Indo ducklings: further actions after hatching and whether to pick up

Bringing ducklings at home is not as easy as it seems, even if ducklings are hatched not in an incubator, but under a duck. It seems that you can trust everything to a duck and not worry. But what to do with ducklings after breeding, whether to take them away from her or not, how to feed and maintain them from the first days, what problems there may be, not every poultry farmer knows about this. Let's take a closer look at these questions.

Should I take ducklings from under the duck?

If the duck is calm in nature and proven, you do not need to take it. Ducklings, like all poultry chicks, hatch better under hens than in an incubator, and their survival rate is higher - almost 100%.They quickly learn everything that the duck teaches them, they get sick less. Many breeders leave their brood with an indochka, especially in summer, when it is warm and hypothermia does not threaten them.

If a musky duck takes care of its offspring, then it does not need to be disturbed. But if it becomes clear that she abandoned the ducklings, which sometimes happens, then the only thing left is to pick them up and raise them in a brooder. But there is a situation when you have to take the ducklings even from a caring mother, despite the fact that she responsibly nursed them and does not show any intention to refuse them.

This should be done if it is not possible to allocate a separate room for an Indian with offspring, where she will live until the ducklings grow up a little.

The fact is that it is impossible to keep a mother with children in a common herd, other Indo-ducks or a drake can easily trample them. All hens need to be isolated for a while, and if this cannot be done due to lack of free places, then it remains to pick up the ducklings.

Features of keeping ducklings from the first days of birth

If a decision is made to take the ducklings from the Indochka, then this should be done immediately, as soon as she brought them out. Place the chicks in a brooder. This is a special device where artificial conditions are created for rearing young poultry. A feeder and a drinking bowl are installed in the brooder, an infrared lamp is hung on top, the floor is covered with newspaper and paper, which are changed daily.

Small chicks bred by an Indochka can be released for walking with their mother, but not in a flock, but separately from everyone. They can swim, so you can put a shallow container on the paddock in which the Indian ducklings will splash around. The walking yard needs to be cleared of debris, especially items that could hurt the chicks.

At the same time, if it is cold, then on the first day it is impossible to let out an indo with babies. It is better to leave them in the house, supply water and food.If it is very cold, then either the duck needs to be moved to a warm room for a while, or a way to heat the house needs to be found. This must be done, because indo-ducks do not warm their offspring like chickens, but simply stand, and the chicks sit nearby. Therefore, in a cold poultry house, they will freeze.

What to feed

In the first 1-3 days after the ducklings hatch, they are fed with boiled eggs, cottage cheese and greens, like chickens. Further actions: transfer to grain mixers, which are made up of finely chopped chopped, boiled vegetables or root crops, finely chopped greens, bran. They should be moist but not sticky. You can cook crumbly cereals, reverse, sour milk. Give duckweed if available nearby, give more herbs.

In order not to prepare food, you can feed the indochka chicks with compound feed. There are starter mixes that can be given to ducklings in the first 1.5 weeks of life.

Ducklings that grow up with a duck are fed the same way as artificially raised ones. But you need to make sure that the indochka does not eat their food, so you don’t need to leave until the kids are full.

1.5-week-old ducklings are mixed with meat waste, boiled potatoes, vitamin preparations, mineral premixes. This is necessary to prevent rickets, to make the immune system stronger. Feeding frequency:

• 1st week - 5-6 times, but little by little;
• up to a month - 4-5 times;
• 1-2 months - 3-4 times;
• before slaughter, as well as adult birds - 2-3 times.

When the ducklings grow up to at least a month, they can be released into the flock. Adult birds will no longer pose a danger to them.

Possible problems

You can't touch ducklings that have already hatched until all the rest have come out of the eggs.When an Indian woman sees that someone is touching her offspring, she often abandons him. Therefore, you need to wait, and then count how many hatched. The main problem that a poultry farmer has with newly hatched ducklings is that not all of them try to eat and drink, some do not know how to do it.

Therefore, until the ducklings learn to eat, you need to make sure everyone has eaten.

Indoutok, which are fattened for meat, are grown until they accumulate a mass sufficient for slaughter. The problem in this case is the difficulty in determining the period when slaughter can be performed. Usually indoutok are slaughtered at the age of 2.5-3 months, since then molting occurs. More in need of nutrients, they eat more, but gains are in no hurry to increase. Therefore, only breeding birds can be left for further cultivation.

Disease prevention

Babies immediately after hatching are defenseless, fragile and vulnerable.Their immunity is still weak, which leads to diseases, the cause of which is insufficient cleanliness in the poultry house. Therefore, in the place where the Indian woman sits, it should be clean. It is necessary to change the bedding, bathing water, remove the leftover food in the feeder so that it does not turn sour, refresh the water.

Simple safety measures reduce the chance of infections, which means saving babies' lives.How to raise ducklings, whether to take them from an indochka, the poultry farmer decides. An Indian woman, if she is balanced and not stupid, is able to raise offspring herself. It has been noticed that under the mother, the chicks do not get sick, grow quickly, and behave actively. There is always a lot of trouble with artificially reared indo-chickens. Therefore, if everything is fine, there is no need to take them from the duck.

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