Today, many villagers breed ducks of various breeds, as a rule, to obtain tender and tasty meat, as well as eggs, fluff and feathers. When choosing a breed for breeding, the viability and resistance of the bird to diseases, how quickly it gains weight and, of course, how good its meat is in taste, and also what are the disadvantages and advantages, are important. Every year, the market offers consumers ever new breeds improved in one way or another.
Relatively recently, in the late 90s of the last century, a blue favorite duck appeared. Description and main characteristics of this breed are presented below.
When and where did it appear?
This breed of ducks was bred in Bashkiria at the Blagovarsky breeding poultry farm in 1998. The base was a white Peking duck, which for a long time was crossed and selected. Initially, it was used for industrial breeding, but due to the excellent "operational" characteristics of the duck breed, the blue favorite is increasingly found in farms and in ordinary rural farmsteads. Adult individuals are large birds with a beautiful, bluish-smoky feather color, which can vary from light to rather dark tones. This is not a marriage, and such a separation is due to the genetic characteristics of the breed.
Blue favorite - duck: description, photo
Due to their beautiful grayish-blue plumage, these ducks got this name.
In addition, an adult bird of this breed is distinguished by a dense, “firmly knocked down” physique. She has an elongated raised body with a wide and not very convex chest. A large head with a rather long and flat beak is located on the neck of medium length. As mentioned above, the breed of ducks, the blue favorite, can have plumage of different colors, which determines the color of the massive paws and beak of the bird.
Specifications
Recall that the whole variety of domestic duck breeds by productivity is divided into three main areas: meat, general user (meat and egg) and egg. Meat type birds include the blue favorite duck. The description given by the breeders suggests that the birds of this breed are early maturing and gain weight well. With special fattening by two months, the spleen can gain up to 3 kg. It is during this period that the bird consumes the greatest amount of food. Subsequently, the amount of food eaten by one individual decreases, and the growth becomes more uniform. The meat of such ducks is non-greasy, which distinguishes it from such common breeds as Peking and Bashkir. The duck is a blue favorite, the reviews of the owners confirm this, it perfectly tolerates both heat and winter cold.
Productivity
Most poultry farmers consider a good weight gain and how quickly and easily they are fattened the main advantage of the blue favorite breed. So, at the time of puberty, at 24-26 weeks, the spleen can weigh about five, and the duck - up to 4 kg.
Egg production
At the age of five to six months, a blue favorite duck begins to sweep. Egg Description:
- average weight - about 90 g;
- pleasant, delicate and soft taste;
- in the season you can get from 100 to 150, and in the year - 220-250 pieces.
Features of care and maintenance
An important characteristic of poultry farmers for the duck is the blue favorite - its endurance and ruggedness.
Unlike many other breeds, a regular corral is suitable for breeding such a bird, and you do not need to spend time and effort on the construction and special equipment of the duckling. The immunity of these ducks is strong, which allows them to adapt quite easily to various climatic conditions. The quality of meat and egg production are not affected by elevated or lowered temperatures, with the exception of extreme values.
Preparing a place for young animals
Before you buy young animals, you need to prepare a room, work tools and a place for walking. Before starting the chicks in the room where they will live, it is necessary to carry out wet cleaning, as well as to disinfect the walls, equipment and tools with a hot solution of 3% soda ash. The place intended for walking ducklings must be leveled and sprinkled with a layer of sand of 5 cm.
Growing ducklings
After you have purchased and brought home, be sure to pipette a very weak solution of potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate) chicks of the breed Blue Favorite (duck). Description, photos of ducklings you see below.
Then the ducklings are placed in a warm room with a temperature from +20
0 to + 30
0 , not far from the heat source. For the normal growth and development of the bird, lighting is necessary for 16 hours daily, for which special lighting or conventional lamps are used. As a litter for young growth straw or hay can be used. How properly organized the heating of the ducklings can be judged by their behavior: if they are active and alert, move a lot or sit without squeezing “in a lump” - the temperature is quite normal. If it is too hot, then any young duck, a blue favorite, the cultivation of which you carry out, will show you his heavy breathing, very different from usual. If the chicks are cold, then they will scream quite loudly, "hang out" in one place and crush each other.
What and how to feed?
The duck is not a blue duck favorite.
Feeding these birds will not be difficult, even for a beginner poultry farmer. Ducklings are first given crushed duck or chicken eggs, and after a week finely chopped grass, dandelion leaves or nettles are added to the feed. During the first month, you can give the chicks low-fat cottage cheese and milk. As the birds grow older, juicy foods such as carrots, clovers, potatoes, enriched with ground chalk or shells, are introduced into the diet. At the age of one month, young growth can be transferred to grain mixtures. If ducks have the ability to pinch grass, as well as access to a reservoir, then they will produce part of their food on their own. Feed the blue favorite bird 2-3 times a day. In the first intake, it is better to give various mixed wet food, and in the evening - germinated grain. Additives such as crushed limestone, shells, chalk, eggshells should always be available to ducks. In addition, fine gravel contributes to the normal digestion of these birds.
Water mode
For small ducklings, water with a temperature of about +20 0 C is necessary. When installing drinking bowls, they should be placed away from the feeders, since the chick, chewing on the feed, will try to immediately drink it.
If he succeeds, then some of the food will simply be washed off with water, never ending up in the bird’s stomach. Adults need fresh and clean water to clean their nostrils clogged with food and rinse their beaks. It is best to place the liquid in several not very wide but deep containers. The depth of the drinker should be such that the duck, the blue favorite, can place its head on it. The description of this bird does not make it possible to predict the desired size, so when manufacturing you will have to focus on the dimensions of your pets.
Advantages and disadvantages
Most owners who breed the blue favorite breed, note the following positive features:
- High vitality and survival of young animals.
- Calm and even behavior.
- Good health and excellent immunity.
- Unpretentiousness, ease of maintenance and care.
- High adaptability to any conditions.
- Good egg production.
- High feed rate.
- The profitability of breeding, as the bird of this breed is large and precocious.
- Lean tender meat with excellent taste.
According to poultry farmers and farmers, the blue favorite, a favorite of which is quite numerous, has only one, but a significant drawback: it has almost no instinct for hatching eggs.
Because of this, to obtain ducklings, you have to use incubators or lay eggs for poultry and ducks of other breeds. In rare cases, this instinct “wakes up” in ducks of the blue favorite, and then the bird practically does not leave the nest for the entire time of hatching, which is 27–28 days. She is absent extremely rarely and for very insignificant periods of time, only in order to drink and eat. At one time, a duck that feels like a brood can hatch up to 15 ducklings, and all 30 can be raised. It is necessary to plant alien chicks to any domestic birds on the same day that "relatives" hatch. If you try to make a “sharing” at another time, then the hen will not accept them and just throw them out of the nest. The peculiarity of this breed is that the hen not only plucks fluff from himself to insulate his nest, but also actively loses feathers. This should not be scared, since this is a natural and quite normal for ducks blue favorite process.