All you need to know on keeping ducks for the best meat, eggs and, ooh.... their beauty

Selecting the right breed of duck greatly contributes to the success of the venture, consider the ease of availability of the breed you intend to keep. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Selecting the right breed of duck greatly contributes to the success of the business. Kindly consider the ease of availability of the breed you intend to keep.
  • For laying ducks, chick starter should be provided from hatch to eight weeks.
  • Since the ducklings are unable to maintain their body temperature, supplemental heat is essential.
  • Ducks are hardy and relatively resistant to poultry diseases however, those kept in large groups and are confined to small areas are more susceptible to health problems.

Ducks are beautiful birds, easy to keep and they bring warmth to a farm because of their economic and aesthetic benefits.

As any other poultry, you have to think wisely before rearing ducks. Keep in mind where they will be housed, their safety from predators during the day, water facilities, feeds and health management. Here are things to consider before starting:

PRODUCTION OBJECTIVE

Find out your main purpose for raising ducks. Do you want to produce eggs, meat or both? This will also guide you in determining which breeds of ducks you should be looking for.

LOCATION

The area in which you intend to put up the unit should be considered since ducks mostly prefer foraging and availability of natural vegetation and insects is important.

Also, some duck breeds are noisier and may be a nuisance to neighbours.

MANAGEMENT

The type of management system you choose will depend on your resources.

First, you may decide to completely confine the birds, in which case they will be completely dependent on you,

Second, you can allow them to roam on the farm and confine them at night while third, you can keep them in confined runs.

MARKETING

You need to carry out a market survey to determine the type of market and customer base you target.

BREED SELECTION
Selecting the right breed of duck greatly contributes to the success of the business. Kindly consider the ease of availability of the breed you intend to keep.

The Pekin breed is by far the most popular for meat production given its high growth rate, enabling it to attain market weights of 2.5kg in seven to eight weeks.

The Muscovy breed, popular due to the high adaptation to scavenging conditions, is also a suitable breed for meat.

However, it has relatively low growth rate but it is able to attain 4.5 to 5.5kg at 12 weeks.

If your interest is in egg production, consider the Khaki Campbell breed since it is able to lay 300 to 330 eggs per year under intensive system and 175 to 225 eggs per year under semi-intensive system.

Its eggs are large, thick-shelled and weigh about 70 to 75g.

For dual purpose production, the Pekin is considered ideal since besides having high growth rate, the birds are able to lay 100 to 180 eggs per year.

HOUSING

Ducks can be reared under intensive, semi-intensive or free-range systems. Under intensive system, allow a floor space of 4 to 5 square feet per duck for the laying breeds and 3 square feet per bird for the meat breeds.

The house should be well-ventilated, dry and rat proof while the floor should be partly covered with litter material (wood shavings, rice husks or wheat straws) and partly with wooden slats or wire mesh.

For the semi-intensive system, the house should have easy access to outside runs as ducks prefer to be outdoor during the day.

Provide a floor space of 3 to 4 square feet per duck for the night shelter and 10 to 15 square feet per duck for the outside confined run.

Under free-range system, 250 ducks can be accommodated in quarter acre land (highly dependent on forage availability).

Water for swimming is not an essential feature, however, continuous water flow channel with dimensions of about 20 inches wide by 6-8 inches deep should be constructed where outside runs are provided or at one of the end of house.

This allows the birds to immerse their heads in the water to prevent scaly, crusty or in extreme cases blindness.

BROODING

Brooding takes three to four weeks during which it is best to confine ducklings to a smaller space using brooder ring (spacing of 0.5 square feet per duckling) made out of cardboards of 12 to 15 inches high that can be adjusted as the birds grow.

Since the ducklings are unable to maintain their body temperature, supplemental heat is essential.

Temperatures of 320C should be maintained during the first week and, thereafter, reduced by about 30C per week until it reaches 230C during the fourth week.

Depending on the type of heat source being used, allow hoover spacing of 0.10 square feet per duckling or one infra-red bulb per 30 ducklings.

FEEDING
Ducks kept in the free-range system are reared with minimal attention by the farmer since they are able to balance their nutrient intake by feeding on grasses, seeds, insects, earthworms, snails and small fishes, among others.

However, in confinement, the farmer must provide the birds with balanced feeds to enhance productivity. Ducks eat more than chicken and depending on size, an adult duck can consume between 150–200g of feeds a day.

Given the high level of feed intake and costs involved, it can be quite expensive and uneconomical to completely confine the birds, and as such the semi-intensive system would suffice.

Under the system, feeds should be offered only twice in a day, at 8am and at 4-5 pm, while they are let out to forage.

This way, the total amount of commercial feeds consumed in a day can be cut down, especially during the harvest season.

One way to determine this is to observe if there is any feed left in the feeding troughs 20 minutes after feeding.

If there is, then you are probably providing too much and the birds are able to meet a major share of their nutrient requirement during foraging.

Similar feeds as those of chicken may be used (layers and broiler feeds) to feed ducks, but not the medicated type, especially when they are raised in confinement and cannot dilute the potency of the medications through foraging.

Ducks have the tendency to transfer feeds to their drinkers for easy swallowing, especially in the case of dry mash.

This leads to a lot of wastage. To prevent this, they should be given pelleted or crumbled feeds to ensure efficient utilisation.

Meat and eggs from ducks rank second to chicken products, an indication that the venture is worth exploiting. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

However, in case only mash is available, a combination of dry and wet mash should be provided while ensuring the feeders and drinkers are placed 60 to 70cm apart.

Rearing ducks for meat production takes about seven to eight weeks after which a market weight of 2.8 to 3kg is attained.

The birds should be given broiler starter from hatch to week three at a gradual rate of 35 to 75g per duckling per day.

Afterwards, the birds should be given broiler finisher from week three to seven/eight at the rate of 80 to 160g per duckling, per day.

At the end of the production, each bird consumes up to 7kg of feed to reach market weight.

For laying ducks, chick starter should be provided from hatch to eight weeks at a gradual rate of 50 to 90g per duckling, per day.

Growers feed should be given from nine to 24 weeks at a gradual rate of 90 to 120g per duck, per day and layers feed from 25 weeks onwards.

Provision of layers feed will vary between 120 to 160g per bird, per day depending on the rate of egg production, age and availability of forages.

Introduction of each feed at each stage should be gradual to avoid digestive disturbance.

From the age of nine weeks, ducks may be left to forage for themselves as they are able to meet most of their nutrition requirements on their own or still maintained under commercial feeds.

By allowing them to forage, they will eat as much as 25 per cent less of the commercial feed than if you didn’t allow them to forage.

MATURITY
Ducks should attain sexual maturity by seven months, otherwise birds that start laying before this age will offer small eggs and those meant to produce chicks will have low hatchability rates.

Egg production increases rapidly once sexual maturity is reached and full production of 70 to 80 per cent lay rate can be achieved by providing 14 hours of light daily from seven months.

This can be done by using a 40 to 60 watt light bulb in their housing to provide artificial light.

In the case where ducks are intended for breeding, maintaining one male for each six females in the flock is important to achieve high levels of fertility and hatchability.

Given that 95 to 98 per cent of the eggs are laid by 9am, birds should be let out to the runs from mid-morning to avoid the laying of eggs outside.

It is, therefore, advisable to gather the eggs early in the morning if they are intended for artificial incubation. Removing the eggs as soon as possible lessens the problems of dirt and cracks.

Cracked, misshapen or abnormally small eggs should not be incubated.

Eggs for hatching should be stored at room temperature for not more than seven days to prevent loss of hatchability.

Eggs should be stored small end down.

Incubation period for duck eggs is 28 days. Using an artificial incubator, the temperature should be set at 37.50C and humidity at 86 per cent from day one to day 25, thereafter, from day 26 to day 28, the temperature should be reduced to 36.90C and humidity increased to 94 per cent.

The Muscovy breed, however, has an extended incubation period of 35 days where similar incubator settings are used but adjustments are done on day 33 of incubation.

For natural incubation, it is important to provide clean, dry nesting facilities. Ducks will make their own nest if straw or other litter material is provided.

Wood shavings and wheat straws also make good litter materials. Nest boxes can also be provided. Nests should be 12 inches wide, 18 inches long and 12 inches deep and can be placed in a row along the walls of the breeder house.

Feed and water should be in close proximity, so the female can obtain her daily nutrient requirements without having to leave the nest for long periods.

DISEASES
Ducks are hardy and relatively resistant to poultry diseases however, those kept in large groups and are confined to small areas are more susceptible to health problems.

Common diseases include salmonellosis and collibacillosis, which result from poor hygiene conditions.

Both are bacterial diseases and can be controlled by using Furazolidone and sulphur-containing antibiotics.

Viral diseases such as duck plague, duck cholera and duck viral hepatitis (avian influenza) affect ducks between three weeks and eight weeks of age.

The best method in keeping your flock healthy and free from disease is prevention. Clean, dry and warm housing facilities as well as high quality feeds and water will keep your flock healthy and reduce the chances of infection.

In addition, it is recommended that vaccination should be carried out for duck viral hepatitis at one week; duck cholera first vaccination at four weeks and again at 18 weeks; duck plague first vaccination at eight weeks and again at 12 weeks.

PROFITABILITY
Meat and eggs from ducks rank second to chicken products, an indication that the venture is worth exploiting.

The business in Kenya has not been explicitly commercialised as majority of the farmers keep the birds for subsistence or pleasure.

Currently, the most favourable market for duck products would be restaurants, bakeries and supermarkets while fertilised eggs and mature birds would be more of interest to local farmers intending to venture into duck production.

Due to the high body weights (2.8 to 4kg), duck reared for meat are able to fetch between Sh2,500 and Sh4,000 while the eggs from Sh1,200 to Sh1,800 per tray.

Mature ducks intended for breeding fetch even much higher prices of between Sh5,000 and Sh6,000.

Duck meat and eggs have not flooded the poultry market yet, presenting an opportunity for farmers to consider the business.

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Sophie Miyumo is a poultry breeding expert at the Smallholder Indigenous Chicken Improvement Programme,