Meat Duck Greenhouse Farming: Construction Plan and Management Techniques

The meat duck is a fairly common duck breed, valued mainly for its meat, which is highly nutritious, so it is very popular among people. Nowadays, many people raise meat ducks, and greenhouse farming is the most common method used for raising them. So when raising them in a greenhouse, building the greenhouse is an important step. What exactly is the specific plan?

Meat Duck Greenhouse Construction Plan

1. Pen specifications: A double-row design is generally used, with a width of 9.2 m; the length can be determined according to the site conditions, generally 30-50 m is suitable; there is a 1.2 m passage in the middle, and the eaves height is 2.0-2.2 m.

2. Floor construction: A certain slope is required (0.6-1.0%); cement or brick flooring is best; a drainage ditch is installed inside, and a sewage collection tank (biogas pit) is installed outside.

3. Net bed construction: Install horizontal frames 40-50 cm above the ground (or lay plastic netting at 10-15 cm), with a row spacing of 2-3 m; lay rectangular bamboo blocks or water bamboo strips on the horizontal frames, with the length being a multiple of the horizontal frame row spacing; the bamboo blocks are 2-3 cm wide, and the spacing between bamboo blocks (water bamboo strips) is 5-10 cm; lay plastic netting on the net bed. Generally, for duck houses after brooding, plastic netting with 25×25 mm mesh is laid down.

4. Roof construction: The roof uses small blue tiles or straw curtains + asbestos tiles.

5. Feeding trough setup: For the water trough, a plastic water pipe with a diameter of 25 cm can be split in half from the middle to make it; place it 5-10 cm in front of the net bed, install it against the wall, or use a plastic basin with a diameter of 40-50 cm with a cover as a anti-fouling water bucket and place it on the net bed. The feeding trough generally uses a “hopper” type trough, with a top opening 50-60 cm long and 30-40 cm wide. The bottom opening is 50-60 cm long and 10-20 cm wide, and the base has the same specifications as the top opening, with a depth of 40-50 cm.

Management Techniques for Greenhouse Meat Duck Farming

1. Feeding preparation: According to the breeding plan, prepare the brooding room, rearing shed (a broiler chicken shed can also be modified into a meat duck shed by adding an exercise yard), equipment, and tools, etc. The brooding room (including walls, floor, tools, etc.) should be strictly and thoroughly disinfected. For the duck house space, add 30 ml of formalin to 15 g of potassium permanganate per cubic meter, seal and fumigate for 24 hours, then open the doors and windows to release the gas. Check the heating and insulation, ventilation and air exchange equipment to ensure normal operation. One day before the chicks arrive, the brooding room should be heated, and at the same time check whether it can reach the temperature conditions required for brooding.

2. Brooding conditions: The brooding temperature on the first day is 30℃~32℃, then decrease by 1℃ every three days, gradually removing the heat source, so that the ducklings are evenly distributed and the temperature and humidity remain stable. The duckling house can be heated by underground flues, wood shaving stoves, coal stoves, infrared lamps, etc., but attention should be paid to good ventilation to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning and fires, etc. From 1 to 3 days of age, light can be provided day and night; after 4 days of age, lights only need to be turned on in the morning and evening. For those with an exercise yard and water pool, the ducklings should also be trained and habituated.

3. Drinking water and start of feeding: For ducklings, the principle of “early drinking, early feeding, water first, feed later” should be grasped. Within 24 hours of hatching, ducklings should drink 0.02% potassium permanganate water or 5% glucose water. About 1 hour after drinking, they can be fed. For the first feeding, crushed corn, crushed black beans, crushed brown rice, etc. can generally be used. Cook the above feed until half-cooked, then soak it briefly in clean water and scoop it out. The feed for the first feeding should be not raw, not hard, not hot, not mushy, and not sticky. Scatter it on an oilcloth or plastic sheet, and scatter it evenly; call out while scattering to train them to eat. The second feeding can be switched to small duck complete pellet feed.

Meat Duck Feeding Formula

Meat duck (1-25) feed formula: corn 50%, rapeseed cake 20%, broken rice 10%, wheat bran 10%, fish meal 7.5%, bone meal 1%, salt 0.5%. Mid-stage ducks (26-45 days of age): corn 50%, rapeseed cake 5%, broken rice 10%, wheat 17%, wheat bran 12%, fish meal 4.5%, shell powder 2%, bone meal 1%, salt 0.5%; in the later stage, remove soybeans, reduce rice bran by 5%, and increase corn by 10%.

Prevention and Control of Duck Viral Hepatitis in Meat Ducks

Strict isolated rearing should be adopted for ducklings, especially ducklings within 5 weeks of age; appropriate amounts of vitamins and minerals should be supplied, and drinking water from open-air ponds where wild waterfowl live is strictly prohibited. Hatching, brooding, growing, and fattening should all be strictly separated, and feeding and management utensils should be cleaned and disinfected regularly. For ducklings that hatch at the early stage of an outbreak or after the hatchery has been contaminated, immediately inject hyperimmune serum (or yolk) or serum from recovered ducks, 0.3~0.5 ml per duck, which can prevent infection or reduce deaths.

The greenhouse construction plan for meat ducks should pay attention to specifications, and then the layout of each link is also very important. Once construction is completed, farming can begin. During farming, be sure to pay attention to feeding and preparation work. The duck house needs to be cleaned and disinfected regularly. Only by doing these well can their growth be better.