Breeding chicken at home. The maintenance of chickens on a personal plot

Some of the most non-selective domestic birds are chickens. The breeding, maintenance, care and feeding of them do not require special skills. However, it is necessary to know a few nuances, otherwise the birds will not give the expected number of eggs and can quickly die.

Which breed to choose?

For domestic breeding, birds of common use and egg-laying types are best suited. In the individual farming it is extremely unprofitable to grow meat breeds. As for the breeding of egg-type hens , their maintenance does not require much finance. Also they quickly ripen for gestation, although they have a small weight. To bright representatives of egg-bearing breeds belong Russian white hens. Often they are crossed with leggorns. They have a thick neck, a large head with a leaf-shaped crest and an elongated body. This breed is capable of yielding about 200 medium-sized eggs per year. Another popular representative of the species are leggorns ordinary. They are distinguished by high mobility, thin neck and driven plumage. Leghorns can give up to 300 eggs a year. Their weight is slightly less than that of Russians.

Sometimes breeding chicken at home is not to get a large number of eggs. Many people keep their birds for so-called common use. In such cases, the weight of the chicken is important, and its egg production over a certain period of time. Commonly used breeds include Adler silver, Red-tailed, Poltava clay, but the most common are Plymouth. They can give up to 3 kg of pure meat and endure up to 180 eggs per year.

Breeding at home

The first two months in the chickens is the formation of the skeleton and the muscular system, the support apparatus. Therefore, breeding chicken at home for this period should be conditioned by the maintenance of homogeneity of the herd (division by size). It is important that near the end of the 10th week the birds of all groups are equalized by weight. By the middle of the 4th month the chicken should have about 1.6 kg. In the following weeks (up to the 22nd), birds need to gain 15-25 grams per day, so that there is no obesity or rickets. Sexual maturation in chickens begins with the 4th month. By this time, groups of birds can already be connected, but do it gradually so that they can calmly adapt to each other. Hat eggs can be hatched from the 17th week. However, the optimal age for this is 5 months.

Specialists say that good lighting is necessary for accelerated ripening of birds. Therefore, breeding chicken at home requires good luminescence. It is proved that for a full-fledged development of birds it is necessary, at least, that 10-12 hours the room be illuminated from all sides. Only in this way the ovaries of the chicken mature on time (before the 22nd week).

Breeding on the backyard

To maintain a large number of birds, you will need a suitable enclosure or chicken coop. In this case, it is recommended to breed chickens in the garden or at the dacha. The law does not limit the number of pets, but it should be noted that in the rules of some garden associations such a framework can be prescribed. Most often it is allowed to contain up to 40 hens. On the plot you can breed birds all year round, but for this you need to insulate the chicken coop. Chicken broilers are suitable for keeping in winter time, which quickly adapt to the cold due to their feathering and some physiological characteristics. Many summer residents bred chickens only from spring to autumn, and with the onset of frost they are killed or taken home.

For breeding on the site, small meat-egg breeds are best suited, as they lead a more active lifestyle and adapt more quickly to changing weather conditions.

Requirements for the chicken coop

When breeding poultry on a private plot, the first thing to do is to think about building and equipping a room where they can lay eggs, hide from bad weather and sleep. The main requirements for any chicken coop are dryness and illumination. It is also important that there are no drafts in the room, as young chickens are particularly susceptible to colds. Breeding chickens in the household requires considerable cost. First, it is worthwhile to equip the room wherever they live. A normal chicken coop should have a single-pitched roof, block or wooden walls and a heated ceiling. It is important that the windows are located at a height of 0.3 m from the floor and correspond to the dimensions - 25 by 30 cm. The doors should be insulated, the cracks should be closed with platbands. Bird lazy should not be too large - a square with a size of 30 to 30 cm. The content and breeding of chickens in the room also requires constant lighting, especially in cloudy weather.

As for the walking paddock, it should be spacious and have a high fence. The area of the enclosure is taken as 0.7 square meters per head. The soil in the enclosure must be leveled with a slight slope, over which water flows during precipitation. Also in the hen house and aviary you need to install special roosts - smooth poles (about 6 cm wide) at a rate of 0.25 m per head. Sockets should be located in dark corners.

Feeding chickens

Eggplant of birds directly depends on their diet. The daily menu of chicken should include flour mixtures, and grains, and vegetable feed, and mineral supplements.

To obtain a sufficient amount of vitamins and protein, birds should eat up to 180 grams of food per day. The daily ration of one hen is calculated as follows: 50 g of grain, 50 g of flour mix, 50 g of juicy forage, 10 g of protein, 10 g of hay flour, 5 g of shell, 1 g of fish oil, 0.5 g of salt. It is allowed to give 3 g of baker's yeast per head. In addition, an important place in the diet of chicken is fresh herb and vegetables. Usually poultry is fed 3-4 times a day: in the morning - grain, at lunch - a wet mash, in the evening - a dry mixture, at night - cereals.

The daily rate of water on the head is 300 ml.

Feed fat for slaughter

This procedure is recommended to do with the onset of autumn. Breeding birds should be kept separate from the rushing birds. In their constant diet is added boiled potatoes and all kinds of table waste.

For a quick result, you can make a mash on a broth of fatty meat. During complementary feeding, the bird should be eaten 3 times a day (every 6 hours). Breeding domestic chickens for slaughter requires a little patience. Within 3 weeks the birds will be ready for cutting. The day before the slaughter they are given only salted water.

Prevention of diseases

To prevent infection of poultry, keep pens and chicken coops in a constant clean. Correct feeding plays a huge role in disease prevention. Quite often breeding chicken at home implies their treatment. In order to achieve the desired effect, it is necessary to find the cause of the disease in time and to separate the infected birds from the healthy ones.

To notice the bad condition of a hen it is possible by its behavior: lethargy, lack of appetite, downed wings, closed eyes, drowsiness. The presence of infection is also indicated by a temperature of 43 degrees and above.