How to raise broiler chicks at home?

Foreword

Broilers at home grow as fast as in poultry farms, but only if certain rules are followed. All you need for breeding is a dry, clean room, plenty of feed and a little patience. When buying chickens, the question arises: take one-day cheap smokers or two-week ones. The older the chicks are, the better, but they are also more expensive.

Features of breeding broilers at home

And now, the long-awaited moment has come. You brought home a box of little squeaky yellow lumps. Have you already prepared a place for them? If they took smokers in March or April, then first you have to keep them in the house. First, let's build a house. We connect two cardboard boxes together, fastening them with wire on the sides, and cut a hole - the entrance. The first box will be for kids' bedrooms, the second will be a kitchen and a place for walking. Chickens should always have warm feet. It is undesirable to put boxes on a cold floor. We will put the house either on foam plastic or on an old carpet. A cloth mat is placed in the box, which needs to be shaken out and dried daily.

A light bulb with a cone-shaped dome is hung over the “bedroom” so that the light does not scatter, but shines into the house. Do not hang huge white and red 250 W lamps - the bird will be hot. Newborn chickens do not yet regulate their body temperature and may overheat. A 25-40 W light bulb will be sufficient. For the first 10 days, we leave the light on for the night. Then we reduce the daylight hours to 16 hours.

When illuminated with green and blue lamps, the bird gives more growth.

If the floors are warm, then you can fence off the corner for the young animals with the help of boards. To achieve the desired temperature, a heater is installed. Arrange feeders and drinkers.

How to feed and vitaminize chickens

As soon as the chickens were brought home, they need to be drunk with sweet water: a teaspoon of sugar is diluted in 1 liter of water. Then the chickens are given a boiled egg.

To keep broilers at home, you need to provide them with complete feed. The ration in the first week consists of a wet mash and dry starter compound feed. Add a boiled chicken egg, millet crumbly unsalted porridge cooked in water, cake and poultry feed to the mash. Instead of water, it is better to give a decoction of onion husks and pine needles, reverse (milk after separation, that is, skimming).

We put the feeders and drinkers in the second box. Drinking bowls, not lids with water. Some baby will get wet, and this is destructive for him.

From ten days of age, fish is introduced into the diet. Blue whiting, any fish waste will do. The fish is boiled whole and rolled through a meat grinder along with the bones.The ground fish is mixed with mixed feed and distributed to the chicks. Food should always be present in the feeders, but not sour.

It is better to give small chickens a little food. Pecked, add more. Feeders need to be cleaned and rinsed daily with a solution of potassium permanganate. When the chicks eat, we carefully look to see if there is enough food for everyone, if everyone approaches the feeder. Bone meal and shells are also added to the diet. You can give ground eggshells, roasted in the oven.

As soon as greens appear on the street, we immediately introduce finely chopped greens, nettles into the diet. We begin to give a little greens. If there is cottage cheese, then we give it too. From ticks and fleas, dust the chickens with ash, which has lain for at least 2 months. If there is no stale ash, then press it. It will be useful to you: then put a trough with ashes in the chicken coop.

It is impossible to grow meat chickens at home without vitamin supplements.

• Immediately the next day, when they brought them home, we give them enrofloxacin in the morning at the rate of 1 cube per liter of boiled chilled water. This antibiotic is given for the prevention of infectious diseases. We drink for 3 days each time with a fresh solution. Instead of an expensive antibiotic for 3 days in the evening, you can drip 1 drop of vodka on each chick.
• For 3 days, every morning and evening, they moisten their feet, smoke with vodka, immersing their feet in a bowl.
• The next 3 days give a solution of ascorbic acid. Vitamin C stimulates the immune system and improves the digestion process. The contents of the package must be dissolved in 3 liters of water and given 1 liter per day.
• On the 7th day, they begin to give biovit and chiktonik. Biovit is given with feed 1 teaspoon for 50 heads 1 time per day for 1-2 weeks. Biovit is given for the prevention of hypovitaminosis and as a growth stimulant. Chiktonik is a feed vitamin supplement. It is given at the rate of 1 cube per 1 liter of water for 10 days.
• On day 14, Baycox's solution is given at the rate of 1 cube per 1 liter of water.

With this treatment, about 90 birds out of 100 grow strong and after 4-5 months they can reach weight: chickens 3-4 kg, males 4-5 kg.

Keeping broilers at home

Content temperature:

• in the first week is 33 0С;
• in the second - 30 0С;
• in the third - 28 0С;
• in the next - 20-24 0С.

Broilers at home gain weight quickly. The cardboard house will have to be expanded, because it is still cold outside, and they need more space. Every night you need to get up and lightly stir up the sleeping young. This must be done so that the kids are not crowded and do not choke.

Chickens are prone to pecking. Most often they hammer in the head. The wounded bird is seated separately. The wound is smeared with brilliant green. If the baby is immediately planted with others, then curious individuals will begin to hammer the green crown. Pecking signals about insufficient nutrient feed. Improve the quality of feed, introduce bone and meat meal, feed yeast, herbs, grated carrots.

Plumage begins at the age of two weeks - the most difficult period in the life of a hen. It is important to provide the bird with all the necessary vitamins, be sure to include fish in the diet.

Transfer of young animals to the chicken coop

It's time to move the young to a permanent place - in the chicken coop. Breeding meat chickens requires constant cleanliness. The coop is cleaned and whitewashed. Sawdust is placed on the floor, which is regularly poured. The excrement is mixed with sawdust and re-heated with the release of heat, forming a warm litter.

The feeders are washed with potassium permanganate and dried. The walking area must be clean. They put a trough with a shell, sand and ash for bathing. Birds should not use the feeder handle as a roost or excrement may enter the feed. The handle must be revolving.

Not all owners have a brand new block barn. Often, cracks in an old wooden shed are plugged with rags. Before the introduction of young animals, we remove all the rags. Curious birds love to poke their nose, or rather their beak, where they don't need to.the chicken can get tangled in the threads with its paw or even with its tongue. Potato nets are especially dangerous.

Top dressing and compound feed

Poultry food is expensive to buy for teenagers. They eat a lot of it. We have to switch to conventional feed or ground grain. You can prepare the compound feed yourself by mixing crushed barley, peas, corn. In the morning, the compound feed is brewed with boiling water and mixed with a stick until it swells. The cooled mash is distributed to the young. Dry food in troughs and water should be constant. Once a week, chickens are given a barely pink solution of potassium permanganate.

A two-month-old chicken weighs 1300-1500 g and is theoretically ready for slaughter. But I want to grow a huge carcass and break all records. The broiler is a bird responsive to good nutrition. It is better to plant only cockerels from chickens at the first signs of a manifestation of love. Heavy cocks leave wounds and scars on the backs of their friends with their claws. Agree, it is unpleasant to eat a skin with traces of love pleasures neither for you, nor for your guests, and maybe even for customers. By the way, the egg production of chickens also decreases.

Meat chickens lay eggs, very nutritious and delicious.

Barn perches should be low. The bird can manage to climb a high perch, but falls from it at night and is crippled.

Often the largest broilers sit on their feet. The cause may be a lack of vitamins. The skeleton needs calcium. Nest the chick and give him more vitamins. Alas, he will not get up on his feet, the joints of his legs are quickly turned inside out.

Broiler is a hybrid of domestic animals, obtained by crossing different breeds. It is distinguished by its early maturity. Broilers are called not only poultry, but also other animals, such as rabbits.

In this article we will talk about broiler chicken, namely: where to start, how to choose eggs, what and how to feed according to growth periods, how to water, what vitamins to give, what should not be fed, diseases and what to treat. Let's talk about adult broilers: housing conditions, feeding and water, diseases and how to treat them.

In general, we will go through all the stages of cultivation - from eggs to the sale of the finished product.

How to choose eggs to grow

Broiler eggs

The choice of eggs for incubation is an important part of the broiler raising process, because it determines the percentage of chicks hatching, how healthy the offspring will turn out, how often they will get sick or not at all, how quickly they will gain weight, etc. Whether you will be left at a profit or at a loss will also depend on the right choice for laying eggs.

For selection of eggs, we choose a healthy broiler chicken without signs of infectious diseases. It is recommended to leave your choice on a medium-sized hen.

The egg should be uniform in color. It is advisable to choose medium sizes, because the same offspring is obtained from small eggs.

Large ones have a thin shell. Therefore, the appearance of microscopic cracks through which they penetrate into the embryo of infection is not excluded. In addition, many eggs of this size simply will not hatch.

The weight of the egg is also selected, if possible, the same. Then the chickens are born with a slight difference in time.

We take eggs from the nests several times a day. Their overheating or cooling is unacceptable. It is advisable to store them in a warm, dry room, in which the permissible temperature differences do not exceed 5 degrees.

Setting eggs in the incubator

The maximum shelf life between removal from the nest and setting in the incubator is two or three days. If this period is exceeded, the likelihood of negative consequences for their healthy development in the future increases.

The correct, competent approach to the process of choosing eggs for laying them in an incubator is the key to a successful result.

The maximum age of a hen from which eggs are taken for an incubator is limited to 2 years.

What and how to feed

It is very important to feed broiler chicks correctly, starting from the first day of their life, because starting feeding sets the appropriate rate of growth and development of these poultry. In addition, the composition of the feed plays a decisive role in the quality of the final product - meat.

Broiler chicks from zero days

There is a widespread opinion that day-old broiler chickens should be immediately given chopped boiled eggs, cottage cheese, mixed feed, which help to strengthen the digestive system.

Broiler chicken

However, others caution against such a decision. They argue that this is precisely the reason for the death of the poultry population during the first 2 - 3 days of their life. And feeding broiler chickens with boiled eggs at one day of age not only does not strengthen their immunity, but also causes a disorder of the digestive system, causes a large number of deaths.

It is not recommended to give any wet food. It is useful at such an early age to give only millet and a small amount of egg powder. Chicks should have free access to feed and water. The size of the cage, box, and other place in which the brood was kept allowed each chicken to eat and drink freely. In water, we dilute potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate) in a very low concentration.

In this case, the color of the water must not be allowed to change to pink. It is also recommended to separately prepare an aqueous glucose solution. This will help avoid indigestion - a disease of the digestive tract.

The room in which the chickens are kept should be well ventilated but protected from drafts. Dampness is also detrimental to them, even if the optimum temperature is maintained.

Weekly chicks

You can gradually accustom kids to starting compound feed from the fifth day of their life. At the same time, they are soldered with a prominent solution of vitamins. It is not recommended to give them antibiotics until this age.

It is useful to drop "Trivitamin" into the beak of each chicken - a drug for the treatment and prevention of vitamin deficiency. Add "Baytril" to the water, which is intended against infections at the rate of 1 gram per 2 liters of water.

7 day old chicks

From one week of age, chickens are taught to eat cottage cheese. We vary the diet with crushed boiled egg. The feed can be slightly moistened with whey. The approximate daily consumption rate during this period reaches 15 - 20 grams. Indoor temperature - 30 - 32 degrees.

Important! Make sure the chickens do not get dirty or wet while eating. Otherwise, it is fraught with their death. The places where they are kept must be dry with the right temperature and humidity.

Chickens from 10 to 20 days

During this period, greens are added to the porridge (slightly moistened dry starter food), for example, finely chopped onions, at the rate of 1:20. It contains the necessary vitamins. Besides, green onions are used as an antiparasitic agent.

To avoid one of the most common diseases of poultry - coccidosis, which leads to disruption of the digestive process and dehydration of the body, at two weeks of age, the drug "Baycox" is added to the water at the rate of 1 gram per 2 liters of water.

During this period, they eat feed up to 30 grams per day. In order for babies to have a good growth, take care of an increased daylight from the first days. The ambient temperature is kept at a level not lower than 28 degrees. If young animals at this age are overcooled, they can get bronchopneumonia, which occurs precisely as a result of hypothermia.

Two week old young

You can add reverse, yogurt, buttermilk to the feed. After 15 days of feeding, protein feed of plant origin is mixed into the food. The proportion of greenery can be gradually increased. It should now account for up to 10% of the total feed weight.

Stir in crushed eggshells, feed yeast, and grated carrots in small amounts. In no case should sand be given to chickens. Do not forget to make a very weak solution of potassium permanganate.

From day 10 for three or four days, broilers may begin to die. Therefore, during this period, we solder poultry with antibiotics. Add a couple of drops of iodine. After a short break, vitamins are given, vitamin D is especially important during this period for rickets.

Lack of vitamins leads to hypovitaminosis A, D, E, B. Chickens are given only high-quality feed. If you buy it ready-made in a package, keep an eye on the expiration dates.

Juveniles should be kept away from adults to avoid disease transmission. Chicks up to 20 days old require round-the-clock lighting.

How to raise monthly chicks

After 22-25 days, they switch from feeding with starting compound feed (cereals) to growing (in granules). The composition of the broiler feed should include mineral content, protein (fish meal), cereals (corn), amino acids and vitamins. You can also continue to add green mass.

To save money we advise do not buy expensive growth food, but make its composition yourself: crushed wheat, oats, corn, barley, peas. All components are mixed in equal proportions. It is advisable to add fish oil, whey, meat and bone meal to the feed. Add (but do not mix) the leaves of cabbage, lettuce, green onions.

Feeding one month old chicks

By 35 days of age, you can gradually increase the amount of corn to 40% of the total, and reduce the amount of wheat, oats and barley. The meal or cake is about 15%. The percentage of green mass can be reduced.

Under normal conditions and quality feeding, monthly chickens weigh about 800 grams.

We exclude from the diet all types of bread, boiled potatoes (if it does not go in a mixture with other components), all stitched products, especially if you smell. We remind you to refrain from adding sand. We make sure that the water of the chickens is constantly clean, fresh, slightly warm. It is useful to use settled water.

We lower the temperature of the environment to 23 - 25 degrees. The duration of lighting is reduced to 14-16 hours a day.

To avoid aspergillosis at this age, you need to ventilate the room well, avoid dampness. For prophylaxis, add a little iodine-containing preparations to feed and water.

All new feeds are given in small quantities at first so that the chicks can get used to it. Otherwise, they may have indigestion, leading to death.

Chickens 45-50 days

After 40 days of life, the young are given not crushed, but whole grain. A commercially available finishing compound feed containing the main nutrients is also used. But if you want to have tasty meat, you can refuse to purchase it.

Whole grain is poured into the feeders, not crushed grain. Vitamins, feed yeast, chalk must also be present in the feed. After reaching 45 days of age, we exclude any medications. A good effect is given by cooking porridge, which includes boiled small fish, corn, wheat, peas, greens.

2 month old broilers

All this is mixed and allowed to brew. In porridge, we increase the percentage of corn to half of the total mass.

If you did not save on feed and gave a complete diet, their weight at this age should be more than one kilogram. The breed also has a big influence on this figure.

If the weight of a unit of young of one breed reaches 1, 2 - 1.3 kg, then the weight of a grown chick of this age can be 1.6 - 1.8 kg. all other things being equal.

We continue to use clean settled water. We gradually lower the ambient temperature to 21 - 23 degrees. The duration of daily lighting is reduced to 12-14 hours.

The area in which the young are kept should be sufficient so that everyone can freely approach the feeder or drinker.However, the walk should not be spacious, otherwise the broiler will lose weight due to excessive activity.

Breeding adult broilers at home

Keeping broilers for fattening for more than two months is not economically feasible, as the birds gain weight more slowly with age, and they consume more feed. In addition, broiler meat older than 70-75 days is less tasty than two months old.

Cell maintenance and care at home

If you want to raise up to 10 head of chicken broilers at home, their cage content will suit you. Depending on the size of the cage, they contain 3-5 heads (then the size of the cage is made from such a calculation in order to limit the free movement of the bird to the required one - to go to the feeder and drinker), or up to 10 heads (the size of the cage increases, the requirements for the spatial conditions of detention and the dilutions remain the same).

Keeping birds in a cage

When growing livestock more than 10 units need to do or additional number of cells (since one cage, with more than a dozen heads in it, is very cumbersome and inconvenient to move, it loses mobility), or think about keeping in a pen.

Let's say it is economically beneficial for you to breed livestock in cages. Then, for dry food (mixed fodder, grain), it is advisable to choose trough-type feeders, which are placed outside the cages along a whole tier. We also build a continuous drinking bowl, for example, from a PVC sewer pipe.

The front side of the trough can be made from metal rods of the combined type. This is convenient because chickens can be kept in such a cage at first.

Steel rods on the walls are placed among themselves quite often so that the brood does not run out of the cage or fall out of it (if the cage is in the second or third tier).

Once the young grows up, they are seated in different cages, removing the rods from the walls through one. Thus, we provide free access to feed for an adult broiler.

How to grow: tips for beginners

Broiler cage

There are several requirements for the conditions of keeping an adult broiler bird:

• so that the content area makes it possible eat freely each individual, that is, not too small, but not too large (the reasons are indicated above);
• permanent availability of high quality fresh feed in the feeders. In addition, there can and should be separate feeders for porridge, if used;
• constant availability of fresh (better settled) warm water in drinking bowls, but not higher than 22-25 degrees;
• enough hours daylight hours (12-14 hours). If less - we give additional lighting;
• humidity air 68-72%;
• no dampnessespecially in cells;
• no drafts must not be;
• ambient temperature - within 20-21 degrees (if it is lower, then the activity of broilers decreases, the intensity of feed consumption decreases, the growth of mass slows down; if it is higher, then the bird becomes hot, the result is the same);
• obligatory presence ventilation, since otherwise the intensive accumulation of nitrogen has a detrimental effect on the vital activity of the bird. A case is described when the owner, in order to save on heating, placed the floor of a hundred broilers in a greenhouse where greens were grown in a small makeshift paddock. Despite the fact that the greenhouse was periodically supplied with fresh air, after a few days the greens began to fade due to the increased nitrogen content in the air, although this was not felt. After the corral was fenced off with foil, the concentration of nitrogen in the environment in the corral reached such a level that the chickens began to behave sluggishly, ate feed reluctantly, and slowly gained weight.
• cells inside must be clean... To do this, you can make the floor from a galvanized welded fine mesh, and clean the floor pallet based on the amount of droppings accumulated in it;
• if growing broilers at home is "put" on stream, then it is necessary to periodically carry out disinfection of cells (after the slaughter of the previous batch, but before growing the second).

Disadvantages of keeping birds in cages:

• requires monetary investments more than with a driven cultivation method.

Advantages:

• more convenient in service;
• more compact (saves used space).

How to keep and raise a broiler in a pen

This method of keeping broilers and chickens from zero days does not differ from the previous one. The main differences are as follows:

• economically viable in terms of construction. Basically, to raise birds in a pen you need a floor and walls. If you are going to raise a bird in a barn, then part of the barn is fenced off with collapsible sections made of welded mesh wire, put feeders and drinkers - and the pen is ready;
• designed for content not less than 10 heads birds;

Walking hens in the pen

Flaws:

• requires increased care and attention to elimination of dampness and high humidity, you need to frequently change the litter of broilers to keep the floor dry;
• by area occupies more space per one livestock unit.

Advantages:

• less material costs, compared to the first method.

Requirements for ambient temperature, humidity, absence of drafts, dampness and other conditions of detention remain the same.

Correct feeding. Where to begin

As mentioned above, it makes no sense to fatten broilers for more than two months. This is justified by the following:

• after two months fattening poultry gains weight more slowly;
• consumption feed increases;
• broiler meat older than 2.5 months tougherless tasty.

Feeding adult broilers (in our case, in the recommended age range from 60 to 75 days) comes down to the fact that they need to be given only high-quality feed with the following diet:

We feed adult broilers with whole grain or purchased final compound feed. To make the meat tastier, we advise you to abandon the purchased compound feed altogether. This will save you money and improve product quality.

But even more worries will be added, in order to breed chickens, you will need to buy separately grain of wheat, barley, corn, peas, etc., mix all this in proportions. Do not forget to give greens, add fishmeal.

If you are not lazy, then prepare porridge for your poultry from the above ingredients with the addition of cooked small fish. If there is no fish, add fish oil. The main specific gravity should be maize (up to 50%).

Some, when growing poultry, after two months of feeding, switch exclusively to corn and greens (5-10 days before slaughter). For normal chain feeding, expect your broilers to weigh at least two kilograms by 70 to 75 days of feeding.

Broiler feed

Attention! We do not give broilers:

• boiled potato (if it does not go in a mixture with other components);
• all varieties of bread;
• all overdue products;
• sand;
• medications (if possible);
• several new products food in large quantities;
• other components, if we see that they call negative reaction the bird.

What to drink

Follow the same rules as for raising young stock. The water should be:

• clean, preferably separated;
• moderately warm (in the region of 20 - 21 degrees);
• in drinkers, providing unimpeded access poultry (depends on the number of livestock);
• can be diluted at very low concentrations potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate). In this case, the color of the water must not be allowed to change to pink.

Broiler chicken diseases

Broiler chickens can be sick with quite a few diseases. Some of them:

• heterokydosis - worms in the intestines. Piperazine can be used against this disease. Preventive measures - thoroughly wash the room in which the chickens are;
• arthritis - joints of chickens suffer (broilers walk less, try to sit down). Ampicillin (10 mg per 5 kg chicken weight) can be used for 5 consecutive days. Ampicillin for arthritis

  Arthritis prevention measures: Provide only quality food, bedding should be dry;

• ascites (fat accumulates in the abdomen). The bird walks sluggishly and reluctantly. To avoid this disease, it is necessary to give greens;
• salmonellosis manifests itself in upset stomach... Can be treated with tetracycline or dithrevite. The dosage is indicated in the instructions for these medicinal products;
• pseudo-plague - chickens can become infected through contaminated eggshells. It is necessary to plant the sick and disinfect the room;
• simple poisoning... To avoid this, you need to ensure that the food is fresh and of high quality, and that foreign objects, such as fish bones, do not fall into the feeders).

If you do everything right, the result will not be long in coming.

Recommendation for beginners: there is nothing better than personal experience... Therefore, in the initial stages of developing your business, you can use the information and recommendations of others. But if in practice you achieve the best results thanks to your best practices, it is a sin not to take advantage of this.

If you find that some recommendation does not apply to the growing conditions of broiler chickens in your conditions, think for yourself how to get out of the situation to achieve optimal results.

Broilers are especially early maturing chickens of the meat type of direction. Growing broiler chickens for meat in a home garden has its own characteristics and subtleties. Often, even experienced poultry farmers do not immediately manage to correctly hatch and raise chickens without loss. Artificially bred and mainly created for industrial breeding, these birds require compliance with a number of rules. If you want to keep broilers on a private backyard and learn how to care for them, then we will not waste a minute.

What conditions do broilers need?

Growing broilers at home and its success largely depend on the quality of the parent flock. Therefore, if you first decided to have these chickens, then it is best to purchase day old chickens at a broiler poultry farm. In a private backyard, hybrid birds can be bred for meat in two ways: with intensive maintenance and extensive. With the first method, day-old chickens are fed from the first days with full-fledged compound feed (industrial production), and also at any time of the year, their movement is limited. In this case, chickens for meat can be grown both in cages and outdoor on a deep bedding.

In order for the chickens to grow quickly with an intensive method of keeping them, they are placed with a stocking density per 1 sq. meter 12 individuals. At the same time, it is correct to maintain such a density until the end of cultivation. With this method of keeping, already at 60-70 days, chickens weigh about 1.5 kg. As for the content in the cages, here you can also admit crampedness - per 1 square meter. plant 18 chickens. But the meat of such individuals is more dense.

It is very important to keep the house clean when raising broiler chickens, as these chickens are very sensitive to air pollution. In an unclean room on a dirty bed, they quickly fall ill and often die for no apparent reason.

With an extensive method of keeping, chickens are raised up to 3-4 months, mainly in the warm season, so that the bird can walk for a walk. With this method, cheap local feeds or homemade compound feeds can be provided. To raise chickens for broiler-type meat, strict conditions and rules must be maintained indoors. So, for example, the air humidity must be kept at the level of 60-70% and the temperature must be correctly maintained strictly according to the days of the bird's age.

Term, age in days	1-5	6-10	11-20	21 and more
Temperature	35-32	32-30	28-26	24-20

When it comes to lighting, it is also very important to maintain strict conditions for the age of the chicks. From the first to the 5th day, the room needs to be lit around the clock. Then, from the 6th to the 22nd day, this time is reduced by 30 minutes, then from the 23rd to the 35th day, it is further reduced by 30 minutes, and from the 35th day until the end, this time is set at 17-23 hours.

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Features of caring for chickens

Broiler chickens are much more demanding than others. This is especially true for warmth and maintaining a stable temperature. Household heaters, infrared lamps or electric fireplaces can be used to heat the room. At the same time, in the early days, it is best to keep the chicks floor on a (deep) litter with limited space around the heat source. The same goes for the diet. Let's consider each period of leaving separately.

Daily allowance

The most important rule of thumb when keeping day old chicks is temperature and lighting. Up to two weeks, the place near the feeder is illuminated around the clock, since the birds do not eat in the dark. The temperature should not drop below 30 degrees on the first day. This is because day-old babies have an underdeveloped digestive system and cannot regulate body temperature. Therefore, it is important to strictly observe the temperature, warm the bedding so as not to chill the abdomen and not worsen the nutrition.

You need to feed chicks up to 5 days either with a special starting compound feed, or with a mixture of millet, crushed corn and wheat groats. It is also very important to give each chicken the right dose of Trivitamin. And also to reduce the amount of putrefactive bacteria development in the stomach, you need to add glucose (50 grams per 1 liter) and ascorbic acid (2 grams per 1 liter) to the water.

In the first week

From about 5 days of age, you can slowly give chickens wet mash, food waste. If you do not feed with purchased compound feed marked "Rostovaya", then protein feeds such as cottage cheese, yogurt, and boiled fish waste should be given as additives. From 11 days, crushed grain steamed with boiling water is included in the diet. You need to mix bone or fish meal into such a mash, you can also fill it with yogurt or whey.

Two weeks

When two weeks have passed, broilers are already gaining weight well, more robust. By this age, you need to make basic vaccinations, a course of vitamin therapy. The temperature can already be set at 20 degrees, and the light alternates "day / night" every two hours. Maintenance is still very important, during this period additional ventilation will be required.

Month

During this breeding period, it is already possible to accustom the grown chickens to whole grain, while about half can be germinated. Cabbage leaves, melons, beet tops are suitable as additives to the diet. It is good to add yeast to the mash at the rate of 10 kg, about 200 grams. But do not give all new feeds at once, gradually introduce foods one by one. It is good to brew wheat groats with meat or bone broth, add potatoes, beets.

To grow a robust broiler, the very first month is important. If the bird has grown stronger, is gaining weight well, then with proper care, as a rule, there are no problems. It is necessary, as experienced poultry farmers say, to lay the right base. At the age of more than 30 days, when fed with purchased compound feed, the chickens are transferred to the finishing type of feed.

What is the best way to feed adult chickens?

Today, breeding and raising broilers at home distinguishes three types of feeding: dry, combined and wet. From the name it is easy to guess that with a dry type, the basis of feed for chickens is dry feed and grain, with a wet type - mash with the addition of greens and vegetables, combined - includes several options. Experts advise using the third type more in small households, since it is more profitable and gives good results.With this type, you need to give the bird 1-2 times every day wet mash, grain at night, and the feed should always be in the trough.

Important! Meat chickens should be fed ad libitum, but with good quality and good food.

Video "Broilers themselves do not die"

Many novice poultry farmers have a lot of questions about how to properly care for broilers. In this video, using the example of a poultry house, as well as from the words of the poultry farmer himself, you will learn how to properly breed chickens and what already grown chickens need.

Speaking of broilers, we mean meat-based chickens, characterized by high growth rates, large size and excellent meat suitable for frying.

An increasing number of poultry farmers are interested in how to organize the raising, care and feeding of broiler chickens. And this is not surprising at all.

In just 7–8 weeks, the bird grows to 1.5–2.5 kg, which, with the right approach, during the warm season, even in a small farm, makes it possible to grow 1–2 batches of chickens.

Features of growing broiler chickens

In order for chickens of broiler breeds and crosses to live up to their purpose, they need competent care and a carefully selected diet. If the bird will not be used for procreation, then raising broiler chickens at home usually takes no longer than 70 days. Then, the increase in body weight in the bird physiologically decreases, but feed consumption remains at the same level, which means that the benefit from such a livestock drops sharply.

When raising broiler chickens, the poultry farmer focuses on the care and feeding of the poultry. Both must be adjusted from the first day of the chicks' stay on the farm, since delay often becomes the cause, if not death, then the weakening, stunting and sickness of the livestock.

In a backyard farm, broilers are settled in poultry houses on deep litter or cage keeping is used.

In the first case, the broiler room should be protected from external weather factors, and the floors should be warm and dry. It is most convenient to use sawdust as a bedding, which is well dried beforehand. You can use other materials to ensure that the flooring is always dry, clean and loose.

Before settling chicks:

• cleaning, disinfection and drying of the poultry house;
• the floor is covered with a layer of slaked lime at the rate of 0.5–1.0 kg per square meter;
• on top of it, sawdust is poured with a layer of up to 10 cm;
• create conditions for maintaining air humidity at the level of 60–65%;
• provide constant ventilation of the room;
• maintain an air temperature of 26 ° C;
• provide round-the-clock lighting for day-old chicks.

With this method of growing broiler chickens, there should be no more than 12-18 birds per square meter.

While broilers are small and their own thermoregulation is imperfect, they need an elevated air temperature of 26–33 ° C. After 20 days, the air in the house can be cooled to 18–19 ° C. At the same time, it is important to ensure that the bird is comfortable, otherwise both too cold and excessively warm air negatively affects the growth and well-being of the chicks. Neglecting the rules of keeping poultry threatens to become familiar with the symptoms of diseases of broiler chickens and the treatment of poorly growing flocks.

Growing in cages, especially of a multi-tiered structure, allows you to significantly save the area of ​​the poultry house, simplify its hygienic processing and control the feeding of chicks. At the same time, the temperature and humidity conditions, as well as the average daily feed consumption rates, are similar to the content on the litter.

The rearing, care and feeding of broiler chicks is greatly influenced by the lighting of the cages or house. During daylight hours, the bird actively feeds and moves. The darker the room, the more sluggish the chicks grow.

Therefore, within 14 days from the moment of birth, round-the-clock lighting is organized for the chicks, and then they gradually switch to the natural regime.

Feeding broiler chickens at home

However, it is not enough to create suitable conditions for the chickens and provide them with the proper amount of feed. To get large, well-fed poultry as soon as possible, it is important to choose a balanced, age-oriented diet.

How to feed broiler chickens? This question is most relevant for all beginner and experienced poultry farmers who have not previously encountered the cultivation of such a bird. In household plots, they often practice the use of wet and dry food of their own preparation.

The first weeks of the chicks' stay in the courtyard, they are fed with wet mash, based on boiled eggs, millet, crushed oats and wheat, which make up slightly more than half of the total amount of feed consumed. From 3 weeks of age, boiled potatoes are introduced into the menu, replacing them with no more than a fifth of the cereals.

We must not forget about protein feeds, which lay the active growth of muscle and bone mass. For this purpose, the bird is given cottage cheese, yogurt, reverse and other dairy products. Fish and meat and bone meal becomes a source of animal protein from 10 days of age. These products should first be given 5-7 grams per day per head, and then double the consumption.

Feeding broiler chickens at home involves the use of protein-rich plant products, including sunflower cake, all kinds of meal, crushed legume seeds.

From three days of age, green feed for broiler chicks is needed. In the spring-summer time - this is a succulent grass, tops of garden crops, chopped carrots, 3-5 grams per chicken. In the cold period, when there is not enough fresh herbs, grass flour no more than 2–5 grams and sprouts of barley or other cereals are introduced into the diet.

An excess of grass meal in the feed can cause diarrhea in broiler chickens, the treatment of which implies a mandatory correction of the menu, the use of antibiotics and other drugs.

To prevent digestive problems, broilers are given:

• every other day, as a drink, a pink solution of potassium permanganate;
• fine gravel with a diameter of no more than 5 mm, which activates the intestines and improves the digestion of grain and other feed for broiler chickens.

From 5 days, the bird is given a crushed shell, but not sand, and chalk at the rate of 2-3 grams per chick. Mineral feed and gravel are not mixed with other components of the diet and are poured into separate containers that are constantly in the house.

Clean water at room temperature should be kept in the house at all times. To exclude the development of pathogenic flora and the development of intestinal and other infections, the dishes are regularly washed and disinfected.

For better growth and as a preventive measure, at the first symptoms and treatment of diseases of broiler chickens, young chickens are given vitamin supplements. Already from the fifth day on the menu, they practice the use of oil solutions of vitamins A, D, and E, preventing an overdose of the drugs used.

How many times a day and how to feed broiler chicks at home? The bird should not be deficient in food throughout its life. For the first 7 days, chicks should receive feed at least 8 times a day, then the bird is fed every four hours. In the third week, the number of meals is brought to four, and from the age of one month, broilers are fed in the morning and evening.

All wet broiler chicken feed is prepared so that the bird will eat it within 30-40 minutes.

If the mash is kept warm longer, it is possible:

• souring of products;
• insemination of them with insect eggs;
• development of pathogenic microflora.

All these factors are most often the cause of diarrhea in broiler chickens, the treatment of which weakens the population and slows down the growth rate.

Use of compound feed for broiler chickens

To intensify weight gain, today they use ready-made and home-made feeds that fully meet the physiological needs of the bird. This diet gives especially good results in the first four weeks.

Finished feeds for broiler chickens vary in particle size and composition. Most often, they resort to a three-stage feed system, which is designed for all ages of chickens from birth to slaughter.

While these mixes are more expensive than homemade mash, they significantly improve the performance of the growing flock, make it easier to care for, raise and feed broiler chicks, and control food intake.

At the initial stage, the compound feed helps to strengthen the immune system, create all the prerequisites for good health and rapid growth of the bird. For this purpose, the amount of mineral supplements in the diet increases, the diet is based on easily arranged components.

During active growth, broiler chicken feed is a source of protein, calcium, vitamins and fats, ensuring rapid bone growth and muscle growth. Before slaughter, finishing mixtures are used to increase body condition.

Growing broiler chickens in cages - video

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