Cherry Valley ducks
The popular Cherry Valley ducks are a common breed in the Russian industrial poultry industry and in private farm poultry houses. She has many advantages thanks to which farmers make a choice in favor of these birds.
Cherry Valley ducks
About the Cherry Valley breed
The breed belongs to the meat-and-meat direction. It has established itself as an early maturing species, the cultivation of which fixes a large percentage of the survival rate of young animals while maintaining the longevity of an adult.
The Cherry Valley duck is gaining weight quickly. Her characteristics are similar to the Peking representatives, who were her progenitors, only their character is calmer, and they shout much less compared to the Peking people.
Cherry Valley ducks have been bred in Great Britain since the 70s of the last century. Subsequently, the characteristics of the resulting hybrid became known in Russia, and the duck appeared for breeding in the domestic poultry industry.
Cherry Valley ducks appeared as a result of the task set before the breeders to bring out a livestock that would give a lot of both egg products and meat. As a genetic basis, a choice was made in favor of the Peking people, who had two separate lineages: maternal and paternal. As a result, duck cross is divided into different types:
- the maternal duck is more productive, the duck of this type is larger in size,
- the paternal line is smaller, it has lower egg production rates, but it guarantees quick maturation.
Due to the stable high indicators of the viability of the breed, the duck can be bred in conditions of large industrial production, but it is also possible to raise it in a limited area of a small private farm.
External signs of the breed
The external description of ducks is similar to the Peking breed. They are distinguished by an elongated body with a wide chest, thick neck and slightly convex frontal part. The iris of large eyes is usually colored dark blue. The beak is orange, slightly curved. Among the main characteristics of the breed is snow-white plumage, which is very striking in the photo of birds.
The plumage of newborn ducklings is initially colored yellow, only after a while it changes, and the duckling becomes covered with a feather of a pure white shade.
The paws of the described representatives are distinguished by fleshiness, they are low and located close to the tail region, colored orange with a red tint. The waterfowl Cherry Valley has unevenly developed muscle muscles and a rather thick fat layer.
The average weight of Cherry Valley ducks fluctuates about 3 kg and depends on the bird belonging to one of the two crossing lines and the conditions of feeding and keeping. Broilers weigh much more.
Productivity and feeding
The productivity of ducks directly depends on their diet and largely depends on belonging to one of the crossing lines.
Productivity indicators
Ducks produce tender, tasty and nutritious red meat with an abundant layer of fat, which is obtained by providing ducks with the opportunity to stay in the water for a considerable time.
The paternal cross line provides good early maturity and quick weight gain in young animals, the duckling weighs up to 3 kg already at the age of 7-8 weeks. In grown ducks, the body weight is approximately 3.5 kg, drakes weigh a little more - up to 4.0 kg. For the maternal cross, the indicators of weight gain by birds are lower: a duckling at the same age reaches a weight of up to 2.6-2.9 kg, adults weigh from 3.3 to 3.7 kg.
The maternal line of ducks annually brings from 120 to 150 eggs weighing up to 90 g each, differing in increased egg production, while the paternal cross has lower rates: from 100 to 120.
Feeding ration
Regardless of the fact that the Cherry Valley duck is unpretentious in food, the quality of the food consumed directly affects the quality of the meat products obtained from it.
A proper diet provided from the very first days will allow you to grow worthy representatives that provide high performance in the breeding process.
The scheme and calculations of the required feed depend on age.
- Every day, the duck must be provided with cottage cheese products, eggs and sour milk, to which fresh herbs are added to the mixture. Starting from ten days of age, cherry ducklings begin to eat root crops: they should be given a mash, which includes millet, boiled egg, ground grain, the duckling eats shoots of clover and dandelions, as well as other fresh vegetation. In addition, shells and fish are added to the feeding of young Cherry Valley ducks, if possible. Daily feeding of young animals should be at least 2 times.
- By the age of one month, the young bird is released into open water bodies, where the Cherry Valley ducklings, in addition to the food they receive, replenish their diet with harvested vegetation and insects. At the same time, do not forget that to ensure proper weight gain for young animals, grain feed is required.
- In adult birds, the diet should include sprouted crops, roots and fresh herbs. In order to increase weight gain, many farmers in the breeding process add grass meal when feeding adult birds, broiler birds eat cabbage (leaves and stumps).
Conditions and features of the content
Growing the Cherry Valley breed and keeping these birds is not difficult and does not require professional knowledge; beginners can also master the breeding of Cherry Valley ducks. The most important aspect for the livestock is a properly selected and equipped room where the rearing will take place. It must meet the requirements necessary for birds to live, which are shown in some videos. The room should be:
- spacious, with the receipt of a sufficient amount of daylight, and in its absence - equipped with additional sources of artificial lighting, allowing to provide daylight hours of at least 14 hours.
- warm, in order to maintain and maintain the required air temperature in the winter period within the range from 16 to 18 ° C, which will ensure continuous egg-laying of ducks. If it is impossible to maintain the temperature regime at the proper level, they resort to additional artificial heating.
- with the equipment of nesting places where ducks would incubate eggs, of which the number should be twice as large as the number of birds, for which boxes or boxes measuring 25 * 60 cm are used,
- clean, regularly cleaned to prevent infection and spread in the poultry house.
Considering that the described breed of ducks is ready to spend more time on the water, poultry houses are built as close as possible to open water bodies or artificial places for swimming are made near the places where birds live.With the onset of the cold season, the withdrawal of ducks to the reservoir is stopped in order to avoid hypothermia of the birds.
The good resistance of duck organisms to infections and diseases, the ability to survive in natural conditions made the Cherry Valley ducks breed quite popular in the field of poultry farming.
In addition to the presence of a natural or artificially created reservoir for the Cherry Valley ducks, an ash bath will be required, where the birds can clean their plumage of many parasites. They are made in the form of a sand mixture with wood ash measuring 20 * 50 cm, which is cleaned and changed monthly.