A brief description of steps for beginners to raise chickens at home

Chicken eggs and meat have always been popular products in Russia. The demand and consumption of these goods is growing every year. There are 309 eggs per resident of Russia per year, and this figure is increasing. In 2018, chicken meat production in the country increased by 1.2% to 6.7 million tons.

Of course, the market for meat and eggs is highly competitive, but consumer demand is not completely closed - especially since people are increasingly looking for an environmentally friendly product. How profitable is a chicken business? We will tell you in detail how to open a small farm, we will give approximate calculations of payback and profitability.

1. Which breed of chicken should I choose for home breeding? 2. Egg breeds 3. Meat breeds 4. Conditions for keeping chickens 5. Poultry breeding technologies 6. Business plan for raising chickens 7. Legal registration 8. Personnel 9. Feed 10. Recommendations for feeding 11. Arrangement of the poultry house 12. Arrangement of a walking area 13. Equipment 14. To whom and how to sell finished products? 15. Breeding chickens as a business: profitable or not - profitability and payback

What breed of chickens should I choose for home breeding?

First you need to choose the direction of the business - that is, determine what the birds will be bred for, for eggs or meat. Based on this, we choose the breed: the difference between broilers and laying hens is significant.

If you expect to sell meat, you need diligent birds with a large and soft belly. Specially bred broilers with regular nutrition are able to gain the required weight in 3-4 months.

To hatch eggs, on the contrary, active chickens are needed. It is necessary to equip special areas for walking, provide light and provide other conditions for obtaining eggs of suitable size and quality.

It is customary to buy day-old chicks (and raise them) or pullets 2-3 months old. It is better not to purchase adult birds.

Preparatory stage

A great job must begin with good preparation. For this

• We decide why the chickens will be bred:
• for meat
• for egg production
• or for both with average indicators;
• a chicken coop is being built, a walking area is separated by a net;
• The question of what age chickens to buy is resolved:
• daily allowance,
• menstruation
• or older;
• preparing a place for chickens;
• feed is being prepared.

Egg breeds

To obtain eggs, it is important to buy good laying hens and a rooster (1 male for 10 females). The bird must lay at least 280-300 eggs per year.

Popular breeds:

• Andalusian blue.
• Loman Brown.
• White Leghorn.
• Brekel.
• Italian partridge.
• Minorca.
• Russian Crested.

Maximum egg production is observed in birds in the first year of life. Then the number of eggs laid decreases by 30-40%. At poultry farms, old chickens are discarded; in households they make up no more than a third of the total flock. The livestock is completely renewed in 2.5-3 years.

It is better to buy pullets yourself at poultry farms (not through markets or resellers). Here the bird comes with documents, you can be sure of its age.

Purchased laying hens are kept in a quarantine zone for up to a month (to be checked for diseases), separately from the general herd.

Self-breeding chickens

Purchasing or selecting hatching eggs

You can raise chickens yourself. Using a hen or incubator. The success of the business depends on the quality of the hatching eggs. They are bought at hatchery stations. Or from private verified suppliers.

If you decide to get eggs for hatching chickens from your own chickens, you need to take into account the nuances.

Laying hens from which eggs are taken must be healthy. Ages: 7 to 10 months.

Each egg should weigh between 55 and 70 grams. The shape should be perfect, with a blunt and sharp end. The higher the pigmentation, the more nutrients. There should be no roughness or cracks on the shell.

Before incubation, store for no longer than 10 days, at a temperature of 8-12 degrees. Before laying, the eggs are checked with an ovoscope. Specimens with blurred yolk, blood clots, or a collapsed air chamber are thrown away.

Features of artificial hatching of birds

Advantages of incubators: easy to use. Some models have an automated flipping system and mode adjustment.

Chickens hatch fewer chicks than will fit in the incubator. Therefore, the artificial option is more economically profitable.

Disadvantages: fragile body. If there is a sudden blackout, you can lose the entire future brood.

Help chickens

Let's look at the advantages of raising chickens under a hen. The chicken creates natural conditions for the development of the embryo. She heats the eggs and turns them over.

Cons: choice of hen. It’s difficult for a beginner to learn everything about chickens at once. Not all laying hens are good mothers. A wrong choice can cost future chicks their lives.

Farmers first test the chickens by placing dummies on them. If a bird does not sit down or has left the nest and does not want to return, it is a bad hen.

The hen needs some care at home. From a balanced diet to silence and solitude.

Now let's look at how to care for chickens from the moment they hatch.

Meat breeds

Breeding broilers for meat is another line of chicken business.

Popular breeds:

• Foxy Chick.
• Rhode Island.
• Holoshka.
• Cobb-500.
• Gibro-6.
• Broiler-61.
• Ross-708.

It is recommended to purchase chickens from special farms, since it is difficult to breed meat breeds yourself. Chicks (crosses and hybrids) may not retain parental qualities.

Broilers are intensively fattened for 3-4 months, then sent to slaughter. They spend a lot of feed on chickens - to fatten 1 individual in 2 months you will have to spend up to 7 kg of feed.

Birds need quality food and care. They are predisposed to certain diseases. In addition, broilers have a high mortality rate (especially in the first 2 weeks).

Who will populate the chicken coop?

The price of chickens varies depending on their age. The cheapest per diem, but they also require the most care. They require special conditions.

So only chickens that have an established thermoregulation system are suitable for the chicken coop. And this happens at one month of age. This means that chickens older than 30 days can live in the chicken coop. The older the chicken, the higher its price. Focus on your finances.

But you can spend money once, buy an incubator and hatch the chickens yourself. Theoretically, you can do it yourself. But since the invention of money, everything has been solved much more simply. It doesn't cost that much.

Household incubator

There are many types of incubators. The Dutch semi-automatic has proven itself well. The main criteria when choosing a device are three indicators:

1. The incubator should monitor the temperature to half a degree. The slightest change in temperature can affect the incubation process.
2. The spread of the humidity control scale should not exceed 10 - 15%. Chicks are hatched at a humidity level of 50 to 70%.
3. The presence of an egg turning mechanism. The turning is necessary so that the yolk does not stick to the walls of the egg. If it sticks, the embryo will die.

The incubator is disinfected before use. The same procedure is repeated after each month of using the device.

The chick is born wet. It needs to be dried. A box is installed in the incubator for these purposes. The chickens stay in it for 24 hours. During this period, they do not yet require food. They retain the reserves of nutrients from the yolk that they received in the egg.

After 24 hours, they are taken out and transferred to the place where they will grow. There they will spend the first three weeks of their lives.

Conditions for keeping chickens

For the comfort and health of the chickens, for the productivity of the flock in the poultry house, it is necessary to create suitable conditions:

1. Lighting. To increase egg production in the poultry house, you need to have good lighting.
2. Maintaining the required temperature. Birds do not grow well and lay eggs in temperatures that are too low or high. The normal range is 12-27°C. For the development of chicks, a temperature of 27-30°C is needed.
3. The floor in the poultry house should be insulated with boards, straw and sawdust. Straw is only clean.
4. Birds keep themselves clean. You just need to put a container with sand or ash. The poultry house is cleaned every week and disinfected every month.
5. Chickens should have constant access to fresh air (good ventilation).
6. To relieve birds from stress, the house must be soundproofed.
7. It is necessary to place convenient feeders and drinkers in the chicken coop.

Signs of disease

It is necessary to warn that for beginners raising chickens at home, know the main signs of diseases. Despite good hygienic conditions, the disease can be spread by pigeons, food-stealers, and rodents. Sick birds are immediately visible. They are lethargic, do not go to the feeder, do not stand up, and have convulsions. A sick bird should be immediately separated from the flock.

A sign of vitamin deficiency is lethargy and lack of appetite. Feed her with greens, irradiate her with ultraviolet lamps, give her fish oil and everything will work out. It's scarier to deal with chicken cannibalism. If a wound appears on the body of a bird, it will attract the attention of its companions. Therefore, the light in the chicken coop should not be bright; a muted and reddish color hides fresh wounds.

You need to be on your guard, expect pecking and understand the causes of this disease:

• chickens peck their fingers into the blood - they are hungry:
• they peck at the head - a hierarchy is being established;
• pecking of the cloaca - when it is inflamed from improper feeding;
• when the cloaca is inflamed and falls out from carrying very large eggs;
• pluck feathers - there are few minerals in the food;
• the presence of insects - feather eaters, lice, ticks.

How to keep chickens and have a productive flock is a multifaceted question.

Poultry breeding technologies

At the planning stage, a chicken breeding technology is selected. There are 2 main options:

• Floor. The bird retains freedom of movement and gets the opportunity to walk in the fresh air. This technology is more suitable for laying birds, since high activity increases egg production. Farmers can save on maintaining the flock by making homemade feed based on food waste instead of expensive purchased feed.
• Cellular. This option is more often used for breeding meat breeds. Chickens don't need a lot of activity that causes them to lose calories - that's why they are kept in cages. They are fed with compound feeds, which allow them to quickly increase their meat mass. The cage breeding method involves more expenses and labor - feed is expensive, and bird cages need to be cleaned regularly.

Advantages and disadvantages

Keeping laying hens is a low-waste poultry farming technology. The benefit in their maintenance comes from the possibility of selling part of the products and using the rest for the personal needs of the family. Thus, the main advantages of chicken farming are as follows:

1. obtaining eggs, which are an integral part of the diet of most people and are used in the preparation of a huge number of dishes;
2. obtaining chicken meat, which is a low-fat variety and is suitable for preparing meat dishes for both children and adults;
3. obtaining down for filling pillows and blankets;
4. the presence of bird feces, which can be used in agriculture instead of fertilizer;
5. Ground chicken bones can be used as a mineral supplement or plant nutrition.

The disadvantages of raising chickens at home include the construction of a chicken coop, proper maintenance and a daily balanced diet for birds.

Business plan for raising chickens

According to the terms of the plan, the businessman develops an egg business - that is, he breeds chickens to produce and sell eggs, not meat. Then the initial costs will be lower - there will be no need to purchase refrigeration equipment or organize a place for slaughtering poultry. The business can be started with small investments and then expanded.

Table 1. Initial costs for a chicken breeding business.

Expense item	Cost, rub.
Registration	50 thousand
Creation and equipment of a chicken coop	150 thousand
Purchase of pullets, 400 pcs. (Hisex Brown breed)	95 thousand
Feed (for a month)	20 thousand
Salary, 2 people.	40 thousand
Additional expenses	90 thousand
Total	445 thousand

The sale of products is expected in a city with a population of more than 1 million people. Additional costs include utility bills, promotion, and packaging. Taxes do not appear in the calculations.

Caring for laying hens at home

Lighting

The light regime in the chicken coop plays an important role in egg production. The duration of daylight hours for adult laying hens is no more than 14 hours. But not less than 12.

Acceptable lighting for laying hens is 5 W per 1 m2.

In bright light, birds can eat the eggs. Stress from intense lighting contributes to chickens pecking at the cloacae and combs.

To avoid problems, use intermittent lighting. Birds need periods of darkness to rest. This affects the formation of bone tissue and calcium metabolism.

Other factors

Necessary conditions for the normal life of laying hens:

• moderate temperature;
• cleanliness and dryness in the chicken coop;
• availability of ventilation for normal air exchange;
• preventive measures accompanying poultry farming - chickens are susceptible to diseases.

Large windows are not installed in the poultry house to prevent heat loss in winter. In cold weather, the temperature is maintained at 16–18 degrees. Read about the care and maintenance of laying hens at home in winter in this article.

Nutrition

All feed for laying hens is divided into three groups: plant, animal and mineral.

Vegetable feed:

• corn;
• oats;
• barley;
• wheat;
• bran;
• rye;
• millet;
• buckwheat;
• succulent food (potatoes, beets, cabbage);
• hay flour and dust;
• dried nettle;
• cakes.

Most of the diet of laying hens consists of grain feed. But egg-laying birds cannot be raised without protein(s). Here food of animal origin comes to the rescue: milk, meat and bone or fish meal, earthworms.

It is advisable to introduce premixes into the birds' diet. With their help, laying hens receive minerals and vitamins.

How to properly create a diet for egg-laying birds, read the article “What should you feed laying hens so that they lay a lot».

Diseases

When raising laying hens, you may encounter manifestations of various diseases. Non-contagious include:

• cannibalism;
• stress;
• obstructed egg production;
• diseases caused by mineral deficiency: decreased growth, thin shells, metabolic disorders, dermatitis;
• vitamin deficiencies;
• inflammation of the oviduct;
• poisoning;
• frostbite;
• heatstroke.

There are many infectious diseases that rapidly affect the entire flock of chickens. Among the infectious pathologies are:

• chlamydia;
• paratyphoid;
• bronchitis;
• coccidiosis;
• mycoplasmosis;
• Newcastle disease;
• smallpox;
• bird flu;
• infectious paralysis and others.

Disease Prevention

Poultry farming at home necessarily includes preventive measures.

Don't neglect vaccination. This is the main prevention against common diseases of laying hens that can destroy the entire population.

Some infections are treated with a single dose of vaccine. Other vaccinations are given annually.

Vaccines are administered intramuscularly and into the wing of chickens. The serum is applied to the eyes. There are drugs that are used with a sprayer.

It is better to invite a veterinarian to vaccinate birds. He will show you how to dilute and administer the vaccine.

Legal registration

If you plan to open a small enterprise or household, the business is conducted in the form of an individual entrepreneur (individual). If you plan to have a larger farm, the LLC (legal entity) form is suitable.

When registering, the OKVED code 01.47 “Raising poultry” is indicated.

To start a business, you need to visit many authorities and obtain the following documents:

• certificate of registration of private household plot (personal subsidiary plot);
• contract for veterinary services at the regional veterinary station;
• permission from SES and Fire Supervision;
• conclusion of Rospotrebnadzor.

The most difficult thing is to get positive conclusions and permissions. To organize a farm, it is important to study all the requirements and standards that apply to chicken coops and the conditions for keeping poultry. All this must be taken into account when organizing the farm.

Description of breeding in the country: video

You can raise chickens not only year-round, but also seasonally, for example in the country. In this case, it will not be possible to make a big profit, but it is quite possible to provide your family with homemade eggs and dietary meat.

This process requires minimal costs. Since birds are kept in the summer, they require the simplest living conditions. The poultry house can be light; it does not require heating or artificial lighting. Feed costs will also be insignificant, since when kept free-range, birds successfully feed on pasture.

The author of the video will tell you in detail how to raise chickens in the country and what is required for this.

Staff

To organize a small farm you will not need many workers. At the start, the herd will be 400 heads - 1 hired employee will monitor this number.

It is necessary to organize the delivery of food, all necessary products to the farm and transportation of the finished product to the buyer. Therefore, a driver (with a car) will be required.

An accountant will prepare reports and document flow. You can find a specialist remotely by contacting an accounting firm.

At first, the functions of a sales manager will be performed directly by the businessman.

When organizing a household, the owner himself can do the work - this will reduce monthly expenses. But when expanding the farm, workers will have to be hired.

Arranging a chicken coop and nests

Before raising chickens, you need to properly arrange the barn and nesting area. Main conditions:

• The barn should be warm, spacious, bright and well ventilated.
• It is advisable to decorate the walls and floor with natural materials.
• It is imperative to build a perch, which must meet the following parameters: 20 cm of perch is allocated for 1 chicken. The beams are attached at a distance of 30 cm from the wall and 45 cm from each other.
• A mandatory element of arranging a chicken coop are nests. Ideally, 1 nest is designed for 3-6 heads. The nest itself is formed from hay, a bundle of which is folded into a specially made box.

Arrangement of the chicken coop
Each element in the chicken coop should provide maximum comfort for both the bird and the owner. The barn needs to be constantly cleaned and you need to go into it to collect eggs and feed.

Feed

When breeding broilers, it is important to choose the right feeding system, which will allow the chickens to quickly gain meat and bring their weight to the desired level.

2 ways to feed meat birds:

• extensive;
• intensive.

The extensive fattening method does not require large expenses - it is suitable for entrepreneurs who do not have the money for large investments. Chickens are given compound feed and regular grain with various additives - boiled potatoes, cake and meal, vegetables, herbs, meat and bone meal. In the first 2-3 months, feeding is high-calorie, then the energy value of food decreases (chickens should not be overfed).

Intensive fattening requires additional investments, but this technique is better suited for breeding broilers. The birds are kept in cages and fed with ready-made feed. She moves little and grows quickly.

Breeding features and general requirements

The chicken is distinguished by its unpretentiousness. Therefore, at the initial stage, any outbuilding, for example, a barn, can be used as a chicken coop.

The main thing is that near this building there is a small yard for walking birds. The chicken coop must be equipped with all the equipment necessary for the life of chickens. We will talk about this in more detail in the continuation of the article.

The arrangement of the farm will depend on what the purpose of your bird breeding is. If you want to get a large number of domestic eggs, you will have to make a place in which the hen will lay these eggs. To do this, you will have to make a special dense substrate of hay. This bedding should be replaced regularly for hygiene purposes.

In order to create your own offspring, you need to purchase a rooster. One rooster can interact with at least ten hens. To enhance breeding efficiency, it is worth purchasing an incubator. Before incubation begins, it is worthwhile to carefully cull the eggs.

The profit will be noticeable approximately in the fifth month of breeding. Therefore, plan your financial costs. The most profitable business is breeding broiler chickens, which grow very quickly and gain body weight.

Feeding recommendations

It is necessary to organize a balanced diet for the bird so that individuals receive the required amount of elements. You should choose industrial feeds carefully - not all are suitable.

You can prepare the grain mixture yourself. This way you can reduce costs and choose the optimal food recipe.

The most popular recipe is:

• corn – 5 kg;
• wheat – 1.5 kg;
• barley – 1 kg;
• peas – 0.5 kg;
• sunflower cake – 0.8 kg;
• flour (fish, meat and bone) – 0.8 kg;
• feed yeast – 0.3 kg;
• chopped or fresh grass – 0.5 kg;
• vitamin and mineral supplement - 0.15 kg;
• salt – 0.03 kg.

Chickens really need calcium, so chalk and charcoal containing this element should be constantly added to the feed. Salt is also useful - it improves digestion.

The daily feed requirement for one chicken is 130-150 grams.

Subtleties of care

Chickens love to walk a lot, this is a beneficial moment in their development process. In summer, it is important to give individuals more green grass. In winter, you can use dried nettle soaked in water. You can give vegetables boiled or raw; they should be chopped first.

Wet food should not be left in feeders for more than one hour, because it will begin to ferment and turn sour.

In order for your chickens to have good health and satisfying egg production rates, it is necessary to extend daylight hours using lamps. It is recommended to choose infrared lamps; they are additional sources of heat.

In cage conditions, chickens require more careful sanitary care. Therefore, it is useful to take care of the tray, which you will clean twice a day.

Poultry house arrangement

You can raise chickens only in a country house or in a village - that is, outside urban conditions. When building a chicken coop and choosing flooring, you need to proceed from the following calculation: per 1 sq. m can accommodate 2 birds. Up to 6-7 heads coexist in a cage.

The poultry house should be warm and light (lit at least 13-14 hours a day). We pay special attention to the floor. The height of the insulation is at least 15 cm (optimally up to 50 cm).

Ventilation must be arranged so that rodents cannot enter the room. The latter is an additional risk factor, since mice/rats carry diseases and infect birds. If you make ordinary windows, they need to be covered with protective nets.

Drinkers and feeders are located along the walls, and nests are located in the corners. The height of the room should not be lower than 2 m; it is better to reinforce it with wooden logs, and stitch the racks with boards. It is better to make the roof traditionally pitched.

Choosing a location

The ideal chicken coop
Chickens should be kept in specially built chicken coops, and not use half-rotten sheds and utility rooms for this. The bird should feel protected, not stressed, and kept clean and warm. Only then will she be able to show everything she is capable of.

Building a chicken coop is a somewhat expensive undertaking, but it must be done.

Before starting construction, draw a drawing of the chicken house and make an estimate. Then decide whether you will get to work yourself or hire a team of specialists. Builders are better, but it’s cheaper to do it yourself. It all depends on finances and skills.

Chicken coop with walking

It’s good if you can build a house for chickens with an adjacent paddock fenced with a mesh. In this case, the chickens can sit out in the house during rain, and in good weather they can go out to the area through the hole in the chicken coop. It would be ideal to build a transparent canopy over it.

In any case, do not forget that the height of the walls must be at least 1.8 meters. And they definitely need to be insulated. It is desirable that the chicken coop have a foundation: either concrete, or brick, or columnar, or strip. Lay a floor, preferably wooden, on the foundation.

The main thing in the roof is integrity and absence of leaks. Gable is preferable. It allows you to organize an attic in the chicken coop and store chicken feed, hay and other utensils there.

The area of ​​the chicken coop should provide comfortable living for the chickens. To do this, no more than two birds should be placed per square meter.

Arranging a walking area

Laying hens need physical activity for better egg production. Therefore, they need a place to walk (aviary). You can buy a ready-made mesh enclosure or create one yourself. It is better to place it on the eastern side of the chicken coop - on the side where the sun rises. We place a manhole in the building so that birds can easily enter the walking area.

The fence of the enclosure should be mesh so that sunlight penetrates through it. Having natural light is important for hens (talking about laying hens).

The height of the fence should reach 150-180 cm. Then the birds will not be able to fly over the fence and scatter across the area.

In the enclosure under a small canopy you need to install equipment: drinking bowls, feeders, boxes with sand and ash.

Where to buy chicks and hens

Chickens of different age categories, breeding birds, and laying hens are sold on the basis of state poultry enterprises by farmers, private poultry farmers, including collectors, as well as market traders. It is better to buy breeding birds from breeding farms, purebred chickens, and pullets from farmers. The market is not an option. Here I remember an anecdote in which a bear grew out of a hamster.

When choosing day-old chicks, you must remember that healthy and viable young animals are active, respond well to sound (for example, tapping), and willingly accept food. You need to make sure that the chickens' umbilical cord is healed, their wings are tightened, there is no mucus in the cloaca area, and the down is dry and fluffy.

How can you avoid buying “used” poultry instead of pullets? Young chickens are characterized by the following exterior features:

• Bright red comb and lobes. In older chickens, these exterior features are darker;
• tightly fitting feathers. Older individuals have ruffled plumage;
• skin of the extremities that is not covered with tubercles and growths.

Equipment

After a place for the poultry house has been found, the building itself needs to be erected. Specialized materials and construction plans are available for sale. If your budget allows, you can order a ready-made poultry house from professionals.

In order to save money, you can do it simpler: during construction, use available building materials (boards, slate, brick, cinder block, other types of building stone).

In the chicken coop we organize:

• nests;
• perch;
• vestibule;
• feeders and drinkers;
• shield for collecting litter;
• walking area.

The poultry house must be insulated and protected from precipitation. Inside you need to equip a ventilation system, install fluorescent lamps or IR lamps. If there is a large flock, automatic drinkers and a food supply system are installed in the chicken coop.

If the business is focused on selling meat, you need to set up an area for poultry slaughter and buy refrigeration units for storing the product.

Poultry cutting line (chicken, turkey, duck) 1500 heads per hour, “Compact”
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The basic “commandments” of a poultry farmer

In order for the business to be profitable and you to receive a lot of eggs throughout the year, you need to remember the basic rules of a successful poultry farmer:

• You can't overfeed chickens. Well-fed “balls” will not please you with good egg production; on the contrary, they will often get sick, walk sluggish and lazy. And who benefits from obesity anyway?
• Provide a “quiet hour” for chickens from 8 am to 4 pm and do not disturb them unnecessarily - they are busy with important work. If you make a lot of noise and disturb the intimate atmosphere, the chicken will not lay an egg that day.
• Provide a favorable temperature in the chicken coop of +20-25 0C. If it is very hot, the bird does not feel well, will constantly run to drink water and try to escape outside. If it is very cold, it will wait until an acceptable temperature for masonry occurs.

In fact, the egg production of chickens depends 80% on the conditions that you create for them, and not on a specific breed or other, less important factors. Dutch farmers very often play music in chicken coops, mainly Mozart, and have proven in practice that chickens produce 11-14% more eggs than those simply sitting in a soundproofed barn under the same living conditions. On the territory of the Russian Federation, such methods of increasing egg production are not yet practiced by factories, but the connection between the comfort of the bird and its productivity has long been proven.

To whom and how to sell finished products?

There are several directions for selling eggs and chicken meat:

• Cooperation with retail and wholesale retail stores. With large customers, the poultry farm will get back on its feet much faster.
• Sales at food markets. You can sell goods to other sellers or open your own outlet.
• Sales to private individuals. Chicken eggs and meat can be sold to residents of the locality where the farm itself is located. You can also organize days when the car will go into the city and sell products to residents of the block and nearby houses.
• HoReCa segment. Sales to restaurants and canteens.

To market and increase sales, advertising is needed. How can you advertise a product:

• develop a brand and marketing attributes;
• offer goods at prices favorable to the buyer;
• conduct BTL promotions;
• spread information about meat and eggs through word of mouth.

Breeding incubator or pullet

There are two options for purchasing chickens for breeding: purchasing an incubator or pullets.

• If bred in an incubator, then this is a profitable option. But it has its drawbacks.
• First, gender uncertainty; second, unfortunately, all chickens may not survive.
• Pullets are a more reliable option; the offspring will definitely survive.
• If chickens were purchased for the season, then by winter they are used for meat.

How to feed chickens?

If the issues with the construction of the chicken coop itself, the organization of the exercise aviary and the arrangement of the birds’ lives are resolved once, then the questions about the correct balanced feeding of laying hens arise before the poultry farmer every day. You need to understand that feeding chickens depends on the age of the birds and the time of year, but laying hens should be fed variedly at any time.

Birds must receive all the necessary substances from their feed.

The main substances beneficial for chickens in various types of feed

Just like people, birds need a balanced composition of fats, carbohydrates and proteins in their menu. Also, do not forget about mineral and vitamin supplements that strengthen health and immunity. Only a healthy bird can produce healthy eggs and bear strong offspring!

So, a chicken egg, as we know, contains more than half protein, so birds must receive a sufficient amount of protein (protein food). It is worth understanding that chicken spends protein not only on the production of eggs, but also on its own vital functions.

You can add your own boiled eggs to your chickens' feed, but this is not very cost-effective.

The protein component for chickens can be of animal origin - this is meat and bone and fish meal, remains of fish and seafood (for example, shrimp shells, heads and tails of sea fish), waste from incubation. You can also give vegetable protein - soybean, rapeseed, sunflower cake or meal.

Chickens need fats to replenish their energy reserves, so it is necessary to periodically include corn kernels and whole oats in the birds’ diet. In order for chickens to receive the carbohydrate component (sugar, fiber, starch), it is worth giving them unpeeled grain or its shells. It is worth remembering that an excess of carbohydrates leads to obesity in chickens, and consequently to a decrease in egg production.

It is best to feed chickens unshelled oats as a source of both fat and fiber.

Don’t forget about vitamins - the most important ones for laying hens are A, B and D, so the chicken menu should always include green food and succulent feed (herbs - dandelion, nettle, quinoa, corn, legumes, pumpkin, sprouted grains). It is also useful to give chickens feed fish oil and baker's yeast. If the livestock suffers from vitamin deficiency, then there will be no need to wait for a good “harvest” of eggs.

Mineral nutrition is another important aspect of a chicken’s diet. They are necessary not only for the development of the bird, but also for the formation of eggshells. Therefore, the following should be present in chicken feeders every day:

• crushed eggshells;
• crushed bones;
• small shell rock;
• feed chalk

Prices for Premix for chickens

Premix for chickens

In both summer and winter, chickens are fed three to four times a day. The first portion should be given early in the morning, and its volume should be one third of the daily dose. Chickens receive two daily servings at equal intervals - it is better to give the birds wet mash. The last meal of the day is offered to the birds after dark, and the “dinner” should consist entirely of grain.

Chickens also need a constant supply of drinking water in drinking bowls. Of course, you can pour water into any container, but it is better to make or purchase hanging nipple drinkers from which several birds can drink at the same time. In this case, the water will not spill, and accordingly, there will be no dirt or dampness in the chicken coop.

Convenient drinking bowl for chickens

So, keeping birds, as we understand, comes down to building a poultry house and an exercise aviary, and then cleaning them

For chickens, it is important to maintain sanitary conditions - the bedding in the chicken coop must be changed regularly, feeders and drinkers must be doused with boiling water (the entire flock can die due to bacteria)

Keep your chickens clean, allow them to spend as much time as possible outside, feed them a variety of foods, and you will always get large and tasty eggs, as well as tender dietary meat when slaughtering the bird.

Nests

For the comfort of laying hens, a good bedding in the chicken coop is enough, and the hens themselves will begin to lay eggs on it. But every day you will have to go into the chicken coop and look for eggs that may be scattered in all corners. By and large, over a period of time, hens find one or two suitable places and lay eggs in them, but this is not correct. Therefore, nests are often built in chicken coops.

The nest does not have an exact size. But the chicken should be able to sit in it and turn around comfortably. There are special chambers with nests that are made of boards and have easy access from outside the chicken coop. However, this solution is more beneficial for large breeders. The number of nests should correspond to the number of chickens being raised.

It is recommended to build one nesting site for every five hens, this is the ideal amount. What if there are fewer nests than necessary? The chickens will be stressed, which will affect the quality of the eggs.