Raising poultry at home is a profitable and uncomplicated process. By raising chickens, the owner receives fresh eggs and organic meat at minimal cost. This is a popular option for mini-farming among owners of summer cottages and country houses.
Poultry farming is a virtually waste-free process. Feathers can be used to make down and feather products and droppings can be used as fertilizer for a garden plot. Even residual bone tissue after grinding can be added to the soil as a top dressing, which significantly increases its fertility.
The key to success lies in proper feeding and creating optimal living conditions for the birds. In practice, beginners do not know where poultry farming begins: what to feed, where to keep it, and what breeds to choose.
Step-by-step Instructions For Raising Chickens For Beginners
Raising poultry at home requires following certain steps. Completing each is mandatory because it affects the final result. Let’s consider the basic algorithm of actions:
- First of all, you need to clearly define the purpose of raising poultry: to obtain meat, eggs, or both products in average proportions. This is an important point that allows you to accurately select the breed for further breeding.
- The second most important point is the arrangement of an area for walking and a chicken coop for birds to live in. Long-term cultivation requires a warm room for year-round use.
- Preparing feed, feeders, and drinking bowls.
- Next comes the stage of purchasing meat, egg, or meat-egg breeds. It is advisable to take strong chicks that can normally eat combined feed.
These are mandatory points that will ensure the success of raising poultry.
What Breed Of Chickens To Choose For Breeding
The choice of breed depends on the main purpose of breeding. Based on this criterion, separate groups are distinguished.
Meat
The best option for obtaining rapid weight gain would be the Cornish breed or Brahma. The bird has a fairly large build, is characterized by active growth and average egg production.
Mini meat
This is a relatively universal category that is most often chosen by new poultry farmers. They have good quality meat and lay eggs well. These breeds of chickens quickly gain weight with little food consumption. They can be kept either free-range or in cages.
Egg
The following breeds have good egg production rates: Oryol, Leghorn, and Red Whitetail. When choosing such chickens, you need to immediately understand that these are relatively small birds weighing no more than 2.5 kg. Therefore, there is no need to talk about getting a large amount of meat.
Meat and eggs
The most popular option for home breeding, since you can get quite a lot of eggs and good weight gain. The best breeds: are Yerevan, Poltava, Kuchin, Wyandot, Adler, and Loman Brown. Such birds are highly resistant to disease, omnivorous, and easy to care for.
The last category is recommended for beginners since keeping such a bird requires minimal effort from the owner.
Rules For Arranging A Chicken Coop And Walking Area
The main conditions in raising poultry are order and cleanliness. Accordingly, at the stage of planning or designing a place to live, you need to take care of ease of cleaning. When keeping chickens of different ages, it is worth dividing the home into separate sections for chickens and adults.
It is advisable that the poultry room have a good ventilation system or exhaust hood. At the same time, it is important to prevent drafts. This situation can cause disease in the livestock.
As for the internal arrangement of the chicken coop, it is recommended to install drinking bowls, feeders and perches in the building. Nests are also needed, the number of which should correspond to the number of birds. It is advisable to install them in shaded areas. In the walking area or when kept on the floor, you need to correctly calculate the area: 1 m2 for no more than 5 chickens.
At night, the bird should be kept indoors, where perches are installed; each chicken needs at least 20 cm of space. It is recommended that the perches be installed at the same level. It is worth noting that when a bird is kept in a cage, it grows faster and lays eggs more often. Experts advise keeping about 5–7 individuals in one standard-sized cage.
Experienced poultry farmers know very well that egg production largely depends on light and temperature conditions. Therefore, during the cold season, the chicken coop needs to be heated. If this is not possible, it is necessary to insulate the room as much as possible. As for daylight hours, it would not be superfluous to install additional lighting.
An important factor in successful cultivation is the arrangement of a walking area. Staying in the sun will allow chickens to get enough vitamin D, which is involved in growth and development. The walking area is fenced with a chain-link mesh and covered. The canopy allows the bird to hide from precipitation and scorching sun rays.
In the open area, place a container with crushed shellfish or another source of calcium for chickens. You also need to ensure that there are no toxic substances or poisonous herbs in the bird’s reach. Experienced poultry farmers recommend installing containers with sand or ash in the yard or in the chicken coop itself. This allows the bird to “bathe”, thereby getting rid of parasites. Of course, there must be convenient feeders and drinking bowls appropriate for the age category of the animals.
Important! Before placing birds in the chicken coop, you need to thoroughly disinfect the room. Such procedures should be carried out annually before the placement of young livestock.
How To Care For Chickens After Purchase
Day-old chicks require maximum care. At first, a spacious and warm box with an area of 1 m2 per ten individuals will be suitable for young animals. To provide heating and lighting, a lamp must be installed above the chicks. It is necessary to adjust the position of the lamp so that the temperature at the bottom of the box is at least +30°C. The process allows you to replace the hen.
To simplify care, the bottom of the box should be covered with newspapers, which are changed twice a day. Chicks should always have access to food and water. It is advisable to use purchased drinking bowls and feeders, which minimize spilling and scattering. The owner must monitor the behavior of the chicks; if they gather in groups, they are cold, and because of this they can suppress each other.
After five days, the temperature in the box should be reduced to +26°C. Then every week the indicator is reduced by 3°C until +18°C is reached. After this, the chickens can be transferred to the chicken coop.
Studies have shown that it is important for a chick to peck at food in the first hours of its life. This moment is the birth of the feeding reflex, which is fixed in the brain for life. To do this, you need to pour corn grits into the feeder. Already from the second day of life, other cereals can be added to the chick’s diet: barley, semolina, wheat, as well as crushed oatmeal.
On the first day, chickens need to be fed small portions of feed every 2 hours. This prevents food from being thrown around. If babies choose only one type of cereal from the nutritional mixture, it is advisable to give it separately.
A nutritious diet should include other foods. Already from 2-3 days, it is recommended to add cottage cheese, which will provide the chick with nitrogen and calcium. The optimal amount of dairy product is 5 g per person. As for drinking, young animals should pour fresh whey or liquid kefir. Curdled milk is considered a good probiotic, which chicks always eat with pleasure.
Already on the third day, chopped greens are introduced into the diet: nettle, clover, or plantain. On the fifth day, you can add onions, which will prevent intestinal diseases. At the end of the first week of life, the mash can be prepared using yogurt or broth. The chicks are given only fresh mixture, which must be thrown away an hour after preparation. In the first week of life, it is recommended that chicks be given a weak solution of potassium permanganate twice. Feeders should also be rinsed periodically with the same liquid.
Already at a week of age, you need to give grain mixtures, which are prepared from equal portions of wheat, barley, oatmeal, and corn. Additives can include boiled porridge, dairy products, and herbs. The frequency of feeding is reduced – 4-5 times a day. At the age of one month, the chicks are released outside, where greens become the main diet. During this same period, the transition to whole grains begins.
Caring for small chicks is a rather labor-intensive and attentive process. The task can be significantly simplified by using ready-made feed. There are a huge number of compositions for any age category.
How And What To Feed Adult Chickens?
In the classic version, a feeder for adult birds should have three compartments for dry food, mash and mineral supplements. To consistently receive eggs, you need to provide a balanced diet:
- corn – 40%;
- barley flour – 20%;
- sunflower cake – 10%;
- meat and bone and fish meal – 10%;
- wheat bran – 8%;
- table salt and mineral supplements – 5%;
- feed yeast – 3%.
All these components should be included in the diet of chickens. Of course, such needs of poultry at home can only be met by using high-quality feed.
Advantages Of Feed For Chickens
All veterinarians recommend the use of commercial combination food. It is used in poultry factories and farms. At home, poultry feed provides a number of advantages:
- Balance. Chickens receive the optimal amount of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients necessary for normal growth and development.
- Time. The owner does not need to purchase different cereals, grind them, and prepare mixtures for feeding.
- Diversity. It is possible to choose the optimal composition for any age category and breed.
- Simplicity. There is no need to create sectional feeders or separate ingredients – the feed can be poured into a single container.
- Storage. Dry food has a long shelf life. It is enough to place them in a dry room.
