What do chickens eat at a poultry farm and at home?

The efficiency and health of the chicken depends on the quality of its nutrition. And it does not matter with what purpose and where the bird is kept: at a poultry farm or in a private farmstead, the main thing is to keep track of what the chickens eat. They need to be given only high-quality and nutritious food, rich in all the necessary microelements and vitamins, which will only benefit the bird. As a result of a good, balanced diet, the chicken will bring large, delicious eggs.

Feed content

Regardless of where the chickens are grown, their diet should be varied and nutritious. At poultry farms, the diet makes dry food for chickens, and at home it can be diversified, giving the bird grass and vegetables.

In feeding birds, proteins, fats, vitamins, trace elements, carbohydrates should be balanced.

Proteins

The main component of the egg is protein. It is necessary for chickens for normal development of the body. In the feed for hens hens in the home add cake, sunflower, soy, beans. They are sources of vegetable proteins. Also in the diet should be animal proteins. Their chickens can be obtained with meat-bone or fish meal, earthworms, molluscs. In private farmsteads, if the bird walks freely, it can itself obtain some of the protein of animal origin. In industrial cultivation, fish or meat-and-bone meal is added to the feed .

Fats

The energy of the chickens is derived from fats. These elements are deposited in the subcutaneous layer, and already therefrom the stocks are consumed. Part goes to energy, and the other - to the formation of eggs. To the bird was strong, cheerful, well rushed, in the food for chickens at home add corn, oats. These are fat-rich foods. And with the addition of corn, egg yolk acquires a beautiful, rich orange color.

Carbohydrates

To ensure the work of all muscles, organs need carbohydrates. The fact that they eat chickens depends on their productivity. If the diet is sufficient amount of carbohydrates, the bird will be well carried and quickly develop.

Carbohydrates a bird can receive from juicy forages: potatoes, beets, pumpkins, zucchini, carrots.

Vitamins

For normal livelihoods, a bird must receive a sufficient amount of vitamins. Of particular importance are vitamins D, B, and A. With their lack, the bird begins to ache: falls to its feet, the productivity decreases. The main sources of vitamins are grass, fish oil, baker's yeast.

Minerals

Many farmers wonder why chickens eat their eggs. Most often this is due to the lack of trace elements. It is from them that the shell of eggs, the skeleton of a hen, is built. To make up for the lack of calcium and other nutrients, birds should always have chalk, gravel, wood ash or shell in a separate bird feeder.

Feed Balance

The ration can consist of ready mixed fodders, which are sold in bird markets, in vetaptek. You can make food yourself, mixing different grains.

When buying mixed fodders, you should avoid products containing dyes, growth hormones, taste improvers. The nutritional value of poultry feed should be as follows:

• Proteins - from 15 to 19%;
• Fiber - 5%;
• Ash, potassium, calcium, amino acids, vitamins, copper, selenium and other useful microelements.

When choosing a mixed fodder, preference should be given to those products that are produced by the inspected factories.

Forage for domestic chickens can be given in the troughs, and can be spread over the ledge. When using factory feed, it is necessary to provide the bird with constant access to water: one bird per day needs 0.5 liters of water. In a hen house, a container with water can not be placed because of the risk of increasing humidity. This will have a detrimental effect on the health of the bird.

You should know that they eat 80 grams of compound feed per day. At home, the diet should be diversified by adding juicy feed and grass to it. Dry food for chickens should not be the only type of food. Even on poultry farms, where chickens are fed mixed fodders, various nutrients are added to it. Most often these are growth stimulants, vitamins, chalk, shell and other types of additives.

Grass, juicy food

A necessary feeding for laying hens are juicy forage and grass. The quality and quality of the yolk depends on the composition and quality of the yolk. Birds who are on a free-range, do not have a deficit in fresh greens. That bird, which is contained in cages or in a closed roach, may experience a deficit in the grass. Because of this, the bird can get sick, have various health problems. To avoid this, you should include in the daily diet grass and other useful substances.

As a top dressing for the main feed, chickens are given freshly cut grass, including lawn, waste from the garden, cleaning vegetables and fruits. They perfectly eat weeded weeds, sideral cultures.

A good addition to the chicken table will be a cabbage of any sort. It contains substances that prevent cannibalism.

In the diet should enter a pumpkin, zucchini, apples. In some yards you can see tied up bundles of grass. To get to them, the chickens have to bounce. This is done in order to provide sufficient load for the poultry kept in close coops and on small benches.

Ration of juicy forages

The menu of chickens can include:

• Potatoes. For food suitable sprouted, small potatoes, cleaning. In a day for one individual, you can give up to 100 grams.
• Bread. Few people know that chickens eat bread. They are given dried, stale pieces, previously wet with water.
• Waste from the kitchen table. Fish offal, heads, remains of soups, pasta, meat dishes have a positive effect on the productivity of layers.
• Protein products. Chickens can be given curds, yogurt, whey. These products contribute to the replenishment of protein and calcium in the body of the bird, increasing egg production.

It is useful to give boiled vegetables, fresh fruit.

Feed preparation

In winter, it is necessary to give the bird rich in microelements and vitamins. If you pre-cooked forage feed chickens, then in the cold season, the bird will please the egg.

From the second half of summer and autumn for the bird harvest seeds of herbs, leaves and berries of wild shrubs, trees. It can be rowan, hawthorn, dog rose, chestnuts. Also harvested herbal brooms from nettles, alfalfa and other useful herbs. Herbs are crushed and dried in the shade, in a well-ventilated place. In winter, they are added to the barnacles and fed to the bird.

Preparing food for feeding

Before you feed the chicken, it must be prepared. This is done to increase its nutritional value and improve the digestibility of the laying organism.

1. Potatoes and its sprouts. As you know, in the sprouts of potatoes contains solanine. It is a poisonous substance from which a chicken can die. To remove it from the product, the potatoes are boiled or steamed.
2. Roots. For the best zlelevyvaniya zucchini, beets, pumpkin and other root crops, they pre-grate or grind the food processor. Then the vegetables are added to the main food (mixed fodder, crushed grain, corn). In this form, food is given to the bird.
3. Before you give the chicken crops, they are recommended to grind.
4. Bean cultures are pre-soaked before feeding.

In the winter season it is useful to give the chickens germinated grain. To get it, take a whole barley or wheat, pour a thin layer in the container (on a tray), filled with water. After three days, the product is ready for feeding.

Feed production

It is easy to make a balanced diet yourself. To do this, you can focus on the following calculations:

• Potatoes - 100 grams;
• Cake or sunflower meal - 7-10 grams;
• Salt - no more than 0.5 grams;
• Yeast baking - 1 gram;
• Chalk - not less than 3.5 grams;
• Wet mash (corn - 50%, barley, wheat, 25% bran) - 30 grams.

In the diet necessarily include grass. Potatoes can be replaced with other vegetables or make mixes from different vegetables, fruits in a volume of 100 grams per poultry.

You can make other kinds of menus. For example, for the summer period the following composition is suitable:

• Flour mixture - 50 grams;
• Cereals - 50 grams;
• Solid juicy feed - 40 grams;
• Feed protein - 15 grams;
• Bone meal - 2 grams;
• Salt, mineral supplements - no more than 5.5 grams.

In the winter, the diet should be slightly different. In it, green forage is replaced with mashrooms, in which dry grass is added. When preparing a diet, you can use the following composition:

• Dry herbs - 15 grams;
• Potatoes or other root crops - 100 grams;
• Cereals - 50 grams;
• Mash-up to 30 grams;
• Cakes, cake - 7-10 grams;
• Meat-bone meal - up to 2 grams;
• Mineral supplements - no more than 5 grams;
• Dairy products - 100 grams.

Ready-mixed feed for layers in its composition have all the necessary substances. However, for a personal farmstead such food is not cheap, it is unprofitable to buy them. It is much more profitable to make a feed yourself.

Features of feeding layers at different times of the year

Knowing how much feed you need a hen in a day, you can organize proper feeding. To maintain a good egg lay, the bird is fed four times a day. However, such a regime is difficult to maintain, because many people work and can not leave work to feed chickens. Therefore, they are most often fed two or three times a day.

With a three-time feed, the daily dose is divided into three doses, and with a two-time dose, two. In any case, feed the bird at regular intervals.

The first feeding should be as early as possible in the morning, the latter - as late as possible. In the evening, chickens are recommended to give grain. The rest of the time given mezhkaki, vitamin feed. If you plan to feed the layers twice a day, the diet is divided in such a way that most of the sticks and vitamins are in the morning, and in the evening the main part of the diet consisted of grain. In the winter season, the mashrooms are given warm.

Many are interested in the question of how much fodder for hens per day is necessary. It is definitely impossible to answer it. The exact amount depends on the type of feed. If this compound feed for layers, it is given at the rate of 80 grams per individual (the amount can be more or less, depending on the type of feed). A more accurate dosage can be obtained from the feed manufacturer's instructions.

If you give the bird your own food, then a day the chicken eats from 150 to 250 grams of feed. The exact amount depends on the time of the year, the composition.

For a more accurate determination of the norm of feeding make calculations. A bird weighing up to 1.8 kilograms with a productivity of 100-110 eggs per year is given about 130 grams of food per individual. If the chicken weighs 2 kilograms, then it needs 135 grams of feed. Next, for every 250 grams of weight, 10 grams of food is added. It should also take into account egg production. For every additional 30 eggs per year, 10 grams of food is added.

Feeding during moulting

In the period of decreasing light day and reducing egg production in hens, molting begins. At this time, the bird needs to provide adequate nutrition with an increased amount of minerals. Add sulfur to the diet. The composition of food makes more diverse, but not high-calorie (part of the grain is replaced with vegetables, grass, vitamin foods).

Knowing how much a chicken eats, you can easily make the right diet for different life cycles.

Chickens are unpretentious birds that are easy to maintain. But this does not mean that they can be fed with any feed. That the bird does not hurt, there was no case, it is necessary to feed it only with high-quality forages. You can not give a bad, moldy grain, bread with mildew. This can cause poisoning, as a result, the bird will die. In the diet should be quality grain, fresh grass, boiled potatoes, chalk, shell, gravel and other useful substances.

Proper feeding with good food, a varied diet will please the bird, and she owns their owners with good, large eggs and tasty meat.