Proper feeding of laying hens is the key to good productivity

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

Many households have chickens, ducks, goats, piglets. But few know how to keep these animals. In this article, you will learn how feeding laying hens affects their performance and how to feed them to improve their results.

Homemade eggs have always been more expensive, as they are excellent in taste, size and shape. Therefore, experienced poultry farmers prefer those breeds that are distinguished by high egg laying, and pay special attention to their nutrition, choosing all the ingredients correctly.

What to feed laying hens

With proper nutrition, the bird should receive all the useful vitamins it needs, especially those that affect the formation, growth and formation of eggs. For example, with a lack of calcium in the body, the shell will be soft, prone to deformation and damage.

The main diet of chickens at the poultry farm includes compound feed. It is a unique blend of various grainscrops with a sufficiently high content of all the necessary vitamins and minerals that are useful not only for birds, but also for other animals. Quite often, premixes or vitamin complexes are added to it to increase egg production.

Amino acids are necessary to avoid cannibalism (when birds destroy their own kind). Adding feed of animal origin to the diet of chickens will help to avoid such problems: fish, meat or meat and bone meal, soybean meal.

Minerals, calcium - these substances affect the egg production of birds. With each egg, the body of a chicken loses 2 g of calcium, so its deficiency must be replenished. A calcium deficiency is a thin shell, and an overabundance is a loss of appetite in laying hens, weight loss and a decrease in the number of eggs. Mineral supplements: bone meal, chalk, s alt, limestone, shell.

Feeding laying hens at home is different from production. Most often, grains are given to them in their natural form: wheat, barley, oats, corn, rye, peas, millet.

Also, proper feeding of laying hens involves the addition of gravel. It is not digested in the stomach, but stays in it for more than two months. Stones help grind food, which facilitates the absorption of vitamins. It should be emphasized that sand cannot replace it, since, once it enters the intestines, it irritates the mucous membrane and is excreted from the body without delay.

Feeding laying hens also includes water. Next to the feederthere should be a drinking bowl with clean and fresh water. Sometimes it is appropriate to add a weak solution of potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate) to the water.

It is important to ensure that the chickens are not hungry, but also do not overeat. Obesity is contraindicated as they stop laying eggs.

Roughness, pale yolk or just small eggs - all of these are worth paying attention to, as this may be the result of a lack of some nutrients.

Properly feeding laying hens ensures that quality eggs are produced every day, which can bring in a lot of income to poultry farmers.