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The egg-laying of hens depends on a number of factors, while feeding is almost the main one. What to feed the hens of laying hens to better sweep? How to choose a diet and calculate the amount of food per bird? Not finding an answer to these and many other questions, beginning poultry farmers often receive less than the products due from the chickens.
How do I feed hens at home?
Domestic chickens are rightfully considered to be one of the most non-selective birds. They eagerly eat everything that will be offered: grain, waste from the human table, weed from the beds and the remains of mixed fodder, received by pigs, sheep and goats. But it is unlikely that with such an "accidental" diet, one can enjoy high productivity. Not receiving all nutrients, vitamins and minerals, chickens can not be carried at full strength, and the formation of eggs will go at the expense of the body of the bird and its health.
How to organize the feeding of laying hens at home and choose a balanced diet?
In the natural environment, the wild ancestors of the hen and its closest relatives eat very differently. The menu of such birds includes grain, berries and fruits, seeds and herbs, larvae and adult insects. Birds from the detachment of chicken do not abhor the non-poisonous reptiles, for example, frogs and lizards. They extract earthworms, eat foliage from low growing branches. Feeding laying hens at home can not be so varied, but giving the animals everything they need for growth, development and good egg yield is extremely important.
Composition of fodder for laying hens at home
In addition to different types of grain, which is about 60% of the menu, chickens are given vegetable and animal feed, which supply the bird with protein, fats and carbohydrates. If necessary, vitamin supplements are introduced, minerals are necessarily offered.
Which grains to choose for making the most useful mixtures? Since the grain should prevail in the composition of the feed, it is necessary to clarify which types of cereals are best suited for hens, and how to give them properly.
Almost all grain crops are perfectly digested by the bird, supplying the body with carbohydrates, fiber and vitamins. Deciding what to feed the hens of laying hens in order for them to go better, the poultry farmer should think about introducing poultry into the diet:
- rich in carbohydrates of corn, and its grain is preliminarily ground to make the food more fully and better;
- wheat, which stands out against the background of other cereals with an abundance of B and E vitamins, vegetable proteins, especially in demand by layers;
- Wheat bran, even surpassing the whole grain by nutritional value for layers;
- barley, useful for hens of meat and meat-meat breeds;
- fiber-rich oats, which must be crushed and steamed for better digestion, otherwise its unrefined grain irritates the esophagus of the intestines of chickens;
- oat bran, which perfectly replace the grain and can account for up to 20% of the volume of cereals in the menu;
- erysipelas and millet;
- buckwheat, which should not be more than 10% of the norm for feeding hens in the home.
But even in the most balanced cereal mixtures there is not enough protein, calcium, especially essential layers, phosphorus and some important vitamins, so the menu must include other Components.
A useful additive in the diet of laying hen hens will be:
- seeds of flax and sunflower;
- leguminous crops;
- rich in protein and fiber cakes and meal.
In the menu it is necessary to include mineral supplements that are unacceptable for the human diet, but birds can not do without them. It is chalk, crushed shell, fine gravel, ash, table salt. The listed feed components are not included in the compound feed for laying hens, but are given separately.
What kind of grass can you give hens to hens?
Green feeds are indispensable when laying laying hens. It is an excellent source of minerals, fiber, moisture, vitamins. With an independent range of chickens eagerly eat greens on grazing. When feeding concentrates about 20% of the norm of feeding hens of hens in the home should be on the greens.
Contained in the cells of living creatures give meadow grass in fresh and dried form. Chickens react well to feed with clover, alfalfa and other leguminous crops.
What kind of grass can be given to hens from laying hens? From the cultivated plants grown in the kitchen gardens of the central strip of chickens, you can offer dill, young greens peas, salad leaves and many other plants that do not have irritating effects on the digestive tract birds.
Of weed vegetation, the leader for the benefits is the dioecious nettle. It is a true source of ascorbic acid, vitamins A, B, K, as well as fiber, trace elements and moisture. In winter, when fresh grass is absent, the bird is offered herbal hay.
What to feed the hens of laying hens in order to ride better in the cold season? Here one should not forget about needles, pine and spruce needles in the middle of winter accumulate the maximum amount of vitamin C and carotene.
Owners of vegetable gardens can supplement the diet of their layers with root vegetables. This component in the complex bird menu is convenient in that many types of tubers and root crops are perfectly stored and available both in summer and in winter.
Before feeding hens laying hens and adult livestock, table beets, carrots, turnips, summer radish grades are ground on a grater. From vegetable root crops, carrots containing carotene are especially useful, and it has a beneficial effect on the quality of the egg and the egg laying of the layers. This vegetable can be given in a raw and dried form, regulating the consumption rate.
Squash, pumpkin, squash and other melons cut so that the bird was comfortable to stick the flesh. Chickens eagerly eat potatoes. Its bird should be given in a boiled form, mixing with other components.
Composition of mixed fodders for laying hens
Due to the simplicity of preparation and availability of products, many owners of poultry houses mix feed themselves. Cereal mixtures are solid fodder, and mild or wet biscuits are based on steamed cereals, vegetables and herbs, bran and flour additives.
Knowing what foods you need to consume the bird to increase egg production and maintain the body in good it is important to understand how to feed the hens of laying hens at home, and to observe the optimum proportions. Ready-made and home-made mixtures for chickens include all listed categories of feed, but they must include sources of animal protein. They include:
- dairy;
- meat-and-bone and fish meal, as well as meat and fish waste;
- earthworms.
Before preparing a mash for hens' hens, the poultry farmer must decide on its composition and quantity. Separate products should be prepared before filing:
- potato tubers and raw peel boil, sit and knead;
- Vegetables and root vegetables are ground with a float;
- The meat and fish are heat treated and cooled;
- Bean beans are boiled, and the remaining legumes are pre-soaked.
Before feeding the milk for the hen hens, the grain is crushed or flaked. In winter, cereals are useful for germinating, which significantly increases their nutritional and vitamin value. The same effect gives the addition of 5-10 grams of yeast per kilogram of the mixture.
Norms for feeding hens in layers at home
Chickens are almost omnivorous and can search for food almost all the time, but excess nutrition does not reflect well on the well-being of the bird, and on the number of eggs brought. Therefore, it is important to comply with the feeding regime and give the hens a strictly defined amount of food.
How many times a day to feed hen hens, and what are the accepted norms of consumption? To maintain the productivity of the egg population, the bird is given a feed 2-3 times a day. Vary the number itself can the poultryman, focusing on pedigree features, nuances of content and well-being of hens.
For 100 grams of a grain mix for feeding hens of layers at home add half a gram of salt and mineral forages. In addition introduce greens or hay, vegetables and root crops, components of animal origin.
There are many recipes, how to prepare your own feed for hens' hens. In the conditions of a personal farmstead, different products that are at hand can be used in the course. A significant influence on the composition of the product has seasonal limitations. Therefore, in the summer time, the main rate is made for greens, while in winter, when it is not there, hay, a greater number of stored vegetables and root crops are introduced into the diet.
Experienced poultry farmers know which types of feed are interchangeable. This helps to make a combined feed without losing the nutritional and energy properties of what is on the farm at the moment.
What can not feed hens hens?
Obedience of chickens sometimes leads to unpleasant consequences. The bird does not pay attention to the quality of food, pecking and decaying and moldy pieces. The result of bird greed and negligence of hosts manifests itself in the form of intestinal infections, blockage of goiter, helminthic invasions and other diseases.
What foods are harmful to poultry? What can not feed hens hens? In the menu of chickens of any breeds there should be no fermented, sour food or products with signs of obvious spoilage and mold. To avoid problems with digestion, one should not give the bird whole roots, raw potatoes and cleaning. All waste from the table, before they get to the chickens, are checked and sorted. They should not contain the remains of packaging film, foil, string and other inedible objects.
If a bird receives fresh grass and hay, it is important to make sure that they do not contain poisonous plants, for example, horsetail, celandine, wormwood. It is these species that most often cause poisoning of laying hens in the chicken coops and on the grounds.
Beginning poultry farmers ask whether it is possible to feed the hens of hens with bread. If this is good food, then with all the nutritional value, they will only harm the livestock. But you can give ordinary wheat or grain bread to a bird. This supplement is especially useful in winter, when chickens need food, which quickly replenishes energy reserves. In the diet, it is better to introduce quality dried pieces, which are added to the bryozoans or given in a soaked form.
