The breeding and growing business has remained highly profitable and popular for many years. After all, the demand for chicken meat and eggs is growing, as they are in demand dietary products.
The choice of premises for the chicken coop and its arrangement
The height of the room where the chickens will be kept should not exceed 2 meters, and the temperature inside the chicken coop should be no more than 27 ° C. It is believed that it is better to construct the entrance to the poultry house from the east side of the building. Perches mounted from wooden planks should be set at 25 centimeters above the floor, and nests where eggs will be laid should be placed in the corners of the house. Usually, for these purposes, wooden boxes filled with sawdust or straw are quite successfully used.
The floor of the chicken coop can be covered with a special bedding that can simultaneously absorb excess moisture and become an insulating layer. It is important not to forget about keeping the nests perfectly clean, which will not slow down to affect the number of eggs laid by chickens.
Feeding
When feeding, it is important to take into account that the diet of birds should include not only proteins, fats and carbohydrates, but also a sufficient amount of minerals and vitamins. A good solution is the so-called dry type of feeding, when they give ready-made complete feed - today there is a fairly wide selection of them on sale. However, this type of feed is usually more expensive for use in private farms compared to other types. Therefore, many poultry owners are successfully using the combination feeding.
For example, a complete diet can be made from whole grains and a flour mixture, adding to them food of plant and animal origin, as well as minerals. For a Russian white chicken breed (if the approximate weight of an individual is 1, 8 kilograms), which carries 20 eggs per month, you will need daily:
- grain - 50 g;
- a mixture of various types of flour (oatmeal, barley, corn) with the addition of wheat bran - 50 g;
- hay flour - 10 g;
- fresh vegetables (the so-called juicy feed: beets, carrots, turnips, rutabagas, etc.) - 30-50 g;
- dry protein mixture of vegetable and animal origin (cake, various kinds of meat waste, etc.) - 10-15 g;
- shells - 5 g;
- bone meal - 2 g;
- table salt - 0.5 g.
For general-use breeds, individuals of which have a greater live weight, the amount of grain-flour feed should be increased by 18-20 g, and dry animals - by 3-4 g compared to egg-bearing breeds. In this case, the flour mixture is partially replaced with boiled potatoes, increasing the daily rate by 3 times. In the summer, hay flour and root crops can be replaced with herbs, feeding one bird about 30-40 g.
They feed usually 3-4 times a day. The morning meal is usually a small amount of grains or dry mix. The second time they give sprouted grain, then - a well-moistened mixture. At night, experts recommend giving the bird dry grain again. You should not use too much potatoes in the diet of overeaters, especially for representatives of meat and egg breeds - the bird then begins to fatten quickly. After the onset of the cold season, wet mixtures should be prepared in hot broth, whey or water so that the bird can consume them warm.
At the same time, in the bird feeder, mineral feed (shells, chalk, wood ash or crushed bones) should always be available, and in the drinkers - water in sufficient quantities. Quite suitable for feeding poultry and grain as well as mill waste. You can track the completeness of the diet by periodically weighing several birds.
