Breeding partridges at home. Chukars: breeding at home

Breeding partridges and raising them at home involves creating comfortable conditions for the birds in order to obtain excellent meat and egg products from them. This game has recently become very popular - it can even be found on the menus of expensive restaurants. Today we will tell you what are the living requirements for this bird of the pheasant family, what is included in its daily diet, how to breed partridges and raise their offspring.

Once upon a time, these wild birds were only hunted. In recent years, more and more farmers have begun to domesticate such pets. Small-sized poultry meat has nutritional properties - it contains little fat, amino acids essential for the human body and has increased nutritional value. Partridge eggs are superior to chicken eggs in the content of nutrients and substances.

An enclosure for partridges is made from a nylon or cotton net with cells measuring 1 x 1 cm, which is stretched over a wooden frame assembled from beams or slats. It is better not to use an aviary made of metal mesh, otherwise the birds will constantly be injured. The optimal height of the enclosure is 2 meters. A minimum of 0.5 - 1 m2 of floor area is allocated per 1 adult. Inside the enclosure, you need to arrange everything so that the environment imitates the natural habitat of partridges: put bushes, fir trees, sheaves, make canopies. This way the birds will feel comfortable and will be able to hide in bad weather. Don’t forget about arranging a vestibule - it will prevent the pets from flying out when the owner enters. You will need to equip feeders, drinking bowls and sand boxes.

In addition to the open enclosure, during the cold season, partridges are raised in enclosed spaces - non-residential huts, barns and others. Birds do not like drafts, so all cracks should be sealed. This will also help protect against rodents. The floor should be covered with warm bedding, which should be kept dry and changed regularly. A wire part of the mesh is placed on the windows, and a vestibule is made in front of the doors. Under the ceiling, at a height of about 2 meters, a net of nylon or cotton thread is stretched. Food and water are served in troughs. Christmas trees and sheaves are installed, the floor is covered with straw or hay. Pebbles and flutters are created in shallow boxes with a ribbed bottom. In winter, a normal lighting system in such rooms is important, since the lack of light in winter has a bad effect on the reproduction of partridges in the spring.

Breeding partridges at home is a difficult but completely doable task even for beginners. For the first season, it is recommended to sample no more than 10 birds to see if you can create decent living conditions, care and feeding for them.

Where to begin

Before you start breeding partridges, it is advised to decide for what purpose and on what scale you plan to do this. Both ordinary home rearing and a later profitable large farm with hundreds of birds are possible. After all, the demand for partridge meat and eggs is high, and there are still few such products on the market. The advantages of breeding birds as a business are obvious - they are unpretentious in keeping, do not require special care, have good immunity, and allow you to obtain high-quality meat and eggs. The almost complete absence of competition is captivating. Anyone who owns a private house with outbuildings will be able to keep such birds.

Before starting your business, register as a private entrepreneur in the field of poultry breeding to avoid problems with the tax authorities.

Both in the case of organizing your own business and raising poultry, you will need to equip a good-quality room just for your family. Adults for cultivation can be caught by hunting or purchased from farmers. There is another option - buy eggs and get young ones by placing them in an incubator. But remember that constant monitoring and constant change of their location will be required.

What to feed

You should take seriously the formation of the daily diet that the partridge will receive, and become familiar with the nutritional composition of the feed. You cannot start feeding birds with chicken feed, as inexperienced breeders do, since this will inevitably lead to vitamin deficiency. In the wild, birds feed on plant seeds and small insects. Pets have different calorie and nutritional needs for a grain-based diet.

The birds need to be fed oats or cake left after processing the wheat. They also love corn. Poultry digestion is designed in such a way that it is easier to digest raw grain than heat-treated grain. Wet mash with the addition of chopped green herbs has also worked well. Both underfeeding and overfeeding birds are equally harmful. Chalk and calcium gluconate will help provide the required amount of calcium, which can be replaced with finely crushed shell rock.

In the warm season, one adult should have about 270 - 300 calories, in winter - 90 calories less.

On the first day, newborn chicks are fed the mashed yolk of a boiled chicken egg. Next, crushed dandelions, yarrow, and cabbage are added to their diet. Later it is permissible to give some white bread. At the age of 5 days, babies can eat half-cooked meat or ant eggs. Feeding of young animals is carried out twice - in the morning and in the evening, gradually increasing the volume of feed.

Breeding and offspring

Breeding chicks at home is a reliable but troublesome method.

Since buying eggs is problematic, it is better to take them from the nests of wild birds. In captivity, the partridge lays eggs earlier than in natural conditions - in March and July, the female is capable of laying up to 60 eggs. How much can a wild female lay in a season? No more than 15 pieces, which she incubates for 26 days.

The male must be in the same cage as the female in order to fertilize the testicles. The partridge and the male sit in different cages in mid-summer. But this is when creating ideal conditions - extended daylight hours. How much should it be? At least 15 hours.

To hatch chicks, you will need a 30 cm basket with straw placed on the bottom. The testicles should be positioned with the blunt end down, without touching each other. For the first 14 days, they are turned over every 2 days. They are usually hatched by a small hen. After the babies appear, the bird can be placed in a separate cage. Young animals need to organize walks in an enclosure with dry soil and grass, as well as normal natural lighting.

If you are not tempted by the prospect of keeping track of how many days a female incubates her offspring, you can use a modern incubator to breed partridges. Incubation gives excellent results if you select the material for it wisely. Testicles of a certain size, weight, shape, without shell defects, enlargement or displacement of the egg, and so on are placed in the incubator. You should not place an egg that is too small - it will produce defective chicks, and the hatch rate will be negligible.

To reject low-quality material for placement in the incubator, it is recommended to illuminate each egg using an ovoscope. It will allow you to determine how many yolks are in the egg - copies with two are absolutely not suitable, displacement of the yolk, the presence of blood stains, looseness and other damage to the internal parts are unacceptable. Also avoid placing stale, beginning to decompose, or hatched specimens into the incubator.

How long can a hatching egg be stored? No more than 10 days. Modern devices for incubation allow you to adjust temperature and humidity, have an automatic turning system, are equipped with fans of various types, are equipped with heating devices and allow a person to take minimal participation in the process of hatching young animals.

Video “The birth of partridges”

See how partridges are born from hatching eggs in the household.

Breeding partridges at home involves domesticating and raising wild birds, creating comfortable living conditions for them to live in order to obtain eggs and meat. Today, there are two opinions regarding the complexity of this process: some argue that there is nothing complicated in it, 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 from the pheasant family, which 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 under protection due to sport and commercial hunting, partridges are increasingly being bred 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 present, commercial breeding of these birds has not been established, although some batches of partridges were raised for the first time in our country in 1972 at the Astrakhanskoye state special hunting farm. Until 1988, about 20 thousand artificially raised birds were released in different regions of the Soviet Union. In 2003, game breeding also continued at the Astrakhan enterprise, but today they have focused more attention on pheasants. Well, let's try to figure out what raising partridges at home involves.

What do you need to be prepared for?

Since partridge is a wild bird, there are some important points to remember when raising it at home. Firstly, the white meat of these birds is a desirable 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 that you need to protect your farm well with the help of enclosures and convenient shelters.

Secondly, partridges in the wild become accustomed to certain foods, so you should not feed them the same as other poultry. Read more about feeding rules in our next article. As for the walking area, in addition to the fact that it must be protected on all sides, there must be natural shelter - bushes. In the wild, partridges live in forested areas with dense vegetation, so they like to hide in shady areas. You can plant blackthorn, rose hips or any other shrubs in the enclosure.

Where to begin?

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 it is easiest to start with adult birds. You can catch them yourself while hunting (which is quite difficult) or buy them from farmers. A must have pair. Another option is to find or again buy eggs and raise chicks. The last method is the most labor-intensive and requires additional knowledge on raising chicks. But, if it is not possible to find an adult bird, then you will have to use this method.

Let us recall that, which is most suitable for home breeding, today lives in nature in most of our country. 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 lays eggs from the end of April; as a rule, she lays no more than 15 eggs. Hatches offspring for up to 26 days. Under home breeding conditions, partridge lays eggs from March to July and during this period can produce up to 60 eggs. But such indicators are possible only under the right care conditions and compliance with an extended light regime. For example, starting from January, the length of daylight for birds should be at least 15 hours.

Chicks

So, if you have adult partridges, there are few things left to do: proper feeding and living conditions. It's another matter if you got hold of the eggs of these wild birds. By the way, taming chicks, as practice shows, is much easier. To get offspring you need:

1. Take a small basket measuring 30*30 centimeters and cover it with a thick layer of straw and hay.
2. Place the eggs so that they do not touch each other and lie with the blunt end down. Every two days for 15 days they should be turned.
3. Place the basket itself in a cool place, but place a light hen on the eggs.
4. After about 25 days, the chicks are born. On the first day, we leave them with the hen in this basket, after which we transplant them into a separate cage, divided into two sectors.
5. When the chicks grow up and become stronger, they can be released into a small enclosure on the grass. Babies need dry soil and sun to develop well.
6. After one week, the chicks are separated from the hen. After a month, the birds should be able to walk independently in the enclosure.

What to feed the chicks?

On the first day of life, partridge chicks are given the mashed yolk of a boiled chicken egg. Then, in the following days, you can mix chopped dandelion, yarrow, and cabbage into it. Afterwards you can give some white bread and crumbs. But on day 4-5, introduce half-cooked meat or ant eggs into the diet. The babies are fed in the morning and during the day, gradually increasing the amount of food.

Adult birds

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 split into pairs. Therefore, you should definitely have paired birds; during subsequent breeding, the male plays a very important role in raising the offspring.

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

During the rest of the period, a large pen for partridges is not required. In the room for keeping them during the cold season, it is necessary to lay warm, dry bedding and change it regularly. No cracks or holes should be allowed. Not only can rodents enter them, but they can also create drafts, which are extremely undesirable for birds.

Partridges should be placed in a quiet place without loud noise, as the bird is very shy. There should be a net on top, since, being frightened, one female can fly up and drag the entire herd with her. As for the nest for laying, females dig holes in thick grass or under bushes for these purposes. The bird covers the nest with dry grass, leaves or its own down.

Health

Of course, none of their poultry farmers want to spend a lot of effort and time on raising partridges and lose them due to diseases and other unfavorable factors. Fortunately, the gray species of wild bird has good immunity and tolerates even minor colds well. However, risk factors may include infectious diseases, as well as poor-quality grain. Therefore, for your “dear” birds, it is important to buy only high-quality food or, best of all, to grow it yourself, if the garden allows. Do not allow partridges to come into contact with other poultry or animals. For even more details about this, watch the video.

Video “Grey partridge in the nursery of Boris Kravchik”

In this article, using the example of the household of Boris Krawchik, a resident of the city of Shakhty, you can see how partridges can be kept, take a detailed look at the appearance of the females and males of these birds, as well as the approximate arrangement of their winter quarters.

Growing and breeding partridges for the sale of eggs and meat can be classified as a competitive and quickly profitable business due to the constant demand for its products. To get started, it is enough to properly equip the chicken coop and purchase adult birds. This solution will allow you to achieve a stable income that can be received even in a remote village. When choosing a business niche, many avoid the field of breeding and caring for wild birds, since caring for them is not easy, but the market value of partridge meat and eggs is much higher than similar products.

Breeding exotic birds as a business

Business relevance

Growing partridges is a relevant business due to the high cost of products and the lack of need to create special conditions for keeping exotic birds.

Many entrepreneurs do not want to work in this niche because they consider it complex and narrow, so there are practically no competitors in it. By engaging in this type of activity, you can earn income not only from selling 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, it is enough to open an individual business. As your business expands, you may think about changing your status to a legal entity. When preparing documentation, you should indicate the type of activity “poultry breeding”. After renting a premises for poultry planting or its construction, it is necessary to obtain permission to begin work from the authorized bodies of the SES and fire inspection. The document will be issued subject to certain conditions being met. In the general package of documents, the entrepreneur must submit for consideration:

• lease agreement or papers on ownership of buildings;
• an insurance contract in case of fire, in which the third party beneficiary is the lessor or owner of nearby facilities;
• contract for disinfection and deratization work.

At the stage of product sales, it is necessary to control it by the veterinary service, so you will have to draw up another contract to check the 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 the storage of eggs and their packaging, SES checks are possible. Their competence includes monitoring the compliance of storage areas for finished products with regulatory requirements, as well as the absence of pathogenic microorganisms in them.

Entrepreneurial risks

Partridge eggs

Breeding and keeping partridges at home involves risks due to the nuances of the business. Financial losses may be associated with the death of birds due to their 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 feeding of poultry with medications.

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 product for sale. A negative point may also be the loss of regular customers for whom the product manufacturer is its supplier.

A bird may lose weight or stop laying eggs in stressful situations caused by strong noise, changes in food, or inconsistencies in the temperature and humidity conditions in the room where the partridges are kept. For this reason, before purchasing poultry, an entrepreneur needs to become familiar with the peculiarities of its maintenance.

Read also: Breeding ostriches as a business: where to start, how to succeed

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

Premises requirements

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 and also consult with people specializing in this field. One of the conditions for ensuring the normal life of the bird is the arrangement of outbuildings in which the bird will be housed. There should be no drafts in the room, it should be warm and ventilated on one side as needed. It should contain clean and dry bedding. An area for poultry walking should be set up next to the pen.

Partridge cages

When determining the size of the required area, you should focus on standard norms, according to which one square meter of space is needed for the normal life of one individual. Only chicks can be kept in a cage, and it is better to place an adult bird in an aviary.

Where to begin

Before registering a business 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 the 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;
• gain practical skills in caring for partridges;
• identify possible difficulties that may be encountered;
• calculate business profitability.

Hatching chicks

In order for a poultry farming business to bring constant profit, it is necessary to take care of updating and increasing 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 chicks can be hatched from partridge eggs.

Female exotic birds are excellent mothers, so they can hatch chicks on their own. One individual can carry a load of incubating up to 25 eggs. To do this, they need a basket filled with hay. Place the required number of eggs in it. They should not touch each other. You need to place a hen 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 independently.

Caring for chicks

Chicks hatch from eggs on day 25. If they were hatched by a hen, then she can be trusted to care for them during the first days of their life. After a maximum of a week, it is recommended to place the chicks in a separate enclosure. They should not be placed together with an adult bird.

In the first 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, you can introduce boiled meat, larvae and white bread crumbs into the diet. Little by little, crushed raw grain should be added to the mixture. Chicks should be fed twice a day.

Feeding the bird

Proper feeding of poultry is a guarantee of the success of a business project. Partridges should receive a balanced diet that would improve their body’s immune response to various infections, and would also ensure maximum body weight gain and egg production parameters.

Partridge dish

Partridges are unpretentious eaters. It is enough for them to include mixtures of wheat, oats and corn in their diet. You should not overfeed 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 food can lead to the same problems. Its quantity must be calculated in such a way that in the warm season one individual receives 300 calories of food. During the cold season, the figure should be reduced to 90 calories.

To determine the scale of work both at the preparatory stage and in the process of raising partridges at home, you should familiarize yourself with the nuances and features of this matter. If everything is organized correctly, then such an activity will not only provide the family with meat and poultry eggs, but can also bring considerable profit.

Before starting the business of breeding partridges, you should think and decide on several things that will be needed in the process of keeping birds:

Breeding partridges at home requires certain documentation.

1. Room. First, you should find the opportunity to equip a suitable room with all the necessary conditions. More detailed specifications are listed below.
2. Aviary. In addition to the room itself, it is worth considering that for partridges it is necessary to additionally organize an enclosure, which will require both space and materials.
3. Feed. If we are talking about breeding partridges for sale, then you should start looking for suitable food that will cost a reasonable price at the required level of quality.
4. Sales market. It’s better to take care of this moment in advance too. if you wish to engage in breeding for sale.

In addition to the above points, it is worth remembering that any such activity requires certain documentation permitting the activity. If you want to open a business, after all the calculations have been carried out and the decision has been made, you should go to the tax office and register. The code for this type of activity is OKVED 01.24.

Reference. To avoid difficulties and doubts about the reality of starting a business, you can first try to do this business on a scale that is regulated by law as “for personal consumption,” especially if you equip everything in a dacha or country house. In this case, there is no need to pay tax and you can decide for yourself in the process about the need for further development.

A certain list of requirements is imposed on the premises in which partridges are kept:

1. The room should always be warm.
2. Avoid drafts.
3. The litter must be kept dry.
4. The size of the room for 1000 birds ranges from 20 to 30 m2.

The room where partridges are kept should be warm and dry.

There can be simply shelves of cages in the room, but it is better to provide the birds with access to an aviary, or build an aviary for them and not use cages. Each person decides this question individually.

Tall grass and shrubs should be planted in the enclosure to create conditions as close to natural as possible. It is also worth additionally thinking about feeders and water containers that will be convenient to remove, pour food and add water, and at the same time they will be accessible to the birds.

To make feeding partridges easier, buy compound feed, because otherwise you will have to calculate all the necessary cereals yourself. There are differences in diets depending on the reproductive period.

To make feeding partridges easier, buy mixed feed.

Feeding is carried out as follows:

Reproductive period

Unproductive period

before 4 weeks of egg laying - add 60 mg of provitamin A and 10 mg of vitamin E to the feed per partridge once; at the same time, the birds are fed carrots and herbs, and a slightly pink solution of potassium permanganate is poured into the water; with the beginning of egg laying, the amount of feed is 25-30 grams, while the content of crude protein, calcium and phosphorus in it should be 23: 2.5: 0.9 (%) respectively, the amount of kcal is 270.

This period begins in August, the diet during this period is as follows: grain feed – 25 g; carrots, cabbage (juicy food) – 9 g; minced meat, cottage cheese (animal food) – 2g; fish oil, yeast (vitamin feed) – 2g; mineral supplements – 2g. Feeding twice a day: the first time from 8 to 10 am, the second from 14 to 15.

Important. Birds should be transferred to the new diet gradually over a period of 10 days.

When breeding partridges at home, it is necessary to place the male and female in the same cage in early spring, and seed them in the middle of the summer season. In this case, ideal conditions would be a long daylight hours, which lasts at least 15 hours. During the entire fertile period, the female lays about 15 eggs, which will incubate for up to 26 days.

The eggs are placed in a small basket, with straw placed at the bottom.

The period when the chicks are in the egg can occur naturally, or you can use an incubator:

1. If you hatch chicks naturally, the eggs laid by the hen are placed in a basket 30 cm in size, the bottom of which is lined with dry straw. Initially, the eggs are placed with the blunt end down and the position is changed every 2 days. The hen incubates the eggs, after which she is removed from the chicks.
2. To facilitate the process, you can also purchase an incubator, which will give no worse results. All fertilized, whole eggs that do not have damage in the shell must be placed in such equipment. Eggs that are small in size should not be placed in an incubator, because... there is a risk of getting an underdeveloped chick.

To determine the fertilized eggs of the material, an ovoscope is used and the eggs are viewed with its help. There should be no two yolks, no displacement of the yolk, or bloody spots inside. The temperature in the incubator should be maintained at 37.6-37.7 in the first 12 days, then it is slightly reduced to 37.3-37.5, by the last day it is reduced again to 37.2.

Partridge chicks require a special temperature regime during incubation.

The humidity level throughout the incubation period should not be less than 60%, and in the last two days not less than 80%.

When the moment of hatching of the chicks comes, for the first day they should remain a brood hen, after which they are transplanted into a separate basket or special cage. In the case of incubatory breeding, the chicks are moved immediately after emerging from the shell, waiting until it dries.

There is another option: during incubation hatching, move the chicks to the hen in a specially equipped cage with an aviary. After 6 days, the chicks are separated from the hen.

Regarding feeding chicks, you can adhere to the following system:

The first day after hatching, the chicks remain with the hen.

1. On the first day, you should boil the egg and grind the yolk, which is scattered into the feeder for the young animals.
2. On the second day, you can add cabbage, nettle, dandelion and yarrow, also chopping everything very finely.
3. On the third day, you can introduce into the diet meat puree from a half-cooked piece of meat, cottage cheese, which does not contain salt, or milk and egg porridge. It is also very good if it is possible to add ant eggs to the food of young birds.
4. Further feeding takes place with a similar diet until the chicks reach one month of age. After this, they are gradually transferred to adult food and transferred to a common poultry house.

Important. Feeding hours for chicks should be the same every day - at 9-10 am and 16-17 pm. The amount of feed also increases gradually.

Regarding the advantages of raising partridges at home, both for personal purposes and as a business, the following can be highlighted:

1. Birds do not require specialized care, which is time-consuming and costly.
2. From breeding it is possible to obtain not only meat products, but also eggs.
3. The taste of the meat is quite high.
4. In this business, everyone has their own profit, regardless of competition.
5. The breeding process itself is very interesting and fascinating.

Partridges do not require specialized care, which is time-consuming and costly.

Partridge breeding as a business

Considering that raising partridges is quite simple, such a business can be turned into a profitable business. You can set up partridge breeding as a business in your own country house or at home and make a big profit.

Finding a market for meat and eggs does not require much effort, because such a product is always in demand, especially on restaurant menus.

1. Construction of premises. This costs about 40,000 rubles; construction work and all necessary materials are taken into account.
2. Purchase of poultry. An amount of up to 10,000 rubles can accommodate the purchase of 4 pairs of partridges.
3. Care workers. If you hire special people who will monitor the condition of the poultry house, then their services will cost a maximum of 15,000 rubles per month.

You can start raising partridges as a business in your own dacha or at home.

If the partridges are provided with good conditions and quickly reach a weight of up to 600 grams, the productivity and profit of the business will be at a high level.

Regarding profit, everything is as follows:

1. The price for 1 egg is up to 13 rubles, respectively, a dozen eggs - 130 rubles.
2. One carcass weighing about 500 grams will cost the buyer 1,250 rubles.

1. From one female, up to 60 eggs are obtained over a one-year period; in addition, incubatory breeding is involved, which increases the number of birds.
2. Regarding clear carcasses: you can earn 100,000 in a year. This amount is typical for 1-2 years, but the further the farm develops, the more profit it brings.

We offer you to watch a video from a farmer who breeds partridges at home.

There remains one important question that worries almost everyone who has decided to breed partridges - where to get the birds? The cheapest way is to catch a partridge in the forest. But if you have no experience in such a difficult task, then it is better to purchase chicks or adults from farms.

Partridges do not require large investments and special efforts for their maintenance and care. This allows you to turn such an exciting and simple process into a profitable business and provide your entire family with exotic meat and eggs. You just have to plan everything in advance and calculate it correctly.

Modern poultry farming is constantly expanding the list of birds bred in captivity. One of these, still new, but already quite popular species, in demand in amateur poultry farming, is the gray partridge.

Features of the view

The partridge is a small bird, its average weight is about half a kilogram. Males are usually slightly larger than females. With their physique, partridges most closely resemble dense small chickens.

An undoubted advantage is the very high fertility of partridges; in one clutch there are up to 25 eggs, one per day, after which the female begins to hatch. It should be noted that such a long laying period also negatively affects the hatching period of the chicks. In large clutches, egg mortality can reach 30%.

Female partridges are very conscientious hens; in the household they even allow themselves to be removed from the nest, but they will not leave the clutch without permission. An important point is the tendency of partridges, which stay in flocks in autumn and winter, to split into pairs during the mating season. Unlike other poultry, which are characterized by polygamy, breeding material at home must be provided with a place where couples can live separately and raise chicks in comfortable conditions. The male takes part in both incubating the chicks and raising them. In addition, when starting to raise partridges, you need to be prepared for the following:

• The meat of these birds is tasty and nutritious; there are many hunters for it; partridges can become prey for birds of prey, such as hawks or crows. Therefore, when organizing your own farmstead, it is necessary to take appropriate measures to protect your pets;
• The partridge, even domesticated, has wings and is capable of flight. As soon as a reason arises (a sharp sound is a sufficient reason), they take off, lifting the entire flock with them. Until the birds get used to it, they should be kept in cages and, if possible, all irritants should be excluded;
• In the area intended for walking, shrubs must grow - a natural, habitual shelter; in addition, birds like to hide in the shade of dense plants;
• If there are rats on your farm, it is better to take the eggs and place them in an incubator. This is worth doing for two reasons: to exclude the possibility of eggs being stolen by rats and the likelihood that females will break the eggs, frightened by uninvited guests.

What you need to know to breed partridges

In order to organize a backyard, you will need adult birds, several pairs. You can “obtain” them by hunting yourself or purchase them from farmers who are already breeding birds of this species. If it is not possible to acquire adults, then you will have to start by hatching chickens from eggs. This method is more labor-intensive, but, in the absence of anything else, it is used.

Laying is carried out towards the end of April. Hatching of chicks lasts about 25-26 days. At home, you can ensure that laying begins earlier, in March, by increasing the length of daylight hours to at least 15 hours. Moreover, this must be done starting in January.

If you still plan to get offspring with which to start your farm, then place the eggs in a basket covered with a thick, dense layer of straw or hay. The eggs should not touch each other and should lie with their blunt ends down. During the first two weeks, the eggs must be turned every two days. The basket with the masonry should be in a cool, ventilated place (without drafts), and the hen should be placed on it.

Chicks

The first day after birth, the chicks remain in the nest with the hen, after which they need to be transplanted into a cage divided in half. After the kids get stronger and gain strength, they can be let out for a walk in a fenced enclosure on the grass. Chicks need sunlight and dry soil to grow properly. After a week, the hen is removed.

Feeding the chicks

The first food in life for chicks in captivity is boiled and crushed egg yolk. But gradually chopped greens are mixed into it - dandelions, cabbage, yarrow. By the fourth or fifth day, the diet is enriched with ant eggs and boiled meat. Portions are gradually increased, feeding occurs in the morning and afternoon.

Partridges have good immunity, but it is better to avoid contact with other poultry. To prevent birds from getting sick, during the cold season they are kept in a room whose floor is lined with a layer of straw. The litter must be changed regularly.

Poor-quality grain can be another source of disease; you need to carefully monitor the quality of food for partridges.