The Complete Guide to Duckling Raising Methods and Techniques, Easy for Beginners to Get Started
Duck farming requires little investment, works quickly, and brings in more income, making it a good path to wealth. In autumn, forage is abundant and the temperature is suitable, making it the golden season for raising ducklings. Below is a carefully compiled guide to duckling raising methods, let's take a look.
Methods for Raising Ducklings
1. Select good ducklings: Choose ducklings that are large, with clean and dry navels, active and spirited, with soft and glossy down, that eat quickly and a lot, and that have loud, clear calls, as breeding ducks.
2. First feeding: First decoct 50 grams of Coptis chinensis and 250 grams of licorice into a juice and mix it into feed for 100 ducks. Then mix 0.5 kg of mung beans and 0.1 kg of gypsum into 10 kg of cooked rice, and feed continuously for 3—5 days. At the same time, give the ducklings brown sugar water or glucose water to drink. Within 7 days, do not rush to let the ducklings enter the water. Do not let the ducks move around in places where the temperature exceeds 32°C. They should rest in cool, shaded places such as bamboo groves and streamside areas, and they must not be allowed to huddle and pile up. After the first feeding, feed the ducklings half-cooked rice mixed with cold water, 5—7 times a day, each time half full. After 5 days, feed a fixed amount of lightly salted water; after 7 days, before 10 a.m. and after 6 p.m., drive the flock into field water for training, 15 minutes each time; within 20 days, feed some duckweed-type green feed every day; after 20 days, when the ducklings can find food on their own, gradually reduce the frequency and amount of feeding. You can collect some manure maggots and small insects to feed them. After 30 days, they can be driven into rice fields, streams, and rivers for free-range raising.
3. Add shade shelters: In early autumn, try to let the ducks out early and bring them back late. During the hot midday period, drive the flock into shade shelters or under large trees to rest and cool down, reducing heat radiation to prevent heatstroke. It is advisable to set up 1 shade shelter for every 100 ducks.
4. Strengthen ventilation: Ensure the duck house has circulating air, fresh and cool. If the weather is muggy at night and the ducks call restlessly, you can drive the ducks into pond water, or use electric fans and other methods for artificial ventilation.
5. Feed formulation: After ducklings are raised to 7 days of age, they can be transferred to normal feeding. Feed combination: corn 38%, bran 12%, soybean cake 25%, fish meal 3%, shell powder 20%, bone meal 1.5%, salt 0.5%, crude protein 18—19%. After 7 days from hatching, feed once every 3 hours; after 20 days of age, feed 3—4 times a day, and rice field free-range raising can be used to reduce feed usage.
6. Scientific grazing: Scientific grazing should achieve three do's and five don'ts. Three do's: a few days before release, train the flock to go onto the pole; when driving ducks out to graze, feed them some feed appropriately to prevent them from swallowing too much mud and sand due to hunger and greediness; choose places with shallow water, clear water, and plenty of grass for grazing. Grazing time should increase with the age of the ducks, from near to far. At noon, they should rest in shaded places and swim and drink water at any time, achieving early release and late return. Five don'ts: do not enter fields along the grazing route, and do not walk on scalding roads; do not graze in places polluted by pesticides; do not make the ducks flap their wings and rush, to avoid frightening and injuring the flock; do not graze against the water flow; release when the water recedes and drive them back when the water rises; do not graze under the scorching sun.
7. Prevent duck heatstroke: Ducklings have delicate constitutions and are prone to heatstroke in the hot early autumn weather. When ducklings appear restless and stretch their necks to call, they can be placed in deep ditches to swim and drink water to prevent heatstroke. If during grazing a duckling suddenly has wet feathers and sinks, or circles around, this is a sign of impending heatstroke. You can first use a small sewing needle to prick the small blood vessels on the feet to let blood, then feed 2 Ren Dan pills or a small amount of Huoxiang Zhengqi water, vinegar and white sugar water, and place them in a cool place to rest.
8. Strengthen warmth keeping: From the end of October, preparations must be made against cold wind invasion. When grazing, drive them to warmer, wind-sheltered places such as sandy beaches, pond embankments, and canals, to avoid cold and freezing.
9. Intensive fattening: Autumn water ducks can grow to 1—1.2 kg after 50—60 days of raising. At this time, switch to a high-energy, low-protein compound feed for rapid filling and fattening.
10. Strengthen disease prevention and control: Autumn water ducks are prone to big-head disease, with a mortality rate as high as over 90%. Therefore, frequently clean duck manure from the duck house and frequently wash the feed and water troughs; maintain the duck house dry and ventilated; disinfect with 10—29% fresh lime solution; regularly inject vaccines such as duck plague and fowl cholera for immunity; often add Prunella vulgaris, iron horse whip, garlic, and dandelion to the feed for disease prevention; feed livestock oxytetracycline once a week, with a dosage of 500 grams per 50 kg of feed; for suspicious flocks and presumed healthy flocks, urgently vaccinate with duck plague vaccine, strictly disinfect, and isolate and treat early. Practice shows that mixing 250 grams of beef tallow with 120 grams each of chili and garlic and feeding it to 80 ducks works well. Or stir-fry 1 kg of barley until cooked, put it hot into a jar, then mix the fresh blood of 1 rabbit with the stir-fried wheat and feed it to the ducks. Within 24 hours after feeding, the ducks are forbidden to enter water or drink water. This is very effective in preventing and treating diseases.
Duckling Raising and Management Techniques
1. Duck nutrition and feed: The basic nutritional elements for ducks include metabolic energy, crude protein, crude fiber, calcium, phosphorus, multiple vitamins, and trace elements, etc. Different production uses and growth stages have different requirements for the amount and quality of nutrition needed. Feed is mainly based on raw materials such as corn, soybean meal, and fish meal. How should compound feed be formulated and produced? First, consider the quality and quantity of raw materials; second, consider the price of raw materials. The purpose is to make the formulated feed nutritionally comprehensive and suitably priced, achieving the effect of high productivity and low production cost. Because the technology in this area is relatively complex, only one relatively applicable method is introduced here, for reference only.
2. Check feeding standards: Look up the nutritional content requirements needed for the corresponding breed and feeding stage, such as the Beijing duck at 1—21 days of age, with metabolic energy 2800 kcal/kg, crude protein 21%, crude fiber 3.5%, calcium 0.9, phosphorus 0.6%, etc., and record them.
3. Calculate a preliminary formula based on the approximate ratio of daily ration raw materials: The ratio of daily ration raw materials generally requires grain and solid feeds (corn, barley, etc., 2—3 types) 40—60%; bran-type feeds (wheat bran, rice bran, etc.) 10-20%; plant protein materials (soybean meal, cottonseed cake, rapeseed cake, etc.) 10-20%; animal protein feed (fish meal, etc.) 3-10%; green and juicy feeds (green feed, etc.) 10-20%; mineral feed (bone meal, shell powder, etc.) 2—7%; salt 0.3-0.5%. Under the permitted daily ration ratio, roughly set out a formula, and look up the nutrient content table of commonly used feeds and calculate the nutritional content of the preliminary formula.
4. Compare the preliminary formula with the feeding standard and finally determine the feed formula: If a certain indicator is high or low, add or subtract from the raw materials with low or high content of that indicator until it basically matches the standard. At this point the formula is complete. Note that for some indicators such as trace elements and vitamins, finished products are generally available for purchase, and there is no need to prepare them yourself. Self-preparation technology is relatively complex, and if not done well, problems may occur. Generally, suitable feed is available on the market and can be purchased selectively. In addition, regarding feeding standards, etc., seedling supply manufacturers generally provide them, and they can be used for reference.