breeding

[Chickensman97]

Hi, i wanted to get some pekins for breeding and i need to know every thing to know about breeding like amount of space for each bird or anything along those lines.

 

[RedfogsFlock]

Well we're pretty new to ducks ourselves, so I will do my best to help you. Currently we have 10 ducks. We have 6 runners, 1 muscovy, and 3 crested. We have one chocolate drake so far as we can tell. The others are to young still to tell.

So with that said.


We have a fully covered coop for them that is 12 feet long, by 8 feet wide, by 7 foot tall and fully enclosed in. Half of our coop has a good sturdy plywood roof. OUR FLOCK REFUSES TO USE IT!!!

We have 4 acres and they all just bunker down at night in the bushes. So what we did was put some plastic totes, and nest boxes in the tall weeds for them, which they use. I make it a point not to mow the areas of their boxes. We have a pool in the ground for them, and keep their food and nest boxes by it. We also have a small baby pool in our coop so if we're not home they still have their "pond".

Now remember our flock is free during the day so our pen is plenty big enough for them to "roost" in at night. If you plan to keep them penned all the time then our pen is good for no more than 4 to 6 ducks I would think. Our ducks are only penned up one day a week when we don't get home till after dark.

If it's bad weather out our ducks will go into the chicken coop, or their coop. We get an egg a day from our Tonto & Pocahontas right now. They nest in one of the boxes we've made, and leave us an egg a day.

I feed mine the same thing I feed my chickens, and the same egg layer mash. My hubby is a cook for the school so he gets to bring home the left over salad mix, and fruits every day. We give them to ALL our flock. (It's funny they see the truck coming down the road and will run to meet dad at the gate everyday!)

As for breeding them well here goes....

Pekin ducks set for 28 days
days 1 thru 25 temp should be at 99.5, and humidity at 55% and they must be turned a min of 4 times a day
lockdown temp 99.0 and humidity at 65%

Now the tricky part.......
as the babies start to pip increase the humidity to 85%, and ventilation by 50%
as the babies hatching comes to an end you need to lower the temp to 97.0 and humidity to 70%

If you can let your ducks be free it's the best thing for them since they are a bird that's not ment to be penned.

I know this isn't probably all the info you were looking for, but it's a start!

 

[Sweetfolly]

Also, being a heavy, meat-type breed, you'll probably get the best fertility if you provide them with a body of water - the drakes can have a hard time hefting themselves up, and they often breed on the water to get a little help from the buoyancy.