades and the lower one is palpable. But the accuracy of this method is highly dependent on the experience and skills of the worker.
High production rates meat products in musky ducks can be achieved only with strict observance of all technological parameters of poultry rearing. Undoubtedly, while great value has an optimal mode of incubation of eggs of musky ducks.
For incubation in the conditions of industrial poultry enterprises, various modes are used, taking into account the laying scheme and types of incubator. At the Blagovarsky breeding plant, serial incubators Universal and IUP-F-45 are used with the following mode of egg incubation:
From the 1st to the 16th day, the temperature is maintained at 37.8 degrees and the connection with the breast bone, which is slightly humidity 32%
From 17 to 21 days - temperature 37.6 degrees and humidity 30.5%
From the 22nd to the 30th day - temperature 37.4 degrees and humidity 28.5-29%.
On the 30th day, the eggs are transferred to the hatcher. In it, from 30 to 31 days (before pecking), they maintain a temperature of 37.2 degrees and a humidity of 30-32%. From 32 to 35 days (after pecking) - temperature 36.9 degrees and humidity 33.5-34%. Ducklings hatch at 33-35 days.
Muscovy duck eggs are recommended to be incubated in an inclined or horizontal position in trays.
Cool them in a combined way, starting from the 16th day of incubation. Air cooling is carried out 2 times a day (morning and evening) for 20-30 minutes, while turning the drum twice. Each time after air cooling, the eggs are sprayed for 3-5 minutes using different sprayers.
Currently, in addition to breeding musky ducks "in itself", the cultivation of mulards is also widespread. These are crossbreeds that are obtained by crossing musky drakes with Peking ducks.
Such a hybrid bird is distinguished by a higher live weight, about 3.4-3.6 kg, and, most importantly, a lower fat content in the carcass (29-30%) than that of Peking ducks. In addition, mulards can be fattened for fatty liver, from which gourmet foods and culinary dishes are prepared. Analyzing all of the above positive qualities of muscovy ducks, it can be assumed that they will be widely used both in industrial poultry farming with intensive production technology, and in conditions of small peasant and homestead farms.
MM. Gilvanov
Deputy directors
for scientific work
PZ "Blagovarsky"
Editorial staff of the journal "Yard Animals and Farming"
to the magazine "Yard Animals and Economy"
HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE A MALE INDO-OUT FROM A FEMALE. In the first three months of life, it is quite difficult to determine the sex of an indo-duck: for this you need to raise the tail of the bird and make sure that there is or is no pseudopenis, which can often only be considered by experienced poultry farmers. However, with age, males and females acquire bright external features by which they can be distinguished. If we are talking about adults, to determine the sex, it will be enough just to look at the duck and drake: the male will be much larger than the female, and this will immediately catch your eye. The average weight of an adult drake is about 5-6 kg, while females at the same age weigh only 1.5-3 kg. At the same time, males are not only larger, but also much more massive: they have a thick and long neck, a wide chest, and powerful wings. Look also at the bird's head. If you see red rough skin going behind the eyes, then you have a male in front of you. If the skin is more delicate, light pink and is located only between the eyes and the beak, we are talking about a female. Ducks also boast a graceful rather than powerful neck curve. However, their plumage is much more modest: the color of the feathers of males, as a rule, is brighter and more diverse, because drakes should attract ducks with their appearance. Males and females of indoutok differ not only in appearance. You can even determine the sex of a bird by its voice: ducks scream or “talk”, making the sound “uk” or “ik”, while males only hiss. Moreover, when showing aggression, drakes not only emit a loud hiss, but also raise their crest to look threatening. Females simply do not know how to do this. Since the genital organ in small indoo drakes is only 1-2 mm long, and it is rather difficult to see it, another option for determining the sex of ducklings can be used. Firstly, the plumage of males is several tones darker than that of females, and this can be seen if several ducklings of both sexes are placed side by side. Secondly, drakes become aggressive very quickly: already 1-2 weeks after birth, they begin to fight with other ducklings, as well as with chickens, if they grow up with them. Young males often offend the birds with which they grow up, even if we are talking about larger individuals. Females, on the contrary, behave more calmly, do not start fights and rather hide in a corner or run away than accept a fight. There is another interesting difference between females and males, and it lies in the behavioral features. As a rule, drakes always skip the indout ahead, while they themselves move a little behind. This applies to walking on land, and swimming, and even flying. The only exception is the situation when the duck is incubating eggs, and the drakes, left without their females, walk in small groups, alternately letting each other go forward.
To speak of an ancestor of an Indochka is not entirely correct. Introduce Muscovy duck and is now found in nature. They live in swampy places in Peru, Uruguay, Mexico, Argentina, live there in small flocks.
Wild Indians, photo
Why did the wild Muscovy duck get its name? There are two versions: the first is due to growths on the head that look like turkeys, that is, the head of a musky duck looks like a turkey's head; the second - the Indians of Latin America in ancient times were the first to tame these birds and domesticate them, and the name of the Indo-duck is an abbreviated version of the combination "Indian duck".
Why is it profitable to grow indoutok
If in other poultry the mortality of chicks is very high, then more than 90% of the chickens survive in the indoo. In order to start breeding indoutas, it is enough to remake the finished bird shed for their maintenance with minor amendments. Keeping indoutok in winter is absolutely not troublesome if you provide them with a dry floor with a thick warm grass bedding and protect it from drafts.
Indo-cats grow very quickly with proper feeding - after 2 months, the bird can already be processed into meat.
Indo-duck meat is lean, tender, almost cholesterol-free. Indians are calm and trusting birds; they do not become hysterical when a person enters their plot or barn.
They give not only tasty meat, but also healthy eggs.
The beginning of breeding indoutas, how to choose them correctly, how to distinguish a female from an indochka male
breed the new kind birds, if they were not engaged in it, it is better to buy adults. There are many species of indo-duck, they vary greatly in feather color, but the appearance of all ind-outs is the same: a powerful body with a wide chest, a shorter neck than other ducks, legs are short, with large webs between the fingers, wings are not very large, but powerful.
Regarding color: there is an opinion that multi-colored ducks are not very good, that many colors in the feather cover are an indicator of undesirable impurities. The most popular are black-and-white Indians, in which the feather on the body is white, black blotches are on the wings, tail and abdomen.
For breeding, you will need males and females, how to choose the right female and male? The male (drake) is almost twice as large as the female, the neck is longer, on the beak there is a growth resembling a turkey.
photo of male and female indochka
If you name the optimal figure, how many females and males to keep - four females per male. If there are suddenly a lot of males in the process of training with Indo-ducks, then the minimum ratio is two females and one male.
Arrangement of a barn and a site for indoutok
The first rule that must be followed when equipping housing for indouts is space, these birds do not like crowding. How much to keep indoutok, twenty or one hundred is an individual question, but there should not be more than three birds per square meter in a room.
The second important detail is that these birds do not have good contact with other domestic birds. They don't fight geese or chickens, no, they just get nervous and stop eating. So it is better to keep the indoutok separately from the rest of the bird.
Indians do not tolerate drafts well, and at the same time they need a lot of fresh air. It is easy to provide both - both the door and the window of the room should face the side of the often blowing wind: there will be no draft, and fresh air is provided.
Dampness in the poultry house is hated by Indians, especially on the floor. Muscovy duck starts to get sick and dies if the floor in the room is covered with damp sawdust and dirty. It is constantly necessary to loosen the floor covering and remove dirty sawdust. The best option floor coverings - small wooden absolutely dry shavings, the thickness of the cover is not less than 5 cm.
Poultry house for indouka, photo
The area where the Indians will walk should be with sand and with a shallow trough. Very sensitive to humidity in the room, these birds still love water and splash in the trough with pleasure.
It would be nice to have grass on the site, which the Indians will nibble with appetite. There will be vegetation on the site - it means that there is where to dig for worms and larvae, which the Indians adore.
Plot for walking indochki, photo
A separate topic - what to do so that the indos do not fly outside the site? The simplest and most banal answer is that it is better to feed them, a heavy Indian duck flies with difficulty, and a large and well-fed drake will not try to take off at all.
The best remedy for bird shoots will always be a high net, it is even preferable to a fence - Indians are southern birds by origin, and the more sun falls on their site, the better.
How to feed an indochka at home: nutritional features of an adult bird and chicks
Like any poultry, the basis of the diet of indoutok is cereals. Most of all, these birds love corn, any grain. With pleasure they eat boiled potatoes and fodder, well-cooked beets.
Food waste from the home table, fodder yeast, industrial waste such as molasses and bards (wheat pomace in the production of alcohol), any greens and vegetables - everything will fit for feeding indouts.
A mash is being prepared from the above, but its humidity should not be very high. The limit figure is 15-18% of water for dry components. Mixers of porridge and chopped greens are a delicacy for Indians. They love it. But every time you need to cook a fresh portion.
Only hatched chicks on the first day are fed with finely chopped hard-boiled egg mixed with milk (they do not know how to drink).
On the second day, bran is added to this mixture. In the following days, gradually grated cottage cheese, finely crushed wheat grains are added. By the end of the first week, you can add minced meat waste and boiled potatoes to baby food. On the tenth day, indoutok is allowed to be transferred to an adult diet.
Indo-duck chicks, photo
Feeding indoutok - frequent, even when they have grown up. Very young chicks are fed 6 times a day. TO month old reduce the number of meals to 4, adults are fed 3 times a day.
Indochka laying eggs, hatching chicks
When do Indians start laying eggs? As soon as it gets warm, in March-April. Indo-wort females, ready to lay eggs, are very nervous. Therefore, during this period, it is impossible to make loud noises next to the poultry house.
It's a good idea to build a thin plywood house in each duck's house with a hole for it to climb in and build a nest.
Female Indians are very curious. There are times when they occupy someone else's nest and begin to lay eggs there. Or they sit on other people's eggs in order to hatch them, but forget about their own.
In the house, the female will not have great review and will only take care of its offspring. If it is not possible to build houses, plastic lattice vegetable boxes with a high side will fit under the nests.
The collection of eggs must be suspended if you want the indo-cat to start hatching chicks. Gradually, the female can lay up to 20 eggs. We pick up 10 pieces, do not touch the rest - then she starts hatching. Indo-chickens hatch for a long time - more than a month.
Indo-duck eggs in the nest, photo
Important - the quality of meat, eggs and the fertility of the Indochka drops sharply from closely related contacts. Therefore, drakes need to be updated regularly, preferably every season.
If you strive to eat healthy and tasty and like to breed poultry, indo-cats will be the best option.
Indoutok meat is now in high demand in prestigious restaurants. So there will be no problems with the sale of surplus meat if the number of indouts on the farm is large.
Watch a video about Indians.
If we are talking about adults, to determine the sex, it will be enough just to look at the duck and: the male will be much larger than the female, and this will immediately catch your eye. The average weight of an adult drake is about 5-6 kg, while females at the same age weigh only 1.5-3 kg. At the same time, males are not only larger, but also much more massive: they have a thick and long neck, a wide chest, and powerful wings.
Look also at the bird's head. If you see rough skin going behind the eyes, then you have a male in front of you. If the skin is more delicate, light and is located only between the eyes and the beak, we are talking about a female. Ducks also boast a graceful rather than powerful neck curve. However, their plumage is much more modest: the color of the feathers of males, as a rule, is brighter and more diverse, because drakes should attract ducks with their appearance.
How to distinguish a male indochka from a female: additional tricks
Since the genital organ in small indoo drakes is only 1-2 mm long, and it is rather difficult to see it, another option for determining the sex of ducklings can be used. Firstly, the plumage of males is several tones darker than that of females, and this can be seen if several ducklings of both sexes are placed side by side. Secondly, drakes become aggressive very quickly: already after 1- after birth, they begin to fight with other ducklings, as well as if they grow up with them. Young males often offend the birds with which they grow up, even if we are talking about larger individuals. Females, on the contrary, behave more calmly, do not start fights and rather hide in a corner or run away than accept a fight.
There is another interesting difference between females and males, and it lies in the behavioral features. As a rule, drakes always skip the indout ahead, while they themselves move a little behind. This also applies to walking on land, and, and even flying. The only exception is the situation when the duck is incubating eggs, and the drakes, left without their females, walk in small groups, alternately letting each other go forward.
Recently, poultry breeding has become a very relevant topic not only for rural residents, but also for city dwellers who have ducks or geese in their summer cottages. This is due not only to the desire to have tasty meat on the table, but also to know for sure that it is environmentally friendly. The choice often stops at the domestic duck, unpretentious in food, quickly gaining weight. Here are just a difficult question for beginner poultry farmers, how to understand who is who in a duck family and how to distinguish a drake from a duck.
Instruction
Definition by the development of the larynx
Take the duckling in your right hand and feel it chest. Move his head aside, slightly raise his beak so that his neck is even. Attach the thumb of your left hand to rest on the last cervical vertebrae. Press lightly with the index finger of the left hand on the front of the duck breast and define the triangle formed by the bones of the collarbone, the front end of the sternum and shoulder blade.
Determine if a tubercle about 4 mm in diameter is palpable in the center of this triangle, moving up and down when the beak moves up and down, if so, then this is a drake. In the female, this tubercle is absent.
Definition by voice
Take the bird in your hands, this will provoke it to cry. Listen to the bird's voice. The duck will begin to quack piercingly, while the drake will emit loud hissing sounds mixed with a whistle. Such vocal data is explained by the presence of a saccular expansion in the fork of the trachea.
Definition by genitals
The male duck has one anatomical feature that is not inherent in most birds - a pseudopenis that can turn outward. This method, of course, requires certain skills.
Stretch the outside of the anus with the thumb of the left hand and the index and thumb of the right hand.
Place the thumb of the right hand on the edge of the cloaca and move it up, while the cloaca will open and the drake's genitals will be exposed in the form of a curved fold 3-4 mm in size.
You can simply pull the tail to the back, in most cases this will be enough to detect sex differences.
Definition by appearance.
You can visually try to distinguish a drake from a duck from 2-3.
Features of keeping in the household
The instinct of nesting in trees has not gone unnoticed; domestic indochkas prefer to sit not on the ground or on a bed of straw, but on a perch. Only a chicken perch is not suitable for ducks, they need to equip a place with a log. Otherwise, unpretentious indoutas can be kept in the same ones as chickens. They are fed, as a rule, with wet mash 2-3 times a day, which include chopped grass, waste from the table and grain mixture. With special pleasure, Indians absorb crushed corn, but dry barley can be dangerous for them. It must be pre-soaked and given with water.
If there is a reservoir nearby, then the Indians will use it, but they do not experience a special need for water. And in cold weather, closer to autumn, such bathing is even contraindicated, since indo-woks do not have the necessary amount of fat, like other waterfowl, and feathers can simply freeze. Indians have an enviable vitality - they are not afraid of any infections. They gain weight as quickly as Peking ducks, with which they are sometimes crossed if they are kept only for meat. Individuals obtained from crossing will be sterile. Indians are good mother hens and caring mothers. Only the first 3 days will require the help of a person in feeding the offspring, since the ducklings are completely helpless in this regard, and they will have to be fed by force.
Which combines many attractive features: it is beautiful, unpretentious, silent, has excellent immunity and maternal instinct, it has delicious dietary meat, which is even used for cooking delicacies! In the article you will find a description of the varieties of the breed, its weight and taste, you will find photos of adults and ducklings, as well as educational videos.
Muscovy duck has several names. The main - musky - comes from the smell of fat released from their growths on the head, which resembles musk. Others believe that the name comes from "Muisk" - the name of a tribe of Indians from Colombia. The most common is the Indian Duck, because many believe that this breed is a cross between a turkey and a duck because of the peculiar outgrowths on the head (especially in the male). However, this is not so, the Indo-duck is one of the varieties of tree duck, because it can easily do without a reservoir.
Often you can find another name - Shipuny, or even completely - "Dumb". They are called so because of their calm nature and silence, because they are always silent, unlike their relatives, or they can only create a dull hissing sound. And the last of original titles- Barbary duck, so the French called the breed.
Breed overview
This spectacular outwardly bird is distinguished by its excellent weight and decent egg production, so it will take its rightful place in your household among other animals and birds.
Origin
The Barbary duck was domesticated by the ancient Aztecs. Then Indoutka meets in South America and Mexico, where wild Musks are common today. Indoutka was brought to the territory of the USSR in 1981 from the GDR, and after 7 years from France, after which it is actively grown in Russia. There is also a version that the English brought the Indian to Europe. trading company Elizabeth I, referred to as the "Moscow Company".
Appearance
Indians have a dense, elongated body with a wide chest and a short neck. The head is large, at the top of the drake is covered with plumage. A feature of the breed is the bright red growths on the head (they are also called "corals"), which are much larger in males than in females. The Indo Drake can be recognized by its more powerful body and, accordingly, greater weight.
The wings of the Indoutok are massive, long, tight to the body. The tail is also long, slightly raised towards the end. The legs are short, and their color can be from pale pink to brown and black. The claws are very sharp, daily ducklings can cling with one paw and hang on the hand. The plumage color is very different, then we will consider the main types of color and present some in the photo.
- . The eyes are grey-blue and the beak is light pink, slightly lighter at the tip.
- Black and white duck. Brownish eyes.
- White with a pattern. The main color is white, the sides, tail, wings, neck can be black. The eyes are light, brownish, the beak is black, red towards the tip.
- Brown and white breed. The main shade is chocolate with white patterns around the neck, head and sternum. The beak is red.
- Brown duck. The main color is brown-chocolate, tail and wing with a greenish tint. The beak is red with a dark tip, the eyes are brown.
- Blue color. The main color is white with a bluish tint, some feathers have a dark edging. The eyes are brown, the beak is almost black.
- Black duck. The main color is purple, on the back and wings there is a greenish tint. The eyes are brown.
How to distinguish Indo-duck ducklings by gender?
The sex of ducklings should be determined immediately after birth, until the structure of the cloaca has changed in the chicks. To do this, ducklings are taken one at a time in their left hand and head towards themselves. With the index finger of the right and thumb of the left hand, the cloaca is stretched and slightly twisted so that the genital organ is visible. In the male, it is pronounced, has the shape of a tubercle (a rudiment of the penis), while in females it is flat or hemispherical.
The second way is to detect an expansion in the larynx, which is shaped like a ball. This is only available in male chicks. However, this requires certain knowledge in the anatomical features of Shipunov ducklings and experience. In the next video, you will be able to compare ducklings and adult Indoutok.
Productivity
Muscovy duck is perfect for those who breed it for meat. At home, the bird reaches a good weight: an adult drake grows up to 5-6 kg, and a duck weighs 3.5-4.5 kg, so the breed belongs to meat direction. Indo-duck has tender dietary red meat, which does not have a specific taste, like waterfowl, and resembles game (more on this in the video).
In France, the bird is fed to prepare a delicacy dish - foie gras, and is also used for the production medicinal product Oscillococcinum. If you feed the ducklings well, then slaughter can be carried out as early as 13 weeks, but they are ready for breeding from 20 weeks.
The Barbary duck gives not only tasty meat, but also large eggs with a bright yolk. - 70-100 eggs per year, which greatly depends on the characteristics of keeping and feeding. The weight of one egg is an average of 75 grams. The females make good hens. In the next video, an experienced breeder will talk in more detail about the benefits of breeding these ducklings, about their weight and taste characteristics of the breed.
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