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Game breeding: breeding wood grouse and black grouse. Grouse breeding Grouse breeding at home as a business

Pavlyushchik T.E., Malyutina N.V. Maintenance and feeding of capercaillie during breeding in artificial conditions // Collection of methodological recommendations for artificial breeding of game. Union of Hunters' Societies of the RSFSR. Moscow, 1987. pp. 27-39.

Approved

Director of the Institute of Zoology of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR

Artificial breeding of capercaillie is associated with many difficulties associated both with the specific needs of birds for certain components of the diet, and with susceptibility to various diseases of the digestive tract.

The wood grouse in its natural habitats has extremely limited contact with humans and farm animals. Most of the plants that make up the capercaillie's diet in natural conditions contain biologically active substances that have bactericidal properties. When breeding wood grouse in captivity, a lack of resistance to diseases common to farm poultry is revealed. Mortality as a result of such diseases, which mainly affect the digestive tract, has been the reason for the failure of many experiments in captive breeding of captive grouse.

To date, extensive experience has been accumulated in the treatment and prevention of histomoniasis, colibacillosis and other diseases dangerous to captive wood grouse. The most essential condition for preventing these diseases is not the active use of medications, but the implementation of certain rules when keeping birds.

The experience of the Berezinsky Nature Reserve nursery has shown that both enclosure and cage methods of keeping capercaillie can be used. However, the enclosure method is associated with many limitations and is advisable only if the enclosures are regularly changed and disinfected. The cage method, which means keeping birds in large-area cages or enclosures on a mesh floor, was used by us for 10 years in order to improve the zoohygienic conditions of keeping birds and led to an almost complete cessation of mortality from diseases of the digestive tract.

When keeping adult capercaillie raised in captivity in an aviary, the size of the aviary is not significant. Any enclosures used in game breeding and for outdoor keeping of poultry are suitable, provided they contain shelters from bad weather, perches, feeders and drinking bowls. The height of the enclosure must be at least 2 m, which allows service personnel to freely enter the enclosure and carry out the necessary work there.

Birds should not be allowed to see an open space at the end of the enclosure, since when frightened they usually fly in this direction and can crash against the mesh. Any type of fence, hedges, trees, etc. can be used as a visual barrier. Enclosures adjacent to each other must be separated by a partition made of opaque materials to a height of 0.7-1 m so that males cannot see each other and fight through the mesh.

A metal mesh with a mesh size of 2-3 cm is suitable for enclosures. Large mesh sizes are undesirable, since females can hang their heads in them if they take off unexpectedly. In addition, a large mesh cannot serve as an obstacle to small predators entering the enclosure.

The top of the enclosure should be covered with a nylon panel, which is stretched at a distance of about 50 cm from the upper metal mesh and plays the role of a shock absorber.

In order to prevent diseases of wood grouse when kept in enclosures, the following rules must be observed:

1. Wood grouse should not be kept in poultry houses or aviaries that were previously used to house other birds. If you still have to use such premises, then it is necessary to disinfect them with a hot 3% solution of caustic soda and replace the top layer of soil in the paddocks. Due to the fact that the causative agents of histomonosis persist in the soil for more than 4 years, the above measures are mandatory.

2. The joint keeping of young birds and adult birds is excluded. Young animals can be transferred to premises where adult birds were previously kept only after the treatment specified in paragraph 1.

3. Every year in the spring, enclosures must be disinfected, and the top layer of soil to a depth of 30-40 cm in the paddocks must be replaced. Concrete covering of the paddocks makes cleaning and disinfection easier.

4. In order to avoid accidental introduction of pathogens of infectious and invasive diseases, before entering the enclosures it is necessary to equip a disinfectant mat, and also use special removable shoes, which are constantly located in the enclosure.

One enclosure can contain one male and several (up to 4) females. Group keeping of males is undesirable. During the mating period, it is necessary to ensure free access of females to all enclosures with males. This makes it possible to choose a partner for mating and increases the fertility of eggs.

The disadvantages of aviary housing can be overcome by transferring wood grouse to a mesh floor. This improves the zoohygienic conditions for keeping birds and reduces the cost of maintaining the nursery.

The most suitable of the cages tested in the Berezinsky Nature Reserve nursery turned out to be tent cages. Their design was proposed by the head of the game breeding department of the Central Scientific Research Laboratory of Glavohota of the RSFSR, Ph.D. O.S. Gabuzov. The cages are triangular in cross section, their height is 1.7 m, the floor dimensions are 3x4.5 m. The cages are assembled from separate panels consisting of a wooden or metal base frame on which a mesh is stretched. The requirements for the mesh for the side walls of the cage are the same as for the mesh of the enclosure. The smaller the mesh, the better the preservation of the plumage.

The floor net should not injure the paws of wood grouse. Excrement should fall through it freely. These conditions are fully satisfied by a poultry net with a mesh size of 2x5 cm and a rod thickness of at least 3 mm. If the floor mesh is not galvanized and does not have a PVC coating, it must be painted.

To provide shelter from bad weather, part of the cage is covered from above with a tarpaulin or other waterproof materials. You can also use the house adjacent to the cage for shelter.

In cages of the specified size, 1-2 females and 1 male can be kept together. Keeping males together even outside the mating period is undesirable, since one of the capercaillie will constantly be in a depressed state.

It is undesirable to reduce the size of the cells, as this negatively affects the condition of the bird.

During the reproductive period, the selectivity of mating of capercaillie in such cages is achieved by periodically replacing males. Before the start of the breeding season, nesting shelters are installed in the cages. The main requirement for them: only the female should penetrate them.

Feeders and drinkers are hung on doors located on the end side of the cages. Branch food is also attached here. From the outside, the door with the feeders is covered with a shield or curtain. Boiled gravel is placed in a separate feeder once every 2 months for 3-4 days. A box of sand for bathing birds is placed in the cage every month for 3-4 days.

Cell disinfection is carried out annually. Hot solutions of 5% soda ash, 3% formaldehyde, 2% sodium hydroxide or chlorine-containing preparations are used as disinfectants.

Mechanical cleaning of the area where the cages are installed must be carried out at least once every 3 months.

It is advisable to cover the area where the cages are located to protect capercaillie from feathered predators and to provide insurance in case of accidental flight of capercaillie from the cage.

The most appropriate is a combined method of keeping wood grouse: in winter - in enclosures, and the rest of the time, when the possibility of outbreaks of infectious and invasive diseases increases - on a mesh floor. This method provides, while maintaining good zoohygienic conditions, more opportunities for good physical development of the bird.

FEEDING ADULT CORNER grouse

When breeding capercaillie in captivity, the most significant features of its nutrition seem to be:

1. Consumption of low-protein plant feed.

2. Increased need for fiber compared to granivorous birds.

Based on these features, the requirements for artificial diets should be as follows:

3. Artificial feed mixtures should be enriched with ascorbic acid.

Here are approximate diets for male wood grouse. Females eat 40% less food:

Daily diet of adult wood grouse during the non-productive period:

1. Grain feed (oats, wheat, corn) - 80-100 g.

2. Juicy feed (fodder beet, carrots) - 120-150 g.

3. Branch feed (pine needles) - 150-200 g.

4. Blueberry shoots - 50-80 g.

Daily diet of adult wood grouse during the reproductive period:

1. Compound feed for laying hens PC 1B - 80-120 g.

2. Feed or baker's yeast - 20 g.

3. Juicy feed - 100-120 g.

4. Pine needles - 150-200 g.

5. Blueberry shoots - 50-80 g.

6. Greens of deciduous trees and herbaceous plants - 50-80 g.

7. Trivitamin - 0.25 ml per 100 g of feed mixture.

8. Ascorbic acid 0.075 g per 100 g of feed mixture.

9. Chalk, shell - 10 g.

Based on local conditions, you can vary the composition of the diet. In this case, the birds’ consumption of various components of the diet will change. When changing your diet, consider the following:

1. Feeding mixed feed for poultry during the non-productive period can lead to metabolic disorders and uric acid diathesis.

2. Exclusion of twigs and green food from the diet leads to dyspepsia and exhaustion of wood grouse.

3. You should not strive to reduce the variety of feeds, since in addition to its main function, feeding in a depleted artificial environment plays the role of an entertainment factor.

4. It is advisable to include pine shoots and needles in the diet throughout the year. In summer, the most suitable green foods are vetch-oat mixture and yellow lupine. They are well eaten by wood grouse and have a higher content of ascorbic acid compared to other plants.

Green and branchy food should be hung in bunches.

In the warm season, wood grouse must be provided with drinking water. In cold weather, water can be replaced by snow.

Raising chicks is the most difficult and crucial moment in the artificial breeding of capercaillie.

6-8 hours after hatching, the chicks are removed from the incubator hatcher tray and placed in rearing cages. Such cages measuring 50x100 and 70 cm high are suitable for keeping chicks up to 10 days of age, however, if necessary, chicks can be left in them up to 30 days of age. In this case, the capercaillies need daily walks. The cages are installed in a heated room with a temperature of about 20°C and a relative humidity of 60-70%. The required air humidity is maintained by hanging moistened fabric.

Local heating in cages is best done with infrared lamps from the IKUF-1 and “Luch” kits, which are fixed in one of the corners of the cage so that the chicks can choose the optimal temperature zone. When hanging the lamp at a distance of 70-75 cm from the floor of the cage, the temperature at the level of the chick's back is 38°C.

A metal mesh with a mesh size of 2x2 cm and a rod thickness of 2-3 mm is suitable for the floor of a chick cage. In the first days after the chicks hatch, the floor of the cage should be covered with coarse fabric, for example, waffle towels or burlap, the rough surface of which prevents slipping and dislocation of the lower limbs. The fabric is removed from the floor gradually and remains with the week-old chicks only under a heating source. The fabric is changed as it gets dirty 1-2 times a day and is disinfected by boiling or soaking in a 1% chloramine solution.

The optimal size of a group of chicks placed in one cage with an area of 0.5 m2 is 6 chicks.

Due to the fact that capercaillies can fly out of their cages already at 7 days of age, their tops must be covered with a net.

When raising capercaillies indoors, to prevent D-beriberi, the chicks must be irradiated with PRK lamps according to the schemes recommended for farm poultry. If IKUF-1 kits are available, irradiation with ultraviolet lamps begins at one day of age for 2 minutes and is increased to 30 minutes by the age of 18 days. The lamp is placed at a height of 70-75 cm.

If the nursery has acclimatizers, i.e. aviaries designed for raising chicks are heated in the covered part, then chicks can be transplanted into them as early as 10 days of age. In the absence of such, it is advisable to transfer from indoors to open air at 30-40 days of age, when the chicks no longer need heating and can easily tolerate the transplant. At a later age, transplantation even in tame wood grouse can cause deep stress.

When raising chicks intended for keeping in a nursery, the background sound (tape recording) should be human speech, and for chicks intended for release - the voice of a wood grouse.

FEEDING CAERIECERN CHICKS

Feeding the chicks should begin no later than 12 hours after hatching. It is better to use an omelet (chicken egg and milk in a ratio of 1+1) as the first food. By the end of the first day, the omelet is sprinkled with mixed feed. At the same time, dry feed is placed in a separate feeder for the chicks.

A mixture of omelet and feed is given to the chicks until they are 10 days old, then the feed is moistened with water. Until 5 days of age, the chicks' mash is replaced every hour, and then in the amount that the chicks eat without a trace, at intervals of 2.5-3.5 hours. Month-old chicks receive mash 2-3 times a day, and 2-month-old chicks switch only to dry feed. The combined method of feeding using both dry compound feed and wet mash is convenient in that it allows you to increase the palatability of feed, add vitamin supplements to the mash (Trivitamin or Trivit preparations), and in the absence of complete compound feed, use various local protein supplements (milk, cottage cheese, etc.).

“Trivitamin” is introduced into mash from 6 days, starting with 1 drop per 5 chicks. 10-day-old chicks receive 1 drop of the drug, and 20-day-old and older chicks receive 2 drops.

The most suitable feed for capercaillies is feed for turkey poults PK 11B, containing 28% crude protein. It can be used up to 2 months of age. Then the chicks are transferred to chicken feed containing 17-20% crude protein. 3-month-old chicks can be safely transferred to a diet for adult birds.

The following vitamin and mineral additives are added to the PK 11B compound feed: ascorbic acid - 0.25 g, gefefitin or a mixture of dry yeast with phytin in a ratio of 1:1 - 1 g, shell - 1 g, methionine - 0.125 g per 100 g of dry mixture .

Wood grouse should receive green food (blueberry leaves, green onions and other garden greens) from the end of the first day. Until 30 days of age, greens are given in chopped form, then tied in bunches. For young chicks, green onions, radish and carrot tops, and lettuce are preferred. For capercaillie over 30 days of age, it is advisable to grow a vetch-oat mixture and alkaloid-free yellow lupine. The transition to branch feed is carried out at 3 months of age. Green food is given to capercaillies ad libitum, without restrictions. Already at 10 days of age, chicks consume about 40 g of green food per day, and 2-month-old wood grouse consume at least 200 g of green food.

There should be water in the drinking bowls of capercaillies at all times. During the first day, the chicks can be pipetted with a 0.25% solution of ascorbic acid. Drinking bowls for chicks up to 10 days of age should be shallow so that the capercaillies do not choke. Then you can use drinking bowls of any design, including automatic drinking bowls. The drinking bowls should be located away from the feeders, otherwise the water will quickly turn sour.

Gravel with a diameter of 1-1.5 mm is given to the chicks from the end of the first day. Lack of gravel can lead to death from cuticulitis or gizzard blockage.

To monitor the adequacy of feeding, tables are provided for feed consumption by chicks and changes in body weight of wood grouse.

Table 1

Daily feed consumption by capercaillie chicks

					70-80 days

table 2

Changes in body weight of wood grouse chicks

Age in days	Body weight in grams
Age in days

To the question about breeding wood grouse in captivity asked by the author retrospective the best answer is

Answer from 22 answers[guru]

Hello! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: captive breeding of wood grouse

Answer from Secret[guru]
are unlikely to agree
They are not such capercaillie 🙂, and even more so, they are not pheasants
Attempts to breed wood grouse in captivity have been practiced in Russia for quite some time. Back in 1860-1861, A. A. Khvatov published in the journal “Acclimatization” the results of his experiments on keeping wood grouse in a barn.
However, serious work on game breeding in Russia began only in the post-war years. In 1957, the Moscow Sea hunting farm released 3.2 thousand ducklings into the Moscow region, and in 1958 - 6 thousand ducklings.
The research of M. Valius on the reacclimatization of gray geese in Lithuania is of interest. Eggs for incubation were imported from the Astrakhan Nature Reserve. Also, significant experience in breeding gray and other species of wild geese has been accumulated by various zoos and animal parks in the country. But this is still not enough. The development of methods for keeping, feeding and breeding game is a task for the future.
Currently, there is an urgent need to take a closer look at this industry.
Human economic activity in certain territories has changed them so much that the natural reproduction of a number of species has become impossible. First of all, this concerns the feathered inhabitants of fields and swamps. In particular, the range of such species as quails, ducks, and waders is narrowing. So, with the help of game breeding, natural populations of many species can be restored. Such experience has already been accumulated in foreign countries. For example, it was possible to restore natural populations of wood grouse in Germany, Denmark and France.
Raised up to a certain age in artificial conditions, birds turn out to be more capable of adapting to transformed lands, willingly use biological and technical structures, and do not avoid human proximity. This circumstance opens up the possibility of creating, under certain conditions, new populations capable of natural restoration.
In addition to the direct practical significance of the introduction of game, released birds attract wild birds to reservoirs and fields, the number of which increases by 2-3 times by the opening of the season.
Raising and releasing birds and animals into the wild for their further shooting contributes to the conservation of natural wild populations, increases the effectiveness of hunts and can be a profitable business if properly organized. Young game animals at a certain age can already withstand unfavorable changes in the land, run wild and increase hunting resources by the season. In this case, the natural conditions of the land are used, which are generally favorable for the presence of game in them in the summer and autumn. Natural food resources of hunting lands are being developed, which cannot be realized in any other way.
In the end, isn’t it the same how the meat is obtained: bought in a store, raised on your own farm, or shot? In addition, part of the grown game, bypassing hunting grounds, goes directly from farms to shops and restaurants, enriching the range of high-quality products.
And it is an axiom that wild meat tastes better. Judge for yourself: the meat of pheasant, gray partridge, and crack contains 22% protein and 0.1-0.5% fat, while at the same time, the meat of domestic chicken contains only 19% protein and 14% fat, and domestic duck has 17% protein and up to 34% fat. In addition, game meat is more complete, richer in minerals, and better digestible.
What types of game are the future? Currently, a number of subspecies of pheasants, gray partridges, quails and mallard ducks are already bred in many countries. The possibilities of breeding capercaillie, black grouse, greylag geese, and eiders are being studied, which will probably soon also become objects of breeding. Thus, there is hope that steps can soon be taken towards industrial game farming in 21st century agriculture.

Tetrao urogallus

20,000-50,000 rub.

(Tetrao urogallus)

Class – Birds

Order – Galliformes

Family – Pheasantaceae

Genus – Capercaillie

Appearance

Weight reaches 6 kg, body length 90-110 cm, and wingspan 1.4 meters. The capercaillie's body is dense, the head is quite large relative to the size of the body, and the legs are feathered right up to the toes. Like most other birds, the female capercaillie has a much more modest coloration than the male. The tone of its plumage is usually brownish-red, with countless small spots of gray, black and red scattered over the entire surface of the body. The male is much more richly colored. Its head, neck, back and tail are blue-black, its chest is black, with a metallic green tint, and its wings are brown. The belly can be either light with black spots, or vice versa, but the undertail is always white. There is a “beard” on the throat formed by long feathers, the beak is light yellow, curving quite steeply at the tip.

Habitat

Inhabits almost the entire territory of Russia. It prefers to settle in dense coniferous forests, near swamps; sometimes this bird also settles in mixed forests.

In nature

The capercaillie leads a solitary lifestyle, and is sometimes found in small groups only in winter. Active in the morning and evening, resting in trees during the day. In extreme cold, the bird buries itself in the snow to avoid freezing. The capercaillie does not like to fly; it looks rather heavy in flight - it often flaps its wings and rarely rises above the tops of trees. The wood grouse's diet includes insects, plant seeds, buds and berries, grass and leaves, and when food is really hard to come by, even pine needles.

Reproduction

The mating season for birds runs from March to May. It is at this time that you can hear the famous song of the current capercaillie, and in the video below you can see, during which he hears and does not notice absolutely anything around him. The breeding grounds where birds gather will not change from year to year. The males are the first to arrive, while it is still dark, sit on tree branches and sing. A little later, they are joined by females who watch the developments with interest. After streaming, wood grouse descend to the ground to measure their strength in the fight for the female. The fights can be quite tough, but the winner is given the opportunity to mate with the female. Then, in some secluded place, the female makes a nest, which is a hole in the ground, filled with a small number of twigs and dry grass. The clutch consists of 5-12 yellowish eggs with brown spots, which are incubated for a month. Caring for the offspring of wood grouse falls exclusively on the female. Having barely dried, the chicks are already able to follow their mother, and they do this very deftly and quickly. In case of danger, they hide in the grass, while the female heroically moves the danger aside, pretending to be wounded. Usually the family goes to the nearest anthill, where, on a high-calorie diet of larvae and ants, young wood grouse can fly on their wings within 3 weeks of birth. Despite this, the young remain with their mother until autumn.

Life expectancy is 12-15 years.

In relation to capercaillie, you can use both the method of keeping. However, the enclosure method is associated with many limitations and is advisable only if the enclosures are regularly changed and disinfected. When keeping adult capercaillie raised in captivity in an aviary, the size of the aviary is not significant. Any enclosures used in game breeding and for outdoor keeping of poultry are suitable, provided they contain shelters from bad weather, perches, feeders and drinking bowls. The height of the enclosure must be at least 2 m, which allows service personnel to freely enter the enclosure and carry out the necessary work there.

The top of the enclosure should be covered with a nylon panel, which is stretched at a distance of about 50 cm from the upper metal mesh and plays the role of a shock absorber.

In order to prevent diseases of wood grouse when kept in enclosures, the following rules must be observed:

2. The joint keeping of young birds and adult birds is excluded. Young animals can be transferred to premises where adult birds were previously kept only after the treatment specified in paragraph 1.

The cages are triangular in cross section, their height is 1.7 m, the floor dimensions are 3x4.5 m. The cages are assembled from separate panels consisting of a wooden or metal base frame on which a mesh is stretched. The requirements for the mesh for the side walls of the cage are the same as for the mesh of the enclosure. The smaller the mesh, the better the preservation of the plumage.

To provide shelter from bad weather, part of the cage is covered from above with a tarpaulin or other waterproof materials. You can also use the house adjacent to the cage for shelter.

It is undesirable to reduce the size of the cells, as this negatively affects the condition of the bird.

Cell disinfection is carried out annually. Hot solutions of 5% soda ash, 3% formaldehyde, 2% sodium hydroxide or chlorine-containing preparations are used as disinfectants.

Mechanical cleaning of the area where the cages are installed must be carried out at least once every 3 months.

It is advisable to cover the area where the cages are located to protect capercaillie from feathered predators and to provide insurance in case of accidental flight of capercaillie from the cage.

When breeding capercaillie in captivity, the most significant features of its nutrition seem to be:

1. Consumption of low-protein plant feed.

2. Increased need for fiber compared to granivorous birds.

Based on these features, the requirements for artificial diets should be as follows:

3. Artificial feed mixtures should be enriched with ascorbic acid.

Here are approximate diets for male wood grouse. Females eat 40% less food:

Daily diet of adult wood grouse during the non-productive period:

1. Grain feed (oats, wheat, corn) - 80-100 g.

2. Juicy feed (fodder beet, carrots) - 120-150 g.

3. Branch feed (pine needles) - 150-200 g.

4. Blueberry shoots - 50-80 g.

Daily diet of adult wood grouse during the reproductive period:

1. Compound feed for laying hens PC 1B - 80-120 g.

2. Feed or baker's yeast - 20 g.

3. Juicy feed - 100-120 g.

4. Pine needles - 150-200 g.

5. Blueberry shoots - 50-80 g.

6. Greens of deciduous trees and herbaceous plants - 50-80 g.

7. Trivitamin - 0.25 ml per 100 g of feed mixture.

8. Ascorbic acid 0.075 g per 100 g of feed mixture.

9. Chalk, shell - 10 g.

Frozen poultry, game, carcass. No feathers, no giblets.
Carcass weight without feathers, cons. 2.5 - 3.5 kg.
Packing: stretch film.

The online store of premium and high-quality products “Eager” offers the purchase of wood grouse meat. Delicious and nutritious dishes made from it will decorate holiday and everyday menus. Delivery of products is possible to your home or to a restaurant anywhere in the capital and the Moscow region. Wood grouse meat can be prepared in different ways:

fry whole with the addition of lard;
stuff with veal liver;
bake with lingonberries and other wild berries.

The fillet of this wild bird is excellent for cutlets, rolls (for example, with nuts), steaks and other dishes. Dark juicy meat is combined with mushrooms, carrots, onions, potatoes and marinades, cooked for about 2 hours.

Thanks to the increased content of proteins and fats, capercaillie, regardless of the cooking method, is a very satisfying dish. Poultry meat is a source of vitamins A, E, PP, group B, as well as chromium, phosphorus, fluorine, iron, magnesium, sodium, calcium, potassium. Regular consumption of wood grouse dishes improves protein synthesis and oxygen supply to cells, normalizes glucose levels, and has a beneficial effect on skin condition. The Yeger company sells meat from wild birds that grew and ate exclusively in nature, in ecologically clean areas. Wood grouse are supplied from the Tyumen, Arkhangelsk regions, Altai, and Buryatia and undergo veterinary control and certification, so their quality is guaranteed. Any quantity of products is available for ordering, as well as ready-made dishes from the chef.

Breeding partridges at home as a business is a wonderful idea, especially interesting for beginning businessmen living in rural areas and who do not have start-up capital or other earning opportunities. Why?

Business for beginners

Breeding partridges is an exciting activity in itself, but it also brings profit. Why are partridges interesting in this regard? Breeding and keeping this bird at home has not yet become widespread, but there is a demand for it. This means that competition will be low and there will be no problems with sales. This is the first advantage. The following follows from it: prices for poultry and meat cannot be low, which means income is guaranteed. The third advantage is low costs and no initial investment, which is very important in a nascent business. And since expenses are low and incomes are high, then the profit... That's right - big, but not right away.

More information about the gray partridge

The gray partridge is a sedentary bird, common in the wild. In Russia, it lives in Altai, the Urals, the Caucasus, western Siberia, Karelia, the steppe and forest-steppe zones of the center and west of the country.

This is a small bird with a body length of about 30 cm, round in shape. The variegated coloring is visible only up close and helps the bird to be invisible against the background of vegetation and ground.

The partridge lives in open areas, in fields or steppes, and nests on the ground in well-protected places. Females cluck almost like chickens, males emit a call akin to a rooster's.

By winter, partridges move closer to people and often spend the night in outbuildings.

Partridges can move quite quickly even in thick grass and, if necessary, fly high with noise and screams.

They live in flocks of several dozen birds, but disperse in pairs during the mating season and live as a family, raising their chicks as equals, until the cold weather.

During the season, a partridge lays an average of 25 eggs.

The enemies of partridges in nature are birds of prey, animals, harsh winters and, naturally, hunters.

These birds are so similar to ordinary chickens that it becomes unclear what problems breeding and keeping partridges at home can cause.

Room for partridges

Partridges do not need a large barn or a specially built room. The main thing is that it is dry, warm and draft-free. Since the partridge is a wild bird, it needs an aviary with a high fence for walking. In the walking area, tall grass and thorny thorn or rose hip bushes must grow, which are preferred by partridges in their natural habitat to protect them. Breeding and keeping wild small birds at home is not that difficult. Tall grass, thorny bushes, warm straw bedding - nothing unusual or expensive.

A partridge is still not a chicken; it flies quite high, so many farmers install cages with a roof in a fenced enclosure. True, many experts agree that birds grow better and gain weight in an open area. Partridges spend the night in a barn, the floor of which must be covered with straw or hay, changing the bedding every other day. Dry grass protects partridges from low temperatures. Therefore, it is necessary to stock up on it in the summer so that it will last until next summer.

Partridges are afraid of drafts; all cracks in the house must be carefully sealed. They also cannot tolerate loud sounds, so the inside of the shed can be lined with soundproofing material, which will also insulate it a little.

Three pairs of partridges can be kept in one cage measuring 35 × 25 × 20 cm. There is enough artificial light in the poultry house, but it must be there.

Nutrition

Partridges are not capricious and do not get sick. Therefore, there are no problems with nutrition. In nature, the bird feeds on grass, various bugs and their larvae. Partridges, whose breeding and keeping at home are not yet so widespread that special feed has been developed for them, happily eat chicken or turkey feed, any grain or cereals.

They need calcium gluconate in sufficient quantities, so there should always be chalk or crushed shells near the feeder. When feeding a bird with roughage, it needs to improve digestion. The water in the drinking bowl must be clean and fresh.

Breeding partridges at home

Advice from experts and farmers begins with purchasing several pairs of partridges. But in principle, one opposite-sex couple is enough to start with. And you need fewer cages, and the males don’t fight, and the costs are lower. And it’s not so offensive if the experiment turns out to be unsuccessful.

There are three ways to acquire birds. The most expensive, but also the easiest way is to buy partridges from a specialized farm. There you can also get professional advice that will require breeding and keeping partridges at home. The cheapest, but not always feasible, way is to catch wild partridges in the field. The most labor-intensive, but requiring special equipment and quite time-consuming, is to hatch chicks from eggs in an incubator.

Raising partridge chicks

Breeding and keeping partridges at home is not as complicated and time-consuming a process as it seems. Only raising young animals will require attention, but it is no different from raising chicks of any other poultry.

Partridges begin laying eggs at the end of April; this period lasts twenty-six days. All this time, the male must be in the same cage with the female, so that males and females are seated in different cages around mid-summer.

During the season, one partridge produces about sixty eggs, but can only hatch fifteen in one clutch. Excess eggs can either be sold or used in an incubator.

In the first days, the hatched chicks should be with their mother; they should be placed in a separate cage after about a week. They begin to be released for walks at the age of one month. Fresh air and warm sun, dry soil overgrown with grass are the main conditions for the rapid growth and normal development of partridge chicks.

Breeding and keeping young animals at home does not require special knowledge of feeding them. In the first days he is fed with mashed yolks of hard-boiled eggs and finely chopped greens of dandelions and yarrow, which grow almost everywhere at this time. Already on the third day you can give crumbs of white bread, after five days - boiled meat or ant eggs, twice a day, gradually increasing the amount of food.

Benefits of raising partridges

So, returning to the beginning, it is now possible to answer the question of why raising partridges at home is beneficial. Business ideas in rural areas and suburban towns are not so diverse. This is mainly the breeding and sale of domestic animals and poultry.

Partridges have some advantages in this regard. On the market today, the meat of this bird is presented in insufficient quantities, but there is a demand for it. All more or less expensive restaurants have dishes from rare species of poultry on their menus and are ready to purchase them from trusted suppliers. And on your own table, this dietary, environmentally friendly meat without additives is a big plus.

Partridge eggs have a unique chemical composition, they are rich in vitamins, and in cooking they can completely replace chicken eggs. There is only one requirement - they must be heat treated, fried, baked or boiled. They are also in demand in cosmetology.

True, there are still difficulties, but not with the breeding itself, but with the tax inspectorate. The business must be registered in the area of activity “Poultry Breeding”.

Of course, you should not expect profit from the first year, but the second year may bring some income. In addition, word of mouth is triggered, which greatly facilitates the sale of partridges, their eggs and meat.