Peking duck and its features

The Peking duck was bred about three hundred years ago in China. In the century before last, it got 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 varieties came from Peking ducks, including broilers.

Peking duck

Description of the breed

White Peking, or Chinese , the duck is a rather large bird with a powerful physique, which is slightly different from those Here, a brief description of the breed:

• Medium head with a convex forehead (characteristic).
• The bill is flat, bright orange.
• The chest is wide, powerful.
• The body is elongated.
• The back is wide.
• The legs are short, widely set.
• The wingspan is large, although the ducks do not fly.
• The plumage is dense, white, rarely creamy.
• The gender is almost the same, the drakes can be slightly larger than the ducks.
• The duck egg is bluish or white.

ak looks thoroughbred Peking duck, you can take a closer look at the photos and videos. If you compare the Peking and musk breed, you can see how much the first is larger.It is larger in size than the breeds usual for our parts. When crossing Beijing and musk ducks, a hybrid mulard is obtained, which is larger than both parents.

The productivity of Beijing ducks is high, therefore breeding and growing this breed is considered very profitable. The main products that can be obtained from poultry are meat. It is quite oily, contains many high-grade proteins, including myosin, and useful trace elements. Meat from young ducks is more valuable than from old ones. In China, the breed is also grown for eggs. It is from these birds that the Peking Duck specialty is prepared. Duck feathers and down that hold heat well are considered valuable.

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 cultivation, ducklings are sent to slaughter at the age of 60-70 days, until molting has begun. During the molting period, the weight gain is sharply reduced, and feed consumption increases by 2.5 times. The stumps of feathers after molting fit tightly in the skin, because 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. An 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 a temperature difference, can do well without a reservoir. When arranging a house, it is important to remember that the breed is sensitive to dampness. The content of ducks is optimal at a humidity of 65-75%.

Duck house

If there is a house or shed in the yard, you can easily adapt it to the needs of ducks, rather than build new. The room should not have drafts, dampness, because you need to caulk all the walls, check the roof. Walls can be covered with plaster or just plywood. The floor is best raised 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 house should not fall below 10 ° C in winter, and in summer should not rise above 25 ° C. If the ducks are hot or cold, they gain weight poorly, lose feathers. At low temperatures, they pile up together, as a result, ducklings can transmit each other. At high temperatures they spread their wings and drink a lot.

It is important that the room is adequately ventilated. At industrial farms, hoods are installed. At home, there is enough window, its area should be 100 cm² / m² of room. To allow the ducks to freely leave the house, they equip a hole with a size of 30 × 40 cm. It is best to make it on the south or south-west wall.In winter, the house should be additionally lit. Daylight hours should last 10-12 hours.

In the summer, round-the-clock house keeping is not recommended. Ducks feel better on free-range or in a small aviary. 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. The area of ​​the house for adult ducks should be 0.5 m² per individual. For ducklings, it is smaller, just 1 m for 12-16 heads is enough.

At industrial farms, cage is practiced, the Peking duck is perfectly adapted to it. Sometimes birds are placed in tight cages 2-3 weeks before slaughter and force-fed. Then you can get a good yield of fatty meat. This is how birds are fed for the Peking Duck specialty.

Inventory

Keeping and breeding ducks at home provides for stocking in the house. It is necessary to install there:

• feeders;
• drinking bowls;
• nests.

The feeders are made of boards with a thickness of about 2 cm. The bar is beaten on top so that the birds climb inside. It is advisable to make separate feeders for grain, herbs and succulent feeds, mineral additives. Drinkers are made of metal. Automatic drinkers are convenient, consisting of a large tank from which water enters a metal container. How they look, you can see in the photo and video.

The nests are placed on the floor, under the wall, in a secluded place so that no one bothers the duck that rushes. The birds are rather timid, afraid of any rustle. They lay eggs in the morning, therefore at this time it is advisable not to enter the barn. The height of the nest is 30-40 cm, the width is about 50 cm. A small threshold is made in front so that the litter does not crumble and no eggs fall out.

Proper care of the nests is very important. The litter in them is changed daily, after collecting eggs. It is advisable to clean the floor and the entire room where the ducks live once a week. If you adhere to hygiene, the birds will not be afraid of disease.

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 have a length of only 20 cm. Grain fodder in it is delayed for 4 hours, and greens and wet mixes – for 3 hours. At the same time, food is very well absorbed. Such an intense metabolism allows you to fatten ducks very quickly. They eat constantly and quickly grind all the feed.

Summer and winter bird feeding is different. If Peking ducks are free-range in the 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, given vitamins.Growing ducks is simplified by the fact that they are omnivorous. They calmly eat grass, kitchen waste. To make the meat yield greater and the mass gain faster, the diet includes:

• grain (corn, wheat, barley, oats);
• legumes (mainly peas);
• wheat bran;
• grass flour (in winter) and fresh green grass (in summer);
• legumes (alfalfa, bean tops and peas);
• vegetables (cabbage, carrots, pumpkin, zucchini, potatoes);
• bone or fish meal;
• beer yeast;
• cake and meal from oil plants;
• mineral additives (gravel, chalk, shells).

For the Peking duck to recover well, the menu should have a lot squirrel. Of the plants, beans contain most of the proteins; a lot of them are in corn and wheat. Animal proteins come with meat and bone meal. You can feed the ducks back, sour milk, if the farm has a cow. When a large farm is engaged in feeding, most often it uses compound feeds. The house should have constantly fresh water, at least 600 ml per individual per day.

Breeding ducklings

Breeding Beijing ducks is not difficult. Young growth is distinguished by good health and high survival rate. Peking ducks are not the best mother hens, but this deficiency is compensated by a high percentage of fertilization and hatchability of eggs, even with artificial incubation.

In the temperate climate zone, ducks begin to rush in late February or early March.During the season, they can lead 2-3 broods. In a hot climate, they rush year-round, can give up to 4 offspring. The brood hen is able to hatch 12-16 eggs at a time, the incubation period is 26-28 days. Artificial breeding in the incubator allows you to remove more ducklings.

Hatched chicks require adequate heating and round-the-clock lighting. The temperature should be 28-30 ° C. You can warm ducklings with an electric heating pad or a lamp. In the first 2 weeks, up to 20 chicks can be placed on 1 square meter. From the second week, ducklings need to be relocated to a more spacious room. From the third week they can live in an ordinary house.

Feeding the ducklings

First they feed the ducklings with a boiled egg, cottage cheese. For 2-3 days, you can chop nettle, quinoa, weed. 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 bring them to the yard earlier. Chicks are able to swim from the first days of life.

From the third week, ducklings are transferred to feed grain, herbs, vegetables. Grain feed begins to be 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, protein is 20%, then in the future – 11-15%.

Selection of broodstock

If you are planning independent breeding, you must definitely create 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 by such indicators:

• Weight and size of the duckling (weight must be at least 50 g).
• The state of plumage (evenly pigmented, fluffy).
• Ducklings are active and eat well.
• Excitability of the nervous system (reaction to feeding, grooming, approaching a mother or host duck).

The following selection is correct spend on the third week. It is important to determine not only how much the duckling weighs, but also how it grows and adds weight, to identify defects that could go unnoticed in the early days. The last selection is carried out in 150 days, sending for slaughter all rejected birds. In one broodstock there should be one drake for 6-8 ducks, then breeding will be successful. If you plant a musky drake on Peking ducks, you can get muleard ducklings. Unlike their parents, they are infertile, as Peking and musk ducks belong to different species, but the mass of the hybrid will be more.

Advantages and disadvantages of the breed

Cultivation and domestic breeding of Peking ducks is very popular. On industrial farms, these ducks take first place. Why are poultry farmers so fond of them?Birds have a number of advantages:

• Early maturity and quick weight gain.
• Great taste of meat.
• Big and tasty egg.
• A high percentage of fertilization and hatchability of ducklings.
• Adaptability to any climate (the duck is not afraid of frost, tolerates heat).
• Ducks eat everything in a row, which greatly simplifies feeding.
• Allowed keeping without ponds.

Peking ducks do not need to be looked after for a long time: ducklings have been killed since two months. Such precocity allows growing 2-3 broods per season.

But there are no ideal breeds, the Peking breed also has its drawbacks. These include:

• Shouting (ducks are heard all over the yard, which not everyone likes).
• Decreased maternal instinct – Peking ducks hatch eggs badly.
• Sensitivity 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 receive stable positive reviews. Even the new hybrids, the ancestors of which were Peking, cannot completely push them out of the market. Peking duckling costs an average of 250 rubles, an incubation egg – 50-100 rubles, an adult breeding duck – about 600-700 rubles.