Duck farming in Kenya

In today's episode let us look on duck farming. Kindly remember to subscribe if you haven't do that, and welcome


Brooding and Care of ducklings
Duck Farming in Kenya – Muscovy female duck with ducklings

Most of our breeds do not go broody, only the Muscovy ducks get broody and cares for its ducklings. The rest of our breeds just lay the eggs and abandon them, most of them to not even look for a nesting place to lay their eggs. Therefore, if you decide to buy them you wold need to place the eggs under a broody hen, a Muscovy duck or an incubator.

If you deice to use an incubator, you are their mum, therefore you would need to provide a heat source to ducklings of around 38ºC and reduce the heat as they grow. Remove heat source completely after 2 to 3 weeks. At this stage, the ducklings are regulating well their temperatures and feathers are well developed.

Feed the ducklings with starter crumbles with protein content about 20 to 21% for at least a week or two. The amount of starter crumbles offered is 30 to 50g per duckling in a day. Water should be available throughout. Provide grit or sand to ducklings mixed with feeds.

Feeding and water
Ducks generally eat almost all types of food they find edible. You can feed your ducks like chickens, using commercial feeds, but you need to add water on mash feeds because they choke on fry mash feeds. If you can find pellet feeds, that would be perfect for ducks. For homemade feeds you have to add some extra additives into duck feed. As some ducks lay more eggs than hens, so you have to be very careful about feeding your ducks. Add necessary nutrient elements in their diet.


Young ducklings require more protein and calcium. While laying ducks require more calcium which is available in the layers pellets and mash since they need the calcium for egg shell production.

Water is very important for all animals but mostly so to ducks. Ducks spend 10% of their days’ time in water and so provide a pool or water tab a plastic bucket or would do which should be cleaned and refilled with clean water daily.

Swimming facilities are not essential. However, pools can be made available where outside runs are provided. Concrete ponds 1m wide by 0.3m deep are satisfactory. To limit wastage of eggs, it is advisable to prevent outside swimming until about 9.00 am, when most eggs will have been laid most ducks lay their eggs in the early hours of the morning.



Housing Ducks
The main advantages of duck farming is their simple accommodation; ducks need less expensive, simple and non-elaborate housing facilities. As a result housing costs are very less for setting up commercial duck farming business.

Ducks do not need elaborate housing system; the minimum requirement would be to have a shelter and guarded free run area that is secure from predators or thieves. Each duck will require 2 to 3 square feet flooring space. Duck housing or shelter should be well ventilated and dry flooring with wood shavings or grass. Provide nest boxes to ducks at about 5 months of age for the birds to get used to it early enough.

Marketing
Duck meat and eggs are becoming popular in Kenya and East Africa as a whole. Demand is high as the number of Asia and Chinese nationals increasing in Africa, duck meat and eggs consumption is increasing. We also have more and more Africans willing to try duck meat and eggs, therefore you find local restaurants and hotels willing to have duck on their menu.

Before you start duck farming, you will need to visit restaurants and butcheries, especially Chinese, to find out if they do buy duck meat and eggs and at how much. In Nairobi 1Kg of duck meat goes for Ksh450 and above, while a duck egg goes for Ksh30 and above.

Most restaurant want you to supply the ducks already slaughtered. While slaughtering, cut the neck leaving some of the meat and skin still attached, so that the head is attached to the rest of the body.



However, for making maximum profits from duck farming business, you have to be more careful on taking care of ducks, feed management, accommodation, brooding and marketing. If all the process are done well, then you can make a handsome income from this business.

You can also think of value addition; selling fertile eggs for incubation, selling ducks and ducklings for breeding to other farmers, baking cakes using duck eggs, selling boiled duck eggs, selling cooking duck meat instead of raw meat.


Advantage or duck farming

Ducks feed on insects, bugs, snails and for this reason integrated farming of duck with fish and duck with paddy cultivation is suggested to be economical.



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