What is the best food for chickens?

The productive function of poultry is entirely dependent on proper nutrition. At the same time, it does not matter for what purposes the farmer brought livestock: the subsequent sale of meat and eggs or his own use. The daily table for chicken should consist of balanced products.

What is the best food for chickens?

Required components

A healthy diet of chickens guarantees daily egg laying and quality meat. The composition of any products contains proteins, fats and carbohydrates necessary for a living organism. The daily nutrition of chickens is developed by the farmer using a special technology that allows you to harmoniously combine these important substances.

In addition to the standard set of useful elements, products prepared for chickens must contain a full range of vitamins and minerals that are responsible for the health of the bird’s body.

What is the best food for chickens?

What is the best food for chickens?

Fats

This is an energy substance necessary to maintain the correct functioning of the bird’s nervous system. Approximately half of the fats are activated only after interaction with lipids. In cereal products, the amount of fat is negligible. But there are a lot of them in sunflower seeds, soybeans and nuts. Zoologists advise introducing fish oil into poultry feed, in addition to its energy value, vitamins A and D are present in its composition. As an additional feeding, it is enough to offer the bird lard.

Fats that enter the body are deposited in the skin layers, creating an energy reserve that affects the structure and development of the eggs. The maximum amount of fat is found in oats and corn.

What is the best food for chickens?

What is the best food for chickens?

Carbohydrates

It is the main source of energy for poultry. It is these substances that are responsible for the quality work of all organs, but the excess is deposited in the body in the form of fat. The carbohydrate component is present in grain products and vegetables. In addition to carbohydrates, fiber should be present in the diet of poultry. It is located in the composition of cereal shells. Just for this reason, peeled barley does not have maximum utility. Fiber is also found in vegetable peels and green grass.

To provide chickens with a complete carbohydrate diet, they need to include pumpkin, potatoes, beets and carrots in their diet.

Proteins

The real natural protein responsible for the construction of bird muscles. In addition, it is part of the eggs. In the daily diet of adult chickens, the protein content should be 14-16%, while chickens need to receive about 20%. The maximum amount of protein is located in many products, for example, in cake, earthworms, fish waste, soy and shellfish.

Minerals

Substances that promote the growth of the bird’s skeleton and the ideal process of egg shell formation. The greatest need of a living organism is calcium, phosphorus, sodium and magnesium. For a healthy bird, it is very important to obtain such trace elements as copper, sulfur, iodine, iron and zinc.

To enrich the body with essential minerals, fishmeal, chalk, shells, wood ash and gravel should be included in the diet.

What is the best food for chickens?

What is the best food for chickens?

Vitamins

Any vitamin complex takes part in the biochemical processes of a healthy body. Daily use of vitamins contributes to the full development of the bird, and their absence can cause serious diseases. The most significant are vitamins of groups A, B, E, D. Along with them, ascorbic acid is of particular importance. All of these values ​​are found in almost all products, for example, in silage, yeast, fish oil, and even in pine flour.

What is the best food for chickens?

What is the best food for chickens?

Types of feed

The main task of the owners of chicken farmsteads is to compile the right diet for the birds. A balanced meal, consisting of important and essential trace elements, vitamins, will allow you to grow high-quality birds and get the maximum possible number of eggs every day. The current crosses of chickens, which are grown in order to obtain a high yield of eggs, are particularly demanding on proper nutrition, namely 330 pcs. in year.

Poultry farming involves the use of several types of feed, among which you can choose the most suitable option for feeding chickens.

What is the best food for chickens?

What is the best food for chickens?

Protein type of food

The proposed nutritional option provides the bird’s body with the maximum amount of protein. This substance is found in many products, especially skimmed milk, whey and cottage cheese. Also, a large amount of protein is found in meat, blood waste, offal, meat and bone and fish meal. Legumes in the form of peas and soybeans boast the presence of protein. In addition to the listed products, protein feed involves feeding birds with cake and sprats. Feed yeast in combination with these products will allow the bird to get the required protein.

What is the best food for chickens?

What is the best food for chickens?

Vitamin variety of food

Vitaminized nutrition involves a variety of bird diet products in which vitamins are present. Carrots, pumpkin, herbal flour, hay tincture and silage are of particular interest to chickens. Fresh herbs, lard and fish oil contain the maximum amount of vitamins needed by the chicken body. The same goes for rowan and rose hips, sprouted grains, sunflower seeds and flax.

Sauerkraut is no less rich source of vitamins, especially in winter.

What is the best food for chickens?

What is the best food for chickens?

Juicy food variety

This method of nutrition involves the use of garden vegetables that grow on farm plots. By the way, succulent feed is most often used in the summer season, vegetable crops ripen and go to the bird’s table. The most suitable vegetables for poultry are beets, onions, zucchini, kale and turnips. The cleanings from these products are also sent to the hens.

What is the best food for chickens?

What is the best food for chickens?

Mineral food variety

Laying hens are in dire need of calcium, phosphorus and sodium. These very substances are present in the composition of many products, for example, in limestone, chalk, shells. Eggshells, along with wood ash and table salt, should be present in the daily diet of the bird. Buckwheat is of particular importance in the mineral form of feed, but not in raw form, but in boiled form.

What is the best food for chickens?

What is the best food for chickens?

Gravel and sand feed

In fact, these elements are not food products, but despite this fact, they play an important role in the diet of laying hens. It is gravel and sand that are responsible for grinding large products in the stomach of a bird. To understand the approximate ratio of the daily diet, it is proposed to familiarize yourself with the percentage of products containing useful substances and elements.

The optimal variant of the chicken menu speaks of a superior amount of grain feed, which plays an important role in the life of the laying hen.

  • Corn. Grain crop, which contains a huge amount of fiber. Thanks to the carbohydrate compound, corn feed is an excellent source of energy for poultry.
  • Wheat and bran. Presented crops are a supplier of B and E vitamins, as well as vegetable protein.
  • Barley. It is most commonly found in mixed poultry feed formulations. With its help, the chicken body is enriched with amino acids, carbohydrates and fiber.
  • Oat. It contains a protein that is freely digestible by the bird’s body, vitamins of groups B, A, E. It is mainly included in the diet of chickens intended for sprouting.
  • Peas. Quite often used for feeding birds at home. It is important to remember that peas swell when they are in a wet environment for a long time, so they are offered to chickens in small quantities.

If you do not keep track, the bird will overeat the pea grains, they will swell in the goiter, due to which the laying hen may die. When compiling pea top dressing with your own hands, the grains should be crushed into small pieces in advance and moistened so that they swell. Then give it to the bird.

What is the best food for chickens?

Having dealt with the types of bird food, you need to familiarize yourself with the types of feeding chickens living in the backyard.

  • Dry way. In this case, we are talking about feeding the bird with dry mixes, which can be purchased ready-made or made by yourself. This type of feeding is very convenient and practical, especially on large farms, when the owner of the production cannot regularly monitor the birds. The main thing to remember is that the daily standard of dry food should be approximately 140-150 g per chicken.
  • Wet way. In this case, it means the independent production of mixers, which include crushed grains and grated vegetables. Basically, wet feeding is a lot like human food. In the diet of birds must be present dairy products, mashed potatoes. Poultry will never refuse the leftover soup or porridge from the farmer’s table. As a supplement, chickens are given herbal flour and germinated grains. The farmer must remember that a do-it-yourself mash should have a loose consistency and be crumbly. Poultry does not have particular food preferences, but when using the wet feeding method, the farmer should not treat laying hens with spicy, salty, and fatty dishes. It is strictly forbidden to give bread to a bird.
  • Mixed way. The most relevant option for poultry feeding, which implies the presence of dry and wet food in the feeders with constant access to them. In home breeding of chickens, this type of feeding is considered the most relevant.

Prohibited products

Even experienced farmers claim that chickens are unpretentious creatures. They are ready to eat any food and dishes. But the breeder should be extremely careful, as not all food is suitable as a balanced bird diet. There is a small list of foods that laying hens are not recommended to eat, and some are completely prohibited.

  • Fresh bread. By itself, bread products can be given to chickens, but only in the form of crackers, previously soaked in a small amount of liquid. As an alternative, an old hardened bun is suitable. But fresh bakery products should not be given to laying hens. Their delicate stomachs cannot cope with the digestion of this product. Although in some cases, as an exception, chickens are given a mash with white bread. It’s about slaughtering a bird. 10 days before the appointed date, the birds are fed with a rich mixture, due to which the meat acquires a pleasant taste.
  • Salted and raw fish. Many farmers advise including fish products in the diet of chickens. Only they do not specify in what form it should be presented to the bird. Raw and salted fish are not recommended for chickens for frequent consumption. It is best to boil the fish a little before serving it on the bird’s table, so that the bones of the skeleton break through the soft structure. This product should be mixed with the main feed, and not given in its pure form. Particular attention should be paid to the volume of liquid in the bird’s drinker during the period of fish feeding. No matter how the fish is cooked, the chickens are bound to be thirsty.
  • Peeling potatoes. Raw potato skins are not recommended for chickens. By their structure, potato peelings are rather rough, and the bird will not be able to peck them. And mashed potatoes, on the contrary, will be the perfect complement to a wet mash.
  • Beet. Offering pure beets to chickens is extremely unreasonable. First, the bird will have severe diarrhea. Secondly, there is a risk of inducing cannibalism in chickens, since beets easily stain the feathers of birds in the red color associated with blood. It is best to offer chickens beets, grated and mixed with dry food.
  • Styrofoam. It is strictly forbidden to give polystyrene to a bird. In the diet of laying hens there are gravel, shells, shells, chalk. And all of them are only beneficial to the health of poultry. Styrofoam, in turn, can only cause harm. On their own, farmers do not give foam pieces to chickens as food, the birds themselves find the material used as a chicken coop insulation. The foam contains a huge amount of chemical elements that can adversely affect the health of living beings, especially such small creatures.

Mode and norms of feeding

In the diet of poultry, the obligatory conditions are the regularity of feeding, a certain interval between meals and the balance of the feed. At the same time, a clear feeding regimen is in the first place. After conducting numerous studies, farmers were able to find the ideal proportions of the amount of feed. Laying hens need only 130 g of food per day.

When engaged in mass poultry breeding, the farmer must remember that air temperature and climate completely affect the chicken diet. If during the summer period of the year the air temperature increases by a degree from the norm, then the amount of food consumed will decrease by 1%. In winter, the opposite is true. Therefore, the breeder needs to draw up a bird menu in advance, taking into account temperature fluctuations.

Most farmers are accustomed to calculating the average daily feed rate per chicken, taking into account its weight indicator. It follows from this that a bird weighing 1,8 kg per day needs to eat 125 g of food, and a two-kilogram carcass should consume 130 g.

What is the best food for chickens?

Every day, the dry food feeder is only 1/3 full. If you pour more feed, the chickens will start to play around and scatter it around the territory. The stirrer is applied in volumes, according to the number of bird heads. The main thing is that the chickens have time to peck it in an hour, otherwise the dish will turn sour. At each feeding it is necessary to check the water level in the cup, if necessary, add sediment.

For breakfast and at lunchtime, the diet of chickens should consist of wet food. For dinner – grains, as evening food should be light. When considering feeding laying hens, it is important not to forget about the proper nutrition of roosters, as they play an important role in the breeding process of birds. You can feed the rooster according to the standard scheme of the bird’s diet, and only in the spring it is necessary to enrich the cock’s food with an additional vitamin complex.

Proper development and good health of the poultry farm is important to regularly observe the lifting and feeding regimen. Below is a table that allows you to adjust the daily life of chickens.

What is the best food for chickens?

What is the best food for chickens?

How to feed?

Products and food intended for the bird’s table must always be fresh. It is forbidden to give rotten and sour food to chickens. Root crops, before being placed in a bird feeder, should be boiled and mixed with crushed or grass. Compound feed for the poultry farm can be purchased, but it is best to do it yourself.

Properly feeding poultry is not immediately obtained. The farmer must roughly understand the ratio of the composition of the feed to the number of chickens and roosters. More detailed information is presented in a special table, thanks to which it will be possible to create healthy feed at home.

What is the best food for chickens?

What is the best food for chickens?

The proposed standard of feeding can be adjusted based on the needs and development of the bird flock.

What is the best food for chickens?

What is the best food for chickens?

Depending on the season

Undoubtedly, a balanced diet and its amount largely depends on the time of year. For example, in summer, birds do not need to spend their energy on self-heating. Thanks to the natural warmth, they freely roam their territory and lay much more eggs. Feed in the summer should be light, low in fat and high in fibre. In summer, you can cook vegetables on the bird’s table. Summer feeding should be three times a day and repeated every day at the same time.

It is important for the farmer to remember that all food during the hot season is not eaten by chickens and rots, so the territory of the birds must be regularly cleaned of sewage. In winter, chickens are completely dependent on their owner. In the cold, birds move much less, and they spend all their energy on independent heat generation. During this period, it is important to increase the calorie content of food, and do not forget about vitamin complexes. In winter, birds feed 3-4 times a day. In this case, wet food should be warm.

What is the best food for chickens?

What is the best food for chickens?

Spring is the breeding season for birds. During this very period, chickens are in dire need of vitamins and minerals, which will increase the productivity of their organisms, respectively, and the number of eggs laid will increase. A prerequisite is four meals a day, and the diet should be special. The menu will need to include a boiled egg, various types of greens, cereals from cereals acceptable to poultry, cornmeal and grain crushed into small crumbs.

Autumn for poultry is a time of apathy. In birds, activity disappears, reproductive function decreases. The diet in the autumn period of the year must be supplemented with proteins, calcium and vitamins. But the calorie content of food must be reduced to an acceptable limit.

In autumn, chickens should be fed 3-4 times a day in order to replenish the body of the bird with important substances for the coming winter.

During the molt

With the advent of autumn, all owners of bird farms are faced with an annual molt. During this period, the body weakens in chickens, immunity decreases. It’s hard to get through this time, but it’s possible. It is important to remember a few special rules for the care of chickens, among which nutrition plays a significant role.

  • Feeding the bird should be plentiful, while the food should be filled with important vitamins.
  • The diet of laying hens should be supplemented with animal products, such as boiled meat or cottage cheese. In this case, the mash is prepared on a kefir product or on whey.
  • As an additional element, fodder sulfur should be added to the poultry table in the amount of 1 g per chicken. This element has the maximum effect on the growth of new feathers.
  • A large amount of sulfur is found in cabbage. Cabbage leaves must be crushed before serving.
  • To speed up the molting process, chickens should be given linseed oil.
  • Minerals must be placed in a separate container so that molting chickens can approach the feeder at any time.

What is the best food for chickens?

What is the best food for chickens?

Shedding in chickens lasts for a month. At this time, it is very important that the food is low in calories, but rich in protein, calcium and vitamins. The list of necessary products mainly contains vegetables grown in their own garden and a few other items.

  • Leaves. cabbage leaves.
  • Homemade cottage cheese.
  • Shell from raw eggs.
  • Lettuce.
  • Beans and peas.
  • Chalk and other mineral elements.
  • Sunflower cake.
  • Baker’s yeast.
  • Vitamins.

What is the best food for chickens?

To increase egg production

To increase egg yield, laying hens should only be fed exceptional food. Egg-bearing breeds bred on large farms mainly feed on factory feed. The combination mixture has been developed taking into account the individual requirements of the bird and the current standards for balanced nutrition. It contains many useful components, such as proteins, fats of vegetable and animal origin, carbohydrates, fiber, vitamin complex and important mineral elements.

When purchasing factory compound feed, it is important to familiarize yourself with the information indicated on the package. If hormonal substances or additives of synthetic origin are found, it is better to refuse food. Undesirable components can adversely affect the health of birds.

Laying hens that spend more time indoors should be fed loose feed, while mostly free range birds should be fed pellet feed.

What is the best food for chickens?

Experienced farmers are reluctant to experiment with new types of feed. In order for chickens to rush a lot, they give their vote for proven compound feed.

  • PC-1. Ideal for egg bearing breeds. Its main advantage is that there is no need to mix the finished composition with other feeds. PC-1 contains a full complex of vitamins that help increase the daily number of eggs, strengthen the health and immunity of the bird.
  • CC-1. A concentrated version of bird food involves mixing it with top dressing, and as an independent feed it will not be able to provide important and useful substances to the poultry farm.
  • Premix. It is used in combination with a mixed version of poultry feeding. He is able to make up for the missing vitamins and useful elements that the bird could not get.

What is the best food for chickens?

As a general purpose feed, farmers can feed their flocks with a grain mixture rich in carbohydrates, fiber and vitamins. The main ingredient is wheat and oats, with additional millet, barley and corn.

  • Corn is a source of carotene and carbohydrates. It is she who is responsible for the pigmentation of the egg yolk.
  • Wheat is considered an important component of feed for egg-laying hens. With the daily use of the represented cereal, the body of the bird is enriched with maximum energy, due to which the yield of eggs increases.
  • Barley belongs to the list of the most nutritious additives in the poultry diet. This cereal is very popular with chickens of any breed, and its composition has a positive effect on egg production.
  • Oat – fiber, a necessary element for maintaining the health and immunity of the bird.
  • Rye – an ideal supplier of protein, which is important for the proper functioning of the body of egg-bearing breeds.

Despite such an impressive list, the farmer should be aware of the need to add calcium and phosphorus to the feed.

For information on how to feed chickens so that they rush well, see the next video.

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Anna Evans

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