Growing chickens at home: features, care and recommendations

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

As you know, chicken is a very common poultry. People grow it for meat and eggs, which are very useful for the human body, and are used by them to prepare a large number of culinary dishes. That is why raising chickens, from which a full-fledged he althy chicken then grows, is considered a very profitable occupation and allows you to recoup all the financial investments spent on it. However, before deciding to raise chickens at home, you need to carefully study the subtleties that this laborious business has. Only in this case it will be possible to get a full-fledged he althy chicken from fragile little yellow lumps and do without losses.

Chicken choice

A novice poultry farmer should keep in mind that not every breed of chickens is suitable for a subsidiary farm. Their choice should be made taking into accountconditions of detention. In this case, chickens can be selected simple or thoroughbred. The first of them are less demanding on the conditions of detention and on the balance of the feed. However, the most interesting for home growing are:

1. Meat chickens. They grow very quickly, gaining weight at the same time. Juicy carcasses are obtained from such a bird. However, it should be borne in mind that this bird rushes very badly.
2. Egg skewers. These hens are excellent laying hens, delighting their owners with selected fresh eggs all year round. As a rule, these are small, light birds that love activity and fly well. Many of these breeds still retain their brooding instinct.
3. Meat and egg. These hens are universal. On the one hand, they serve as an excellent source of tasty and high-quality meat, and on the other hand, they do not lag behind in terms of egg laying.

Before buying chickens, you must first select the variety that has a suitable orientation. Small farms prefer to grow versatile birds. After all, they grow and mature quickly and rush well.

In order for the rearing of chickens and the further maintenance of chickens to be simple and profitable, breeds must meet certain requirements, including:

1. Stamina and unpretentiousness. This is especially important when the owners do not have enough free time to engage in feathered farming.
2. Good adaptability. The birds will need to take root in the newplace. That is why they need to be able to easily readjust and get used to new living conditions.
3. Unpretentiousness in matters of nutrition. When a person is raising chickens at home, he will not be able to calculate the exact dosage of feed for each bird. It is unlikely that in this case there are also opportunities to purchase unusual food or formulate a special diet.
4. Favorable content. Surely no one would want to home raise chickens if, after all the money and time spent, the brood does not bring any benefit.
5. Good immunity and good he alth. This breed factor is important. The fact is that factory chickens are very often literally crammed with antibiotics. On the one hand, this allows them not to get sick, and on the other hand, it fills the meat with harmful substances. That is why it is desirable that domestic chickens have an innate resistance to the most common bird ailments.

You need to know about some of the nuances of choosing a bird at the stage of buying chickens from an incubator. Attention should be stopped only on the most mobile individuals. Activity always indicates that the chicks are he althy. Otherwise, the money spent on the purchase may not be justified. A weak bird may die already in the first days or after that it will be severely stunted.

What kind of chickens are bought for rearing? According to the recommendations of experts, the main sign of the he alth of small fluffy lumps is their ability to:

• stay on your feet;
• good and fastmove around;
• try to peck at the objects around.

In addition, the chickens should have a taut and at the same time soft belly, a clean pink cloaca, bulging and shiny eyes, wings always pressed to the body. When choosing, you need to pay attention to the umbilical cord of the chicks. By the time of purchase, it should already heal.

The first days. Care

And growing chickens in the initial period of their stay at home, and caring for them is a very responsible matter. After all, in the first weeks of their lives, chicks are especially vulnerable to all kinds of infections. That is why their care must be especially careful.

To create optimal conditions for growing chickens in the first weeks of their life, the necessary temperature regime must be created, quality nutrition provided and sufficient water supplied.

After the chicks hatched in the incubator are completely dry, they are placed under a laying hen or in a pre-prepared box, which can be either cardboard or wooden. The bottom of such a container is covered with newspapers or a piece of cloth folded in several layers, on which a feeder and a drinking bowl are placed. An incandescent lamp is placed above the box on a tripod. Its height is adjusted so that the air temperature at the bottom surface is within 30 degrees. On the first day, the box with chickens is illuminated even at night. After that daylight hours can be reduced to 8 hours.

How to care and grow at the initial stage? chickens inhome conditions should always be provided with food and drink. Dirty newspapers should be cleaned at least 2 times a day. In the event that the chickens begin to huddle together, you need to heat the air in the box. Chicks gather in a "pile-small" only when they are cold. But not only low temperatures are dangerous for them. In a group, the upper individuals can crush the lower ones. Harmful to chickens and heat. An uncomfortable temperature can be recognized by the behavior of the chicks, which seek to escape from the light, stretch their heads and unfold their wings. Starting from the fifth day of the stay of future carriers, the temperature will need to be reduced to 26 degrees, then decreasing by 3 degrees every week to 18. After it becomes clear that the chickens are getting crowded in the box, they are transferred to the litter. This increases the area of their location.

Chicken house

In the first days after the purchase of young stock, it can be placed not in a box, but in a brooder. This device is designed to warm young animals in the first weeks of life. At their core, brooders for raising chickens are artificial substitutes for the brood hen. Of course, such a house can be purchased ready-made. However, many poultry farmers still prefer to make a do-it-yourself brooder for raising chickens.

After the preparation of materials and the necessary equipment, you can safely get to work. At its first stage, the frame of such a plywood house is assembled. Its dimensions are determined individually based on the number of chickens. The height of such a structure should not be higher than 50 cm.otherwise, the poultry breeder will have difficulty with heating the young. The lack of heat will cause the chickens to get cold.

The bottom of the brooder is made of a fine mesh, the cells of which are 1x1 cm in size. Through such holes, all garbage will fall onto the tray installed below. This design will allow you to quickly and easily clean up when caring for chicks.

Handmade chicken brooder equipped with 60W incandescent bulbs. But for heating it is best to purchase special lighting devices. Their cost is low, and the efficiency is much greater than conventional lamps.

Requirements for the premises

After 10 days, the young can be moved to the barn, where a place will be prepared in advance for future laying hens. According to the recommendations of experts, it will need to be constantly kept clean, which will be an excellent prevention of a wide variety of bird diseases. After all, with a strong overcrowding of chickens, the presence of numerous food debris and droppings in the room, the chicks are unlikely to be able to remain he althy. In addition, the place where the chickens are raised and fed must be constantly heated, and the following rules must be observed:

• carry out high-quality disinfection before placement in the poultry shed;
• keep the optimal level of indoor humidity within 60 percent;
• locate no more than 13 individuals on an area of one square meter;
• lay a thick layer of mildew-free absorbent material on the floor,which could be, for example, fresh hay.

When placing a bird in a barn, you need to take care of its safety. This is especially true when growing broiler chickens. After all, this breed is considered very shy. In case of danger, such chickens immediately huddle together, injuring each other. Some of the chickens may even die. But in any case, cats and dogs, rats and mice should not enter the barn.

Chicken walks

Starting from a week old, the bird can be released into the yard. Fresh air and solar energy will have an excellent effect on the metabolic processes occurring in the body of chickens. In addition, such walks will be a wonderful prevention of rickets.

At first, the duration of the walk should not exceed 90 minutes. And only after the living creatures grow up a little, it can be left in the open space throughout the daylight hours. To do this, you need to build a small paddock, which will be fenced with a fine mesh. Such material will not allow the bird to escape and at the same time protect it from predatory animals. It is also worth making a strong canopy over this corral. In this case, the chickens will not get wet from heavy rain and will not get sick.

Young stock diet

Any resident of the village can tell in detail about how to breed laying hens at home. However, only one of these housewives sell an excess of eggs all year round, and the second constantly scolds their birds, considering them lazy.

In order for the costs incurred inbuying chicks, fully paid off, in addition to good care for birds, they will need a balanced diet from birth. Birds also need water. For little chickens, it is given twice as much as feed. For the first time, day old babies are given a 5% glucose solution instead of water.

Up to the age of seven days, food is poured simply on pieces of cardboard. Next, you need a device for feeders, the design of which should ideally be suspended.

The first food for fluffy balls are:

• small crushed cereals;
• hard boiled eggs;
• fat-free dry cottage cheese (it contains calcium, which promotes plumage).

Somewhat later, the egg is excluded from the diet. From the second day, it is desirable to add finely chopped greens to the chicken feed. In summer it can be clover, and in winter it can be self-sprouted cereals. From the third day, the chickens will be happy to eat the mash. It is cooked on meat broth and curdled milk. Mixer must always be fresh. Within an hour, its remains should be thrown out of the feeder, which should then be washed and rinsed with a solution of potassium permanganate. By the way, with weak, slightly pink water containing this substance, the chicks should be fed twice a week in the morning.

At five days old, chicks are already resilient. For them, you will need to gradually increase the amount of feed, adding fish oil and vitamins to it. From the first day, coarse sand or fine gravel is recommended for their stomachs, replacementwhich can form an eggshell. Up to the age of two months, only crushed cereals can be given from cereals to a young bird.

Chicken nutrition

For adult birds, you will need to purchase compound feed. Its ideal composition is the one that contains:

• 40% corn;
• 8% wheat bran;
• 20% barley flour;
• 10% sunflower meal;
• 14% fish and bone meal (1:1);
• 3% feed yeast;
• 5% table s alt and mineral supplements.

Such a mixture, either dry or as a stirrer, is given 2-3 times during the day. In order for the stomach of chickens to work well, they should be fed dry grain, which is desirable to have less membranes.

It is known that homemade eggs are always different from the factory ones. This is made possible by the diversity of food. The yolk acquires its orange color due to the presence of a large amount of vitamin greens in the diet of laying hens.

Leftovers from the human table can also be added to chicken feed, which will diversify the menu of birds. Experts say that the more ingredients there are in the feed, the tastier the egg will turn out.

But those who keep chickens should keep in mind that they should not be overfed. Improper nutrition leads to obesity of the viscera. At the same time, it will be difficult for the bird to rush. Her eggs, instead of shells, will begin to be covered with a very thin film. This will cause the contents of this product to pour directlyunder the chicken Such a circumstance will have its negative impact not only because the eggs will begin to pollute the nests. The taste of their contents will become known to the chickens, which in the future is fraught with pecking.

The golden age of laying hens lasts up to 15 months. After that, they give fewer eggs, and their meat begins to coarsen. By this time, the owners should prepare a new brood.

Chickens broilers

How to ensure that a bird of this breed justifies its purpose? To do this, it will require competent care. And raising broiler chickens must be carried out with a carefully selected diet.

If a bird of this breed is not used for procreation in the future, then its stay at home lasts no more than 70 days. After that, raising and caring for and feeding broiler chickens will not bring any benefits to the owners. Physiologically, in birds older than 70 days, weight gain begins to fall. At the same time, feed consumption remains at the same level. Comparing these two factors, it becomes obvious that growing broiler chickens at home beyond this period is not at all profitable. This must be taken into account when choosing this breed.

Feeding broilers

What are the features of keeping this meat bird? The conditions for growing broiler chickens at the first stage do not differ from those recommended for young animals of other breeds. But for such birds, this is not enough. It is important for them to get the right amount of feed. Only in this case the bird will be large and well-fed.

How to feed and raise chickensbroilers, it is especially important to know for those who first started this meat breed in their household. During the first weeks of life, chicks should be fed wet mash. They are made with millet and boiled eggs, crushed oats, and wheat, which should make up slightly more than half of the poultry feed.

After the chickens are 3 weeks old, boiled potatoes are introduced into their menu, which replaces a fifth of the grains. Do not forget about protein feed when growing broilers. They will allow you to lay the active growth of bone and muscle mass. To do this, the bird must eat yogurt and cottage cheese, skim milk and other dairy products.

Starting from 10 days of age, animal protein, which is contained in meat and bone and fish meal, should appear in the diet of chickens. Such products first give 5-7 grams for one day per individual. A little later, flour consumption can be doubled.

In the diet of broiler chickens, plant foods that are rich in protein should also be present. These are crushed bean seeds, sunflower seed cake, various kinds of meal.

From the age of three days, broilers should receive green feed. In the spring and summer, these are the tops of crops growing in the garden, juicy grass and chopped carrots. One individual should have 3-5 grams of greenery. In cold periods, the presence of herbal flour in the diet is necessary. It is added to the feed at the rate of 2-5 grams per individual. Cereal sprouts can be used as greenscrops.

To prevent digestive problems, broiler chickens should receive:

• pink solution of potassium permanganate as a drink (every other day);
• small gravel, the diameter of which does not exceed 5 mm, to activate the bowels and improve digestion.

From the fifth day of life, broiler chickens are given crushed shell (2-3 grams per chick).

Use compound feed

In order for broiler chickens to gain weight more intensively, experts recommend giving them food that fully meets the physiological needs of birds. To date, these are ready-made or home-made compound feeds. Such a diet allows you to get especially good results in the first four weeks of life of birds.

Compound feeds significantly improve the weight of the growing stock and greatly simplify the care, feeding and rearing of broilers, as well as control over food intake. At the initial stage, this will strengthen the immunity of the bird and create all the prerequisites for its rapid weight gain and good he alth. During active growth, compound feeds are a complete source of calcium and proteins, fats and vitamins, which provide an increase in muscle mass. At the end of the holding period, before slaughter, it is recommended to use finishing mixes that increase body condition.