How to feed chickens from the first days of life

Growing a bird at home is taken for three reasons:

1. always in stock fresh eggsrich in nutrients;
2. for personal use dietary meat;
3. with the aim of surplus eggs and meat.

Ways and methods of breeding are also different.

You can collect eggs from laying hens and put them in an incubator, or buy eggs and incubate them. The option of buying a brood of chickens with their subsequent cultivation... How to feed and care for chickens in the first days of life, read below.

Raising and keeping chickens from an incubator at home

In the first days, newborn chickens are kept in cardboard box... Then they are transplanted into special cells. You can immediately raise chicks in cages. Requirements for the conditions of detention: the air temperature in the first days of life is above 27 degrees, then it is gradually lowered (monthly chickens can be set to a temperature of 20 C); humidity air - around 70%; protect your chickens from drafts and dampness; give only high quality feed and clean water (we'll talk about nutrition below); increased daylight hours (with age, it gradually decreases to normal daylight hours); keep the growing area clean; it is desirable to provide ventilation; the room must be sufficient for free food intake (if these are not broiler chickens, they can be kept in a more spacious room); watch to feeders were clean, give porridge in separate feeders or do it in one partition; drinker select according to the age of the bird, make sure that the chicken does not drown in it.

If the hatching chicks are kept in paddock, then care for them is the same as for growing in cages. Special attention needs to be paid litter on the floorat. To avoid diseases, it must be dry, and the floor must be warm. Due to the fact that the total area of ​​the pen is larger than the total area of ​​the cage for an equal number of livestock, make sure that the feeders and drinkers are in such a way as to prevent them from turning onto the chicks.

Living conditions and proper care for newborn chickens with hens

If you want to pick up chicks from a quota without adding chicks to it from other hens or an incubator, you need to remember that chickens are not recommended immediately after emerging from the egg. take away from the hen... It is necessary to give them time to dry, then transplant them into a box of corrugated paper in a warm room with an ambient temperature above 27 degrees.

If the situation is that you need to plant chickens from other hens or after the incubator, then we do everything carefully and carefully. For this, a number of preliminary activities:

1. chickens sit down from a warm room, so that the body temperature of the chicks does not differ from that of its own brood;
2. planting the brood preferably in evening time, closer to the night;
3. coloration planted chickens should not differ sharply from her own;
4. should be small age difference chicks (up to four days);
5. plant all chicks follow at once, and not one by one.

After the chicks are born, they, a little dried up, are transferred to a special poultry house (equipped room for growing young animals). General requirements:

• temperature in the room in the first days it should be above 23 degrees (for newly hatched chickens, this air temperature is low, but if they are kept with a brood hen, then there will be no hypothermia); you need to make sure that it is not hot;
• air humidity should be in the range of 67-73 percent (dry or waterlogged air negatively affects the health of the offspring);
• complete absence drafts;
• floor should be wooden or covered with straw or other bedding; make sure that it is not wet;
• feed and water chickens, preferably separately from the chicken. To do this, we put a separate feeder and drinker.

The ambient temperature decreases with increasing age of the chicks. For two week old young you can lower it to 20 degrees. It is useful to let them out for a short time on the street together with an adult to a special area for walking. Such a site should be fenced off on all sides and covered with a protective mesh on top. The walls of such a walk should not be made of fabric mesh so that the young do not get entangled in it. Be sure to ensure that the young bird can freely return to a warm room after a short walk.

A hen for chicks is needed before they reach one month of age. Then they should be grown separately.

Advantages raising chickens with a brood hen:

• Percent case decreases;
• Additional heating for chicks;
• Protection from predators.

How to feed and care, what can you give

This process boils down to the fact that the bird needs to be given quality feed with all the necessary components. Feed composition differs depending on the age of the young and the mass of the young. Its amount also depends on the above factors. Be sure to provide free access to feeders and drinkers. Young livestock can be fed dosed (several times a day), or it can be kept in the feeders all the time, if necessary, filling it up.

In the early days of life

If grown non-broiler chickens, then in the first days of life they can be given a chopped hard-boiled egg or egg powder. If your herd consists of broiler chicks, it is advisable not to give the egg in any form other than powder. The main feed in the first 3-4 days is millet. Do not recommend give wet feed, crushed grain. We make sure that the water in the drinking bowls is fresh and warm, diluted with potassium permanganate (without changing the color to a pinkish tint). You can drink weak water glucose solution.

At one week and two weeks of age

Starter compound feed we begin to give from the fifth or sixth day of life. Add to water vitamins... We teach them to eat cottage cheese. The food is slightly moistened with milk whey.

Daily rate food consumption at a week of age reaches 15 - 30 grams. Depends on the breed, weight of the bird, and other factors.

Mix into the moistened starter feed greens (up to 7% of the total amount of feed), for example, finely chopped onions, at the rate of 1:20. It contains the necessary vitamins. You can add reverse, yogurt, buttermilk to the feed, mix crushed eggshells, feed yeast, grated carrots in small quantities. Sand young animals do not need to be given.

Feeding one month old chicks

At this age, young animals are given a growth granulated feedwhich includes minerals, protein, cereals (wheat, barley, peas, corn), amino acids and vitamins. Finely chop the green mass in the form of cabbage leaves, green onions, lettuce, nettle. We continue add to feed whey, meat and bone meal, meal or cake. You can replace the growth compound feed with crushed grain. When the young are one month old, you can give porridge. It is especially good to give it if the poultry is raised for meat.

Not recommended feed the chickens with bread and clean boiled potatoes.

Feed consumption table from the first week to the month

Table of the daily ration of young animals: compound feed, nettle, etc.

Diseases and their treatment, essential vitamins

At different age stages, chickens and young animals get sick various diseases. However, there are common illnesses for all ages. After reaching one month of age, young animals may also have diseases of adults. Some diseases and treatments:

• Dyspepsia - Disease of the digestive tract of day old chickens. It is also recommended to separately prepare an aqueous solution of glucose;
• Avitaminosis - may appear at 5 days of age or later. To prevent it, you can drop "Trivitamin" into the beak of each chicken;



• Various infections... "Baytril" is added to the water at the rate of 0.5 grams per 1 liter of water;



• Coccidosis - violation of the processes of digestion and dehydration of the body. At two weeks of age, dissolve the drug "Baykoks" at the rate of 0.5 grams per 1 liter of water;



• Rickets - mineral and vitamin metabolic disorders in the body. Recommend "Trivit" "Tetravit" (dosage according to instructions), various vitamins;



• hypovitaminosis A, D, E, B;
• aspergillosis - an infectious disease, accompanied by damage to the respiratory system. It is necessary to ventilate the room well, avoid dampness. For prophylaxis, add a little iodine-containing preparations to feed and water;
• heterocydosis - worms in the intestines. Against this disease, you can use "Piperazine". Preventive measures - thoroughly wash the room in which the chickens are;
• ascites - fat accumulates in the abdomen. The bird walks sluggishly and reluctantly. To avoid this disease, it is necessary to give greens;
• poisoning... To avoid this, you need to ensure that the food is fresh and of high quality, and that no foreign objects get into the feeders;
• salmonellosis manifests itself in an upset stomach. Can be treated with tetracycline or Ditrevit. The dosage is indicated in the instructions.

In order for the young to get sick less or not to get sick at all, there must be proper care, and it is also necessary to carry out preventive actions, including sanitization of the premises, feeders, drinkers and equipment.

Usage quality feed with a proportionally selected composition - the key to the rapid growth of young animals. If this is not a purchased compound feed, the composition is selected empirically and depends on the breed of chickens, the purpose of growing, the availability of green mass and the possibility of walking.