Cage-Rearing Methods for Laying Ducks and Analysis of Their Advantages

1 Duck cage construction

The duck cage uses wooden poles with a diameter of more than 4cm as the frame, is built with bamboo strips or wire mesh, and is usually made into a ladder-frame type double-layer overlapping duck cage. The cage is 60cm high, 165cm long, and 70cm wide. The bottom surface of the cage is 45-50cm above the ground, with a slope of 4.2°, and the bottom board extends outward along the slope by 20cm, with the partition board and bamboo poles wrapped in rice straw. Each cage houses 12-14 adult ducks. The duck cages are placed in a ventilated and sunny house.

2 Breed selection

For cage-reared laying ducks, choose breeds with a small body size, early maturity, low feed consumption, high egg production, and strong adaptability, such as Campbell ducks, Cherry Valley ducks, Shaoxing ducks, Jinbao ducks, Jingjiang ducks, Yichun ducks, and Zhongshan ducks. To improve economic returns, choose healthy, disease-free young ducks of uniform size for cage rearing. In this way, after the ducks are put into cages, they can begin laying eggs one after another after an adaptation period of more than half a month, with the two high-production periods each year being spring and autumn. Adult female ducks have the highest egg-laying rate in the first year; in the second year, keep the good and remove the poor, culling and replacing 50%; in the third year, replace all of them.

3 Feed formulation

The daily ration is formulated with grain feed (mainly corn or rice) accounting for 50%-60%, cake-type feed (mainly soybean cake and rapeseed cake) accounting for 10%-20%, and protein feed (mainly fish meal and soybeans) accounting for 10%-15%, and it is also necessary to add 1% shell powder, 0.3% salt, and 0.2% multivitamins. Each duck is fed 125-150g of feed per day. When the flock's egg-laying rate is about 70%, the crude protein in the daily ration should be maintained at about 18%, and the metabolizable energy of the feed should be 2800-2900 kcal.

4 Feeding method

After the feed is crushed, add water and mix well, to the degree that it forms a ball when squeezed by hand and falls apart when the hand is released. Feed 4-5 times per day (from dawn to 9-10 pm), with the last feeding at night slightly larger in amount, based on eating enough without leftovers. During the non-laying period, the laying duck flock is fed 2 times per day. The water trough holds water at a depth of 7-10cm and is hung parallel to the feed trough at the level of the duck's chest height. Feed grit once every half month, 10g per duck each time.

5 Promoting estrus

The stronger the sexual desire of laying ducks, the more eggs they lay. Therefore, in addition to keeping enough breeding ducks, keep an extra 2%-3% male ducks among the female ducks. Through the sexual stimulation of the female ducks, the ovarian follicles develop faster, ovulation is accelerated, and the goal of laying more eggs is achieved.

6 Timely temperature regulation

According to seasonal changes, adjust the cage temperature in a timely manner. That is, keep warm in spring—ventilate during the day and keep warm at night; cool down in summer—ventilate day and night, and in hot weather also sprinkle water in the house to cool it down; prevent heat in autumn—feed more green feed to lower body temperature; prevent wind in winter—repair the duck house well to prevent wind and keep warm.

7 Supplemental lighting

Supplemental lighting at night can effectively prevent premature sexual maturity in ducks and prolong the egg-laying period. When lighting begins, provide no less than 14 hours per day and night, then gradually increase it to 16 hours. At the same time, according to the length of natural light, adjust it according to the principle of weak light in summer (15-25w electric bulb lighting), normal light in autumn (25-40w), and increased light in spring and winter (40-60w). It is worth noting that changes in lighting should be made gradually so that the ducks have a process of adaptation.

8 Forced molting

After the beginning of autumn, in order to increase the egg-laying rate, shorten the ducks' non-laying period, and reduce feeding costs, artificial forced molting can be carried out. The specific method is: on the 1st day, stop water and feed; on the 2nd and 3rd days, stop feed and supply water; on the 4th day, stop water and supply feed, and pull out all the feathers from both wings and the tail of the ducks; on the 5th day, restore normal feeding and management. After 15-20 days of rearing, forcibly molted ducks begin laying eggs again.

9 Regular deworming

Laying ducks are dewormed against roundworms once 20 days after being put into cages; during the non-laying molting period, deworm once each against roundworms and duck lice; after the beginning of winter, deworm once more against roundworms.

10 Duck disease prevention and control

Duck diseases can occur in all four seasons, so adhere to the policy of “prevent before disease, treat early when diseased, and combine prevention with treatment.” The main way to prevent duck plague is, while doing good sanitation work (clean manure about once every 10 days), to inject duck plague vaccine in a timely manner in spring and autumn each year (best injected before the non-laying period), 2.5-3ml per duck; for duck cholera, Tibetan vaccine can be injected, with a preventive dose of 3ml per duck and a therapeutic dose of 5ml per duck. In cage rearing, pay attention to the prevention and control of duck soft-leg disease. Once symptoms are found, do not let the sick ducks sleep too much; properly drive them to walk around, and use a sewing needle to prick the small red spots on the ducks' feet (do not prick the thick tendons) to cure it. Usually, mix sulfadimethazine or sulfathiazole into the feed at a ratio of 0.5%-1% and feed continuously for 3-5 days, then feed again after stopping for 10 days, which can effectively prevent and control duck diarrhea.

Advantages of cage rearing laying ducks:

1. It is conducive to environmental protection and cleaner production. In cage rearing, because the ducks are in a relatively closed environment, the pollution sources during the breeding process are limited to the breeding site, and the metabolic waste produced can be reasonably utilized or discharged up to standard after appropriate treatment, without causing pollution or harm to the environment, which is conducive to achieving cleaner production.

2. Improve the utilization efficiency of duck houses per unit area and labor productivity. Using a double-row 3~4-layer cage-rearing method, the stocking quantity per square meter of duck house is increased compared with ground flat rearing. Because the feeding and management operation procedures are simplified and labor intensity is reduced, labor production efficiency is effectively improved. The number of ducks managed by each laborer increases from about 2000 under the flat-rearing model to about 4000, more than doubling labor production efficiency.

3. Duck eggs are clean and hygienic, extend freshness retention time, improve the appearance quality of duck eggs, reduce the egg-washing process in egg product processing, and save production costs. Freshly laid duck eggs from cage-reared laying ducks roll into the egg collection frame due to the slope and gravity, breaking direct contact with the ducks, and the surface at the bottom of the cage that directly contacts the duck eggs is relatively clean, reducing the degree of contamination of duck eggs and preserving the outer eggshell membrane relatively completely, which is conducive to extending the freshness and shelf life of duck eggs, improving the appearance of duck eggs, and enhancing the market competitiveness of duck egg sales.

4. Because the range of activity of cage-reared ducks is restricted and their activity level is reduced, and because direct contact with water is cut off, plus the ducks' body heat energy dissipation increases the environmental temperature in the house, the ducks' energy consumption is reduced and maintenance requirements are lowered, which is conducive to improving feed conversion and utilization efficiency and saving the production cost per unit product. Comparative measurements show that, compared with the flat-rearing model, the feed intake of cage-reared laying ducks decreases by 10~20%, and the feed conversion and utilization efficiency per unit product increases by 5~7%.

5. Because the ducks are raised in cages, information on individual health and production performance can be tracked and observed in a timely manner, which is conducive to timely culling of inferior individuals and improving economic returns, and can also provide effective experimental methods and means for carrying out individual measurement tests.

6. The production process of cage-reared laying ducks is carried out inside the duck house, and the ducks are isolated from direct contact with the external environment, effectively reducing the chance of contact infection with pathogenic microorganisms from the external environment during production, especially for diseases transmitted with certain flying birds and migratory birds as infection sources (such as avian influenza), where the fully enclosed cage-rearing method has even more obvious advantages. Because avian influenza mainly damages the reproductive system of laying ducks, causing necrosis of ovarian tissue and severe functional damage, even if the ducks recover after illness, it is difficult to restore reproductive function, leading to the loss of the ducks' economic performance and serious losses. Adopting the cage-rearing model can effectively reduce disease risk. Because it is in a relatively stable microclimate environment, it can effectively overcome the effects of adverse external environmental and climatic conditions (such as high temperature and severe cold), solving the problem of difficulty in raising ducks in areas with extreme climates.

7. Save bedding, reduce waste output, and save production costs. Preliminary measurements show that a laying duck with a daily intake of 150 grams of dry feed produces about 100 grams of wet manure per day and about 36 kilograms of wet manure per year, whereas with bedding rearing, the annual mixed manure output (including bedding) is about 100~150 kilograms, which increases both bedding costs and waste treatment volume.