When the ruf partridges begin to rush. Breeding for business. Consider the main benefits of breeding wild birds in the household

Recently, game on the table and in the restaurant menu has become more popular. The most refined and dietary dishes are prepared from a small bird of the pheasant family - the partridge. Would you like to have these exotic birds in your yard as well? Then read about how to feed them properly and what surprises to prepare for when breeding birds at home and for business.

Partridges are wild birds that were previously only hunted. It was a real treat to try their meat at lunch or dinner. Recently, more and more farmers have decided to take up the domestication of birds. Today, home breeding of partridges is gaining momentum. The fact is that a small bird has very nutritious meat: low fat content, essential amino acids and high nutritional value.

Also appreciated are the eggs of birds, which are superior to chicken eggs in terms of the content of useful nutrients and elements. The combination of high productivity - more than 20 eggs in a full clutch and relative simplicity in care, makes the partridge attractive for breeding in order to eat eggs or tender meat. How to breed birds correctly and how to care for them?

Preparing for breeding

Initially, you must understand for what purposes and on what scale you plan to breed partridges. It might just be home cultivation or maybe a potentially large lucrative farm with hundreds of game animals. Initially, we advise you to try, since the partridges, although unpretentious in subsequent care, but before starting their breeding, you need to significantly prepare and ensure the conditions of stay as close as possible to wild ones.

You should be prepared for the hard work setting up aviaries for birds. It will be more difficult than with or geese, but with a strong desire, you can achieve a good result. Initially, you should not count on a too large increase in the livestock - a laying hen will give up to 60 eggs per season, but before that it needs to be fed and bred with a male, which is also not easy. Therefore, we advise you to take ten birds for a sample for the first season: check if you can provide them with decent living conditions, care and feeding.

Growing poultry at home

Breeding partridges requires the arrangement of the yard. They say that it is possible to breed birds in cages, but it is better to refrain from this option. The fact is that the partridge is a wild bird, a large spacious aviary will create the impression of wild nature, unlike cages, it will give you the opportunity to feel freedom and relieve stress. If in the future you decide to breed birds for business, you will still have to buy an aviary - every spring, males and females huddle in pairs and walk on their territory. Only small chicks can be kept in cages.

There are several options for obtaining partridges: hunting, buying or breeding chicks. The easiest way is to simply buy small chicks and start breeding by raising them. If you decide to go a more affordable financially, but difficult way - growing from eggs, then worries will be added.

It is necessary to organize a kind of incubator in order for the eggs to hatch. They will need to constantly monitor, change their location. Chicks will not appear soon - this is also a negative side. Catching a bird on the hunt is a solution for experienced hunters, of which there are only a few, so buying chicks from farmers remains a reasonable way out of the situation.

Feeding

It is worth especially carefully to approach the formation of the diet of partridges and to study in detail the nutritional composition of the feed given. Many inexperienced poultry farmers begin to feed individuals with compound feed for chickens - this is wrong, because birds have different needs for the calorie content of the diet and its nutritional value. Partridges from the point of view of the formation of the menu are unpretentious birds. Their daily diet should consist primarily of grains.

Basically, oats or cake after processing wheat are chosen for the menu base. Corn is also added. Better not to expose food heat treatment- digestive system wild bird is designed in such a way that it is easier for her to digest raw grains and food. Watch the amount of food. You can not starve the partridges, but it is also undesirable to overfeed. If the average individual in the warm season costs a diet of 270-300 calories, then in winter period, the nutritional value drops slightly to 90 calories per bird.

Premises

The place for the birds to live should be given special attention. The area should be significant: according to the recommendations, it is necessary to allocate at least one square meter to each bird; in conditions of too small an area, a density of no more than three individuals per square is allowed. The issue of cells is still controversial, but if you have financial resources to create an aviary, it is better to choose a more spacious option for birds.

The room should be equipped for spring walks of partridges in pairs. Males and females during this period live in families, which need to provide sufficient space for mating games, and subsequently - for incubating eggs. The advantage of game breeding is that there is no need to insulate their place of residence. Adapted to wild conditions, partridges are not afraid of drafts and cold, unlike other poultry.

In the video you will see the arrangement of the pheasant enclosure - the technology is applicable for partridges.

Caring for chicks

Partridge chicks require special care. Birds can be placed in cages - it is more convenient to feed and monitor them. Until one week of age, the diet may consist exclusively of chicken yolk. For very young chicks, set up a separate feeder. Then, undercooked chicken meat is gradually introduced into the diet.

Feeding is best done twice a day at a set time. To make the chick more comfortable to settle among adults and adapt to their mode of life, feed everyone at the same time. After several weeks, small females and males are ready for life together with other birds.

We breed partridges for business

A partridge business is possible with the correct calculation of risks and a competent approach to breeding. The cost of keeping the birds themselves is minimal. The main diet consists of corn and wheat, cake is added. Feed consumption per adult does not exceed 30 grams. There are studies that confirm the effectiveness of feeding with compound feed intended for young turkeys - for starting a business, such a diet will be easier to organize, since it is widely available on the market.

It is better to build a business on integrated approach: meat + eggs. In the case of partridges, this is especially convenient, since the main productivity of the laying hen falls on the first year of its life, the meat also matures just in time for this period. When breeding for business and earning purposes, the average life span of a laying hen is no more than a year - from two years old the bird rushes less, and the meat is less valuable.

Video "Partridge"

In the video, you will see the process of hatching of chicks from partridge eggs. The information from the video will be useful for novice partridge breeders at home and for business.

Partridges are birds of the pheasant family, relatives of domestic chicken, and live throughout Russia. A small bird is the subject of sport hunting, often commercial. Despite the absence of the threat of extinction, there is a decrease in the number of partridges in nature.

First of all, this bird is bred for dietary meat. But partridge eggs are in no less demand, due to the content of potassium, iron, phosphorus. It is difficult to find them on the free market, and the price of partridge eggs is much higher than that of chicken eggs. One egg will cost an average of 15 rubles. It is also unlikely that it will be possible to buy partridge meat at a low price. In different regions of the country, the cost per carcass ranges from 1000 to 1300 rubles. But supply does not keep up with demand.

Breeding and keeping partridges at home is not an easy job, but with the right approach, the profit that the breeder can get will justify all the trouble.

What breeds of partridges to choose for breeding at home?

In nature, there are several subspecies of the partridge. The most famous of these are the following:

• white;
• tundra;
• white-tailed;
• gray;
• stone - keklik.

They differ in appearance, which depends on the region in which the species lives. Birds are prone to dimorphism - a condition in which the bird changes appearance at the moment of danger.

All partridges are sedentary: both in winter and in summer they remain in the areola of their habitat. The bird is very fertile, therefore it is distributed throughout the world. But for breeding and keeping partridges at home, the gray partridge is most suitable.

The gray partridge is a small bird weighing up to 500 g. Breeding of gray partridges at home is due to several factors:

• The bird easily adapts to new living conditions.
• She has the highest egg production among other subspecies of partridges.
• The bird is unpretentious in food.

Recently, the breeding of chukotka is gaining popularity.

Chuklik bird: care and breeding

More recently, the chukar or mountain hen could only be found in zoos. This subspecies of partridges is bred in the mountainous regions of the Caucasus. This brightly colored bird is rarely seen in the European part of the country. Chickpea are usually bred near their habitat in nature.

The cultivation and breeding of partridges for the sale of eggs and meat can be classified as a competitive and quickly repayable business due to the constant demand for its products. To start the activity, it is enough to properly equip the chicken coop and purchase adult birds. This decision will allow you to reach a stable income, which can be received even in a remote village. Choosing a niche business, many bypass the activity in the field of breeding and caring for wild birds, because caring for them is not easy, but the market value of partridge meat and eggs is much higher than similar products.

Exotic bird farming as a business

Business relevance

The cultivation of partridges is actual business due to the high cost of products and the lack of the need to create special conditions for keeping exotic birds.

Many entrepreneurs do not want to work in this niche, because they consider it difficult and narrow, so there are practically no competitors in it. By engaging in this type of activity, you can earn income not only from the sale of meat, but also from eggs.

Business registration

Before equipping the premises and purchasing poultry, it is necessary to register the planned activity. At the initial stage, opening is enough individual entrepreneurship... As the business expands, you can think about changing your status to entity... When drawing up the documentation, you should indicate the type of activity "farming of poultry". After the lease of the premises for planting poultry or its construction, it is necessary to obtain permission to start work from the authorized bodies of the SES and the fire inspection. The document will be issued subject to certain conditions. In the general package of documents, the entrepreneur must submit for consideration:

• lease agreement or papers on ownership of buildings;
• a fire insurance contract, the beneficiary of which is a third party - the lessor or the owner of nearby objects;
• contract for disinfection and deratization works.

At the stage of selling products, it is necessary to control them by the veterinary service, so you will have to draw up another contract for the inspection of meat for compliance with the regulations of legal acts. During the operation of the farm, at the stage of slaughter and preparation of meat for sale, as well as during storage of eggs and their packaging, it is possible SPP checks... It is in their competence to control the conformity of storage locations finished products regulatory requirements, as well as the absence of pathogenic microorganisms in it.

Entrepreneurial risks

Partridge eggs

Breeding and keeping partridges at home is associated with risks associated with the nuances of business. Financial losses may be associated with the death of a bird due to its diseases, as well as due to a decrease in egg production. Partridges are susceptible to various infectious diseases due to weak immunity. Diseases can be prevented by introducing vitamins and microelements into the diet, as well as by timely preventive soldering of poultry with drugs.

Females lose the ability to lay eggs after 9 months, so if the entrepreneur does not prepare a change in livestock in advance, he will have to suffer losses due to the lack of a product for sale. Loss can also be negative. regular customers for which the manufacturer of the product is its supplier.

Poultry may lose weight or stop laying eggs in stressful situations caused by loud noise, changing feed or inconsistent temperature and humidity conditions in the room where partridges are kept. For this reason, before purchasing a bird, an entrepreneur needs to familiarize himself with the peculiarities of its content.

Read also: Ostrich breeding as a business: where to start, how to succeed

The negative side of business is the need to obtain permits for doing business. When selling products, you will have to cooperate with the veterinary service to obtain certificates of compliance of products with regulated legal acts requirements.

Requirements for the premises

Breeding partridges at home for beginners will not cause difficulties if the entrepreneur is competent in this matter.

He needs to study the relevant literature, as well as consult with people specializing in this area. One of the conditions for ensuring the normal life of a bird is the arrangement of farm buildings in which the bird will be housed. The room should be free of drafts, it should be warm and ventilated on one side as needed. It should contain clean and dry bedding. There should be a poultry walking area next to the pen.

Partridge cages

When determining the size of the required area, one should be guided by the standard norms, in accordance with which one individual needs one square meter space. It is allowed to keep only chicks in the cage, and it is better to place an adult bird in an aviary.

Where to begin

Before registering entrepreneurial activity, you need to try in practice what kind of business it is, and whether it is suitable. To do this, it is recommended to buy partridges for breeding, lay eggs under the female and raise the chicks to adults. This solution will allow:

• assess your own capabilities and desire to engage in activities in the chosen niche;
• get practical skills in the field of partridge care;
• identify possible difficulties that may be encountered;
• calculate the profitability of the business.

Breeding chicks

In order for a poultry farming business to bring constant profit, it is necessary to take care of the renewal and increase in the number of livestock. You can buy chicks, however, it is more profitable to breed the offspring yourself. When planning a large number of livestock, it is recommended to purchase an incubator in which you can hatch chicks from partridge eggs.

Female exotic birds are excellent mothers, so they can hatch chicks on their own. A hatching load of up to 25 eggs can be done per individual. To do this, they need a basket filled with hay. Put the required number of eggs into it. They should not touch each other. A brood hen must be planted on the eggs, which, due to the special physiological cycle in the body, is ready to become a mother. She will perform all other actions on her own.

Caring for chicks

Chicks hatch from eggs on day 25. If a brood hen incubated them, then she can be entrusted with caring for them during the first days of their life. After a maximum of a week, it is recommended to plant the chicks in a separate enclosure. It is unacceptable to place them together with an adult bird.

In the early days, babies should be fed boiled yolks. Gradually, greens in the form of nettles, dandelions and cabbage should be introduced into the diet. On the fifth day of life, boiled meat, larvae and crumbs of white bread can be added to the diet. Little by little, crushed raw grain should be introduced into the mixture. Chicks should be fed twice a day.

Bird feeding

Correct bird feeding is a guarantee of a successful business project. Partridges should receive a balanced diet that would improve their body's immune response to various infections, as well as ensure the maximum increase in body weight and egg production parameters.

Partridge dish

Partridges are unpretentious in food. It is enough for them to include in the diet mixtures of wheat, oats and corn. It is not worth overfeeding partridges so as not to provoke diseases of the digestive system in them, which will cause the cessation of egg production and a decrease in body weight. Lack of feed can lead to the same problems. Its amount must be calculated in such a way that in the warm season, one individual receives food for 300 calories. In the cold season, the figure should be reduced to 90 calories.

When kept at home, it is impossible to provide the birds with a full range of natural feed, so a poultry farmer or amateur must look for a full-fledged replacement for them from the seeds of cultivated and wild plants, fruits, berries, animal feed and human food. However, transferring a bird to unfamiliar food is not always easy. She may starve to death, but she will not take a single grain or bite of the mixture that she has never eaten. To prevent this from happening, new feeds should be introduced gradually, over several days, reducing the proportion of those feeds that the bird has eaten before. In addition, the abrupt transition from one food to another negatively affects the digestion of birds, especially chicks.

All feed must be of high quality. Do not eat grain containing rodent feces, ergot, mold and other impurities. Before giving it to the birds, the grain mixture must be sieved, washed and dried in the sun or in a gas oven at a temperature not exceeding 60 ° C.

The selection of these or those feeds and their proportion in the diet depend on the type and age of the bird, the way of keeping it (in a cage or aviary) and the season. Birds that are kept in close cages are given less food than those living in the enclosure (due to the considerable freedom of movement in the enclosure, there is practically no danger of overfeeding). At the same time, even a minor oversight in feeding a bird sitting in a close cage can lead to its disease. With improper feeding, metabolism is disturbed, feathers begin to fall out or birds themselves begin to pluck them, egg-laying is disturbed, etc.

During the period of egg-laying and rearing of chicks, the amount of feed and the frequency of feeding it per day is sharply increased due to animals and soft feed. Violation of feeding at this time adversely affects not only adult birds, but also the development and vitality of chicks.

Birds breed most successfully in open-air cages, where, under conditions close to natural, they can find food that suits them and is especially well absorbed. It is in the open-air cages arranged on the backyard that there are no difficulties with greens, germinated seeds (when eating seeds from the feeders, birds scatter them, they sprout, and from time to time the ground is covered with fresh tender shoots of plants). Animal food is also more accessible to those birds that live in the outdoor aviary, rather than sitting in cages. In the soil, on the branches of shrubs and in the grass, they constantly find various small insects and their larvae, and they often catch small flies and mosquitoes on the fly.

The amount of feed required per day is determined empirically, since birds of even the same species and age with the same method of keeping have a different appetite. By carefully observing your pets, you can establish this amount: the birds should eat the entire daily ration of feed without a trace. Birds should not be allowed to look for their favorite seeds in the grain mixture, while others leave them intact or remain
hungry.

You can use kitchen waste to feed partridges and partridges: soaked pieces of leftover white bread, chopped vegetables, boiled potatoes. This feed is supplemented with grain feed, bran, cereals, as well as vitamin flour. In summer, the birds are given alfalfa, lettuce or herbs. Alfalfa can be knitted with sheaves and hung in an aviary 30 cm from the ground. From animal feed, these birds actively eat cottage cheese, minced meat, insects (in any form) and their larvae, finely chopped vegetables and roots, fresh herbs.

Feed is given at the rate of 70-80 g per head per day. In winter, the most rational type of dry feeding is grain and compound feed, in which meat and bone meal and vitamin supplements are introduced.

Breeding partridges at home implies the domestication and raising of wild birds, creating comfortable conditions for them to live in order to obtain eggs and meat. Today, two opinions have been established about the complexity of this process: some argue that there is nothing complicated in this, while others, on the contrary, warn against large investments and difficulties. Let's learn about this in more detail together by talking about the intricacies of caring for these birds.

Partridges are small, gray wild birds of the pheasant family that have been known to us since time immemorial as a favorite trophy of many hunters. And although none of the species of these birds today is endangered or protected due to sports and commercial hunting, it is more and more often to breed partridges at home. As experts say, this is a very interesting and profitable business. After all, the meat of these birds has long been a real delicacy and is highly valued due to its exceptional gastronomic qualities.

At the present time, industrial breeding of these birds has not been established, although some batches of partridges for the first time in our country were raised in 1972 at the Astrakhanskoye state special hunting farm. Until 1988, about 20 thousand farmed birds were released in different regions of the Soviet Union. In 2003, game breeding also continued at the Astrakhanskoye enterprise, but today they focus more on pheasantry. Well, let's try to figure out what the breeding of partridges at home is.

Since the partridge is a wild bird, there are some important points to keep in mind when growing it at home. First, the white meat of these birds is a welcome prey not only for many predators, but also for birds of prey... They are often attacked by hawks and even crows. That is why the first rule is to protect your farm well with the help of aviaries, comfortable shelters.

Secondly, partridges in the wild get used to certain foods, so they should not be fed like other poultry. Read more about the feeding rules in our next article. As for the territory for walking, in addition to the fact that it must be protected from all sides, there must be a natural shelter - shrubs. In the wild, partridges live in forest areas with dense vegetation, so they like to hide in shady areas. Thorns, rose hips or any other shrubs can be planted in the aviary.

So, if you decide to breed partridges, of course, the first question that will arise is where to get the bird? Let's say right away that the easiest place to start is with adult birds. You can catch them on your own while hunting (which is not easy enough) or buy from farmers. You definitely need to have a pair. Another option is to find or, again, buy eggs and raise chicks. The latter method is the most laborious and requires additional knowledge of raising chicks. But, if there is no way to find an adult bird, then you will have to use this method.

Recall that the gray partridge, which is most suitable for domestic breeding, today lives in nature in most of our country. So, for example, the distribution area occupies the zone from the borders of the CIS countries to Altai, the entire northern zone to South Karelia. The bird settles near the upper reaches of the Pechora and separate populations near the White Sea.

The female partridge produces eggs from the end of April, as a rule, lays no more than 15 eggs. Incubates offspring up to 26 days. At home breeding, the partridge lays eggs from March to July and during this period it can produce up to 60 pieces. But such indicators are possible only with the right conditions of care and compliance with the extended light regime. So, for example, since January, the length daylight hours for birds should be at least 15 hours.

So, if you have adult partridges, little remains to be done: proper feeding and keeping conditions. It's another matter if you get hold of the eggs of these wild birds. By the way, as practice shows, taming chicks is much easier. To get offspring you need:

1. Take a small basket measuring 30 * 30 centimeters, cover it with a dense layer of straw and hay.
2. Lay the eggs so that they do not touch each other and lie with the blunt end down. They should be turned every two days for 15 days.
3. Place the basket itself in a cool place, but put a light hen on the eggs.
4. After about 25 days, the chicks are born. On the first day, we leave them with a hen in this basket, after which we transplant them into a separate cage, divided into two sectors.
5. When the chicks grow up and get stronger, they can be released in a small open-air cage on the grass. Toddlers for good development need dry land and sun.
6. After one week, the chicks are removed from the brood hen. After a month, the birds should already walk in the aviary on their own.

Partridge chicks on the first day of life give mashed yolk of boiled chicken eggs... Then, in the following days, you can mix chopped dandelion, yarrow, cabbage into it. Then you can give some white bread and crumbs. But on day 4-5, introduce semi-cooked meat or ant eggs into the diet. They feed babies in the morning and in the afternoon, gradually increasing the amount of food.

When purchasing partridges, you must remember that unlike all other poultry, they are not polygamous. If in winter they live in nature in large flocks of up to 30-80 individuals, then in the spring they break up into pairs. Therefore, you should definitely have paired birds, with subsequent breeding, the male plays a very important role in raising offspring.

Do not forget that during the mating period, different pairs should not be allowed to walk freely in the same enclosure, since the males will fight. That is, each couple must be provided with a separate "apartment" and area for walking.

During the rest of the period, a large partridge enclosure is not required. In the room for keeping them in the cold season, it is imperative to lay a warm, dry bedding and change it regularly. Slots and holes must not be allowed. They can not only be penetrated by rodents, but drafts can also be created, which are extremely undesirable for the bird.

Partridges should be placed in a quiet place without harsh noise, since the bird is very shy. There should be a net on top, because, frightened, one female can take off and entail the entire herd with it. As for the nest for laying, the females dig holes in dense grass or under bushes for this purpose. The bird covers the nest with dry grass, leaves or its own down.

Of course, no one of their poultry farmers wants to spend a lot of time and effort growing a partridge and losing it due to diseases and other unfavorable factors. Fortunately, the gray species of wild bird has good immunity and tolerates even slight cold weather well. However, infectious diseases as well as low-quality grain can be risk factors. Therefore, for your "expensive" birds, it is important to buy only high-quality food or it is best to grow it yourself, if the vegetable garden allows. Do not allow partridges to come into contact with other poultry or animals. For more details, see the video.

In this article, using the example of the household of a resident of the city of Shakhty Boris Kravchik, you can see how you can keep partridges, consider in detail appearance females and males of these birds, as well as the approximate arrangement of their winter quarters.

Partridge is a great bird for a home business

Diet and way of life of the wild partridge

Homemade cages for keeping partridges

Do you need a consultation?

I read your article and was delighted. But after I called my friend (he kept 200 partridges 3 years ago), it turned out that there are more than enough troubles with these birds, and even a specific stench from them. An acquaintance said that he was already accustomed to them, and his wife could not stand the smell. So the birds had to say bye-bye. Tell me, you don't say anything for the stench from these little birds, but I would like to know if this is so and how to deal with it? And then recently appeared high demand on their eggs, I'm thinking about getting it somehow. I don’t want my wife to kick me out of the house because of the smell :).

But the bush must be in the aviary of the partridges? Or is it only with an abundance of space? Can simply thrown branches come up?

Good day. I live in the Sverdlovsk region. Where would you advise to take quail eggs for breeding?