Meat pigeon farming has its tricks; only by mastering the methods can you raise meat pigeons well
Meat pigeons are a breed formed through long-term selective breeding; they are rich in nutrients and have high edible and medicinal value. Pigeon meat is an ideal food, high in protein and low in fat. Testing has shown that squab contains more than 17 kinds of amino acids, more than 10 kinds of trace elements and various vitamins. Meat pigeons have good medicinal value; both their bones and meat can be used as medicine, with effects such as regulating the heart, nourishing the blood and replenishing qi. Below is a set of meat pigeon farming techniques, which we hope will help farmer friends get rich.
?The six-character formula for raising meat pigeons
Control, that is: control the farming environment. In autumn and winter, attention should be paid to keeping warm, but a sealed pigeon house has a strong ammonia smell, which is not good for the healthy growth of meat pigeons. Generally, a stove should be prepared to boil vinegar for fumigation to reduce the ammonia smell, and windows can also be opened for ventilation. In the rainy season, the hygiene of the pigeon house should be well maintained to ensure ventilation and dryness; in particular, the nesting material under the nest bowl must not get damp. Commonly used disinfectant should be sprayed on the pigeon house for disinfection, and quicklime should be spread on the ground for disinfection.
Feed, that is: ensure feed quality and achieve scientific feed formulation. More small-particle feed should be given, with increased mung beans and hulled wheat and reduced hulled grains. All kinds of feed should be soaked to soften, then dried before feeding, and fed less but more frequently. The feed formula for young pigeons should increase grains such as corn, wheat and sorghum, and the feed for laying pigeons should contain enough protein. Keepers generally supply feed on the principle that the laying pigeons eat their fill and the squabs are also fed full.
Drink, that is: supply sufficient drinking water. The water intake of meat pigeons changes with the environment and temperature; caged meat pigeons drink more water than floor-raised meat pigeons. Drinkers should be clean and hygienic, and the water supply must be guaranteed clean and pollution-free.
Add, that is: add health grit and cod liver oil. To increase the weight of meat pigeons at market and benefit their health, pigeons aged 7-30 days should be fed special health grit twice a day, 1 pellet each time; and 1 cod liver oil capsule daily. Health grit should be mixed and used immediately; generally, coarse sand, bone meal and shell powder are mixed first (mixing the amount for 3-4 days at a time), then the ingredients used in small amounts, prone to oxidation and prone to deliquescence are mixed with the prepared health grit before feeding.
Wash, that is: give meat pigeons regular baths. Regular bathing not only prevents the invasion of external parasites on meat pigeons, but also stimulates meat pigeons to secrete growth hormone and promotes growth and development. For young pigeons raised on wire floors, basin bathing is used, once every 15 days; for caged laying pigeons, a sprayer is used to spray water for bathing, generally once every 20 days.
Prevent, that is: do a good job in disease prevention and control. Breeding pigeons introduced from outside must undergo strict quarantine and isolation observation. Try to achieve self-breeding and self-raising; pigeon farms should not mix other livestock or poultry. Pay attention to good cleaning and hygiene and regular disinfection, and give meat pigeons disinfected water once every 5 days. Keepers should be in good health, without infectious diseases, and may enter the farming area only after disinfection in the disinfection room. At 7-12 days of age, squabs are prone to indigestion, pharyngitis and impacted crop. Start prevention from 8 days of age: feed half a yeast tablet daily, and feed 1 pellet of health grit in the morning and evening. If a squab has a cold, feed half a cold tablet and 1/6 tablet of chlortetracycline each time, 3 times a day, and it can recover in 3 days; if it has eye inflammation, apply chloramphenicol or chlortetracycline eye drops 2-3 times a day.
?Tricks for identifying pigeon diseases
Look at body posture: sick pigeons are in poor spirits, do not like to move, stay alone away from the flock, eat less or not at all, are thin, have loose and ruffled feathers, dull eyes, rapid breathing, wheeze or make abnormal sounds from the throat and trachea when breathing, drink excessively or do not feed young pigeons, and so on.
Look at the eyes: pigeons with ornithosis, paratyphoid, eye inflammation, mycoplasmosis and vitamin A deficiency have red, swollen and inflamed eyes with increased secretions; those with conjunctivitis have reddened conjunctiva and dilated blood vessels; with erysipelas or pneumonia, the conjunctiva is cyanotic (purple-blue); with anemia or malnutrition, the conjunctiva is pale; with organophosphorus pesticide poisoning, the pupils are dilated and the mouth is dry.
Look at the cere: healthy pigeons have a bright white and clean cere. If the cere is dirty and moist, with reduced whiteness and dull color, it is mostly a cold, ornithosis, paratyphoid and respiratory system diseases, and so on.
Examine the oral cavity: if the oral cavity and throat show redness, ulcers or yellow-white pseudomembranes, it is pharyngitis, trichomoniasis, thrush or diphtheritic pigeon pox; millet-sized gray-white nodules in the oral cavity indicate vitamin A deficiency; with soft crop disease, the mouth exhales a sour, smelly gas.
Examine the crop: 3 hours after feeding, check whether the crop has shrunk. If it is swollen and firm, it may be hard crop disease; if the pigeon refuses to eat but the crop is full, soft and fluctuating, and when held upside down a large amount of sour, smelly liquid flows from the mouth, soft crop disease can be suspected.
Examine breathing: with laryngotracheitis, bronchopneumonia, mycoplasmosis and trichomoniasis, sneezing, runny nose, coughing and a "gurgling" sound may appear; with severe necrotizing pneumonia, the sick pigeon breathes with its mouth open and exhales smelly gas.
Look at the skin: with pneumonia, nitrite poisoning, ornithosis, erysipelas and blood hypoxia, the skin is purple-black. Touch the skin on the inner side of the chest under both wings with the hand; high skin temperature indicates fever, while low skin temperature indicates a cold-deficiency syndrome due to insufficient blood and qi or a critical severe illness.
Feel the abdomen: gently massage the abdomen from the tip of the breastbone toward the pubic bone. If there is constipation, soybean-sized granular feces can be felt in the intestines; with hepatitis or cirrhosis, the liver can be felt to be enlarged or hard; if the abdomen is swollen and sagging, and feels soft and fluctuating to the hand, it is peritonitis.
Look at the anus: with gastroenteritis, ulcerative enteritis and paratyphoid, the area around the anus is mostly soiled by feces; when the anus is opened with the hand, congestion or bleeding points can be seen in the cloaca.
Look at the droppings: healthy pigeon droppings are gray-yellow, brown-yellow or gray-black, strip-shaped, with a white substance attached at the end. With indigestion or enteritis, meat pigeons pass thin, soft droppings; with fever, constipation or water deprivation, they pass granular droppings; with intestinal parasitic diseases, they may pass fleshy droppings; droppings with white and red mucus indicate hemorrhagic enteritis or coccidiosis; black droppings may be bleeding in the stomach or the front part of the small intestine.
Pairing and incubation techniques for breeding pigeons
Scientific separate rearing: young pigeons begin estrus when they grow to 5-6 months of age. To prevent early mating and breed degeneration, male and female pigeons should be raised separately before meat pigeons come into estrus, that is, when meat pigeons grow to 4 months of age, divide males and females into 2 groups and raise them separately in different pens. Meat pigeons of the same sex should also be raised in small pens, 50-100 per pen, and the rearing density of male pigeons should be smaller.
Timely pairing: when meat pigeons grow to 6-7 months of age, they have reached the age of estrus and sexual maturity and should be released for mating in time. There are two mating methods: one is natural mating. Let groups of pigeons each find their own partners and form pairs. This method easily causes inbreeding, leads to breed degeneration and is not conducive to obtaining excellent offspring. The second is artificial pair mating. Breeding pigeons are artificially matched into pairs for mating. Before pairing, first place the male pigeons in the same row or the same pigeon house; after the male pigeons are caged for 2-3 days to become familiar with the environment, use the same method to select female pigeons to be caged and paired with the male pigeons.