Peking duck and its features
The Peking duck was bred about three hundred years ago in China. In the century before last, it came to America, from there it spread throughout Europe. Now this breed is one of the most popular both in private households and on industrial farms. Many other species have evolved from Peking ducks, including broilers.
Peking duck
Description of the breed
The white Peking, or Chinese, duck is a rather large bird with a powerful constitution. It is slightly different from the varieties that have traditionally been bred in Europe and Russia. Here is a short description of the breed:
- The head is medium with a convex forehead (a characteristic feature).
- The beak is flat, bright orange.
- The chest is wide and powerful.
- The body is elongated.
- The back is wide.
- Legs are short, set wide apart.
- The wingspan is large, although ducks do not fly.
- The plumage is dense, the color is white, rarely cream.
- Sex is almost the same, drakes can be slightly larger than ducks.
- Duck eggs are bluish or white in color.
What a purebred Peking duck looks like can be seen in more detail in the photo and video. If you compare the Peking and Musk breed, you can see how much the former is larger. It is larger in size than the breeds familiar to our regions. When crossing Peking and Muscovy ducks, a mulard hybrid is obtained, which is larger than both parents.
The productivity of Peking ducks is high, therefore breeding and growing this breed is considered very profitable. The main product that can be obtained from poultry is meat. It is quite fatty, contains many complete proteins, including myosin, and useful trace elements. Meat from young ducks is more valuable than from old ones. In China, the breed is also raised to produce eggs. It is from these birds that the signature dish "Peking Duck" is prepared. Duck feathers and down are considered valuable as they keep warm well.
Here are the main product characteristics and descriptions of Peking:
- Drake weight - 3.5-4 kg, ducks - 3-3.5 kg.
- The live weight of ducklings at the age of 2 months is 2.7-3 kg.
- Egg production - 150 eggs per year.
- The egg weighs about 90 g.
With intensive rearing, ducklings are sent to the slaughter at the age of 60-70 days, until molt begins. During the molting period, the weight gain is sharply reduced, and the feed consumption increases by 2.5 times. Feather hemp after molting sit tightly in the skin, so it is difficult to completely remove them. The output after slaughter is 80%, if you cut the duck, the content of edible parts will be 70% of the slaughter weight. The egg can be eaten, it does not have a specific smell or taste.
Conditions for keeping ducks
How to keep a Peking duck at home? This bird is quite unpretentious, it tolerates temperature changes well, it can do well without a reservoir. When setting up a house, it is important to remember that the breed is sensitive to moisture. The content of ducks is optimal at a humidity of 65-75%
Duck house
If there is a poultry house or shed in the yard, you can easily adapt it to the needs of the ducks, and not build a new one.There should be no drafts or dampness in the room, so you need to caulk all the walls, check the roof. The walls can be covered with plaster or simply covered with plywood. It is best to raise the floor 15-20 cm above the ground. A litter of peat, straw, dry leaves or sedge is laid on it. The thickness of the litter is 30 cm. It can be changed twice a year.
The temperature in the poultry house should not drop below 10 ° C in winter, and not rise above 25 ° C in summer. If the ducks are hot or cold, they do not gain weight well, lose their feathers. At low temperatures, they huddle together, as a result, ducklings can crush each other. At high temperatures, they spread their wings, they drink a lot.
It is important that the room is adequately ventilated. Hoods are installed on industrial farms. At home, a window is sufficient, its area should be 100 cm² / m² of the room. So that the ducks can freely leave the house, they will equip a hole with a size of 30 × 40 cm.It is best to make it on the south or southwest wall. In winter, additional lighting should be provided to the house. Daylight hours should last 10-12 hours.
In summer, 24-hour housing is not recommended. Ducks feel better when they are free-range or in a small enclosure. When equipping an aviary, the area is allocated at the rate of 3 m2 per individual. You can put a container of water in the aviary, but this is not necessary. House area for adult ducks should be 0.5 m² per bird. For ducklings, it is smaller, 1 m is enough for 12-16 heads.
On industrial farms, cages are practiced, the Peking duck is perfectly adapted to it. Sometimes birds are placed in cramped cages 2-3 weeks before slaughter and force-fed. Then you can get a good yield of fatty meat. This is how the birds are fed for the Peking Duck signature dish.
Inventory
The maintenance and breeding of ducks at home requires the presence of inventory in the poultry house. You need to install there:
- feeders;
- drinkers;
- nests.
Feeders are made of boards about 2 cm thick. A bar is nailed on top so that the birds do not climb inside. It is advisable to make separate feeders for grain, herbs and juicy feed, mineral supplements. Drinking bowls are made of metal. Automatic drinkers are convenient, consisting of a large tank, from which water flows into a metal container. You can see how they look in the photo and video.
The nests are placed on the floor, under a wall, in a secluded place so that no one bothers the duck that is rushing. The birds are rather shy, afraid of any rustle. They carry eggs in the morning, so at this time it is advisable not to go into the barn. The height of the nest is 30-40 cm, the width is about 50 cm. A small sill is made in front so that the litter does not crumble and not a single egg falls out.
Proper nest care is essential. The bedding in them is changed daily, after collecting the eggs. It is advisable to clean the floor and all the rooms where the ducks live once a week. If you adhere to hygiene, the birds will not be afraid of diseases.
Feeding ducks
Keeping and raising Peking ducks for meat at home also provides for proper feeding. This breed has a very intense metabolism. Their body temperature is 42.2 ° C, the intestines are only 20 cm long. Grain fodder lingers in it for 4 hours, and greens and wet mash - for 3 hours. At the same time, the food is very well absorbed. This intensive metabolism allows the ducks to be fattened very quickly. They eat constantly and quickly over-etch all feed.
Summer and winter bird feeding is different. If Peking ducks are free-range in summer, they get some food themselves. It is enough to feed the bird 2-3 times a day. True, the mass gain in this mode is slower. In the summer, there is no need for additional vitamin supplements. In winter, ducks are fed 4 times a day and given vitamins. Duck rearing is made easier by the fact that they are omnivores. Calmly eat grass, kitchen waste. In order for the meat yield to be greater, and to gain fast mass, the diet includes:
- grain (corn, wheat, barley, oats);
- legumes (mostly peas);
- wheat bran;
- grass flour (in winter) and fresh green grass (in summer);
- greens of legumes (alfalfa, tops of beans and peas);
- vegetables (cabbage, carrots, pumpkin, zucchini, potatoes);
- bone or fish meal;
- Brewer's yeast;
- cake and oilseed meal;
- mineral additives (gravel, chalk, shells).
For a Peking duck to get well, there must be a lot of protein on the menu. Of the plants, legumes contain the most proteins; there are a lot of them in corn and wheat. Animal proteins come with meat and bone meal. You can feed the ducks with skim milk, sour milk, if there is a cow on the farm. When a large farm is involved in feeding, most often it uses compound feed. The house should be constantly fresh water, not less than 600 ml per bird per day.
Breeding ducklings
Breeding Peking ducks is not difficult. Young animals are distinguished by good health and high survival rate. Peking ducks are not the best brooders, but this disadvantage is compensated for by the high percentage of fertilization and hatchability of eggs, even with artificial incubation.
In the temperate climate zone, ducks begin to lay in late February or early March. They can lead 2-3 broods per season. In hot climates, they rush all year round, can give up to 4 offspring. The hen is able to hatch 12-16 eggs at the same time, the incubation period is 26-28 days. Hatchery breeding allows for more ducklings to be reared.
Hatched chicks require adequate heating and 24/7 lighting. The temperature should be 28-30 ° C. You can warm the ducklings with an electric heating pad or lamp. In the first 2 weeks, up to 20 chicks can be placed on 1 m of the area. From the second week, the ducklings need to be relocated to a more spacious room. From the third week they can live in a regular poultry house.
Feeding ducklings
First, the ducklings are fed with a boiled egg and cottage cheese. For 2-3 days, you can cut nettle, quinoa, grass. Chicks eat at this time often, every 2-3 hours. At the end of the first week, boiled or steamed millet is included in the diet. From the tenth day, ducklings can be released into the street, then they are transferred to five meals a day. If they grow up with a duck, she begins to take them out to the yard earlier. Chicks know how to swim from the first days of life.
From the third week, ducklings are transferred to feeding with grain, herbs, vegetables. Grain feeds are introduced gradually so as not to cause digestive disorders. The need for proteins during this period falls. If in the first ducklings in the diet of protein is 20%, then in the future - 11-15%.
Selection of broodstock
If you are planning independent breeding, it is imperative to form a broodstock. It is best to select May and September ducklings for this, they are the strongest. The selection is carried out three times. Immediately after birth, Peking ducklings are evaluated according to the following indicators:
- The duck's weight and size (the weight must be at least 50 g).
- Plumage condition (evenly pigmented, fluffy).
- Ducklings are active and eat well.
- Excitability of the nervous system (reaction to feeding, leaving, approaching the mother's or owner's duck).
The next selection is correct in the third week. It is important to determine not only how much a duckling weighs, but also how it grows and adds mass, to identify defects that could go unnoticed in the early days. The last selection is carried out in 150 days, sending all the rejected birds for slaughter. One broodstock should have one drake per 6-8 ducks, then breeding will be successful. If you add a musky drake to Peking ducks, you can get mulard ducklings. Unlike their parents, they are sterile, since Peking and Muscovy ducks belong to different species, but the hybrid will have more mass.
Advantages and disadvantages of the breed
Rearing and breeding at home Peking ducks is very popular. On industrial farms, these ducks rank first. Why are poultry farmers so fond of them? Birds have a number of benefits:
- Early maturity and rapid weight gain.
- Great meat taste.
- A large and tasty egg.
- A high percentage of fertilization and hatchability of ducklings.
- Adaptability to any climate (the duck is not afraid of frost, it tolerates heat well).
- Ducks eat anything, which makes feeding much easier.
- Content without reservoirs is permissible.
Peking ducks do not need to be looked after for a long time: ducklings are slaughtered from two months. Such early maturity allows to grow 2-3 broods per season.
But there are no ideal breeds, the Peking breed also has its drawbacks. These include:
- Noisiness (ducks can be heard throughout the yard, which not everyone likes).
- Reduced maternal instinct - Peking ducks do not hatch eggs well.
- Sensitive to dampness.
As you can see, there are not so many shortcomings in this breed. Because the ducks of the Peking breed do not lose their positions, they consistently receive positive reviews. Even the new hybrids, the ancestors of which were the Peking people, cannot completely oust them from the market. A Peking duckling costs an average of 250 rubles, a hatching egg - 50-100 rubles, an adult breeding duck - about 600-700 rubles.