How to trim the beak of a mulard: why do you need cauterization and the rules for conducting

Every year there are more and more people raising poultry in private farms and on their own farms. At the same time, newcomers face problems that they did not suspect and do not know how to deal with them without losing livestock. For example, how and why to cut the beak of mulards, at what age it is done. Beginning farmers need answers to these questions.

Why you need to cut the beak of ducks

Mulardami is a hybrid breed obtained by crossing musky and white Peking ducks. They are unpretentious in care, grow quickly and gain weight, withstand difficult conditions, at the age of 7 weeks they already weigh 4 kilograms and are suitable for slaughter.

With the obvious advantages of mulards, they have a serious drawback: the birds are aggressive and often peck at their relatives. It is common for these ducks to pull out feathers from neighbors in the poultry house, and then pick open the resulting wounds. Birds with bald spots in their plumage look strange, suffer from pain, and if an infection gets into the wounds, they can die.

In place of torn feathers, hemp forms, this spoils the presentation of the carcass and reduces its value. There is constant noise in the goose house, the mulards quickly lose their tails, start to eat poorly, and therefore weight gain decreases.

The exact causes of pecking are unknown, birds may show aggression in cases of:

• the presence of cocky individuals in the flock;
• unbalanced diet, lack of feed;
• crowding in bird pens;
• water scarcity;
• a small number of drinkers and feeders, which makes the mulards fight for food;
• systematic overfeeding of ducks;
• bright light, humidity, house disturbance.

In addition, the skin glands of the mulards produce fat, if these glands are disrupted, the skin dries out, and the birds begin to peck and pull out feathers from themselves or from each other.

Many farmers track aggressive individuals and separate them from the main livestock, but this does not always help to stop cannibalism in the pack. Another way to try to avoid fights is to give the birds s alt water, but then make fresh water freely available. Reducing the lighting also helps to stop the skirmishes. All these measures are a temporary measure, after a short period of time the problems return.

Therefore, beak trimming is the most effective procedure to prevent cannibalism among mulards.

How does it help?

Beak trimming is called debeaking. It is produced by mulardam at the age of up to 3 weeks, the later terms of the operation affect the rate of weight gain. Ducks with trimmed beaks suffer from pain and refuse to feed in the first days after the operation.

Important: the beak is clipped to different types of poultry, but indo-ducks and mulards are most prone to cannibalism.

In the future, after 2-3 weeks, the beak heals completely, but no longer has a sharp tip and is not capable of causing damage. In addition, birds with clipped beaks are less aggressive and act with caution.

Required tools

In industrial poultry farms, there are devices for beak trimming operations with high productivity. At home, debeaking is done with scissors, garden pruners, experienced farmers use a soldering iron for this. In the absence of skill, especially if the owner is going to carry out the procedure for the first time, it is better to seek the help of a more experienced assistant or call a veterinarian. To treat the wound after trimming, an iodine solution is needed.

Methods and rules for trimming

Debeaking is not performed on a weakened and sick bird, it is separated from the main livestock. It is possible to trim the beak of such mulards only after full restoration of he alth and strength.

5-7 days before the operation, anti-stress vitamins are given to birds. The bird is firmly held by the neck, 2-3 millimeters of the upper part of the beak are cut with sharp scissors, after trimming it is necessary to cauterize the wound with a pharmacy solution of iodine.The procedure is mandatory for the entire livestock, even one bird with an untrimmed beak, caught in a treated flock, can cripple the entire flock.

After the procedure, the birds are offered enhanced nutrition, no additives that change the taste of the feed are used. Provide livestock with clean drinking water. So that the birds do not remain hungry, increase the number of feeders. Pruning contributes to weight gain, significantly reduces mortality, it becomes quieter in the duck house, the birds do not arrange fights.

The procedure is unpleasant for birds, but necessary, without it, feed costs increase with weight loss, the entire livestock suffers from cannibalism, can die from both pecking and infection in the wound.

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