Basic knowledge of breeding and management of meat pigeons

The basic knowledge of pigeon breeding management includes three aspects: raising young pigeons, raising young pigeons and breeding pigeons. The details are as follows:

Raising of young pigeons

Pigeons from hatching to 28 days of age are collectively referred to as young pigeons (some areas from birth to 10 days of age called young pigeons, 10~20 days of age called young pigeons).

2 hours after the young pigeons out of the shell, the parent pigeons began to blow and lactation with their beaks, and then 2 hours later, the parent pigeons began to feed the pigeon milk. At this time, the young pigeons were small and weak, easy to die, so management must be strengthened. First of all, carefully observe, pay attention to avoid escape by breeding pigeons tread injury or freeze to death. If the newborn 5~6 hours still can not eat pigeon milk, to find out the reason in time (if necessary to feed artificial pigeon milk). When parent pigeons are not suckling, breeding pigeons of the same period can be found to foster, and some parent pigeons can be avoided from feeding single pigeons to improve production capacity.

After 3~4 days of age, the eyes of the young pigeons slowly open, the body gradually strengthens, the feathers on the body begin to grow, the food intake gradually increases, and the digestion is enhanced. At this time, the parent pigeons should feed the young pigeons frequently, sometimes as many as ten times a day, so the amount of feed provided to the parent pigeons should be sufficient and nutritious to meet their needs. At this time, the amount of feces discharged by young pigeons increases, which is easy to pollute the nest. The cloth and grass should be replaced in time every day to avoid diseases.

Young pigeons 10 days old, a lot of new feathers grow, can walk on their own. The time of keeping young pigeons warm by parent pigeons was shortened, and the food fed by parent pigeons was changed from pigeon milk to semi-granular feed. A few young pigeons failed to adapt completely, and indigestion and crop inflammation often occurred. Appear this kind of circumstance should feed some yeast tablet or stomachic in time, help digest.

Young pigeons 15 days old, the body feathers basically long Qi, free movement, you can catch the nest, in the cage spread a fast 20 cm ×20 cm cloth, let it slowly adapt, do not sprain feet. At this time, the parent pigeons feed granular feed, and eat the same feed, and most parent pigeons began to lay eggs, inadvertently feeding young pigeons, for this reason during this period should be artificially fed.

After 20 days of age, the young pigeons are full of feathers and can move around in the cage, but they cannot completely peck on their own. They still rely on the parent pigeons, but they can actively ask for food from the parent pigeons. At this time, the parent pigeons will force them to feed independently. At this time, management should be strengthened to increase the supply of high-protein feed to meet the needs of young pigeons. Young pigeons grow to 25~28 days of age when the weight can reach 500~750 grams, can be sold (this time the young pigeons called squab).

Young Pigeon Breeding

From 28 days of age to leave the nest until the transfer group, conditional places had better do "three unchanged": in-situ feeding, original feeding personnel feeding, original feed unchanged, so as to promote the normal growth and development of young pigeons. Young pigeons within 2 months of age are difficult to feed at this stage due to feeding from parent pigeons to independent life. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen feeding management, pay attention to heat preservation, ventilation, strengthen the supply of health sand and feed nutrition, increase the disease resistance of the machine, and make it grow normally. At this time to do "three look three check":"three look" is to see the dynamic, see appetite, see feces: "three check" is: check whether to eat feed, check whether too crowded, check whether bitten injury. Those who cannot eat feed can be fed separately, those who are bitten and injured can be cared for in time, and those who are aggressive can be raised separately. Crowding can be raised in groups. 2 months old when the young pigeons began to molt, feed protein feed should be appropriately increased to promote feather renewal. Add 5% fructus cannabis to feed, add andrographis paniculata or gentian to health sand, and add a small amount of antibiotics to drinking water to prevent respiratory diseases and paratyphoid fever. During this period, special attention should be paid to the hygiene of cages, food and drinking utensils, and they should be washed and disinfected on time. 3~4 months old, secondary sexual characteristics began to appear, the ability to move more and more strong, at this time should be selected to eliminate the inferior, male and female separate breeding, or forced cage pairing, and the pigeon flock for pest control, to ensure its normal growth and development.

Young pigeons gradually begin to pair at 5 months of age and are sexually mature at 6 months of age. Most of the main wing feathers are replaced to the last one, and at this time they have basically entered the breeding period.

Breeding pigeons

1. Prepare for egg laying

Egg production begins 8 - 10 days after pairing. At this time, conditions should be raised on the cage (or transferred to the pigeon house with egg nest), ready to lay eggs nest, which is covered with a layer of linen, so as not to break the eggs. To check whether there are loopholes in the cage, in case of cat, dog, snake, rat interference or by ventilation, leakage of rain attack, resulting in undue losses.

2. Do a good job in the management of eggs from laying to hatching

① After laying eggs, check in time whether there are abnormal eggs and broken eggs, and take them out in time. For newly laid pigeons, always observe whether the egg nest is fixed and whether the two eggs are concentrated at the center bottom of the egg nest.

② To observe whether the new spouse is harmonious, whether it often jumps around and pecks each other, resulting in broken eggs. For large pigeons to be particularly careful care to prevent crushing eggs, but also to prevent nutritional deficiencies or have a bad habit of pigeons pecking eggs.

3. The eggs should be irradiated on time, and the bad eggs should be treated in time. The sperm free eggs, dead sperm eggs and dead embryo eggs should be taken out in time to prevent the eggs from becoming smelly and affecting the health of the normal development eggs and pigeons. If unfertilized eggs and dead embryos are found, the causes should be found out and the management system should be improved.

3. Combine eggs at the same time for double incubation

If one egg is laid in a litter or one egg is left after two times, eggs at the same time should be combined for double incubation to improve productivity.

The nest should be kept warm and clean.

Prepare double egg nest, young pigeons should pay attention to heat preservation after birth. Change the linen (hay) frequently and wash the feces in the nest frequently to maintain cleanliness. When the young pigeons are 12 days old, they should be put into an egg nest for standby, because at this time the breeding pigeons begin to lay the second nest eggs, which are produced in about 15 days. The breeding pigeons serve as double tasks of lactation and hatching. At this stage, they should be carefully raised and managed, increase feed nutrition and increase feeding times to ensure the completion of the double tasks of the breeding pigeons.

5. Do a good job in registration records

The production record of pigeon production should be made at any time to provide important digital basis for breeding management in the future.