How to Keep Musk Ducks at Home

The musky duck, or, as it is also called, the indochka, won the hearts of poultry houses around the world. “Native American” ducks are distinguished by tasty and lean meat, a little like meat of waterfowl. Birds are raised not only for slaughter, but also for the sake of their delicious eggs. The bird is great for beginner poultry farmers, since it does not require any specific knowledge and conditions for care.

Musk duck

Indians are one of the most capricious, unpretentious poultry, but despite their popularity, not all poultry houses know how to to get musky ducks and take them out. This article will help you figure out how to properly care for a duck.

What are musky ducks

Indoor ducks are difficult to confuse with other birds, even in the photo. This is a large bird with strong wings, a wide chest and short legs, an drake weighs an average of 6 kg, and a female musk duck weighs a little less: about 3.5 kg.

A duck has many qualities that poultry farmers appreciate:

1. Ducks behave calmly and patiently. They are not inclined to fights (except for the sake of a serious matter, for example, to protect their nest from another female) and do not like to make noise. Indowoks are called spikes, because they do not scream, but hiss.
2. Birds eat any food, but their unpretentiousness in the field of food is so great that it creates problems. Birds can taste a piece of glass, wire or other orphaned objects, which will entail serious injuries.
3. Ducks are very hardy creatures: they are immune to many diseases. If you contain them correctly, in comfortable conditions, then about the disease they will completely bypass them. If the symptoms of the disease were noticed at an early stage, there will be no need to invest much effort and time for treating the bird.
4. An indole can not be called really waterfowl, because they can do without swimming for a long time without any particular health problems.
5. The egg production of females is high, and they are good mothers: they will sit on their eggs until all the chicks have hatched.

There are some features that should be considered farmer with the content of duck musk:

1. The bird grows for a long time.
2. A duck does not like to live in dampness and crowding, this makes it difficult to bear.

The characteristic of birds is tempting, because it means that a duck easy to care for. However, it is worth considering the fact that if the content is not satisfactory, the bird will not rush. The reason that she does not sit on her eggs is the same. The content must fully comply with the requirements of musky domestic ducks.

Indoor breeds

Musk ducks are different in color: there are white and dark, chocolate. The blue duck looks wonderful, the wild looks interesting. In Europe, birds of non-standard colors are raised, which you rarely meet in Russia. Non-standard colors are passed on to descendants, and European farms sometimes specially bred mixed-colored ducks. . In Russia, such work is not widely conducted, therefore, the opinion is generally accepted in the country that only pure-bred breeds are purebred. Regardless of the variety, the care of any duck is the same.

1. Indoor white. Plumage should be snow-white without yellowness. The beak is pale pink, eyes are gray with blue. In musk white ducks with a pattern, the main difference is that the pattern of black feathers on different parts of the body is laid on the main white background.
2. Black and white. The eyes are brown, the plumage is black with a purple tint on the whole body except the back, white feathers form a pattern on the chest and neck. A completely black bird stands out in a separate breed.
3. Brown. The birds are usually chocolate in color, their eyes and metatarsals are brown. People call such a bird “red”.You can often see that the farm grows beautiful brown ducks with white feathers on their chests – this is a breed of brown-white ducks.
4. Blue. The blue indochka has the corresponding color of plumage and black edging of feathers. The breeders bred a special variety of indigenous ducks called the “blue favorite”, which differs from musky ducks in many ways.

Origin of ducks

Homeland of musky ducks – South America, there you can still meet wild representatives of this species. Wild birds are much smaller than their domesticated counterparts. Wild musky drake barely reaches 3 kg in weight, while the wild female reaches 1.3 kg. The first musky ducks were domesticated by local residents, primarily the Aztecs kept them. For this reason, this species of birds is often called indigenous, which means “Native American duck.”

Centuries after domestication, the first Europeans arrived in America. Immigrants from Europe gave the bird the name “musky duck”, or “nutmeg”, under which it gained worldwide fame. It got its name due to the fleshy growth on the head, which distinguishes the bird from other ducks. According to the views of Europeans, the growth has a musky smell that can ruin the meat, so in the old days, poultry houses advised sending birds for slaughter to chop off their heads first.

According to another version, the duck got its name from the word “muiska” – that was the name of one of the tribes of the Indians in Colombia.

No matter where the name came from, the musky duck quickly gained popularity among poultry houses. In 1514, she appeared in Spain, from where she came to other European countries. In 1550, probably, the former slaves brought the indochka to Africa. In Africa, she was given new names: “Guinean” and “Barbary” duck. The bird came to the USSR first in 1981, then it was brought back in 1988.

Why grow an indochoke

The number of species of poultry can not be counted on the fingers of two hands either. In the market you can find birds for every taste and color, including those unpretentious like a musky duck. What attracts the musk ducks of houses, what benefits can be obtained from their breeding? There are several options for running a business: sending young ducks for slaughter, raising them for meat or selling ducklings.

1. Meat. An indochka or a musky duck gives very good meat, and in large quantities. You can build a strong business on this product, however, breeding at home will justify itself. The meat of musky ducks is noteworthy: it is tasty, but not fatty, almost dietary. If the birds are kept properly, then they will quickly grow meat and will be ready to eat. The incubation period is approximately 32 days in the incubator, while the ducks of the musky duck gain weight by the thirteenth week of life, and monthly birds are suitable for slaughter.
2. Eggs. Musk duck eggs are large, with a dense protein, weigh up to 70 g. Each female each brings an average of 90 eggs. The first time it rushes in the spring, the second – it sits on a nest in the fall. The hatchability of the chicks is very high: musk ducklings hatch in 90% of cases. Seasonal business will bring good income if you sell the product more expensive than ordinary duck eggs.

You can cross an indochka with a Beijing duck to get a mulard: this is the name of a hybrid that can grow faster and reaches about 4 kg in weight.

Poultry house

The content of musky ducks should be held in a comfortable environment for them. First of all, the construction of a duckweed is required. The room in which the ducks will live must meet several criteria:

1. It must be dry and cool, because the birds do not like dampness and a hot climate. The best temperature is 15 ° C. In a dirty and damp house, musky ducks wither and are poorly carried. It is recommended in order to avoid this problem to put the floor from the grid with large cells.
2. In the winter, the drinker should be located on the mesh floor. It is important to ensure that there is plenty of water: indo-women drink a lot. Between the drinker and the feeder should be at least 3 m.
3. In the house, perches for ducks up to 20 cm high and the same width should be arranged;
4. It is necessary to ensure that the litter always remains clean.

The dimensions of the ducklings should be spacious enough to contain broodstock. The breeding area should include not only the premises, but also a paddock for walking in the fresh air. Cages, a barn or a room specially created for ducks can serve as a ducklings. You can make a house yourself, although you may need a circuit. At home, it is not always possible to provide a body of water, but this is not a vital necessity: Indoor women live well without it.

Rules of care

The answer to the question of what they eat musky ducks, simple: almost everything. The food base will be wet mixers: a mixture of chopped herbs, tops, leftover food from the kitchen, grain and corn. Compound feed should be suitable for the age of the bird and its state of health. It is important to take into account the features of the destination: musky ducks for meat should be fed according to different principles than indow-breeds, which are bred for other purposes. In terms of feeding, there are features that you should know so that there are no problems with the duck:

1. If there is a pond near the duckling, the amount of feed can be reduced. Ducks themselves will earn their livelihood by catching insects. However, in winter, the mute swan can not swim in the water due to weak sebaceous glands.
2. Indians are naturally curious and can try small sharp objects, and swallow them immediately, which is why it is vital to monitor the cleanliness of the pen.
3. Food and water should be warm, in no case hot, even if feeding takes place in winter.
4. Feathered fights with other species of birds for food, if the feeders are common.
5. Indians are prone to cannibalism. To prevent this from happening, it is important to monitor the light intensity in the caddy during oviposition.

Proper feeding should begin from the first days of the duckling’s life. The first day the ducklings eat chopped boiled eggs, on the second day you can add a mixture of eggs and porridge to the diet. Gradually, greens are introduced into the diet, and ducklings can be fed with potatoes at the age of 10 days.

Preparation for egg laying

Ducks of musky ducks cannot serve an unlimited number of females, the optimal ratio : one male for 3-5 females. Crossing is not carried out between close relatives. The formation of the herd is best to start 1.5 months before the laying. Since, unlike the duck, the spleen reaches puberty later, it is better if it is older than the females in the brood stock.

It is especially recommended to monitor the ratio of the weight of the male and the female. If the drake is many times larger than the female, it is likely that it will damage it, crush it, it does not matter if they are breeding or not. In some cases, artificial insemination is carried out.

Before you start laying eggs, you need to equip the nests. A nest can be made from almost anything, for example, it is a very good idea to make it from an ordinary drawer.The main thing is that the box should have a sufficiently high threshold, then the eggs will not be able to roll out of it. The nest should be deep and the hole should not be too narrow. Pay attention to the behavior of the females when they begin to walk on the corral. Some of them independently find objects that could become nests.

When arranging the nests, it is important to consider that the birds fight among themselves if their places for laying are too close to each other and in direct line of sight. With the nests nearby, you need to place high partitions between them.

Choose a nest based on the following factors:

1. It should not be in a damp place. It must not be placed close to a cold wall. One should also be wary of insidious drafts, from which ducks can get sick.
2. A musky duck does not like noise and does not rush if it feels in danger, so you need to equip the nests away from the aisles. You should try not to disturb the ducks when they started to rush, and in no case should you transfer the nest on which the bird sits. Otherwise, the bird refuses to use it or is alarmed so that it will not rush or stop hatching.
3. The lining should be clean, it is better to change it every night. Keeping the lining clean is an important success factor in raising birds.

Features of breeding ducklings

For females over 180 days, increase the duration of daylight hours as much as possible up to 16-17 hours.This allows you to increase their fertility. Birds can trample eggs and eat them. To prevent this from happening, the light should not be intense or too weak. Twilight is most suitable. To prevent cannibalism, daylight hours are increased gradually, day by day, but not sharply. When the time of oviposition comes to an end, the daylight hours are increased to 18-19 hours.

Before you put other people’s eggs in the nest, you will have to wait a few days. The maternal instinct in females awakens only after a week: only after a while does it begin to hatch eggs. After this, you can lay several eggs, remembering that the laying hen can hatch exactly as many eggs as can fit under it. It is believed that female incubation is a more acceptable option than incubation.

Incubation of eggs of musky duck is an alternative way to get chicks. Incubation is chosen by people who are going to do business, for example, trade in ducklings. Incubation is also useful in cases when it was not possible to plant a female to incubate offspring. The incubation of musky ducks begins with the collection of eggs for her: they are collected for 2 weeks, and then sent for storage. The appearance of chicks from eggs of irregular shape or damaged is impossible. The egg should be regular, oval, clean, with a smooth shell without defects.

Store the product at a temperature of 11 ° C.The eggs are kept for no longer than 2 weeks, after which they can no longer be incubated: the percentage of output will be too small. The reason is the thickness of the shell membrane. It is important to wait until it becomes thin so that the incubation is successful. How many chicks will hatch depends on the method used to achieve this, as well as other factors.

Incubation mode

First, set the proper humidity level in the incubator and warm it up, after what begin to lay eggs: from large to small. In order for the duckling to finish successfully, from time to time the egg is turned over and sprayed with cool water. The duck that sits on the eggs does this by sprinkling them with water on its own after swimming in a pond and turning it over with its paws. Sometimes the incubator has automatic egg flipping modes.

A table by which you can set the incubation mode of musky ducks:

In the first week you need to turn the eggs 2 times during the day. In the second week, coups should be continued, sprayed and ventilated.In the third week, concentrate on cooling. The most important thing is that the temperature is not too low or high.

There are several difficulties with ducklings:

1. They are born later than chickens.
2. Incubation musky duck eggs are not as successful as hatching naturally.

Hatching occurs after 32 days. As in the case of ducklings of other species, it is impossible to help kids cope with the shell, they must break through the egg themselves. The incubation rules, in addition to the regime, have no other features. As with other birds, when incubation occurs, you need to check the eggs every time. Ovoscopy allows you to identify defects at an early stage. It makes no sense and it is even dangerous to keep an unfertilized or defective egg in an incubator.

Cultivation of birds in an incubator can be viewed in detail in the video, because the description does not always allow you to fully understand the process. At the end of the incubation, the chickens are transplanted into a separate box in a warm room and kept there from one to several days or more. At this stage, it is time to choose healthy and strong babies: – they can be sent for reproduction in the future. If there is a brood in the household that sits on the nest, you can plant the chicks at her so that she takes care of their heating and helps them grow.

Cultivation of musky ducks can be difficult, despite all the unpretentiousness of these birds. Growing them in the country should be fun, because otherwise the work will be too tedious. These birds are unpretentious, but caring for ducklings, and then for adult birds will require a lot of time, stamina and care, you will have to do a lot of things. As the wise proverb says, patience and labor will grind everything.

Now you know how to breed musk ducklings.