Breeding poultry is troublesome, but very exciting. If you have purchased small chickens, or your laying hen is about to become a mother, then you should know what you will encounter. Young hen care is divided into two periods: keeping chickens (at the age of 1-8 weeks of life) and caring for young chickens (from 9 to 20 weeks of age). How to raise chickens correctly?
It is necessary
- - room for chickens;
- - feeders and drinkers;
- - special feed;
- - fenced off walk.
Instructions
Step 1
Get strong and healthy chicks. A good chick should be agile, firmly on its legs, have bright eyes and a yellow beak. The belly of a strong chicken is tucked up, and the wings are pressed tightly to the body.
Step 2
Prepare chicks in a warm, pre-sanitized, draft-free environment. Fill the floor with fine shavings. Even if the chicks are brooding, the house should be heated for the first few days. If chicks are broodless, maintain temperature until the birds are 40 days old. Provide 24/7 lighting for chicks for the first week.
Step 3
Keep hen with chickens separate from adult birds. Make sure that predators do not enter the chicken house: cats, rats, weasels, ferrets. Provide poultry with a separate sheltered green grass area. For 1 chicken, there should be 1-2 square meters of walking. Make sure that the chickens do not go outside until the dew has melted.
Step 4
Make separate feeders and drinkers for the young. For a large number of chicks, it is worth installing automatic nipple drinkers. Feeders for one-week old chicks should be flat, but the feed should not be trampled in them. Remember that there should be a sufficient number of feeders. Crowding or queuing in feeding should not be allowed. All chicks should eat at the same time.
Step 5
Prepare special food. Chicken feed contains a large amount of proteins and vitamins. If the chickens are with a hen, then first feed the hen. Chickens are fed every 2 hours. Chopped eggs, shells, fresh yogurt and cottage cheese, white bread, boiled potatoes should be added to the compound feed. Gradually transfer from crushed and boiled chicken grits to whole grains. The feed should be consumed in 20 minutes. It is unacceptable to feed the bird moldy food. Install feeders with mineral additives in the chicken house: shell rock, chalk.
Step 6
Organize sand baths for young animals. Add 2 buckets of sand to the ash bucket. Chickens love to swim in such baths in sunny weather.
