How to prevent and control the low egg production of meat pigeons

Meat pigeon is also called squab, which refers to the young pigeon within 4 weeks of age. Its characteristics are: large size, rich nutrition, high medicinal value, is an advanced nourishing nutrition. The meat is delicate and delicious, which is the first of all flesh and blood products. According to the determination, squab contains more than 17 kinds of amino acids, the total amount of amino acids is as high as 53.9%, and contains more than 10 kinds of trace elements and vitamins.

Pigeons lay eggs, hatch and brood all the year round. At the age of 6 months, they were sexually mature, with an incubation period of 18 days and a breast-feeding period of 30 days. Usually a pair of pigeons produce 5-7 pairs of young pigeons per year. Pigeons are bred in monogamy. The female pigeon lays 2 eggs per litter, that is, after laying one egg the first day, she lays another egg the next day, and then hatches. In the process of hatching, male and female pigeons take turns to nest, male pigeons work the day shift (9: 00 to 16:00), and female pigeons nest from 16:00 to 9 o'clock the next day. In the process of hatching, it is necessary to pick up the eggs manually, generally check and pick out the azoospermic eggs and dead embryo eggs in time after 4-5 days of incubation, and pick out the dead embryo eggs again on the 10th day of hatching. If you encounter a single pigeon egg hatching, you should join the nest in time.

For the female meat pigeons in the normal breeding period, the interval between laying eggs is relatively stable, so that the yield of the whole flock of pigeons can be maintained at a certain level. However, the egg production of pigeons often decreases abnormally due to various reasons in the process of production. To find out the causes of the decline as soon as possible and take measures to correct it is the key to avoid greater losses. In this paper, the common causes and prevention and control methods of abnormal decline in egg production of meat pigeons are summarized as follows for reference.

Undernutrition or disproportion

Various nutrients in feed are the basis of all physiological activities of meat pigeons. insufficient nutrition or improper proportion will affect its normal growth and reproduction, resulting in weight loss, prolongation of egg laying interval and even suspension of production. The factors that lead to undernutrition or disproportion are:

Insufficient feeding capacity

There are several different breeding pigeons in a flock at the same time, and the nutritional requirements of each breeding pigeon vary greatly. For example, the feed intake of a certain feed in the breeding period can be 2 ~ 3 times that of the breeding pigeon in the incubation period. If the feeding amount of the whole flock is determined according to the feeding standard of the breeding pigeon during the incubation period, the feed intake of the breeding pigeon in the breeding period will be relatively insufficient.

The nutritional requirements of breeding pigeons with the same growth period are also different in different seasons. Generally, with the decrease of air temperature, the nutritional requirement increases gradually, and the feeding quantity will be insufficient if the feeding amount can not be adjusted in time with the change of season.

In addition, the non-standard operation of breeders, artificially feeding a small amount of feed is also a more common reason. In general, abnormal egg production caused by lack of nutrition caused by insufficient feeding, such as individual or a small number of pigeon flocks in a pigeon farm are still normal. After finding the reason, as long as the feed can be adjusted in time according to the nutritional needs of breeding pigeons, the egg production will generally pick up a few days later.

Single type of raw materials

Some pigeon farms or pigeon farmers often reduce the variety of raw materials in feed or the proportion of certain ingredients because of raw material sources or price factors, resulting in incomplete feed nutrition or insufficient content, which can not meet the normal nutritional needs of pigeons. The pigeons fed with this feed generally showed low egg production. The solution is to change the diet structure and prepare the feed reasonably.

The feed composition has changed significantly.

At present, many pigeon farms or pigeon farmers are still feeding pigeons with raw diets, and the dietary composition has changed significantly, which makes pigeons not adapt to some newly replaced ingredients, resulting in reduced feed intake and nutritional deficiencies. In order to reduce the impact of feed replacement on pigeons, pigeons can be changed gradually from less to more, so as to give pigeons an adaptive process.

Lack of health sand

For pigeons fed with raw food, health sand can supplement the deficiency of nutrients such as calcium and phosphorus in the diet, which is helpful to the digestion of the feed and play a role in health care. The lack of health sand will inevitably lead to the lack of some nutrients in the meat pigeon, which will reduce the pigeon's resistance to adverse conditions and lead to the decline of reproductive performance. In order to keep the egg production of pigeons without great change, appropriate health sand is essential.

Lack of light

In winter, the days are short and the nights are long. If you do not supplement the appropriate artificial light, too short light time will reduce the reproductive function of breeding pigeons. At the same time, due to the short feeding time, it will also result in less intake of pigeons, resulting in insufficient nutrition, resulting in a decline in egg production.

Diseases

There are many kinds of diseases that cause the decline of egg production of pigeons, and some acute infectious diseases, such as Newcastle disease, are easy to be paid attention to, and some measures are taken to strengthen prevention and control. However, some recessive infectious diseases are often ignored, and the abnormal decline in egg production is often due to the existence of these diseases. The main types of diseases are:

Endoparasitic disease

For the internal parasites dominated by nematodes, pigeons with mild infection have no obvious symptoms, have no great effect on egg production or prolong the laying cycle, while severe infection can be characterized by pale cheeks, anemia, weight loss, diarrhea and egg production stop.

Ectoparasitic diseases such as pigeon lice

Pigeon lice parasitic on the body surface or feathers bite, making pigeons uneasy, causing pigeon appetite loss, physical weakness, reduced production performance.

Paratyphoid fever

Adult pigeons show no symptoms after infection, but the ovaries of female pigeons can be damaged, resulting in egg production disorder or permanent suspension of production.

Mycoplasmosis

It is a pigeon flock disease caused by avian septicemic mycoplasma. Sick pigeon loss of appetite, gradual weight loss, loose feathers, breathing difficulties, can also invade the reproductive organs, so that egg laying down or stop.

The main methods to control the disease are to strengthen quarantine, eliminate positive pigeons such as paratyphoid and mycoplasmosis, regularly dispel parasites inside and outside the pigeon, and carry out preventive medication. Strengthen environmental hygiene and disinfection and carry out scientific immunization.

Pigeon herd's own factors

Molting

Breeding pigeons generally molt once a year in late summer and early autumn, and the moulting period is as long as 1 month to 2 months. During this period, some pigeons may stop production, resulting in a decrease in the number of eggs laid by pigeons. This is related to the feeding and management of pigeons, if the amount of feed is insufficient, lack of water or other management work can not keep up, pigeon herds may generally stop production. Therefore, increasing the nutrition and strengthening the feeding management of pigeons during molting can reduce the effect of molting on egg production.

The breeding pigeon is too fat

In the process of feeding, if the pigeon can not be fed reasonably according to the different physiological stages, the amount of feed is too much for a long time, or the proportion of energy and material in the feed is too high, it will cause the breeding pigeon to be overfat. The reproductive performance of breeding pigeons fades after being overfertilized, and the abnormal egg production is generally progressive, which decreases with the increase of the number of overfertilized pigeons.

Stress

The degree of abnormal egg production caused by stress is related to the intensity and duration of stress. Strong and persistent stress can have a serious impact on production performance. Common stress factors are: high temperature, high humidity, low temperature, lack of water, cut off, noise, vaccination, harmful gases and so on. The control of stress is mainly to eliminate stress factors, to create a comfortable and quiet living environment for pigeons, to carry out standardized operation, to adjust feed nutrition reasonably, and to use some antibiotics and other drugs as needed.