What breeds of laying hens are bred in Russia?

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Chickens have long been the most popular type of poultry for breeding both on an industrial scale and in their own backyards. Other varieties are selectively popular, but almost every family of rural residents buys chickens. This bird is characterized by low requirements for keeping conditions, fast growth, good productivity.

However, not all chickens are the same. If the farmer wants to be successful in breeding them, the direction of productivity and other characteristics of the breed groups must be taken into account. Choosing the right breed of laying hens is the key to the success of your own egg production business. Keeping poultry will be profitable, with minimal costs, and obtaining products will be maximum.

Requirements for laying hens

Of course, the main one is high egg productivity, that is, egg production. She should be over 200 eggs per year. What other features distinguish such a bird?Laying hens must have:

• precocity (the start of laying eggs already at 4-4, 5 months);
• light weight;
• light skeleton;
• low feed intake;
• lack of incubation instinct.

List of popular chicken breeds

There are quite a lot of their pedigree lines, even without taking into account interline crosses. Chickens produce two main types of products: meat and eggs, therefore, in general, all breeds are divided into meat, egg and mixed. The latter are distinguished by good productivity in both directions, but for each of them it is lower than that of specialized ones. What are the best breeds of laying hens? Probably, in this matter it is worth focusing on their popularity among farmers. This is a good indicator of quality. In Russia, the most actively bred:

1. Leggorn and their crosses.
2. White Russian.

The following breeds of laying hens may also be used:

1. Orpington.
2. Rhode Island.
3. Moscow.
4. Poltava clayey.
5. Plymouth Rock.
6. Sussex.

The bird from the second list belongs to the meat and egg direction. It is usually the subject of choice for small household plots, since it has two types of productivity at once. For commercial egg production, on the contrary, their maintenance becomes less profitable, since they consume a lot of feed and require more space in the hen house, produce fewer eggs than egg-oriented birds.

Brief characteristics of egg breeds

Leghorn laying hens produce up to 280 eggs annually. They are early maturing and relatively resistant to negative environmental factors. However, in the second year, egg production is significantly reduced; they should not be used for more than two years. Their meat is not very good in taste.

Lohman Brown laying hens are a leghorn cross. They start laying early (about 20 weeks old), their productivity is about 300 large eggs per year. Also, their meat tastes much better than that of leghorns.

White Russian chicken lays from the age of five months up to 230 medium-sized eggs per year. Further, the number of eggs decreases, but their mass increases. The bird itself is heavier than the leggorny, it has a higher survival rate.

The choice of breed is very important: they all have advantages and disadvantages. It all depends on the goals pursued by the farmer. Having decided on them, he will acquire a bird of the desired breed and get the maximum benefit.