What to feed a chicken in the first days of his life

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

Before we tell you what to feed a chicken, let's ask ourselves another question: "When should I start feeding him?" Oddly enough, there are still heated debates with weighty arguments on this topic. "Oddly enough" - because nature itself gives a convincing answer. See how the chickens hatched by the crotch behave. It takes only 4-6 hours from the moment of hatching - and they no longer only hobble after the hens

her for a walk, but also learning to graze.

Now let's look at the statistics: chicks that are provided with water and feed during the first 16 hours of life survive 20% better than young birds that have not received any food at all for a day or two. Finally, an argument from biologists: in the first hours, internal organs actively develop in the body of a chicken, this process consumes most of the stored energy, which must be replenished with something …

Having understood all of the above, let's see what to feed the chicken. And, in fact, what can he find oncourtyard? "Dining room" with fresh grass, sand, insects and plant seeds. We will proceed from this.

The first two days of life, chickens are fed chopped hard-boiled egg yolk with the addition of a small amount of semolina so that it does not stick together. You can also add finely chopped chives and egg shells, peeled from the film. To stabilize digestion and colonize the intestines with microflora, fresh kefir is useful (you can take low-fat yogurt). But the chickens are not yet able to peck liquid, they will have to be watered with a syringe or pipette. These two days are the most difficult: you need to feed the chickens every two hours, including at night.

The next three days, the diet almost does not change, except that the yolk can already be given along with the protein, and kefir and pure boiled water are given in drinkers (necessarily separate).

Then in the diet we begin to increase the proportion of greens and at the same time reduce the proportion of kefir. Add alfalfa and clover to the chives. And give kefir like this: soak a little stale white bread in it, squeeze it, crumble it and pour it into the feeder. Low-fat meat broth and fish oil should also appear in the diet at the rate of 0.2 g per day per head. It is important how to feed the chicken, in addition to organic matter, sifted sand (for the prevention of gastric disorders) with mineral bait: crushed eggshells, shells, wood ash. You can already feed less often - every 3-4 hours.

By this time, in principle, it will already be clear what to feed the 10-day-old chickens. If theyalmost devoid of walking, add to the arsenal of disease prevention top dressing with vitamins, and twice a week with a very weak aqueous solution of potassium permanganate. Night feeding can already be abandoned.

Now consider the question of what to feed week-old broiler chickens. Here the technique and diet are somewhat different.

The diet of the first three days of life: cereals or finely crushed corn, wheat, barley, peeled from films, as well as a mixture of wheat bran and well-ground hard-boiled eggs without shells or cottage cheese. Distributed every 2 hours. Then they are fed with dry mixes, which are based on concentrated feed with additives (every 3-4 hours), and wet mash (soft food, 2-3 times a day). Starting on the fifth day, broilers are also given fish oil daily.

Finely chopped peas, clover, nettle, alfalfa, dandelion, sow thistle leaves - this is what to feed a broiler chicken in the summer, starting from the 3rd day of life. From the age of 5 days, the diet is replenished with herbal flour and germinated grain, and from the 6-day age, red carrots and yellow pumpkin are added to the composition of the mash. In addition, broilers are fed with mineral supplements: crushed chalk, shells, bone meal, and starting from 10 days of age - gravel.