Forage preparation. Feeding Chickens How to Preserve Cabbage Leaves for Chickens

Vitamin hay made from legumes, cereals, wild herbs (young nettle, quinoa, herbs) is an excellent food in winter. To obtain high-quality hay, grass cut before flowering should be dried quickly and evenly. It is better to dry cut grass in the shade, under a canopy, on hangers or in loose windrows with a layer of at least 40-50 cm, keeping the leaves as the most nutritious part. Drying of hay is completed when it begins to rustle. Hay should be stored in a dry, dark place (good in the attic of poultry houses), and chopped or ground before feeding and mixed with other feeds.

Pine and spruce needles are useful to feed the bird in the winter. To obtain clean needles in a warm, dry, dark room, racks made of coarse mesh (fishing or metal) are installed, spruce or pine spruce branches are laid on them and left for 2-3 days. Dried needles crumble, and their yield is approximately 20-30% of the initial mass of spruce branches. The resulting mass must be passed through a meat grinder, and then the bird eats it willingly, especially when mixed with grain flour feed. Chopped needles should be fed to the bird immediately after cooking, as vitamins are quickly destroyed in it.

For feeding adult chickens, based on 1 head, 6-10 g of needles are injected into a wet mash once a day, and 3% into a dry mixture of spruce and pine flour. Young growth is accustomed to eating needles gradually from 10-15 days of age. When feeding needles, a bird has good pigmentation of the legs and beak, egg production increases, and the biological quality of eggs improves.

Ensiling is one of the most widely used methods of conservation and long-term storage of fresh herbs and other vitamin feeds. For the preparation of silage, you can use cereal meadow herbs, cabbage, beetroot, carrot leaves, corn and other plants. Legumes (alfalfa, clover, broad beans), as well as nettles, are poorly ensiled, and plants rich in carbohydrates (red carrots, sugar beets, cereals, etc.) are added to improve their conservation. Ensiling should be carried out as quickly as possible, avoiding spoilage of green fodder.

The quality of the silage depends on the stage of development of the plants being ensiled and their moisture content. Cereal grasses are ensiled at the beginning of heading, legumes - at the stage of budding, green mass of corn - throwing out the panicle, and cobs - at the onset of milky-wax ripeness.

Silage mass, crushed to 0.5-1 cm, is placed in tubs, barrels, trenches, pits. An indispensable condition for obtaining good quality silage is careful tamping of the ensiled mass, followed by sealing of the container so that air does not enter there. 2-3% salt (by weight) can be added to the silage mass. Tubs and barrels, closed with lids and smeared with clay, are stored in a cool place at a temperature of 1-3 ° C,

Combined silage, which has a high nutritional value and is a good source of carbohydrates, organic acids, water-soluble vitamins, and carotene, is of great value for feeding poultry in household plots. Combined silage can be prepared according to several recipes (by weight, %):

1) steamed potatoes - 30, red carrots with tops - 30, cabbage leaves - 40;
2) meadow grass forbs - 40, aftermath of clover - 20, steamed potatoes - 40;
3) fodder beets with tops - 30, carrots with tops - 50, hay flour from legumes - 20.

In 1-1.5 months after laying, the silage matures, and it can be fed to the bird separately or mixed with other feeds. To deoxidize the silage, chalk is added at the rate of 50-70 g per 1 kg of silage mass.

The quality of silage can be judged by its color and smell: the more similar it is to the original raw material, the better it is; The smell of good silage should be slightly sour but pleasant.

Chickens are fed silage at the rate of 40-50 g per head per day, young animals begin to be fed silage from the age of 20 in the amount of 5-7 g per head per day. With an increase in the age of young animals, the norms of feeding silage are increased, bringing chickens up to 15 g by the age of 60 days, followed by an increase and bringing adult chickens to the norm.

Excellent food for poultry - pond vegetation - duckweed, elodea, pondweed, salvinia, which contain various vitamins, minerals, trace elements, protein and other biologically active substances. Aquatic vegetation can be fed in wet mash, as well as in pure form. When harvesting for the winter, aquatic vegetation is crushed, dried in a barn, under a canopy or in the shade.

For the winter, it is advisable to prepare deciduous hay for poultry in the form of brooms from linden, birch, poplar, aspen, alder, yellow acacia, etc. The leaves of these trees are rich in proteins, vitamins and do not contain astringents harmful to the bird's body. The quality of the feed will be better if the branches are harvested before the start of leaf fall, for which well-leafed branches not more than 1 cm thick, not affected by pests, are cut off and tied into loose brooms. They are hung in the attic or in the shade under a canopy, after drying, the brooms are folded in a dry, preferably dark room, since the carotene contained in the leaves is destroyed in the light. In winter, brooms are hung in the house at such a height that the bird can get them and peck. They are first dipped in warm water, while the leaves become soft, and the bird willingly eats them.

An adult bird in wet mash can be fed seeds of many weed meadow grasses and woody plants (quinoa, horse sorrel, sweet clover, nettle, mouse pea, etc.) in various forms. They can partially replace grain feed. They are fed in ground form at the rate of 7-10 g per head per day. In the autumn-winter period, acorns, horse chestnut fruits, and beech nuts can also be used as food for chickens. As they mature, acorns are harvested and harvested for future use, dried well and stacked in a dark, dry room. Before feeding, they are boiled, crushed and added to wet mash at the rate of 10-15 g per adult chicken per day. Horse chestnut fruits are used in a similar way.

A good vitamin feed is mature rowan berries, which contain 2 times more carotene than carrots. They are fed to chickens in the autumn-winter period at the rate of 5-7 g per head per day.

The annual feed requirement for chickens in kilograms per head is shown in Table. 3.

When harvesting silage, the annual requirement is determined based on the norm of 12-15 kg per head, given that the mass of 1 m3 of silage is 700-750 kg.

If you have any questions for me then click on the chicken.

Significantly different from the summer. In summer, most of the food is grain, succulent food (root crops and tubers) and greens.

In winter, when feeding chickens the diet includes grain, mash and vitamin feed harvested in the summer.

Corn

It is better to give the grain mixture in the evening feeding so that it is digested and well absorbed during sleep. In winter, it is better to germinate the grain. During germination, the biochemical composition of the grain changes and enrichment with B vitamins occurs. Sprouted grain can be given to birds at any age; it is especially useful for young people.

Any grain can be used for sprouting. First, it is soaked for 10-12 hours, then it is poured into a tray and a little humidity is maintained. Hydroponics can also be used for germination.

Mixers

Mixers in winter are prepared from a mixture of different grains, boiled potatoes, boiled root crops and chopped hay. Give mash in the morning and afternoon feeding.

Hay

Hay is harvested in late summer or autumn. Many grasses are used for hay, but it is best to use young nettles and clover.

In order for vitamins to remain in the dried grass, it must be dried in the shade. It is best to use artificial drying. Hay is given to chickens as part of a mash and in finely chopped form.

Needles

Spruce and pine needles are rich in vitamin. Spruce and pine shoots are harvested from November to March. Brooms from spruce paws can be hung in a chicken coop, or you can give them crushed with mixers.

Collected needles can be stored until late spring. To do this, the shoots are laid out on compacted snow with a layer of half a meter, covered with snow from above. On top again a layer of needles, then snow, etc.

Silage

AT it is very useful to use a silo. Silage is made from grass and vegetable tops. Substandard watermelons can also be added to the ensiled mass. To speed up ensiling, a small amount of beets and carrots are added to the mass.

Chickens eat combined silage with great pleasure. Silage is stored in barrels or tubs in a cool place. When feeding silage, chickens must be given chalk.

Protein-vitamin paste

Protein-vitamin paste is also a valuable product in winter feeding. For its preparation, fresh cut grass is poured with water (proportions 1: 2). Then the water is drained.

The liquid obtained after squeezing the grass is heated to 800C. A curd mass forms on top. It needs to be taken off and removed. Salt can be used as a preservative for pasta. Vitamin paste can be given up to 10 g per 1 chicken.

Berries of mountain ash and hawthorn

Berries are harvested in the first frosts. They store well in a cool, dark place. You can give them fresh with mash or separately. This is a valuable productfeeding chickens in winter.

aquatic plants

Chickens readily eat dried aquatic plants. For drying, you can use elodea, duckweed and pondweed, and give them in winter in their pure form.

chestnuts and acorns

As a vitamin supplement infeeding chickens in winteradd dried and chopped acorns and chestnuts. Before drying, they are soaked for several days in cold water to get rid of bitterness.

Mineral Supplements

Mineral supplements in winter are used in the same way as in summer. Bone and fish meal, crushed shells are added to the mixers. In the chicken coop, there should always be a feeder with shell rock, chalk and gravel.

compound feed

Throughout the winter, chickens can be fed complete feed. But in small personal farms, they usually prefer combined feeding. Not only for economic reasons, but also because of the taste of chicken eggs and meat.

Mode feeding chickens in winter remains the same as in summer: 3 times a day.

Chickens - birds are not very demanding in feeding. Each owner is interested in the fact that the feathered economy grows healthy and resistant to diseases and climatic changes and does not reduce egg production at any time of the year.

Therefore, in addition to cereals and a variety of animal feed, chickens should have greens in their diet. In the summer, they themselves will find foods rich in proteins and vitamins in the ground. In the autumn-winter season, green mass must be added to the main diet.

The most suitable product, saturated not only with vitamins, but also with proteins, carbohydrates and a whole range of macro- and microelements, so necessary for both adult laying hens and chickens, is the common nettle, which grows everywhere. Therefore, in order to ensure a balanced diet for feathered pets, it is necessary to harvest nettles for the winter for chickens in a timely manner.

How to give nettle to chickens

Useful properties of nettle

What is the difference between this species and other representatives of the flora? The first thing that distinguishes nettle from the diversity of the plant world is its huge benefit for a rich, balanced feeding of birds. It contains many minerals, carbohydrates and proteins, so necessary for both laying hens and chickens. Due to their presence in the plant, adults, and especially young ones, receive energy and build up mass much faster. Calcium, potassium and phosphorus are involved in the formation of eggs and the skeleton of a bird. Iodine and iron strengthen the immune system and promote growth. You can harvest and use the plant all year round for nothing. This opportunity is successfully used by farmers and rural residents who breed birds.

The benefits are invaluable, there is no harm from the use of nettles. In spring and summer, you can feed fresh herbs of this grass in as much quantity as the birds are able to eat. There will be no harm from this. In addition, chickens only eat leaves in the amount that they need. The stems that remain can then be dried and ground into herbal flour.

Feeding chickens with fresh nettles

Nettle is a versatile plant. It can be given to birds fresh, dried, steamed and in granules. This is one of the few herbs that are allowed to feed chickens from birth. Nettle is especially useful for laying hens. The most optimal period for its use is the period from the beginning of growth to the first color. Considering that in rural areas nettles can be found both in the field, and under the fence, and at the edge of the forest, then there are no difficulties in feeding chickens with greenery. Therefore, in spring and summer, farmers most often transfer birds to pasture.

Nettle is especially useful for klush because fresh it retains a lot of protein, carotene, fiber, vitamins A, E, B2 and others. Those chickens that receive a sufficient amount of fresh green mass are distinguished by high egg production. But if it is not possible to freely graze the flock, then you need to feed the nettle, cutting off and giving the leaves. This is not always convenient (after all, the nettle burns), so it is better to tie the branches into bundles and give them in this form. The remaining stems can then be processed (dried, ground into powder or turned into granules). In winter, they will be a good help in feeding birds. But the value of dried nettles will decrease slightly compared to fresh herbs.

dried nettle

Rules for feeding chickens with nettles

How to give nettle to chickens, you need to know not only livestock specialists, but also amateur poultry farmers. If in warm time the birds themselves find green chicken food for themselves, then in autumn and especially in winter it is necessary to maintain a balance in the diet, replenish and enrich it with green mass additives from nettles and other useful herbs.

Should nettles be boiled before feeding chickens? This should not be done, because after heat treatment a large number of important nutrients will be lost. It is better not to think of a nettle vitamin cocktail for the feathered kingdom. You need to grind fresh leaves and stems and add the mass to the mash. To keep a sufficient amount of vitamins and other valuable substances, mix greens with warm, not hot foods.

Important! In winter, a similar product is prepared from dried nettle in the same way, that is, without brewing. Moreover, dry nettle has already lost some of its valuable properties after processing.

Another important question arises for business executives: “how to properly organize poultry nutrition in the cold season so that the chickens do not stop laying?”

In order not to reduce the productivity of laying hens, you need to switch to a winter diet:

• increase the number of feedings up to three times a day;
• given that in cold weather the body needs twice as much energy for heating and for the formation and production of eggs, evenly distribute food;
• give mixed and juicy food in the morning and at lunchtime, and dry food in the evening;
• provide the chickens with warm water (for this you will have to try and change it more than once a day);
• diversify the diet due to green blanks (especially from nettles).

Laying hens

Harvesting nettles for the winter

Every farmer knows how to prepare nettles for the winter for chickens. The main task is not only in the quantity of forage, but also in quality. Harvesting nettles should begin long before they bloom. This is necessary in order to preserve a greater number of valuable and useful substances in the product.

There are several ways to prepare a dry nettle supplement.

The first is the most common and simple. During the growing season (before flowering), nettles are mowed, dried well and ground into a fine powder - herbal flour. This additive is the highest quality, because during the natural drying process, it loses only 5% of its beneficial properties. Such a product does not lose its value all year round.

Important! If the humidity in the room where dry food is stored is higher than normal, nettles can not only lose all the nutrients, but even become dangerous to eat. Therefore, only proper storage can make the supplement as valuable and useful as possible.

For the second method of harvesting nettles for the winter, a special machine is required - a granulator. Nettles are pre-plucked, thoroughly dried, and granules are made on special equipment. In winter, they are added to a mash steamed with broth and fed to chickens. Like nettle flour, the granular product is also stored in a dry state. If moisture gets on the granules, they can mold and deteriorate. Such feed may become unsuitable for birds.

The most proven way to harvest nettles for the winter is to dry the bushes of the plant, tied in bunches of 500 grams. It is necessary to withstand them in a suspended form in a draft. The place should be dark, poorly accessible to sunlight. Such sheaves are stored in boxes or bags in a dry, ventilated place.

Dry in bunches

To increase egg production, laying hens should be given, along with nettle leaves, its boiled seeds. This applies not only to chickens of any breed, whether they are meat broilers or Russian crested laying hens, but also to birds of any breed.

There is one little secret on how to properly give nettles to laying hens for their best productivity. Do not feed chickens the same food for a long time. It is necessary to periodically alternate nettles with herbs such as dandelion, plantain, celandine, dill or alfalfa. In winter, you can combine a dry herbal supplement with products of animal origin: dairy (backwash, cottage cheese), meat and bone meal, fish products, and also some root crops. Carrots are especially useful for laying hens, which contain a lot of carotene and vitamin A. The use of a mixture of carrots with dry nettles will increase the egg production of laying hens, and their egg yolks will be enriched with vitamin A, which is very useful for people.

There is another secret on how to use nettle as food for chickens. In summer, birds do not need to spend a lot of energy for heating. But during this period they move more and rush more actively. This means that their food should be light, consisting mostly of plant products. Nettle in this period should come first. In winter, when chickens are less mobile, they do not get food on their own, their diet should contain more high-calorie foods. And if in the summer season it was necessary to include fresh nettle 60 g or 20 g dry flour in the daily menu, then in winter it is halved. Some poultry farmers feed egg breed hens with earthworms. This also increases the percentage of laying eggs.

At home, it is not difficult to grow birds, both meat breeds and laying hens. The main thing is to follow the rules of feeding, not to exceed or underestimate the required norms and balance their diet, in accordance with all parameters and factors: breed, age, season, etc. Subject to these requirements and recommendations, poultry farmers can expect positive results from their pets.

Hello to all DIY lovers!

Owners who keep various poultry (chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, etc.) in their backyard know that winter is a very harsh time for poultry.

Moreover, especially in winter, poultry needs vitamins. At the same time, there is a very simple (and absolutely free) way to provide the bird with vitamins by feeding it dried herbal brooms harvested since the summer.

And, perhaps, the most valuable in terms of vitamin content are dried nettle brooms. For example, our chickens peck nettle brooms with great pleasure in winter.

However, such brooms need quite a lot. I must say that about a dozen chickens (like ours) easily peck a broom of 15-20 nettles in two days. Given that our winter lasts almost five months (since November and March can actually be considered winter months), then for the above number of chickens for the winter, it is necessary to prepare approximately 70-80 nettle brooms.

This is quite a large number. Although there is usually nothing complicated in harvesting brooms, there are no problems with raw materials either, due to the fact that nettle grows everywhere in large quantities.

Nevertheless, since the amount of work is quite large, since it is necessary to cut nettles throughout the summer and early autumn, tie them into brooms and dry them, and then put them in a shed in the attic, I am constantly trying to simplify and facilitate this process.

As a result, in previous years, I tried to come up with some devices for the convenience of attaching brooms, but in the end I settled on the simplest method, namely, tying bunches of nettles with rope ties and hanging them on carnations from the ceiling of the shed for drying.

However, this method has a significant drawback, which is that during the drying process, the nettle stalks dry out very much and decrease in volume, as a result of which even a very tightly tightened knot weakens, and the nettle broom can simply slip out of the knot, fall and crumble.

That is why this year I decided to try using rubber bands instead of ropes.

Such elastic bands (they are also called elastic bands for banknotes) are sold in almost all stationery stores and are quite inexpensive. They are good because they can be used in everyday life for many purposes, for example, they are very suitable for closing jam jars with paper lids.

And so I decided to try using these elastic bands for tying nettle brooms before drying, because due to their elasticity and resilience, they should shrink as the nettle stalks dry out and thus firmly hold the nettle bunch.

However, another problem arose here, but how to hang bundles of nettles?
Therefore, I decided to make special wire hooks for this purpose.

For the manufacture of hooks, I needed pieces of aluminum wire with a diameter of 2 mm and a length of about 20 cm, as well as a hammer, pliers and an anvil.

First, align the pieces of wire on the anvil.

Then you need to make hooks from these segments. I decided to do this operation not with pliers, but by fixing a small steel conical rod in a vice, using it as a mandrel for making hooks.

This method is better because in the process of making hooks on a mandrel with a hammer, work hardening occurs, that is, the surface hardening of the material and the hooks become stronger and more elastic.
The top of the hook can be bent into a ring for easy hanging.

And on the other hand, you can form a hook.

And this is how I got the hook.

And here, I have already made several of these hooks.

You can make one and a half to two dozen such hooks.
Well, now it's time to try out this method of hanging nettle brooms.

We collect pre-cut nettles in a bundle and put on an elastic band folded into three or four rings.

Then we stick a hook and hang it.

And now there are several brooms suspended in this way.

It turned out that this method is really simple and quite convenient. However, practice has revealed one drawback of this method. It turned out that it was very inconvenient to fold the elastic into three rings and put it on nettle stalks in thick rubber gloves. However, this operation cannot be done without gloves, since all hands can be stained.

Therefore, I decided to make a special device - a mandrel, which would make it easier and easier to put the elastic band on a bunch of nettle stems.

I made such a mandrel from a small plastic bottle of garlic sauce, cutting off part of the neck with a cork from it, for which I needed scissors, a stationery knife and sandpaper.

I cut the neck cut evenly with scissors and carefully processed it with fine sandpaper.

This mandrel works as follows.
First, we put an elastic band on it, folding it into three rings.

We put on the elastic band to the very edge of the cut.

Then we put a few more elastic bands on our mandrel, also shifting them to the first elastic band. Thus, five to seven rubber bands can fit on the mandrel.

Then, with the thumb and forefinger of the other hand (without gloves), we push the gum closest to the edge of the mandrel. She jumps off and finds herself on a bunch of nettle stalks.

Now we remove the mandrel from the stems of the broom and our gum is right in the right place so that it does not even need to be corrected.

Everything is very fast and simple. It remains only to stick a hook into this broom and hang it on a carnation for drying.
Similarly, they are put on nettle brooms and other elastic bands from the mandrel. Only in this case, each time you need to shift the remaining gum on the mandrel closer to the edge. After the rubber bands on the mandrel run out, you can “charge” it again with new rubber bands.

In general, it turned out that thanks to such a mandrel, putting rubber bands on nettle brooms is quite simple, easy and fast.

So if someone has a need to prepare dried nettle brooms for poultry, you can use this method.

And that's all for now and have a great summer time!

Nutrition paradox: the smaller the bird, the more it requires food. Scientists cannot explain this strange pattern. It seems that the stomach is small, but they eat everything in a row, not knowing the norm. Especially in winter. And the successful breeding of poultry depends on the feeding regime..

In winter, adult birds should be fed 2 times a day - in the morning and in the evening. In the morning you need to give soft and warm food, in the evening - dry grain. Compliance with this rule is very important, since in winter there are short days and long nights. During the night sitting on perches, birds that have eaten hard grain feel less the influence of frost, as the activity of the digestive organs continues. In the intervals between morning and evening feedings, you can give the birds to peck cabbage or greens, hanging it on the walls or hanging it from the ceiling of the house so that the food can be reached. Greens do not contribute to obesity, but birds peck at it with great pleasure.

In the warm season, feeding can be done according to various modes. Where birds use spacious, vegetated paddocks, it is enough to feed them once a day - in the morning. For a short night they will not get hungry.

In autumn, when the birds can feed on stubble grains, there is no need to feed them. Where there are no spacious walking areas, you need to feed the birds more often than in winter - 3 times a day.

Chickens should be fed as often as possible: in the first days of life - 5-6 times a day. Then, until 3-W-weekly age - 3-W times a day. As they grow, depending on whether the chickens have the opportunity to get their own part of the food, the number of feedings is determined.

Birds should be given as much food as they need to be healthy and productive. Lack of food weakens the body and reduces productivity, and its excess leads to obesity and reduced productivity. Determination of the required portion of food depends on the experience and observation of the owner. Experienced poultry farmers advise giving so much food so that the birds do not eat their fill and greedily take up food in the next cottage. If they are accepted for food sluggishly, being quite healthy, the portion should be reduced.

Depending on the properties of the food, it should be given in more or less quantity. Birds eat less dry grain than soft food, vegetables and herbs. It is impossible to compare the supply of grain feed and, for example, bran mixed with water. The latter will require much more to deliver a small amount of nutrients to the bird.

Great importance is attached to the diversity of food. It is better to give one or two types of grain as the main feed, diversifying it with soft food to another cottage, and also feed vegetables, herbs, and meat additionally.

Chickens require a much more varied diet. In the first days of life, they should be fed with animals and soft food, while giving one or two types of grain. As the grain grows, the portions of the grain are increased, and the animal feed is reduced. Gradually, the number of feed components is reduced, and the bird is content with those few of its species to which it has become most accustomed in recent times.

Chickens should be fed according to a strictly established daily routine, at the same hours. If the routine is disturbed, the chickens behave restlessly; they lose weight and rush worse.

Specialists make up daily rations for feeding birds.

But for general-purpose chickens, the standard diet needs to be slightly changed, namely:

1) increase the amount of grain flour feed by 16-18 g;

2) increase the number of root crops or juicy greens by 15-20 g.

For pullets, the nutritional norms (from autumn to March) should be increased by 15%, as their body continues to develop.

Feed quality and bird health

With a lack of nutrients, animals grow slowly, gain weight poorly, their egg production and appetite decrease. With a lack of amino acids and hormones, typical symptoms appear, such as a violation of the normal formation of the egg shell, poor or abnormal feathering, or rickets. The quantity and quality of food affects the color of the yolk. With intensive maintenance and high egg production, the color of the yolk is light if there were no yellow or red components in the feed. These are, for example, corn or green grass flour, peppers and other brightly colored vegetables. Consumers in Germany prefer yellow-colored yolks, believing that yellow-colored yolks also give the egg good taste and nutritional value. The situation is similar with brown shells - brown is more pleasant for the eye.

Carotene affects the color of the shell. The taste and smell of an egg depends not so much on the composition of the feed, but on external conditions, such as storage and processing of products. Thus, careless handling of an egg (for example, storage together with other foods that have a pungent odor) leads to the fact that it acquires a bad taste.

Chicken Feeding Technique

Chickens are usually fed with one type of food or a combination. During feeding with monokorm, no additives are provided. Combined feeding provides additional food in the form of grains.

Feeding with one type of food.

This type of feeding is convenient, because birds always have this food at their disposal in automatic feeders, and the poultry breeder does not need to follow a feeding regimen. It is necessary to constantly ensure that the troughs are only 1 / 3 full, or at least half full, otherwise a lot of food will rot. Expensive ready-made food in the form of flour cannot be found in the flooring, and it disappears. With a loss of only 5 g of this feed per year for each hen, the total loss will be 1.5-2 kg of feed.

Combined feeding.

With this type of feeding, it is recommended to use industrial feed from cereals. Accurate feed dosing is important, and this means more time dependency on the host. It is desirable that the distribution of feed be carried out at the same time, preferably in the evening. Approximately 50 g per hen is provided per day with free access to laying hen meal (complementary feed for hens).

Attention should be paid to ensure that chickens receive a sufficient amount of protein feed, which is necessary for good egg production; a certain amount of food should be freely available. Grain should be poured only in the amount indicated above. We advise you to weigh a portion of the grain once, then it will be easier to pour it for the whole day.

With too much grain in the feed, chickens quickly get fat and reduce egg production. When keeping animals with walking, it must be remembered that the food that the birds are looking for is only additional food and is not of great importance.

Chickens quickly get used to the evening serving of grain. If the grain is scattered in a thin layer on the floor, the chickens, raking the flooring, make it loose and soft, it remains dry. Another advantage of evening feeding is that the hens go to bed with a full crop and the digestive apparatus is active all night.

Basic feed for chickens

Poultry feeds mainly on grain. In addition, she eats various herbs and their seeds, leaves of many trees and shrubs, vegetables, berries, fruits of many plants, as well as worms, slugs, insects and their larvae, frogs, meat, fish, crushed bones.

In the diet of poultry, depending on the species and age, grain ranges from 60 to 75%. It is easily absorbed both as a whole and in crushed form. It should be noted that there is no need to give the bird carefully processed grain, winnowed and cleaned. The husk of the grains contains a significant part of the minerals necessary for the formation of the skeleton and feathers. Therefore, a bird in the villages can exist without getting anything but bran, buckwheat husks and oatmeal chaff, scalded with boiling water and occasionally flavored with rye flour. There are many seeds of weeds in the unweathered grain, and the bird eats it more willingly. It goes without saying that the grain feed must be of good quality, i.e. not rotten, spoiled, not burnt, etc.

Influence of feed on product quality

Feeds such as millet, oats, barley contribute to the growth of meat, increase egg production, and wheat, corn and buckwheat promote fat deposition. The former are more suitable in the warm season, the latter - in the cold. If, for example, chickens kept warm are fed both kinds of food, they will peck mainly millet, but in a cold room the same chickens will give preference to wheat, as a more warming food.

Greens, vegetables, berries, etc. do not have special nutritional properties, but are useful as a digestive stimulant for birds and as a medicine.

Animal food is more nutritious, but it is also impossible to keep a bird on it, as well as on greenery alone. Animal feed is a good help in feeding. In the warm season, poultry walking in the open finds animal food for itself, but in winter it is useful to introduce meat from domestic animals or waste obtained during their slaughter into its diet. The meat is boiled, cut into small pieces and given to the birds 2-3 times a week in the amount of 30-40 g per head. If you give it more often and more, the birds stop eating this food. Given in small quantities, meat maintains energy and stimulates the sexual activity of birds, and therefore affects their egg productivity.

Crushed raw bones are also animal feed. They significantly affect the laying of eggs, contribute to the preservation of the health and vitality of the bird. In addition, eggs from hens fed with crushed bones will almost all be fertilized and produce the strongest chicks.

Fish, like meat, contributes to increased egg laying. It is useful for molting hens and chickens, enhances the growth of their feathers and stimulates the activity of the body.

It is necessary to give fish to chickens or chickens, boned, boiled or fried, crushed or crushed, mixed with feed.

Certain types of feed products specifically affect the quality of poultry products. For example, fish imparts an unpleasant taste to eggs and meat. If you constantly introduce onions into the diet of chickens, then the taste of onions appears in the eggs.

The meat and eggs of chickens, constantly looking for food near fallen needles, acquire a bitter taste. Some substances act excitingly on the nervous system of the bird. These include ginger, mustard, nettle and hempseed. They are sometimes used to stimulate egg laying.

It is also known that the same feed, but in different forms, affects the bird differently. Oats, barley, millet, given in the form of hard grains, contribute to the deposition of meat and increase egg production, but the same feed, given in the form of flour, contributes to the obesity of the bird.

Hard grains produce dense meat and fat, while flour, on the contrary, produces tender meat and fat. In chickens that feed mainly on greens and animal food, eggs are not able to persist for a long time. This is noticeable in the conditions of household plots, where chickens almost completely provide themselves with food in the summer. Therefore, the question of feed and feeding methods is one of the important issues and deserves due attention.

Mineral supplements

The bird receives the minerals missing in the feed from table salt, chalk, limestone, sea and river shells, ash, bone meal and gravel.

For the body of a bird, those minerals that are in ordinary feed are not enough, and they use pebbles and shells. All poultry farmers know that the bird needs them, but their meaning is interpreted one-sidedly. It is believed that pebbles and shells serve to grind food in the stomach. But it is not so. Firstly, chickens and other poultry swallow pebbles, shells even when they receive soft food. Pebbles and shells are found only in the muscular stomach of the bird, they are not at all in the goiter and the glandular stomach, where the food softens and turns into gruel, so that it does not need to be rubbed. In the stomach, where the pebbles are located, the food comes already in an almost processed form. Stones and shells swallowed by a bird, if not all, then most, dissolve in the stomach and go to maintain the skeleton. A free-roaming bird has 30-50 g of pebbles and sand in its stomach.

Corn

Grain is the main feed for poultry. It should make up at least half of the diet. For the bird's short digestive tract and high metabolic rate, grain, with its high concentration of nutrients, is the most suitable feed. However, the insufficient content of protein in the grain and its amino acid composition do not satisfy the needs of the bird for productive feed. Therefore, it must be introduced into the diet as a supplement. protein concentrate.

hemp seed It has an intoxicating property, so it should sometimes be given in small amounts at noon, especially to roosters. During the cessation and start of laying eggs, giving it is obligatory, as well as during molting, as it speeds up molting and makes the plumage of the bird shiny.

Flax-seed has the same properties as hemp. But dry chickens do not peck it, so it should be given steamed in a mixture with soft food.

sunflower seed has the same properties as hemp and linseed, and is given in the same amount and at the same time as hemp.

The best grain feed for young and adult birds is corn, which contains a lot of carbohydrates, fats and starches. In terms of nutrition, it surpasses all other types of grain and is a very good food in winter, especially in severe frosts. It should be given in the evening, approximately 0.1 kg per four hens (2 kg of body weight). However, in large quantities, corn can cause obesity.

Barley for enrichment with B vitamins are germinated. When fattening young animals with barley, juicy, tender and tasty white meat is obtained.

The bird willingly eats millet, but it contains a lot of fiber. Young animals in the first 5-10 days of life are fed in the form of millet.

The bird is given waste wheat. wheat bran rich in minerals, vitamins E and B. But due to the high content of crude fiber, it is recommended to feed bran in limited quantities to young animals and poultry for fattening.

An adult bird is fed rye- 10% of the weight of concentrated feed, young animals - up to 5%.

Oats - a very valuable feed, but still in the diet of an adult bird it should be no more than 20-30% of the total grain feed. It should also be remembered that there are a lot of films in oats, and they are almost indigestible (especially a lot of films in frail oats). Therefore, the bird needs to be fed full-weight oats, and even better - shastany (which has broken off the awns and part of the films). It is useful to give part of the oats in sprouted or steamed form (for chickens - up to 25 g per day).

For sprouting, oats are poured into a tub and filled with water; after a day, the water is drained, and the swollen grain is scattered with a layer of 6-8 cm (on plywood, on boards, in boxes or on the floor). At a temperature of 22-27 ° C, the oats will soon "peel", after which germination can be stopped.

Oats are a very good food for chickens too. But it must be given without shells, in the form of cleanly sifted cereals or flour. Oat shells are harmful to young animals, as they clog the stomach and intestines.

Buckwheat its composition is close to oats. In large quantities, whole, unpeeled buckwheat can be harmful to birds. Buckwheat is very good, but also very expensive food.

Peas, lentils and beans must be recognized as one of the best causative agents of oviposition. These feeds make the bird stronger, healthier and more productive sexually. Peas and lentils, until the hens get used to them, should be given by strongly steaming with boiling water, then they can be given dry. Beans are given crushed and steamed or cooked until soft.

Good protein foods are peas and fodder lupine.

Acorns. With an abundance of oak forests in some areas, dried and ground acorns can replenish food resources. Acorns are poor in proteins, but contain a lot of carbohydrates and fats. When feeding acorns to laying hens, the yolk acquires a darkish color. It is better to give acorns to chickens and ducks when fattening, or to feed the bird when it is not rushing.

Cakes and meals are valuable additions to feed for adult birds and chickens of all age groups. These foods are rich in protein. They contain up to 41-43% protein.

Hay flour and dust. For the preparation of the most valuable hay flour, it is best to take alfalfa and clover hay (not coarse); this flour is used in both dry and wet fodder mixers. The best quality dust comes from coarse (early harvested) clover hay; it is used most often in winter. Very useful for young people.

Dried nettle fed not only to adult birds, but also to chickens. For this, dried nettles are finely cut, then steamed and added to the mixers. Only young nettles are dried, without coarse stems. Cut or beveled nettles must first be tied into small brooms and hung in the attic or in the shed (preferably in a draft) to dry, and then it should be dried at 60-70 ° C.

Sunflower, linseed and soybean cakes These are vegetable foods rich in proteins. Oilcake is sometimes used as a substitute for part of animal feed.

Grain slices(grain waste) are very diverse in quality. The less foreign impurities (straw particles, chaff, earth, dust) in them, the more nutritious they are. The composition of wheat and rye cuts used for poultry feed varies within the following limits: broken and large grain - 20-44%; weed seeds - 19-68%; various impurities - 5-45%.

flour dust It is a mixture of flour and bran with an admixture of earth, dust, etc. The most nutritious is white dust, less nutritious is gray dust, and the least nutritious is dust with a large admixture of earth particles. Flour dust, preferably white, can replace part of the grain in the diet, especially when the birds are already laying eggs.

Malt sprouts obtained by sprouting barley. They are added to the grain diet. Sprouts contain a special substance called lecithin, which is rich in phosphorus. They must be given to laying hens and males to obtain breeding eggs of high fertility and subsequent viability of the embryos.

Yeast, as a small dietary supplement, are the main source of vitamin B1 for poultry. The composition of dry yeast: protein - 48.1%; carbohydrates - 29.3%; water - 10.8%; fiber - 2.6%; minerals - 2.6%; fats - 1%.

Yeast is mainly introduced into the diet of chickens grown without walking, in an amount of 1-5%.

Silage can be included in the diet of chickens as a juicy feed rich in vitamins. For poultry, only good quality silage made from unripened plants is suitable. The most suitable is protein-rich silage from legumes (clover, alfalfa), as well as silage from tops and cut heads of sugar beets, corn, steamed potatoes. Chickens per day for 1 head are given 20-25 g of silage. During the laying period of breeding eggs, no more than 10-15 g of silage should be given. Silage can be added to wet mash or mixed with bran or barley flour.

When feeding with silage, you should carefully monitor the cleanliness of the feeders and wash them more often with hot lye, removing from the feeders the feed scattered during meals, which quickly deteriorates. In addition, to neutralize silage acids, birds need to be fed 3-5% chalk, while providing free access to mineral feed.

Green feed

Green fodder is a source of vitamins and partly minerals. They are included in the diet in an amount of at least 20% by weight of concentrates. On walking birds consume greens ad libitum. The most valuable for them are the green parts of young plants. In large quantities, alfalfa, clover, peas are used in the budding stage.

The leaves and young stems of the nettle, which has long been considered bird food, contain many valuable nutrients: proteins, carotene, vitamins A, B, C, K, etc. It is better to feed the nettle in spring or early summer, when its leaves and stems are not yet coarsened and especially rich in various nutrients.

Fodder cabbage gives green mass from the end of July - the beginning of August, when all the grasses become coarse and therefore are not eaten well. Using it, you can provide the bird with green vitamin food until winter.

Finely chopped cabbage is fed in a mixture with flour feed. You can give carefully chopped beetroot and carrot tops, having previously cleaned it well from the ground and washed it. As a rule, it is included in the composition of wet mixers.

Tree leaves and needles also serve as good green fodder. Spruce and pine needles contain a lot of vitamin C and carotene. When using needles as a vitamin supplement in birds, appetite improves, egg production increases, egg quality, viability of young animals and fattening intensity increase.

Greens and vegetables of every kind, mixed with bran, should always be given lightly boiled and finely chopped; table and kitchen leftovers - the same.

The quality of the greens on the range depends on the composition and age of the grasses. Good greens should consist of a mixture of so-called sweet cereals with a sufficient admixture of legumes (clover, alfalfa, vetch), which, in addition to proteins, are rich in calcium and phosphorus. Since the bird does not digest fiber well, old coarse grass is unsuitable for it, therefore, during the summer it is necessary to give young greens of a good botanical composition.

Roots

Birds are fed carrots, beets, turnips, pumpkins, etc. Root crops, with the exception of carrots, are poor in carotene. Carrots, especially bright red, contain a lot of it, which is very valuable when growing young animals. Red carrots in the amount of 7.5% of the diet may well replace 1.6% of fish oil as a source of vitamin A.

Carrots are given to birds in dried and ground form, introducing into the composition of the mash. In the diet of laying hens per 1 head per day, you can give raw carrots 25-30 g, dried - 6-8 g. Root crops are fed raw and usually chopped.

Sugar beet can partially replace grain. It is usually fed raw in the amount of 50-60% of the weight of dry feed. Pumpkin is a good source of carotene and is crushed or cut in half.

From root crops, you can give small and damaged potato tubers that do not go into human food, be sure to boil them. Birds willingly eat potatoes, in addition, they are well digested. Up to 100 g of potatoes per day can be introduced into the diet of chickens; they begin to feed them to chickens from 15-20 days of age.

They also give watermelons and ripe tomatoes, no more than 20-30 g per head.

Plenty of bird food in the garden. Carrion of apples and pears can be given to adult chickens in crushed form, 15-20 g per head per day.

In winter, heads of cabbage should be hung on a rope in chicken coops - at such a height that chickens can peck them freely. Soaked brown bread should not be given. It should be given constantly dry, cut into small pieces.

Hay

The source of vitamins in winter is the hay of cultivated plants (clover, alfalfa, cereals) and wild herbs (young nettle, quinoa, etc.). The best quality hay is obtained by drying grass in the shade - under a canopy, in free buildings. Turn it over carefully so that the leaves do not sprinkle. Store shade-dried hay in a dark place, tightly packed.

Feed of animal origin

Of the feeds rich in proteins, animal feeds, or, as they are also called, feeds of animal origin, are more useful for birds. Let's list the main ones.

Milk and dairy products- the most valuable food, especially for chickens and turkeys. Whole milk is, of course, rarely fed to poultry; more often they use skim milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, buttermilk (liquid waste obtained when churning butter) and even whey. Whey is poor in protein compared to other dairy products, but it contains easily digestible minerals. Therefore, it should be given to both chickens and laying hens. Usually whey is given instead of water.

Remember the rule: dairy products should not be given in galvanized dishes.

Meat and meat-bone meal made from carcasses of animals rejected for human consumption. Flour should be stored only in a dry, cool place (preferably in hanging bags, not in boxes).

Fresh meat and meat waste, passed through a meat grinder. In raw form, waste is given only if there is full confidence that the meat is from a non-infectious animal.

Fish flour- a valuable protein feed, it contains up to 50-60% protein, it is also rich in phosphorus and calcium. Fishmeal is prepared in different ways, but only one made from fresh fish is suitable for birds.

blood meal- it is dried and crushed fresh blood; flour is made in slaughterhouses.

Miscellaneous, well-cooked and chopped food: frog meat, suffocating chickens, animal remains.

May beetles. They are harvested in May, shaking off the trees. The collected beetles are dried in the oven, and stored in a dry place, preferably in tightly closed jars.

Earthworms. To breed them, you can make special "worms". Dig a hole 50-70 cm deep, put straw manure (preferably horse manure) in layer 5

10 cm, and on it - a layer of rotted manure of the same thickness. Place two dozen large earthworms in it for divorce. On top again put a layer of straw manure, then a layer of rotted manure with worms, etc. until the pit is filled. After that, cover the hole with wet straw. Straw should be watered periodically, depending on the weather. After one and a half to two months, the worms will multiply. You can store worms for the winter.

Hard and soft foods

There are two main types of food: hard and soft. The first type includes mainly grain or grass seeds in their natural state, the soft type includes flour made from these grains, as well as vegetables, herbs and animal feed. Grains and seeds soaked in water or scalded with boiling water should also be considered soft food. Often, soft food is made up of different types of flour, as well as bran with the addition of various boiled vegetables and herbs. Greens and vegetables are always given in chopped form, both boiled and raw. Mixers are made from flour in milk, whey or water.

Soft feed in the body of a bird is digested faster, so it is mainly used for fattening and raising chickens. It can be given to molting and convalescent birds in cases where enhanced and versatile nutrition is required. Soft food is also fed in case of increased egg laying, but moderately for fear of bird obesity. It is good to mix ginger and mustard into it, but with great care. First give a small pinch, and then gradually increase the dose.

Soft food is used both cold and warm. In the warm season, it can be cold, and in the cold - warm, so that there is no loss of heat in the body, the consumption of which at this time is higher than usual. The feed temperature should not exceed 40°C.

Soft food is given in a container convenient for pecking; solid food can be given by scattering on the floor of the room. This method of giving food is preferable, since the birds, while collecting it, at the same time produce some exercise, which is very important in winter, especially for birds that are deprived of walking. Do not throw food on the snow or on frozen ground, and also give it chilled in the cold. Compliance with these rules prevents diseases.