Experience in breeding and management of pigeons

Pigeons that have been paired from growing pigeons to breeding pigeons are called breeding pigeons; adult pigeons that have been paired to lay eggs or are hatching and rearing are called producing pigeons; pigeons that have brought their young are called parent pigeons. As breeding pigeons have different physiological characteristics and feeding purposes in different production stages, different technical measures should be taken in breeding and management to ensure economic benefits.

1. During the new pairing period, pigeons, whether freely paired or artificially paired, should wear a numbered foot ring, and the number of the foot ring should be the same as that of the nest box, and be recorded at the same time to facilitate checking. If it is an artificially paired breeding pigeon, it still takes time to establish a relationship with each other, usually 2 murals for 3 days. If there is fighting behavior, it should be quarantined in time, and if pairing is not possible after quarantining for 4 days, it should be re-paired to avoid unnecessary casualties, and nesting training should be carried out for pigeons that have been paired.

Nest recognition training is more often used in artificial pairing. For freely paired pigeons, as long as one side is transferred to the other pigeon house, there is no need for nest recognition training. The specific methods of nest recognition training are as follows: after feeding every morning and afternoon or every afternoon, release the pigeons locked in the nest box for activity. After the first release in the morning, rush back to the nest box before the next feeding, and eat in the nest box. If you do not return to the nest box, you will catch it one by one. After it is released in the afternoon, those who do not return to the nest box will be taken back in the evening. After 4 days of repetition, pigeons can basically recognize their nests, and individual pigeons that do not return to their nests should be driven away or caught by breeders, and after all the newly matched pigeons can recognize their nests, pigeons can be allowed to move freely. As the nest recognition training is time-consuming and the equipment requirements are high, if it is not breeding pigeons, but pigeons used to produce commercial meat pigeons, it is best to pair freely in order to reduce the time of nest recognition training. The paired pigeons have higher nutritional requirements, with a metabolic energy of 17.72-12.14 MJ / kg, a crude protein content of 15% MJ / kg, and pay attention to the supply of fresh drinking water and adequate health care sand.

2. Feeding and management during the incubation period newly paired breeding pigeons will mate and lay eggs after they come into contact with each other and become familiar with their surroundings. Generally, the first egg is laid around 4 pm around 10 days after mating, and another egg is laid every other day. After that, female and male pigeons hatch their eggs alternately. The breeder should lay nest grass on the nest plate as early as possible before laying eggs, and match each pair of pigeons with a record card to record the laying time of breeding pigeons in time; the fertilization, broken eggs, dead embryos and dead sperm of eggs, as well as the date and quantity of sale, retention and transfer, so as to find problems in production in time, take effective measures, and provide a scientific basis for seed selection, matching, purification and rejuvenation.

In the breeding pigeon incubation period, should maintain the hygiene of the nest plate, found that bedding, linen dirty, wet should be replaced in time, otherwise it is very easy to cause embryo infection, the emergence of dead embryos. At the same time, the eggs should be treated twice during the 18-day incubation period to remove the azoospermic eggs and dead embryo eggs, and the remaining eggs should be nestled together on the same day or 1 day apart, so that the pigeons without hatching tasks can lay eggs earlier. Egg lighting should be carried out on the fourth to fifth and tenth to thirteenth days. At the same time, check the quality of breeding eggs, such as laying 1 eggs or deformed eggs, soft shell eggs, sand shell eggs, we should carefully find out whether the daily management measures are implemented, whether the coordination and supply methods of health care sand are reasonable, so as to improve the feeding and management methods and the quality of health care sand in time, and reduce the occurrence of abnormal eggs, soft shell eggs and sand shell eggs.

Severe cold and extreme heat directly affect the normal hatching of eggs. If the weather is cold, it is easy to cause early embryo death, the bedding in the nest should be increased, the pigeon house should be kept warm, at the same time, the supply of energy feed should be appropriately increased in the feed, and some sugar should be properly supplied in the health sand, so that the breeding pigeons can produce enough heat to protect themselves from the cold. If the weather is hot, it is easy to die or get out of the shell due to heat in the later stage of hatching, so hot materials should be reduced, ventilation in the pigeon house should be strengthened, the temperature in the pigeon house should be reduced, cold water can be sprayed on the roof if possible, and ventilation equipment should be installed.

Pigeon eggs usually hatch for 18 days. If you have pecked the shell but can not get out of the shell, you should help it out of the shell manually. After getting out of the shell, the new pigeon will take the eggshell out of the nest box. If the eggshell is still in the nest box, it should be taken out to avoid accidental injury to the young pigeon. Within two or three days after coming out of the shell, attention should be paid to the management of parent pigeons to prevent strangers from entering the pigeon house. And to keep the external environment quiet to prevent breeding pigeons from crushing young pigeons.

3. Feeding and management during the feeding period is very important, which is related to the normal growth and development of pigeons and whether pigeons can lay a nest of eggs as soon as possible. First of all, it is necessary to improve the nutritional level of feed, in which protein feed is required to reach 30% Mel 40%, and energy feed accounts for 60% Mel 70%, in order to improve the production capacity of pigeons. Health care sand should increase the supply of oyster shell slices, auxin, trace elements, multivitamin and yeast slices on the basis of normal ingredients, and properly add antibiotics such as oxytetracycline in summer to promote intestinal digestion and absorption and enhance disease resistance.

In general, 2 hours after the chick comes out of the shell, the parent pigeon will inflate the pigeon mouth to mouth to make the chick adapt to accept pigeon milk. Five hours after coming out of the shell, the parent pigeon begins to feed the suckling pigeon, conveying the very thin pigeon milk to the mouth. During this period, attention should be paid to observation. if the pigeon is not fed by the parent pigeon after coming out of its shell for 6 hours, the parent pigeon should be isolated and treated in time, and the pigeon should be nestled together. If the parent pigeon has no experience, it should be trained. If the maternal nature of the female pigeon is not good, the pigeon should be removed and nestled or artificially fed as soon as possible to prevent it from being trampled to death.

During the breeding season, under normal circumstances, regardless of whether the pigeons die midway or weaned naturally, as long as there are no pigeons in the nest, the parent pigeons will lay another litter of eggs within 2 weeks. For parent pigeons with good reproductive performance, they usually lay a second nest of eggs when they reach the age of 15-18. In this way, parent pigeons not only have to feed a litter of pigeons, but also have to undertake the hatching task of the second litter of eggs, so we should pay attention to the following points in feeding and management:

(1) feeding nutritious and comprehensive diets to parent pigeons to ensure their good physical strength to feed suckling pigeons and hatched eggs, and to ensure that pigeons can continue to grow and develop normally.

(2) if the parent pigeon is too weak to take care of the two workers, the second litter of eggs must be taken away so that the parent pigeon can concentrate on taking care of the young pigeon. Avoid the phenomenon that pigeons become thin and weak without hatching for a few days and stop growing and developing.

(3) if there are conditions, artificial feeding or forced fattening can be carried out to make the parent pigeons concentrate on hatching eggs.

(4) for caged pigeons, the nest trays with eggs can be placed in the small iron frame in the upper part of the cage, and the nest trays with pigeons can be placed on the bottom of the cage in the lower part of the cage, so that the parent pigeons can hatch their eggs at ease. The eggs and pigeons are separated in two adjacent nest boxes, so that the interference of pigeons can be completely avoided.

4. Breeding and management of breeding pigeons during the moulting period, the breeding pigeons generally molt once at the end of summer every year, and the time is as long as 1 Mel for 2 months. During the molting period, some breeding pigeons stop laying eggs, and the phenomenon of stopping production of high-yield pigeons with better breeds is not obvious during the moulting period, which can be carried out according to the normal feeding and management.

In order to shorten the moulting period and ensure the normal production after molting, the protein quality and amount of feed can be reduced when the pigeons are moulting generally, or stop feeding and only provide drinking water during the peak moulting period. urge pigeons to molt quickly due to lack of nutrition within a uniform time. After the molting peak, the original feeding level can be gradually restored and some hemp kernels, sunflower kernels, rapeseed, sesame and other feeds that contribute to feather growth and restore physical strength can be added to the diet in order to enter the growth period as soon as possible. In the flock of pigeons, if individual pigeons still change their feathers while hatching their chicks during the moulting period, they should be kept in isolation and given a full-price diet. During the moulting period, it should be noted that because of the difference in moulting sooner or later and the speed of molting, the parent pigeons may separate and find another mate to form a new husband and wife, resulting in the chaos of the original flock order and affecting the normal production after molting. For uncaged pigeons, they can only enter mating and laying when the other pigeon is molting and estrus, which is not conducive to normal production as soon as possible. Therefore, in addition to taking measures to promote pigeons to moult in a short period of time, pigeons that find another mate should be locked up until the whole flock has moulted and entered the stage of mating and laying.

As the production of breeding pigeons is generally reduced during the moulting period, and some breeding pigeons have a relatively long feathering period, it is best to make use of this period to adjust the breeding pigeons. A comprehensive inspection of the production of breeding pigeons, combined with archival data, the production performance is poor, molting time is long, older breeding pigeons are eliminated. In addition, young pigeons with good genes with strong physique and beautiful shape were selected from the reserve breeding pigeons to supplement. At the same time, deworming inside and outside the body, disinfecting the internal and external environment of the house and pigeon cages, nests, sinks and other appliances, to create a fresh and comfortable production environment for breeding pigeons.