How to grow broilers at home in winter?

Poultry meat breeds have always been prized by farmers and private house owners. When choosing a breed for breeding in large numbers, broilers are often chosen. They were bred in America, such chickens reach a weight of 2.5 kg in two months, but many have a question how to keep them in the winter and

how to treat broilers

with diseases.

Conditions of detentionThoroughbred meat chickens are demanding to care for. If something does not suit them, they will lose weight. Raising chickens begins with the purchase of chicks, which are best purchased at a week of age. For them, you can equip two options for home furnishings:

Provide special cages. Equip floor maintenance. In the first case, it is necessary to make cages with a pallet so that it is easy to remove the droppings. Water and food are outside the cage, the chickens put their heads out and feed from the feeders. This content is acceptable for adults, only if it is planned to leave the chickens in such cages before maturation, they need to be made to the appropriate size. With this content, feed is saved, it is poured into the feeders, and the birds eat it without scattering or trampling. The water from the drinker does not splash and the chicks stay dry, which protects them from diseases. It will be enough to spend once on making cages and you can grow chickens in them several times.

The floor-standing option does not require many costs, but it takes up a lot of space.

When choosing one of the options for keeping birds in winter, you need to take into account the accompanying conditions:

Floor... Chickens and birds are constantly on the floor, and in winter it can be very cold in the chicken coop. To ensure a satisfactory keeping of chickens, you need to properly cover the floor: first with wooden planks, then with lime and straw on top. When using cells, this problem disappears.Light... In winter, even in the windows for adult birds, it will not be enough, and for chicks it must be provided that it burns around the clock.Heating. It is worth considering the construction of a fireplace or a portable stove in the room where the bird is located, which could completely heat the chicken coop.Feeding. Drinking bowls and feeders should be within the reach of chickens, but at the same time, it is necessary to regularly monitor that the litter under them does not get wet and does not become contaminated with feed.Safety... Broilers are shy birds; after stress, they lose weight, and can also injure themselves, as in times of danger they huddle in flocks and at the same time cripple each other.Feeding featuresThe diet of chickens, in order to avoid their loss, must be optimally balanced. For the cold period, you need to stock up on regular feed, as well as prepare hay, barley, millet, wheat and corn.

In winter, broilers need to be fed hourly three times a day. Give corn twice, pour warm water into the drinkers, constantly leaving mineral fertilizer in separate feeders.

During the day, it is advisable to cook warm food for chickens - a mash, which consists of boiled waste of vegetables, finely chopped hay, barley flour. It is mixed with milk skim or whey. It would be nice to add chalk and baker's yeast to the mash, the latter are diluted in warm water before use.

The rest of the time, you can introduce them into the diet of grated beets, carrots, pumpkin and other small roots.

It is necessary that the bird eats the proposed food within half an hour, this can be achieved by adding more yellow food to it, she eats it with pleasure. If food remains, then it must be removed so that the food does not deteriorate and the bird does not get poisoned.

For assimilation and the fastest weight gain, the light in the chicken coop after eating is screwed on to create a semi-drowsy state.

It is not difficult to keep broilers, if you properly equip their place of stay and stock up on the appropriate feed, then you can become the owner of delicious dietary meat at any time of the year, even in winter, and the chickens will not get sick. With a responsible approach to breeding these birds, some provide meat not only for themselves and their families, but also open a profitable business.

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 should 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 indicates 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 roosts 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: living 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 the eggs.

For selection of eggs, we select 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 chicks 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 drops 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.

A 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. The green mass can also be continued to be added.

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 chicks 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 medium 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 animals 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 must 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 feed more.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 the 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 of combined type metal rods. 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).

After 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 (for the reasons 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 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.

Now I have actively gone "headlong" into the construction of a small mini-farm, in fact, it takes a huge amount of time and effort, but I really hope that with the beginning of winter there will be more time and I will return to the active maintenance of the resource. Today I want to share my experience of growing broilers at home.

Actually, the idea of ​​breeding broilers appeared quite spontaneously, becoming a kind of compromise between the desire to experiment and the availability of ready-made areas. As always, our desires do not coincide with our capabilities, as a result of the construction summer free and ready, there is only one room left, with a total area of ​​18 square meters. There were only one plans for this room, but nevertheless decided to launch meat chickens. What happened!

• The choice of the system (method) of growing broilers.
• Premises preparation, ventilation for home breeding of broilers.
• Making cage batteries for domestic broilers, DIY cage
• Broiler chickens, incubation or purchase of ready-made
• Broiler chick care and rearing
• Feeding broiler chickens
• Slaughter, pluck, preparation of a broiler carcass for sale
• The profitability of a broiler home business
• Video of growing broilers at home

The choice of the system (method) of growing broilers.

*

First, you need to clearly understand that there are several fundamentally different systems for raising broiler chickens for meat in a village or small town. Previously reviewed the top of the very best village business ideas.

The first is cellular content. This option involves the construction of special battery cells in several tiers.
The second system is outdoor... Chickens are kept in a room with a litter on the floor.

After rereading a huge amount of literature and opinions, one conclusion can be drawn, there are pros and cons in both content systems.

Cons of floor keeping broiler chickens:

• - a high level of capital investments per 1 square meter of usable area. So when growing 100 poultry, it is necessary to build a chicken coop with an area of ​​at least 15 square meters. 10 for chickens and 5 for serving.
• - the need for intensive veterinary measures. The amount of chicken manure from broiler chickens is very large with floor keeping, the likelihood of disease increases.

I would like to note that I do not consider options with walking on the "grass", unsuitable premises, they do not allow realizing the potential of the bird. While not cost effective.

It was the need for large areas and the impossibility of introducing at least primitive versions of the mechanization of processes that made me consider the option of cell-battery growing of poultry at home.

From the real pros, I got:

• - small areas. More than 200 chickens can be raised on 18 squares. But this is not a side-altar, there is an opportunity to increase the livestock.
• - to reduce the cost of maintaining the required climate, this is heating, ventilation, lighting.

Premises preparation, ventilation for home breeding of broilers.

No special conditions for the chicken coop are needed, except for:

• - young animals require a constant temperature. The room must be heated... The options for cheap heating are the sea, from buleryans to pyrrolysis boilers (home-made, of course), although electric heating can be used under the condition of compact rooms.
• - necessarily availability of ventilation... Natural ventilation is definitely not enough, the purchase and equipment of forced ventilation for broilers is a real necessity.
• - the third is of course walls must be plastered, covered with lime... When changing batches, it is advisable to whitewash for disinfection.

It must be remembered that growing broilers even at home is a technological process and compliance with at least the minimum requirements will allow you to get the declared result.

Making cage batteries for domestic broilers, DIY cage

There are relatively many options for cage batteries for growing broilers at home, but after careful study of all materials, communication with people who actually grow poultry at home, I chose the following design for myself.

1. Cage width - 1 meter
2. Cage height - 40 cm
3. Battery 3 floors
4. The pallet is made at an angle from the front part of 20 cm from the side of the back wall 5 cm (here I miscalculated a little, I had to do more).

I placed 5 such batteries in the chicken coop, removing the partitions between them, and it turned out to be one large battery with a total area of ​​15 square meters, 5 each floor.

The material for making the cage was taken from metal.

• supporting structures - used a square tube 30 * 20.
• main jumpers - square tube 15 * 15
• additional lintels are made of plasterboard "cheap".
• back wall mesh with a cell 50 * 25
• floor with mesh with a mesh of 12.5 * 12.5

To make cages for broilers, you can use a tree, which on the one hand will reduce the cost, although you need to weigh the pros and cons. Chicken droppings are aggressive and quickly enough penetrates the wood, not only destroying the structure, but forming the appropriate bacterial background.

Broiler feeders are made of conventional galvanized (thickness 0.5), the shape was spied on from large manufacturers. The shape resembles the letter P with one corner filled up.

Drinking through nipple drinkers, immediately placed a container for water, which allows you to additionally warm water without a heating system.

Broiler chickens, incubation or purchase ready-made, brooder

Before you start talking about chickens as the initial stage of home breeding of broiler chickens for meat, you need to remember one thing. Most meat broilers are crosses.

Poultry crosses (from the English cross: "crossing") are hybrids of breeds and lines of poultry, the production of which is carried out within the framework of strictly prescribed, sometimes rather complex rules, usually in an industrial environment under the supervision of livestock specialists.

At least if you want, you are engaged in breeding business, growing meat breeds, then you cannot do without crosses. Some of the most popular today are:

• ROSS - 708
• COBB - 500
• ROSS - 308
• Hybro-6
• Cross Change
• Cross Hubbard F 15

You can, of course, deal with meat chickens of the Cochinchin, Brama, Cornish, Faverol, Langshan, Dorking breeds, but the maturity of pure breeds is an order of magnitude different from the yield and maturity of broiler crosses

Today there are several main lines for breeding crosses of meat chickens, in particular: crosses of the world's leading companies: "Shaver", "Starbro" (Canada); Goto (Japan); Fireben (England); Gibro (Netherlands); Ross (Scotland); Lohmann (Germany); ISA (France); Arbor-Acrose, Hubbard, Cobb, Avian Farms (USA); Anak (Israel); Babolna (Hungary).

In the meantime, ROSS and COBB are popular, but try other lines if possible.

The use of crosses when growing poultry for meat even at home allows:

• - to receive a marketable carcass of 2.3-2.5 kg by the 50th day of growing, you can start slaughtering from 40 - the weight of a clean carcass is in the region of 1.8-2 kg);
• - achieve a feed conversion of 1.7
• - production profitability at the level of 50-70% (more on that later)

But growing crosses automatically means that at least an egg (for incubation) must be purchased. The price of such an egg is at least 30% of the price of the chicken itself (further in the text I will use indirect indicators, prices are very different by regions of the country and the use of relative indicators will allow you to independently calculate the profitability of the business by simply substituting your prices).

What do we have?

The price of a hatching egg is 30% of the cost of a chick, plus incubation costs another 5-10% and, most importantly, losses.
Under the right incubation conditions and, of course, the availability of good equipment, the output of chickens from eggs is about 90-95% (we take the minimum values), and the additional costs from the loss of low-quality eggs are not significant. We get it?

• - hatching egg 30%
• - incubation costs 7%
• - losses from unhatched eggs another 5%.

If you incubate yourself, the cost of one chick will be cut in half. At the same time, it will reduce the total cost of raising a home broiler for meat by 5-7%. The cost of chicken in the total cost of the finished carcass is about 10-12%.

Such a result can be obtained only with low losses, good equipment. If you do not have the first, not the second, then it is better to experiment on ordinary chickens, study the incubation technology, and buy day-old chickens for the broiler business.

We did just that by purchasing day-old chicks, although there are many reviews saying that it is better to buy an older bird (at least 10 days old), but the real experience of many poultry farmers shows that it is the first scheme that is profitable. The first days the chick is forming and there is a need for a number of veterinary procedures. If they are done as expected, then the survival rate of chickens reaches 100% (we had it just like that). Another thing is when someone else makes them, it is not clear how many and what antibiotics were given to the bird (and then we eat them) and, most importantly, whether these birds are culling from someone else's herd.

The brooder for broiler chickens was made the simplest, part of the cage battery was covered with a used banner, covered with fine sawdust, the walls were covered with plywood, and heating lamps with a temperature sensor were installed.

The temperature regime in the brooder was

• at 33 degrees the lamps turn off
• turned on at 31 degrees Celsius.

Light mode 24 hours.

From an economic point of view, the purchase of 10 day old chicks increases the cost of the finished carcass by 15-18%.

Care and raising of chickens

As I wrote earlier, a part of the cell battery was converted into a brooder. At the initial stage, it is important to complete all veterinary activities, which include:

• - drinking with antibiotics
• - vitaminization

The total drinking period is about 14 days. I will not write a specific recipe because I use different vitamins and antibiotics in different regions. Vitamins, antibiotics were added to warm water.

The litter in the brooder was up to 4 days old, starting from the 5th day of life, the litter was removed. By the way, the bedding is an obligatory element, it is also called a "diaper".

The general course of fortification and prevention is about 14 days.During this entire period, broiler chickens were fed with ready-made starter feed.

I strongly advise against using "grandma's" recipes with eggs, weed and other ingredients.

Remember broiler chickens, a specially bred industrial cross that has a very high growth rate, it is impossible to provide it with all the necessary minerals, vitamins and others without knowledge about the content of these same vitamins and minerals in "homemade" food.Moreover, the first 14 days are very important in the formation of a bird, the lack of certain elements in the best cases will lead to a slowdown in growth, I do not want to talk about the worst.

From day 15, chicks can be transferred from the brooder and the feeding system can be selected.

Feeding broiler chickens

There are three options for feeding broilers at home to get meat, I will list them as they are profitable.

Option one - self-cooking... The composition of the diet for feeding consists of a number of necessary components, these are:

• Wheat;
• Corn;
• Soybean meal;
• Sunflower meal;
• Vitamin complex;
• Protein component (fish or meat and bone meal)
• Chalk, sand

Of course, from the point of view of simple calculation, this option is the cheapest, the cost of feed will be cheaper, but everything is relative. But the same meal should have a certain content of proteins and fats. The same can be said about the protein component. In practice, a small farm cannot buy products with a quality guarantee (all the more, check how much energy is in soybean meal). The situation is aggravated by sellers selling products of very dubious quality at retail (buying bad meat and bone meal, you risk spoiling the taste of the bird). So, making your own feed for broilers is a game with many unknowns, of course you can win, but you can lose. Plus, do not forget about your own work, which is only conditionally free.

The results show that if you make your own feed, the broiler rearing period is increased by 10-15 days, but feed can be cheaper. Calculations for three mini-farms have shown that the cost of such cultivation is only 5-7% lower than analogues on ready-made feed. True, the result is not guaranteed if there are no reliable suppliers of the original feed.

Option two - ready-made feed... The easiest way in form, bought it fell asleep and got the result. There are only two drawbacks:

• - increase in cost by 10-12%
• - not the ability to influence the quality of the carcass.

Option three - use of bmvd for broilers... Actually, we used this option at home. The essence is quite simple, we partially prepare food ourselves, consisting of:

• Maize
• Wheat
• Bmvd

Feed costs 20% less than ready-made compound feeds, and only 5-7% more expensive than your own feed for broiler chickens. Of the pros:

- Depending on the availability of bark, you can adjust the amount of wheat, corn, which makes it possible to form a beautiful carcass. So the increase in corn additionally increases the "yellowness" of the carcass (one of the indicators of marketability), plus reduces the amount of fat. And you can increase the proportion of wheat and make the carcass oily.
- obtaining consistently high-quality feed

Of the cons

• - a large amount of fodder dust in the broiler coop
• - the presence of additional labor during the preparation of crushed

It's hard to say which of the options to choose, we used the third one.

Slaughter, plucking and preparation of a broiler carcass for sale

The saddest thing in all is, of course, the process of preparing the carcass for implementation and sad for one banal reason this is the most painstaking, time-consuming process.

Broiler nip it's a complicated matter, his skin is thin, delicate (after all, in fact it is a chicken), he is afraid of both steaming and undercooking. Plus, the processing time of the carcass itself ranges from 20 to 40 minutes, depending on the worker.

What can you advise.

First, if we are talking about relatively large quantities (from 100-150 pieces), then definitely it is necessary to buy a feathering machine... Such an acquisition can be recouped literally in one cycle of growing broilers for meat at home.

Interesting video about broiler pluck

Video instruction on how to properly pluck a broiler in the NT 600 feather chipper, but at the beginning we specially plucked a broiler in the same machine with a lot of errors

Upload date: 2013-10-06

It is necessary to equip the workplace and the place of slaughter.At the place of slaughter, everything is enough just to prepare cones for slaughtering birds. They can be made from the remains of linoleum, tarpaulin or galvanized. The thing is very convenient, it allows you to get a high-quality carcass.

About the implementation. You can give a lot of advice, but the simplest and most effective is the implementation through friends, trips to the organization (who will order a chicken). At the initial stage, it is even possible to sell it through the market, but practice shows that with the constant growing of broilers, a constant network of buyers is very quickly formed, ready to buy out several hundred broilers per month.

The profitability of a broiler home business

The profit from growing broilers should be calculated depending on the prices for chicken in your region and, of course, the cost of feed. Based on what you can calculate the profit, profitability:

The cost of growing a broiler consists of:

Buying young animals (chicken);
Feed consumption. You can calculate them using the formula:

For 1 kg of live weight, 1.8 kg of feed is consumed. Accordingly, 6.3 kg of feed will be needed to grow a broiler up to 3.5 kg in live weight. For the rest of the calculations, it is necessary to add the cost of the feed, multiplying it by the quantity, we get the feed cost.

You can safely throw in other expenses 10%

In total, we get the costs.

Practice shows that the markup of a home broiler is made at least 100%, in total we get 50% profitability. It is not difficult to count further.

Do not forget to tell that a poultry carcass contains:

• fat from 5 to 15%,
• protein about 20%,
• ash 0.95-1.33%.
• calorie content 100 gr. broiler meat contains 180-240 kcal
• vitamins A, E
• B vitamins;
• macronutrients: potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, calcium; trace elements: manganese, iron, zinc, selenium.

The article turned out to be huge, of course, it was not possible to reveal all the nuances in it, write, ask questions, I will gladly share, I will answer questions.

I will add only one thing in terms of taxation for this business idea, you do not need to open an individual entrepreneur, and even more so pay UTII, USN or a patent, all activities can be carried out within the framework of private household plots and without paying taxes. One little joy.

Video of growing broilers at home

Video examples of growing broilers at home I will use not only my own, I forgot to shoot the whole process. Now I am posting only a review, and as the new batch is launched, I promise to lay out the rest of the stages.

In our video, we will tell you how to raise broilers at home, as well as how to make cages with your own hands.

Upload date: 2015-04-15

1. Rating of the best ideas in the countryside in the field of cultivation
2. Home farm - breeding pheasants
3. Home farm - turkey and turkey breeding