Recently, many people living outside the city are thinking about creating their own business in the agricultural sector.
As a rule, they stop their attention on keeping chickens of egg-laying breeds, since with their help you can get a good steady income.
However, for successful business a breeder must know how to keep laying hens so that they bring maximum monetary benefits. In this article, we just sort it out.
Poultry house construction
The first step in the development of this profitable business is the construction of the house.
Immediately you need to decide how the population of hens will be kept.
The fact is that some breeds of chickens prefer half-free living conditions, therefore cages will not be suitable for them. There are also unpretentious breeds that can live in any conditions.
After the owner of the future home farm determines the breed, you can proceed to direct construction.
Cages or cages for livestock chickens can be made independently, and can be purchased in specialized stores.
The main requirement for each cell is its area. It should be spacious enough so that the bird can stand up and move around it whenever it wants.
If the birds are kept in semi-free conditions, the farm owner will be able to do without cages. For this you need to make comfortable perches and nests for chickens, where they will lay eggs.
It is very important to keep all these parts of the chicken coop clean, since pathogens are often found in a dirty room. They can adversely affect the health of the hens.
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In addition, in the house must be observed the correct temperature. The optimum conditions of existence is a temperature of + 20 ° C and moderate humidity.
In order for the temperature not to fall too much, the coop needs to be further warmed. To do this, special frames are hung on its windows, and a thick layer of bedding consisting of hay and peat is put on the floor.
This is quite a primitive, but effective way of warming. It allows you to protect the birds from the cold without spending money. However, if the farmer has extra money, then it is better to carry out heating or build a stove in the house.
Also do not forget that there must be normal ventilation in the hen house. Laying hens that are constantly kept in stale air can be affected by various respiratory diseases.
Because of this, every day the coop needs to be aired. For these purposes, a complex ventilation system is being developed or window openings are being created. They are manually opened by the farm owner at the time it is needed.
Buying chickens to create a parent flock
Experts advise to form the future parent flock of young hens that have not yet begun to nest.
For these purposes, hens are perfectly suited for 5-6 months of age. However, it is necessary to take into account the fact that chickens of different breeds at different times begin to lay eggs.
Among the wide variety of laying hens, the breeder must select only the best individuals. With their help, it will be possible to create a good parental nucleus for viable and productive offspring.
In a healthy laying hen, the comb is always bright red, large and elastic.. It should be no any plaque, and it should not be cold.
The distance between the pubic bones should not be less than the thickness of 4 fingers (approximately 6 cm). The ends of these bones must be elastic. Between the end of the keel and the pubic bones can fit a human palm (about 9 cm).
The cloaca of ideal layers is always wet, big and soft.. Fly feathers of the 1st order do not shed.
All exposed parts of the body - cloaca, legs, face, skin around the eyes and metatarsus should not have a painful yellowish tint. The length of the oviduct is usually 60-70 cm, but this figure cannot be determined without killing the bird.
Creating an optimal microclimate
All chickens of egg breeds should be kept in conditions that allow to give the maximum possible number of eggs.
It is important for beginning breeders to understand that in some cases the achievement of optimal microclimate conditions is almost impossible without the use of special equipment.
But this does not mean that it is useless to strive for the ideal. On the contrary, some breeds of chickens exhibit better egg productivity in rural conditions than on a large chicken farm.
The temperature in the house can vary from 16 to 18 ° C. In this case, the relative humidity of the air in no case should not exceed 70%.
Also, it should not be too low, since dry air has a negative effect on the health of the hens. The speed of air movement in the cold season can vary from 0.2 to 0.6 m / s, and in the warm season - up to 1 m / s.
During the constant keeping of laying hens in an enclosed space, it is necessary to monitor the concentration of hydrogen sulfide - it should not exceed 5 mg / cu. m, ammonia - not more than 15 mg / cu. m, carbon monoxide - not more than 0.2%.
Air ventilation in enclosed areas should be well established, otherwise the birds will feel discomfort during such maintenance.
Organization of the daily routine
No breed of egg-laying chickens will be well worn without observing the correct daily routine.
In practice, it has been proven that early ascents are best for birds - at about 6:00. Immediately after climbing in the henhouse, they turn on the light or send the hens to the paddock, but in no case feed them.
Breakfast for birds is brought at 9:00 and on average it should last 40 min.. During this time, all feeders must be empty. In any case, the remnants of feed must be removed so that different microorganisms do not start reproduction in them.
Lunch for layers is organized at 15:00. It can last an hour and a half, after which the livestock owner must carefully remove the litter from the litter and yard. At 21:00 the light in the henhouse is extinguished or the birds are driven to roost.
Feeding of hens
Chickens of egg breeds are usually fed with two types of feed: dry and wet. In the case of a dry type of feed, ready-made combined feeds are used.
With their help, laying hens are fed only twice a day. In the first year of productivity, when the chicken's body continues to grow, birds need to be fed high protein foods.
As a rule, such food has a high calorie content, so the birds on it grow quickly.
The composition of any feed can include both animal products and their artificial counterparts. However, it is necessary to additionally introduce useful mineral substances into each mixed feed, allowing the hen to quickly form egg shells.
As a rule, premixes are used as feed additives. They are able to increase the digestibility of nutrients by 15-20%. At the same time, all toxic and toxic substances that could be the cause of a dangerous disease are well removed from the body of the chicken.
In no case should not use premix as the main feed. Chicken can become seriously ill or die from overdosing with such feed, so they are used only as an additive to factory feed.
You also need to understand that laying hens are more suitable crushed feed than whole. The fact is that crushed grain is better absorbed in the avian organism. On average, 120 g of feed per day is spent on each laying hen of an egg breed.
As for the wet type of feeding, in this case, grain masks are used. Chickens should receive them from 3 to 4 times a day. The serving volume is calculated in such a way that an adult bird can peck at it in half an hour.
If the food remains, it means that the bird eats too much and cannot overpower the rest. In this case, the amount of feed should be reduced.
All mash are additionally moistened with boiled water, fish or meat broth, skimmed or whey.
In the morning, the birds should receive a third of the daily feed rate, in the afternoon it should be fed wet mash containing green ingredients, and before going to bed the hens receive only grain feed.
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The mash must always be crumbly, as more sticky foods can cause blockage and inflammation of the goiter. In addition, they stick to the legs and plumage of the bird, making them more dirty.
Breeding of egg breeds
Typically, these breeds of chickens have poorly developed maternal instinct, therefore, for their successful breeding the farmer will have to buy an incubator.
The entire process of incubation is conventionally divided into 3 main periods: the first (lasts from 1 to 11 days), the second (lasts from 12 to 18 days) and the third (lasts from 19 to 21 days).
The optimal temperature for the first period is 38 ° C at 60% air humidity.. For the second period, the temperature of 37.4 ° C at 55% humidity is well suited, and for the third period - 37 ° C and 70% humidity.
Do not forget that fresh air must always get into the incubator. It will help embryos to develop properly, not choking in the fumes.
The ideal is the concentration of oxygen in 21%, carbon dioxide - not more than 0.12%. Every hour trays with eggs must be rotated 45 ° so that the embryo does not stick to one surface of the egg. On average, the entire incubation process takes 3 weeks.
Selection of suitable chicks
Unfortunately, not all raised chickens are suitable for advantageous housing and breeding of chickens of egg breeds.
Conventionally, all day-old chicks are divided into the first and second categories. The first is a very active young. He immediately reacts to any noise in the room.
Chickens have a round belly, closed umbilical cord, soft and shiny down, rounded and slightly bulging eyes.
The second category of day-old chicks includes active chickens with an enlarged abdomen and dull down. Also, they may not dry out a hematical clot, but in no case should its diameter exceed 2 mm.
It is necessary to completely reject chicks with a saggy belly., not drying down and with poor response to any noise.
Often, such chickens have wings that hang too much, the umbilical cord bleeds, and the total body weight does not exceed 30 g. It is better to kill this young immediately, as it is likely to die at an early stage of development.
Conclusion
The maintenance and breeding of egg breeds of chickens is not an easy task for a novice farmer.
To keep the hens, it is necessary to equip a warm and dry poultry house, purchase high-quality compound feed, and also pick up healthy and active individuals to create the core of the parent flock. Only after these conditions are fulfilled can one be sure of the viability of one's livestock.
