Laying hens: maintenance and care at home

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

Today, many want to breed laying hens, and not just for profit. Nowadays, it is especially important to pay attention to high-quality natural products. Sometimes they can only be obtained in the household. Keeping laying hens allows you to provide yourself and your family with tasty and he althy products all year round. However, in order to obtain a sufficient number of eggs, the birds must be provided with appropriate care. In this article, we will look at the recommendations of experienced farmers for keeping laying hens at home.

Conditions

So what do you need to know first? The maintenance of laying hens is associated with the fulfillment of a number of requirements. They relate to the conditions of keeping birds in an equipped room and diet. Let's take a closer look at the requirements.

Which room is best adapted for the cage keeping of laying hens at home? For this purpose, outbuildings such as a barn or special chicken coops are suitable. It is important to take care to ensure that the room has a goodthermal insulation, protection against dampness, drafts and pests. If you plan to keep birds on the floor, then the dimensions of the building must be chosen in such a way that they allow you to grow the maximum possible livestock. It is also worth remembering that young and adult poultry should live in different rooms. This requirement is due to the hygienic features of keeping chickens at home.

Birds should be allowed to move freely, even in the cold season. Unlike meat breeds, laying hens need free grazing and regular walks. Otherwise, egg production will suffer. For this reason, the maintenance of laying hens at home must necessarily provide for a fenced walking area. Each bird should have approximately 1 square meter of area. You can mark out ash baths within the corral. This will have a positive effect on the hygiene of layers. As for the optimal temperature for keeping chickens, experts usually talk about values from 22 to 25 degrees.

With these values, productivity indicators will remain at a high level. If the temperature drops more than 10 degrees, egg production results can be significantly reduced. To prevent this from happening, experts recommend creating artificial heating. Do not make high ceilings in the room, as this can negatively affect the temperature regime. A height of about 1.8 meters will be optimal. Laying hens also needadditional lighting. Without this factor, they will not demonstrate high productivity. If in summer there is usually enough sunlight, then in winter it is better to organize additional sources of lighting. The duration of daylight hours in the chicken coop should be at least 14 hours.

How should laying hens be reared? Maintenance and care at home should provide for the equipment of a sufficient number of nests. After all, laying hens lay eggs almost every day. There should be 4 nests for every 10 hens. It is best to place them in secluded places. Be sure to pay attention to their content. It is best if these are deep boxes stuffed with bedding material, such as sawdust, straw or hay. Chickens should sleep in places specially designed for this purpose, which are located at a distance of 1 meter from the floor. When calculating the size of the poles, it is imperative to take into account the fact that 20 cm is allocated for each place. The distance for a ladder arrangement should be at least 35 cm.

Features of care

This issue is worth dwelling on in more detail.

The conditions for keeping laying hens in cages are based on three main principles:

• regular disinfection;
• diverse diet;
• good hygiene.

Additionally, you will have to take care of cleaning the house and changing the litter every day. If this requirement is not observed, there is a high risk of the formation of insect pests and pathogenic microorganisms. Feeders and water containers should be keptclean. They must be washed after each use of wet food. Drinking water should be changed regularly. Experienced farmers annually carry out a complete cleaning of the chicken coop, however, this cannot be done in winter. For this purpose, all debris should be removed from the room, the walls covered with lime and basic household items should be disinfected.

While these manipulations are being carried out, laying hens must be transferred to another room. You need to prepare it in advance. If we talk about disinfectants, it is best to use a simple blowtorch or ready-made special preparations. Chickens require ash baths. Parasites should also be treated regularly. If sick individuals are identified, they must immediately be placed in quarantine for a certain time. Try to organize separate content for chickens of different ages. The same rule applies to young people. Eggs that have been bought recently must be quarantined.

Proper nutrition

How to make a diet? What should laying hens eat? Maintenance and care at home necessarily include the development of a menu. A varied diet is essential for egg breeds. By producing eggs, the body of the chicken spends a huge amount of nutrients and minerals. Therefore, in addition to classic cereals, vegetables and animal feed, they also need protein food. As such products, meat and bone and fish meal, cake, dairy products and meal can be used. The role of the source of fat in the feed for laying hens is played by oats andcorn.

How to properly care for layers in winter?

During the cold months, laying hens need free range just as much as they do in summer. At temperatures above 12 degrees below zero, chickens must be out in the fresh air for some time. To keep egg production at the same level, you need to arrange the lighting system in such a way that daylight hours are at least 14 hours.

Watch the temperature regime. To prevent the air from being too dry or humid, it is necessary to take care of proper ventilation in the house in advance. Also, do not forget to insulate the floor and ceiling of the chicken coop. The content of laying hens in winter provides for the regular addition of dry leaves and hay. It is unlikely that they will be able to find greenery under the snow.

Rules for breeding chickens

Many novice farmers are interested in how to properly keep laying hens. How to provide the birds with the necessary care? In this case, it is enough just to follow simple rules. First, observe the ratio of individuals by gender. There should be five females per rooster. Experienced farmers, given the weak instinct of chickens to incubate, recommend getting an incubator. It is best to take eggs for incubation from a chicken that is 1-2 years old.

Features of cultivation

What does it include? Growing egg chickens has its own characteristics. They are quite active, but develop very slowly. Particular attention should be paid to the composition of the diet. It should definitely include nutrientsand mineral components. Youngsters should have free range.

Bird care: basic tips

Keeping laying hens at home in winter requires a number of conditions. Today, birds are one of the most common types of domestic animals. Chickens were completely domesticated, but at the same time they retained their unpretentiousness and fertility. This is the reason for the use of these birds in almost every household. With the proper organization of the functioning of the poultry farm, a he althy chicken is able to bring an average of two eggs with an amplitude of three days. To facilitate this process, it is worth equipping a comfortable chicken coop. For a normal life, birds need the following components: a poultry house, a balanced diet, regular walking, compliance with light and temperature conditions, and ensuring sanitary standards.

Where should laying hens live? The conditions of detention require a separate room. Any building materials can be used to build a bird house. However, it is better to give preference to natural. The building should be well ventilated, thermally insulated and spacious. Also in the poultry house it is necessary to provide for the installation of lighting fixtures. Nevertheless, the ingress of natural light cannot be ignored. For the climatic conditions of Siberia and the Urals, a polycarbonate poultry house would be the best option.

The conditions for keeping laying hens in winter should not differ much. In any weather in the yard in the chicken coop should be warmand dry. This will ensure that females, even in the cold season, will be able to rush regularly. If you keep chickens on the floor, then there should be no more than 3-4 individuals per square meter. Straw, hay, sawdust must be laid on a hard floor. In this way, you can provide good thermal insulation, but at the same time bring the habitat closer to the natural one for chickens. This will allow them to show their natural instincts even better.

Organize perches in such a way that the birds can sit on them not too closely. Their height should start from 0.6 meters. If you decide to equip such places, then for the convenience of processing and collecting eggs, it is better to place them above the designated level. Also, transitions must be equipped with intermediate objects. So it will be easier for laying hens to get to the place of spending the night. The egg production of chickens will depend on how cozy and comfortable the nests are. Despite the age categories of birds, everything must be ready before they are settled. This will help the hens get used to having nests.

The number of nests and perches, of course, will depend on the number of individuals. It is worth thinking in advance about the organization of a spacious corral. This will allow backyard animals to receive a sufficient amount of sunlight. A ventilated open aviary can be created from a chain-link mesh. It is better to make the fence higher with a top coating. So the birds will not be able to leave the territory and at the same time they will be protected from the heat in hot weather and rain. The most convenient solution in this casethe combined sectors of the corral and the chicken coop are considered. In such a system, the freedom of movement of birds will not be restricted. The adjoining system allows creatures to spend maximum time in the sun on warm days. Keeping laying hens in winter slightly changes this routine. However, the organization of self-walking should not be completely abolished. Try to ventilate the chicken coop if necessary, as well as carry out routine maintenance in a timely manner.

Bird habitat

If you are interested in keeping and caring for laying hens, then consideration of the natural habitat of birds should be a must. There are no serious requirements for the formation of a diet for various species, however, a number of recommendations should still be followed.

Cage keeping of laying hens may include feeding from the master's table. For this purpose, meat and fish products can be used. However, the use of special feed is considered more preferable. Mixed feed surrogates are calculated by professional ornithologists. Such nutrition contains a wide range of vitamins and microelements necessary for a he althy life and proper development of roosters and hens.

Feed

Complete nutrition kits are easy to use. It is simply impossible to overfeed the bird with them. After all, the main threat to laying hens is obesity. From overeating, a chicken can lose its egg production. It is for this reason that the content of laying hens must necessarily include the preparation of a diet. Properly selected nutrition is a guarantee of obtaining large and high-quality eggs. It is the diethelps to realize the full potential of a living being.

Wet food deserves special attention. This category also includes mixers designed for self-preparation. As a rule, such a set includes cereals, hay flour, cake, chopped vegetables and meal, whole grain cereals, wheat bran, chopped boiled potatoes. A chicken drinker should be simple and convenient. A shallow wide container is best suited for this purpose. Several individuals can use the drinker at the same time.

Conclusion

Many novice farmers are concerned about the question of how to properly engage in poultry farming. Which is better, keeping laying hens in cages or in a chicken coop? What conditions need to be created for laying hens? How to choose the right food?

Keeping laying hens at home necessarily includes compliance with sanitary standards. The place where the chickens are kept should be cleaned regularly. Also, keep an eye on the condition of the bedding on the walking area. It needs to be changed as often as possible. Dirty floors and nests can lead to dangerous infections. Be sure to keep bowls and drinkers clean.

What else does laying hens require? Allocate a place for the birds to walk and create comfortable living conditions for them. Experienced farmers recommend placing laying hens in the same room as cattle. This will be especially beneficial for the owner, since in this case it is not necessary to allocate moneyfor the construction of a chicken coop, and besides, overall animals emit a large amount of heat. If the barn is well insulated, it can not be heated additionally. The main thing is to properly equip perches, nests and create an artificial lighting system. For keeping a small number of birds, this will be quite enough. Don't be afraid to raise chickens. Thanks to this, you can provide your family with delicious, dietary, and most importantly he althy meat.