How to properly raise laying hens at home?

When a new lover of wildlife has mastered the garden, he will think about getting animal products. Breeding chickens at home for beginners is the first experience of commercial production of meat and eggs. Chickens are most tolerant of lack of grooming, almost omnivorous and friendly. This is an almost waste-free production - droppings, eggs, meat, feathers - everything goes into business.

Livestock conditions

The first step is to determine whether a seasonal or year-round flock will be kept. For summer time, a light shelter and a walking area are enough. In winter, you need a warm shed. In the summer, in order to feed on eggs, you need to buy pullet hens. For beginners, raising chickens at home all year round determines the quality of the chickens. It is better to buy a batch of daily chicks at a poultry farm with a guarantee that the livestock will be thoroughbred and zoned.

It is necessary to read the literature and determine the physiological norms of keeping and feeding chickens. Some facts about the conditions for raising chickens will need to be known in advance.

For floor keeping, the room should have an area at the rate of 5 chickens per 1 square meter. The temperature of the content is not lower than 5-7 degrees. The room should be warm, light, dry, egg production depends on it. At night, regardless of the season, chickens should be indoors, equipped with perches. On the roost, each chicken should be 20 cm long and they should all be placed at the same level.

In the cage, the bird develops faster, rushes and gains weight. 5-7 individuals are placed in one cage. A rooster in the herd is needed if fertilized eggs are required in the future for incubating chicks. In summer cottage life, a rooster is needed for beauty and a flooded announcement of a new day.

A walking area for chickens is necessary, they must be outdoors. A shed is needed so that the herd can shelter from the rain.

For beginners, breeding chickens at home is important to determine the number and place of residence of the birds.

What breeds of chickens are suitable for home breeding

Not all chicken breeds are suitable for backyard farming. Therefore, you need to choose chickens for home breeding, taking into account the specifics of the content, simple or thoroughbred. Simple ones are less demanding on the balance of feed, on keeping conditions. There are breeds of meat or egg orientation. So, meat broilers can be grown per season for full-fledged slaughter with a carcass weight of 3-4 kg. Egg breeds of chickens rush abundantly, but during the molting period they can be slaughtered, the soup will be rich. For a personal backyard, it is recommended to breed chickens of egg breeds:

• Russian whites;
• Red white-tailed;
• Leghorns

Got one day old chicks, what's next?

You need to take a large warm box. Day-old chickens will knock on the wall with their noses, if it is cardboard or foam, they will prick and die. At the bottom, cover the bottom with newspapers, place a drinker and a feeder on them. Put an incandescent lamp on top of a tripod, adjusting the height so that the floor is 30 C. The brood will be hindered at the bottom of the box and illuminated on the first day, even at night, later daylight hours are reduced from 17 hours to 8.

Food and drink should always be available. Remove the pellet newspaper 2 times a day. If the chickens do "heap-small", they are cold, the lower ones can be crushed. If you are flattened away from the light, it is hot. From the fifth day, the temperature is reduced to 26 degrees and every week by 3 degrees more, so to 18. From the box, the chickens are transferred to the litter, gradually increasing the area.

By the age of 4 months, the chicks are slightly smaller in size than an adult chicken, at 5 months they begin to rush.

Keeping chickens

While the chickens were growing up in a cramped but warm room for the first two months, a chicken coop was built for them. A house for chickens can become a decoration of the estate. The main thing is that it should be without cracks so that there is no draft. The floor is covered with a thick layer of sawdust or straw.

Feeders with three compartments are arranged:

• dry food;
• mineral supplements;
• mash.

The feeder should be separated by bar grates so that the bird can peck rather than trample on the feed. Drinking bowl is installed separately. It is necessary to arrange an ash-sand bath in an old trough. By the time the hens ripen, nests should be prepared - deep boxes lined with dry grass with a depression. Install them in a secluded place at the rate of a nest for 3 hens.

For summer maintenance, the house can be built of plywood with a walk, fenced with a chain-link netting. For winter, you need an insulated, ventilated, heated room with electric lighting and a walking area. With good care, chickens rush in winter as in summer.

Chicken diet

Any villager will tell you how to breed chickens at home. Only one neighbor sells an excess of eggs all year round, while the other scolds her lazy women. Good care and balanced feeding from birth is required to recoup the cost of keeping the livestock.

Chicks need water twice as much as feed. Therefore, there must be fresh water in the drinker. For the first time, diaries need to be given a 5% glucose solution to drink.

The food is poured on cardboard sheets until the age of seven days, then feeders are installed, preferably suspended. the first feeding of chicks consists of:

• fine grains crushed;
• hard boiled egg;
• dry fat-free cottage cheese.

Later, the egg is no longer given, the cottage cheese contains calcium, promotes plumage. From the second day, the addition of finely chopped greens to the feed is encouraged. In winter, when there is no clover, you can germinate cereals and add greens to the feed.

From day 3, the mash can be cooked in yogurt, meat broth. They feed only with a fresh mash, after an hour the leftovers are thrown away, the feeder is washed and rinsed with potassium permanganate. A weak pinkish solution of potassium permanganate should be fed to chickens in the morning twice a week. Five day old chicks are already resilient. They gradually increase the amount of feed, add vitamins, fish oil, from the first day they need fine gravel, eggshells, coarse sand. Until two months of age, only crushed cereals are used from cereals.

Compound feed for adult chicken is required in the composition:

• corn - 40%;
• wheat bran - 8%;
• barley flour - 20%;
• sunflower cake - 10%;
• fish meal, meat and bone meal 1: 1 - 10%;
• feed yeast - 3%;
• mineral additives, table salt - 5%.

Such a mixture in pure form and a mash is given 2-3 times a day. For good work of the stomach, be sure to feed the chickens with dry grain, it is better if the film on oats and rye is less.

A homemade egg always tastes different from a factory egg due to a variety of feed.The presence of carotene contributes to the orange color, this is due to the large amount of vitamin greens in the diet of layers.

It is impossible to overfeed the laying hen, it will be difficult for her to carry, the insides will become fat. The eggs will begin to cover with a thin film instead of the shell, pour out, contaminating the nest. This circumstance will allow the birds to learn the taste of the product, and biting will begin in the future.

You need to feed the hen:

• mash - 65-75 g;
• dry grain mixture - 30-45 g;
• sprouted cereals - 10-12 g;
• root vegetables - 20-25 g;
• fish oil, yeast, gravel, shell 1-2 g each.

You can add leftovers from the table to the feed, diversify the menu. The more ingredients in the feed, the tastier the egg. The menu depends on the season. However, if you visit the base, then chickens can eat vitamins all year round - often withered greens and fruits are thrown into waste containers. Chickens especially like mangoes and oranges.

The golden age of the laying hen is up to 15 months, later it rushes less often, the meat coarsens. By this time, a new brood of chickens will be ready - this is how chickens are bred in the courtyard. Usually the first eggs of pullets are brought at the age of 110-120 days.

Signs of disease

It is necessary to warn, for beginners, breeding chickens at home to know the main signs of disease. Despite good hygienic conditions, pigeons, stealing food, and rodents can bring the disease. Sick birds can be seen immediately. They are lethargic, do not go to the trough, do not stand up, convulsions are observed. A sick bird must be immediately separated from the flock.

Lethargy, lack of appetite is considered a sign of vitamin deficiency. Feed greens, irradiate with ultraviolet lamps, give fish oil and everything will work out. It is more terrible to cope with the cannibalism of chickens. If a wound appears on the body of a bird, it will attract the attention of companions. Therefore, the light in the hen house should not be bright, the muted and reddish color hides fresh wounds.

You need to be on the alert, expect pecking and understand the reasons for this ailment:

• chickens bite their fingers in the blood - it is hungry:
• pecking out the head - the establishment of a hierarchy is in progress;
• pecking of the cloaca - when it is inflamed from improper feeding;
• when the cloaca is inflamed and falls out from the socks of very large eggs;
• pluck feathers - there are few minerals in the feed;
• the presence of insects - feather eaters, lice, ticks.

How to keep chickens and have a productive flock is a multifaceted question.

Video about breeding chickens at home

Foreword

Growing laying hens at home is quite different from the process of breeding broilers for meat, since the main thing here is to ensure the maximum egg production of the bird, to create comfortable conditions for it. It is especially important to pay attention to the prevention of diseases, the creation of the correct nests and their placement, chicken nutrition, vitaminization and saturation of the body with calcium. How to equip a chicken coop, what, when and how much to feed hens, how to make nests and much more, you can find out later in the article!

Choosing the best egg breeds

If you want to get a lot of eggs and make an extremely profitable production, then you need to choose the right chicken breed. It is not always worth choosing only from foreign options, since domestic poultry farmers also grow decent breeds of chickens, which in egg production are in no way inferior to the best "Europeans". Let's consider the most acceptable options for our climatic zone:

1. Layers Loman Brown. One of the most popular breeds in Russia and neighboring countries. They have not given the top positions in the rating for decades and surprise every poultry farmer with their egg production - about 315 eggs per year. Sexual maturity of an individual arrives in 4-5 months, after which the chicken is productive for 2-3 years, and with each month the number of laid eggs will increase. They are resistant to diseases and have a very high vitality - almost all chickens survive (98% safety of young animals).The egg is distinguished by its large size - up to 80 grams, moreover, one chicken consumes no more than 130 grams / day.
2. Dutch laying hens Hisex - small individuals weighing only up to 1.5-2 kg, come to puberty after 120-130 days, after which they rapidly increase egg production for 1 year. Egg production of white hens - 290 eggs per year, gray and brown - 320 eggs. This difference is due to the fact that the former have a large expenditure of energy for heating the body in a cold season, therefore they rush a little worse. The testicle is relatively large - up to 65-80 grams, has a hard shell, which significantly increases its transportability.
3. Motley Pushkin. One of the "brightest" hens, which not only rushes remarkably, but also pleases the eye of the owner. Many of them are kept only for decoration and variety of the household yard (especially since such decoration still brings good profit). The egg production of this species is 315 eggs per year, the weight of one egg is 75 grams. Chickens have a Nordic, restrained character - they are strong, stand firmly on their feet, walk importantly around the yard and do not fuss at the slightest noise. Survival of young animals - 99%, adults - 95%. It is not recommended to combine this breed with another in the same area - the bird is proud, does not like companies and can conflict.
4. Kuchinskaya Jubilee. A universal chicken - you can keep it for an omelet, and chop it into the soup if necessary. One of the best meat-eating chicken, which lays up to 240 eggs per year and is rapidly gaining live weight. The chicken already begins to delight the owner with eggs at the age of 5-6 months (or immediately turns into a beef breed), begins to carry small ones - weighing 60 grams. With proper nutrition and care, the survival of young animals is 99%, the variety is well acclimatized, it feels great in any conditions of detention.

You must immediately decide for what purposes you will keep the chicken coop, since the difference between egg-bearing breeds and meat breeds is very large (up to 100 eggs per year). If it is important for you to obtain only a secondary product, then it is better to give preference to foreign breeds. If you still prefer to consume or sell chicken meat, then it would be better to give preference to meat-and-meat breeds, which have an optimal ratio of weight and egg production.

Caring for chicks up to 1 month old

Caring for chickens is quite difficult, but buying a mature, rushing individual is very expensive and will cost you about 400-500 rubles for 1 piece. That is why it is much more profitable and easier to take chickens from the incubator and feed them 3-4 months until adulthood. Moreover, if the chicks grow constantly in the same environment and become accustomed to the chicken coop, they will begin to rush much faster than if they were placed in a new habitat.

You need to choose the most active and purest individuals - then your chances of buying healthy chickens will greatly increase. Each chick should be noisy, active, react to any sound and move towards it. If you knock on the box, Chickens should quickly run up to you and show extreme interest. The buttocks must be dry, and the down on the tummy must be light and fluffy.

The first step is to bring the bird home. To do this, you will need a cardboard box with holes in the sides and on the lid to ensure good ventilation. Chickens love high temperatures, but oxygen should be maximized, otherwise they may suffocate. During transportation, you will need to make a stop every 15-20 minutes, open the box in the fresh air and let the chicks breathe a little (5-10 minutes).

From the first days of growing chickens, it is necessary to provide maximum comfort and favorable conditions for growth and development, namely:

1. For the first 15 days, set the temperature to + 28 ° C, while monitoring the behavior of the chickens in the box, room or other room where you put them.If the bird strays into large groups and gathers all in one place - it is cold, you need to raise the temperature a little. If the kids are sitting separately, have a lethargic appearance and are inactive - they are hot, lower the temperature. They must be active, running and squeaking.
2. It is best to feed the first few days with egg yolk, then switch to millet, and when the chicks grow up a little - with cereals or grain waste. It is best to add corn grits to the diet, which is healthy and contains all the vitamins necessary for the normal development of the chicken.
3. A hedge, large box, room or box (depending on where you keep it) should be draft-free and with a warm bottom. Babies can catch a cold if they sit on a cold one or are in a draft - watch out for the absence of cold and prevent hypothermia of young individuals.

It is necessary to control that the room is dry, the chickens are always full (the easiest way is to put a feeder) and have constant access to water - they often want to drink at first and cannot be denied such pleasure.

Choosing the right diet for adults

After the chickens have lived with you for 3-4 months, they will begin to mature and lay. Gradually, all chickens will become layers, and they require a special diet. Unlike broilers, which are raised for meat, layers require a balanced feed that contains not only nutrients, but also macronutrients necessary for the proper development of the chicken. The eggshell consists almost entirely of calcium, which is taken from the chicken's body - it must be constantly replenished and the bird must be given a lot of vitamins.

If the shell becomes soft, this is the first of the reasons indicating a lack of vitamins, more precisely, calcium. It is necessary to drink the chicken with Rotstar or Foros. The traditional diet of each layer is quite diverse, it should contain: fishmeal, phosphates, sunflower cake, rapeseed and soybean meal, a grain mixture of barley, wheat and rye. It is best if you also add 200-300 grams per month of feed chalk - this is one of the most beneficial minerals for the formation of eggshells.

You can also buy nutritional mixtures that have already been developed specifically for layers - they contain the optimal amount of the most essential feed. Such food is just ideal for them, but it is quite expensive - 450-500 rubles per 50 kg bag. When buying a large batch (from 1 ton), you can save up to 50% money. If you make simple arithmetic calculations, you can determine that, on average, 3 rubles a day will go to the maintenance of 1 chicken per year. Whether it is worth using full-fledged combined feeds or trying to feed with cheaper mixtures that can be assembled on their own - every poultry breeder decides for himself. But, in any case, just feeding with grain will not work - the addition of bone meal, fish, chalk, minerals is necessary, otherwise the chicken will lay much less, and the size of the egg will be smaller than expected.

Features of the design of the chicken coop and nests

You can make absolutely any nests with respect to the shape and place them in a place convenient for you, the main thing is to always follow the following placement rules:

1. Never place nests in a draft - chickens will not lay until the discomfort is eliminated. The chicken should feel warmth and comfort, then it will delight you with a good "harvest".
2. Install each nest separately, it will be better if it is fenced from the room on all sides. In this case, the bird will fly more often and more.
3. Place the chicken coop away from noise, provide an acceptable temperature for laying eggs at + 23-25 ​​0С. The coop should be compact.
4. The roost should be no more than 40x40 centimeters, or better - 30x30 cm, while the height of the side should be at least 6 cm so that the eggs do not roll out when the chicken climbs and crawls out.

It is important to understand that the bird instinctively rushes to get new offspring, so it will only be productive when it feels the maximum safety, comfort and safety of future chickens.

It is best to make the floor in a chicken coop with clay, as concrete and other similar materials will be very cold in winter. You can make a wooden floor, pour up to 5-6 centimeters of wood shavings on top of it, so that the chickens have a place to dig and spend "active" rest. To create a "friendly" team in a hen house, you need to organize the nests correctly - they must all be at the same height, otherwise your chickens will begin to divide themselves into different "classes". The higher the chicken is, the more important it feels. They will fight for a place higher, throw out the eggs of their predecessors from the nest.

The chicken coop must contain:

1. Several small windows through which light will come in during the daytime. The bird is much more comfortable if there is a bright area in the room nearby, and its nest is in the shade.
2. Feeder so that you can eat in the chicken coop during bad weather.
3. Heater. It is especially relevant in the cold season - it will significantly increase egg production if it provides a temperature of at least + 15 ° C indoors.
4. A door for hens through which they will go outside. It should be small (25 cm high will be enough) to keep the room as warm as possible. You can hang a tarp or other material on it, which the chicken can move and crawl through - this design protects the room from wind and cold.
5. Drinking bowl. Liters for 5, no more, so that you can constantly fill in fresh water for chickens, especially on a summer day, when they can come to the watering hole 10-12 times.

If you do everything right and take into account the interests of chickens, they will certainly delight you with their productivity.

Disease Prevention and How They Can Affect Poultry Egg Production

On the way to an effective business, you can face big problems - chicken diseases. Unfortunately, no one is immune from this, since viruses are everywhere and the only thing you can do is increase the immunity of layers and eliminate foci of reproduction of harmful bacteria. If it nevertheless happened that the bird fell ill, it must be cured as soon as possible and the spread of the virus must be prevented. The main diseases of laying hens:

• Coccidiosis. A very common disease, especially in chickens up to 20 days old, but often occurs even in two-month-olds. The main symptoms are: an absolute lack of appetite (even your favorite food does not eat), lethargy, wings drop to the ground and fall off your feet. Diarrhea is one of the main symptoms. For prophylaxis, furazolidol or norsulfazole is added to the feed. If the bird is already sick and does not want to eat, dilute 5-10 grams of the drug per 100 grams of water and pour it into its mouth. Yes, just fill it - open the beak with tweezers or improvised materials and pour the drug from a pipette or pear. The chick will "heal" in a couple of days, if not even from the medicine, then from the fear of such a procedure.
• Pasteurellosis. A very common disease in adult chickens. Chickens survive it well, and the mortality rate is only 30-40%, almost all adults die. Signs: chickens do not walk, sit alone in different places, lethargic, do not eat, often foam appears from the beak. It is treated with the introduction of intramuscular antibiotics and drugs by a veterinarian. The folk method is to pour 20-30 grams of vodka into the bird's beak for disinfection, do this as in the case of coccidiosis. Heal is 50%.
• Helminthiasis. Helminths occur not only in animals and fish, but also in chickens. They parasitize in the intestines and organs of the bird. Sick individuals do not eat well, egg production and activity are significantly reduced. For prophylaxis, you can drink Drontal or Junior.
• A single decrease in productivity. It often happens that the chicken is active, healthy, does not show any signs of concern, but does not rush at all or very rarely. Almost up to 5% have such problems and, as practice shows, they come out with very tasty soup, jellied meat, hot and cold, because you will not wait for eggs from them anyway.

However, if you always feed chickens with fortified supplements (ready-made mixtures are sold), add greens to their diet, and also monitor dryness and good ventilation in the chicken coop, chickens almost never get sick.

The main "commandments" of the poultry farmer

In order for the business to be profitable, you received a lot of eggs throughout the year, you need to remember the basic rules of a successful poultry breeder:

• You can't overfeed your chickens. Well-fed "balls" will not please you with good egg production, on the contrary - they will often get sick, walk sluggish and lazy. Who actually benefited from obesity?
• Provide a "quiet hour" for chickens from 8 am to 4 pm and do not bother them unnecessarily - they are busy with important business. If you make a lot of noise and disturb the intimate atmosphere, the chicken will not lay an egg that day.
• Provide a favorable temperature in the chicken coop of + 20-25 0С. If it is very hot, the bird does not feel well, it will constantly run to drink water and try to escape into the street. If it is very cold, it will wait until an acceptable temperature for laying is reached.

In fact, 80% of the egg production of chickens depends on the conditions that you create for them, and not on a particular breed or other, less important factors. Dutch farmers very often turn on music in their chicken coops, mainly by Mozart, and in practice have proven that individuals give 11-14% more eggs than those who just sit in a soundproofed shed under the same conditions of stay. On the territory of the Russian Federation, such methods of increasing egg production are not yet practiced by factories, but the connection between the comfort of a bird and its productivity has long been proven.

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Breeding chickens on a personal plot is a great help for every family. This activity will not cause much trouble, but it will provide meat and eggs. Children can be involved in raising chickens, for them it will be an interesting and exciting experience.

Growing chickens at home for beginners

Chicken meat and eggs are very important foods for every person. They belong to the category of dietary and healthy foods. Chicken meat contains a small amount of fat, but it is rich in proteins, vitamins and amino acids. The meat obtained from the breeding of domestic chickens has a special aroma and taste. It is in no way comparable to chicken meat bought in the store.

Chicken eggs are the main source of protein. Homemade egg yolk is rich in carotene, vitamins and other nutrients. Nutritionists recommend that you definitely eat eggs.

Breeding chickens at home won't be a hassle. In the summer months, they can be kept in an open space, where they can swim in the ground, get worms, insects, and peck grass. To keep chickens in the winter, completely different conditions are needed. Beginners should start by breeding simple chicken breeds, and later it will be possible to move on to purebred ones. There are differences in the requirements of their content.

Tips for choosing a chicken breed

First of all, you need to decide on the breed of chickens. They are divided into:

• egg,
• meat,
• meat and egg,
• decorative.

Each owner must decide what he wants to get in the end. If there is a desire to receive only an egg, then it is worthwhile to start breeding chickens of the egg breed. Such chickens are considered unpretentious, disease-resistant, and actively laying eggs.During the period of falling egg production, such a breed can be used for meat.

The most popular oviparous breeds are:

• russian white,
• red white-tailed,
• Kuchinskaya jubilee,
• Rhodonite,
• Oryol laying hen,
• Lohman-Brown.

These breeds of chickens begin to lay eggs at the age of 5-7 months. Oviparous breeds produce about 300 eggs during the year. The average weight of one egg is 60 g. Egg hens weigh from 2 to 4 kg.

Orlov laying hen

If the purpose of raising domestic chickens is meat, then it is worth starting meat breeds. They grow pretty fast. You need to buy meat chickens in the spring. Until the end of autumn, they are gaining sufficient weight. Meat breeds also lay eggs, but the number per year is much less - from 100 to 130 pieces. And they begin to lay eggs at the age of 8-9 months.

The most popular beef breeds:

• Broiler,
• Plymouth Rock,
• Light brahma,
• Dark brahma,
• Brahma partridge,
• Brahma Palevaya,
• Cornish,
• Dorking.

Chickens of these breeds by the end of autumn grow from 4 to 5 kg, the largest individuals reach 7 kg. They have a calm character and are very fond of greenery.

Brahma partridge

Bress Gallic belongs to meat and egg breeds of chickens. They begin to rush quite early - at the age of 5 months. During the year, 190-220 large eggs weighing about 80g are produced. Chickens of this breed by the end of autumn weigh about 3.5 kg, and roosters - 5 kg. They are hardy, winter-tolerant. When free-roaming in the summer, you need to know that these chickens fly very well.

Decorative breeds include:

• Bentamka,
• Shamo,
• Curly chickens,
• Sibright.

These birds can often be seen at exhibitions. Some are rather small, but still each breed lays eggs, albeit in small numbers.

Curly chickens

Where do you buy good chickens?

Having decided on the breed of chickens, the question arises about the place of purchase. There is a lot of choice here. Can be purchased at the poultry farm, breeder, or market. It is advisable for novice poultry breeders to make a purchase from a professional breeder. He can immediately advise on feed, vitamins and preparations for chickens.

Day-old chickens are purchased for growing meat breeds. From egg breeds, it is better to buy young animals that have reached four weeks of age. When buying, you should always pay attention to the appearance of the chicks and their behavior. Day-old chicks are covered only with down. In no case should it be wet or dirty. When buying older young animals, you also need to pay attention to the plumage. You also need to pay attention to the legs. They should be level and the chick should stand firmly on them.

Day-old chicks

Arrangement of a chicken coop

If the plans are to keep chickens only until the onset of autumn, then you can build a canopy to protect from rain and the scorching sun, and equip nests. But if the growing of chickens is year-round, then it is worth taking care of the capital arrangement of the chicken coop. Chickens should not be crowded. One individual needs an area of ​​0.5 m2. From this area it is worth calculating the area of ​​the chicken coop.

You need to choose the right place for construction. It should be well lit and protected from drafts. The chicken coop cannot be built on the ground. Such a structure will be unreliable in terms of rodents. In addition, in winter, chickens will be cold in such a room. Therefore, a prerequisite is the construction of the foundation.

The depth of the foundation should be at least 50 cm. It is also advisable to make a pillow about 15 cm thick, consisting of sand and gravel. Walls can be built from bricks or cinder blocks. The roof is erected single or gable. The windows in the hen house are made small. Also, a convenient exit to the corral of 30x30 cm is required. The walls, floor and roof must be insulated. All the cracks around the windows need to be repaired.

In the photo there is an equipped chicken coop for birds

In the chicken coop, it is imperative to build perches and nests. Nests must be fenced off on three sides, and covered with straw inside.Dirty straw should be replaced periodically with new ones to keep the nest clean at all times. This will give the hen the habit of laying eggs in one place. Lay sawdust, hay or straw on the floor for additional insulation.

There must be lighting and ventilation in the chicken coop. Heating can be carried out. In a warm room, even in cold winters, chickens will continue to lay eggs. The walls need to be whitewashed with lime. This will kill the infection as well as prevent disease.

Video - breeding chickens, personal experience

Site preparation for chickens

Having built a capital chicken coop, you need to think about where the small chickens will be kept for the first time. A place for them can be set aside in a built poultry house, fencing off a small area on the ground, but it may be cold for young animals there. Therefore, it is better to build a large box and put it on supports, raising it above the floor by 0.5-0.7 m.

Keeping small chickens in the early days

The bottom of the box must be covered with papers, so it will be easier to replace them. The floor must always remain dry. Otherwise, the young may get sick, which will lead to their death. It is important to keep the chick box clean.

They also need constant ventilation of the room, but the main thing is to avoid drafts and observe the temperature regime. The temperature in the room with young animals, in the first week of their life, should be kept at the level of 30 ° С. In order to monitor the temperature, it is necessary to install a thermometer in the room.

You need to know that chickens of different ages should never be kept in the same box. The older young will bite the younger.

Feeding chickens and chickens

Feeding the young should be taken very seriously. It is best to purchase a ready-made starter feed. Such food should be given for the first 10-14 days. After this period, you can gradually introduce chopped vegetables, and after another 10 days - greens and mixed feed. Water should always be present in the drinker. It should be replaced as often as possible.

The process of feeding chickens and chickens

For full development, good weight gain and laying eggs, chickens need good nutrition. You can buy ready-made compound feed for poultry. The feed contains about 65% carbohydrates, the rest is protein supplements. The finished compound feed differs in composition and is intended for different ages. There is a special feed for laying hens. It is rich in minerals and highly nutritious. Mineral additives can be added to the feed yourself.

Chickens should get a varied diet

Chickens are fed both dry and wet. It is best to use grain in the morning and evening for feeding. At lunchtime, chickens need to be fed with wet feed. In addition to grains, potato peels, cabbage leaves, or beet leaves can be fed. An adult chicken should eat per day:

Table 1. Sample menu for chickens

1	oats	G	20
2	barley	G	30-50
3	corn	G	60
4	wheat	G	60
5	fish flour	G	10

Poultry should not be overfeeded, especially egg breeds. With abundant nutrition, chickens build up fat on the internal organs, which prevents the laying of eggs.

Salt should be added to the grain no more than once a week. It helps food to digest well. But the main thing is that thanks to salt, the destruction of helminths (worms) occurs.

In a separate feeder, you can pour sand or crushed shell rock. This will provide the eggs with a strong shell and will also keep the chickens from eating the eggs. There should always be a drinking bowl with clean water in the bird pen. In winter, the water should not freeze in the drinking bowl. Therefore, the temperature in the poultry house, even in the worst frosts, should not drop below + 2 ° C.

In summer, feeders and drinkers should be in a pen that is adjacent to the chicken coop. And in the winter months they need to be brought indoors.

Disease prevention

Recently, breeds of chickens are being developed that are resistant to diseases. But still, for the prevention of diseases, it is necessary to perform:

• regular cleaning in the chicken coop,
• whitewash the walls with lime once a month,
• periodically turn on ultraviolet lamps,
• inspect the bird for parasites.

If one individual does not eat well, its comb color has changed, then it must be isolated from the rest. In the event of an infectious disease, isolating one individual can save everyone else.

Using bird droppings

The house needs to be cleaned periodically. Chicken droppings can be used as fertilizer. It can be called the most valuable organic fertilizer. It is rich in nitrogen, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus. It is in chicken manure that the content of these substances is 4 times higher than in other fertilizers.

In the ground, useful substances are stored for 2-3 years after fertilization. This is due to the fact that the release of nutrients from chicken manure occurs gradually.

To prepare the fertilizer, it is necessary to pour chicken manure with water, a ratio of 1:20 is applied. This mixture should stand in the open air for 10-14 days. Then water the beds with the settled droppings.

Bird droppings can be used as fertilizer on the site

It is necessary to provide chickens with good living conditions, observe temperature and light conditions, and use high-quality feed. In the summer, feed it with grass or release it to free pastures. Observing all these rules of care, you can achieve good egg production of egg breeds of chickens and a large weight of meat breeds.

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Keeping chickens at home: grooming tips for beginners

It is not so difficult to organize poultry farming at home, the main thing is to properly equip a room for birds, and take care of a full-fledged diet.

Let's start with the premises:

1. Compliance with the temperature regime. The optimum temperature is 23-25 ​​° C. In such conditions, there will be good egg production. In winter, the temperature should not be lower than 15 ° C heat.
2. Ventilation. The room should have vents, but it is better to equip an exhaust hood with plugs for such purposes.
3. Flooring. Mostly made of wood or adobe. The floor is covered with a litter of sawdust, straw, hay, etc. In winter, the litter is compacted to save heat.
4. Accommodation. For every 5 chickens, there should be 1 square meter. m.
5. Lighting. Additional lighting will be needed to achieve high egg production while reducing daylight hours. The day is lengthened only after molting.
6. Perches. Should be located a maximum of 1.2 meters from the floor near the window. One individual has about 20 centimeters of perch. The distance between the crossbars is maintained at 50 centimeters.
7. Nests. Set up in the darkened corners of the chicken coop. One nest is enough for 5-6 individuals. For convenience, use wooden boxes, fill them with shavings, straw, hay.
8. Laz. In addition to the main door to the chicken coop, an additional manhole is made so that the chickens can freely go out onto the walking yard.
9. Feeders. One individual should have 10-15 centimeters of the feeder. It is recommended to place them above the floor, at a low height. Chickens will not rake feed.
10. Drinking bowls. The best option is 5-6 liters. In the summer, the water is changed often enough to avoid attenuation.
11. Ash containers. Chickens are attacked by various parasites. Ash trays will prevent them from appearing. In addition, chickens enjoy such bathing.

For full development and good egg production, chickens should be provided with proper nutrition:

• Cereals. Grain contains little protein and should be mixed with protein feed. In summer, it is recommended to give oats, millet, barley - they improve egg production. In winter, for weight gain and energy conservation - wheat, corn and buckwheat. A good protein supplement is cake and meal, beans.
• Green food. Contains many vitamins and minerals.It is supposed to give no more than 20% of greens per day, since most of the birds are eaten while walking. With free-range maintenance, dill, clover, young peas, and alfalfa are introduced into the diet. Nettle is considered the most valuable.
• Roots. It is recommended to add carrots and beets, pumpkin and turnips, potatoes to the diet. Vegetables are boiled and added to wet mash. You can also put waste from the table in them.
• Animal feed. Dairy products provide chicks for full development. Good supplements include earthworms, crushed bones, fish and meat and bone meal.

ATTENTION! Chickens must be given mineral supplements: ash, gravel, chalk, shell rock.

DIY bird cage

You can build a chicken cage at home as follows:

1. We make a frame. Mostly they use a metal corner, but wood is also suitable.
2. For construction, you will need vertical posts - 4 pieces, long beams - 6 pieces, short beams - 6 pieces.
3. The crossbars are connected to each other - the frame is ready. For stability, you can add a pair of uprights in the middle.
4. The compartment is about 60 centimeters high, 2 meters wide, and about 65 centimeters deep.
5. The bottom is made of strong mesh, a slight slope is made so that the eggs roll into the egg collector.
6. The roof and back wall are made of plywood.
7. The side walls are installed on hinges, latches are added - the door is ready.
8. Feeders and drinkers are attached outside.

Layers

The size of the cage is directly related to the size of the chicken. To make the stay comfortable, one hen should have about 0.2 sq. m, stocking density - 5-6 heads.

When caged, laying hens will need artificial lighting for good egg production. It should be distributed evenly throughout the cage room. Strongly bright light is prohibited so that the bird does not have stress. Initially, the light period lasts 13 hours, then it can be extended to 17 hours. The increase is done gradually.

Laying hens ration with cage keeping:

• wheat;
• sunflower cake;
• calcium carbonate;
• vegetable fats;
• vitamins and minerals, salt.

Broilers

The stocking density of a broiler in a cage should be 1 sq. m for 10 heads.
For such care, it is better to give preference to cellular batteries.

Mostly broilers are raised for meat.
In pursuit of this goal, the light regime lasts around the clock for 3 weeks. By the end of the cultivation, it can be reduced to 17 hours.

Broiler diet with cage keeping:

• crushed and whole grains;
• cellulose;
• fats;
• calcium;
• vitamin complex.

Grain should make up approximately 65% ​​of the total feed. To gain weight, the bird is provided with free access to the feeders around the clock.

IMPORTANT! With the cage keeping of both laying hens and broilers, cleaning is carried out every 2-3 days, feeders and drinkers are washed daily.

Chicken coop

When building a chicken coop, certain rules should be followed:

• place the room on a hill so that it remains dry and warm;
• the area is chosen to be quiet, calm, in a noisy environment, the productivity of laying hens decreases;
• there should be no road nearby;
• no closer than 3 meters from a residential building.

A vestibule is required in the chicken coop. During the winter, the amount of cold that the farmer will enter will be much less.

The poultry house is built on the basis of 1 sq. m - 4 chickens of an egg breed or 3 chickens of meat and eggs. For example, a chicken coop for 50 birds should average 15 square meters. m. The nests are arranged near a wall 6 meters long.

For construction, you can use foam blocks, bricks, wood, shell rock. The chicken coop is equipped with nests, perches, drinkers and feeders, an ash container, ventilation, lighting, heaters. It is recommended to insulate the building itself so that the chickens feel comfortable in winter.

Disinfection

It will not be possible to grow a productive and healthy livestock without observing sanitary rules in the chicken coop. Carry out cleaning and disinfection as follows:

1. They sweep the ceilings, walls, clean the perches.
2. Change the floor mat.
3. If the content is cellular, the metal surface is burned with a blowtorch.
4. Surfaces of stone and concrete are treated with lime (copper sulfate can be added to it to prevent the development of fungal infections).
5. The entire chicken coop is sprayed with a disinfectant solution, according to the instructions.
6. The room is ventilated.
7. Drinking bowls and feeders are washed out.

Ventilation

Special attention should be paid to ventilation. Bird droppings contain harmful ammonia vapors, so access to fresh air is vital for birds.

Ventilation can be done in several ways:

• Window equipment, but in no case should a draft be created. The optimal place for a window is under the door.
• A couple of holes are made on the roof, a large pipe goes into one, and a smaller pipe into the second. This option is more suitable for the winter period.
• Ventilation system installation. This method is more common in poultry farms.

Walking

For the correct organization of walking, you must adhere to the following recommendations:

1. When keeping chickens in the hen house, walking is organized. Usually the aviary is erected on the south side.
2. For this, the territory is fenced off with a net (for example, a chain-link).
3. For layers, the height is 2 meters, for meat breeds, 1.8 meters are enough.
4. Drinking bowls and feeders, a container with fine gravel are placed in the walking yard.

ATTENTION! In the open air, feed quickly deteriorates, especially wet mash. Feeders should be washed immediately after the chickens are full.

The productivity of chickens in the open air increases, they rush more often, the meat is of high quality.

Also, walking can be free. Chickens go for a walk whenever they want, and also come back. This method allows the farmer to save on feed, but the vegetable garden will be at risk.

Chicken brooders

Newborn chickens are quite susceptible to the environment. Temperature fluctuations, changes in humidity, poor lighting, drafts are unacceptable for them. A brooder will help solve all these problems. Design features:

1. Small size, length - meter, width and height - 0.5 meter.
2. Made of dense material to provide thermal insulation. Should not get wet.
3. A removable pallet is added to the structure, which is filled with a layer of sand. This will make it easier to change the layer contaminated with droppings.
4. Feeders and drinkers are equipped in such a way that the chickens cannot turn them over or trample inside.
5. Incandescent lamps of 40 or 60 watts are installed.
6. The temperature regime is maintained at about 20-26 ° C.

With a brooder size of 100x50x50, the population can be up to 60 chicks.

Recycling of droppings

When properly maintained and properly fed, chicken droppings are rich in micronutrients. A large amount of it is a poisonous suspension. Processing poultry manure is an important task that needs the right solution.

The best option is to make compost. To do this, the manure is mixed with various plant wastes (residues of vegetables and fruits, foliage, weeds), straw, sawdust, peat, shavings. Fresh compost plants cannot be used.

REFERENCE! Peat is used only if the compost matures for a year and has time to decompose.

Keeping chickens at home is not easy, but always beneficial. As a result, you will have not only food, but also excellent fertilizer for your garden.

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