What preparatory work needs to be done before brooding wild ducklings?
The wild duck is a typical representative of waterfowl; the wild duck is the common name for the mallard in the Northern Hemisphere. The wild duck belongs to the class Aves, order Anseriformes, family Anatidae; its numbers are very large, and it is a general name for many kinds of wild ducks, with more than ten species. Brooding methods for wild ducklings are divided into indoor off-ground wire-mesh brooding and indoor floor pen brooding. The brooding technique for wild ducklings is very important, so what preparation is needed in the early brooding stage of wild ducklings?
Preparation work
1 Purchase of wild duck breeding stock. When purchasing wild ducklings, they must be selected from healthy, high-yielding populations and from breeding wild duck farms with a good reputation and strong technical resources. Wild ducklings must be healthy, lively, and free of external injuries and deformities.
2 Cleaning and disinfection of the wild duckling brooding room.
1) Clearing the house: Before the ducks arrive, the dust, feed crumbs and other dirt in the brooding room must be swept up, as well as debris in the surrounding environment of the brooding room; then spray the ground with caustic soda water, or scatter white lime around the brooding room,
2) Washing: Soak the feed troughs and drinking water utensils in a disinfection pool with added cleaner, wash them clean, then soak them in a disinfectant solution, and finally rinse them clean with water and let them dry for later use.
3) Disinfection: Place the feed troughs, drinkers and all kinds of tools used for brooding into the brooding room, then close the doors and windows and disinfect by formaldehyde fumigation. During fumigation, the humidity of the duck house is required to be above 70%, the temperature above 10 degrees, and the disinfectant dose is 42 ml of formalin plus 42 ml of water per cubic meter of volume, with 21 g of potassium permanganate added; after 1-2 days, open the doors and windows, ventilate and dry the duck house, and after leaving the house empty for 2-3 weeks, carry out fumigation disinfection once more about 3 days before the ducks arrive.
3 Preheating and temperature testing. Ducklings are relatively sensitive to changes in outside temperature and are greatly affected by low temperatures. Ducklings within 1 week of age show symptoms such as huddling and loss of appetite when the temperature is below 28 degrees, which not only affects the growth and development of the ducklings but also causes a high mortality rate among them, so heating and heat preservation in the duckling house directly affect the results of duckling rearing.
1) Heating equipment: Methods for heating the duck house include electric heating, boiler radiator heating, hot air furnace heating, coal stove heating and heated kang heating. Electric brooding umbrellas are mainly used for flat rearing brooding, and generally a guard rail is set around the brooding umbrella to help with heat preservation and prevent the ducklings from leaving the heat source. Boiler heating is the heating form usually adopted by large duck farms. Coal stove and heated kang heating are generally used for small duck farms and individual duck farms; coal stove and heated kang heating are generally used for small duck farms and individual duck farms. Coal stoves are relatively dirty, and the chimney must be guaranteed not to leak gas; burning coal outside the duck house means there is no pollution inside the duck house and the air quality is better.
2) Heating time and temperature requirements: The duck house must be heated 24 hours before the ducklings enter, especially in cold seasons, when the temperature rises relatively slowly, so the preheating and warming time of the duck house must be even earlier. The temperature requirements of the duckling house differ depending on the heating method. When using a brooding umbrella for heating, at 1 day of age the temperature under the umbrella is controlled at 34-36 degrees, the temperature in the edge area of the brooding umbrella is controlled at 30-32 degrees, and the temperature of the brooding room is required to be 24 degrees. When using whole-room heating, at 1 day of age the room temperature is required to be kept at 29-31 degrees. As the ducks gradually grow, their feathers gradually become fuller and their heat-retention ability gradually strengthens, so their temperature requirements also decrease. Therefore, the temperature of the brooding room should gradually decrease as the ducklings' age increases, but a sudden temperature drop should not be used.
4 Spread the litter: Floor flat rearing requires spreading 8 cm of litter on the cement floor. The litter should be spread no later than 24 hours before the ducklings arrive, and generally should be spread before the second disinfection of the duck house. The litter is required to be dry, free of mold, free of toxic substances, and highly water-absorbent, such as wheat straw or rice straw cut to about 10 cm long. Rice husks are a relatively good litter. Wood shavings can cause chronic foot diseases and breast cysts. When using sawdust as litter, a layer of newspaper needs to be spread on the sawdust in the first few days of brooding to prevent the ducklings from pecking at the sawdust.
5 Feed, utensils and medicines for wild ducklings. Before the ducklings arrive, feed, rearing utensils and all kinds of health-care medicines must be prepared. Before the ducklings arrive, wash all brooding equipment clean, disinfect it, and dry it; add duckling feed to the feed trays and add drinking water to the drinkers. When placing the starter feed trays for the ducklings, they should be arranged evenly; when using an electric brooding umbrella for brooding, place the feed trays about 20 cm from the edge of the umbrella.