One of the most popular areas in poultry farming is chicken breeding. This is an opportunity to get homemade products of the highest quality, which can also be put on sale by establishing a sales market. For this business to be successful, it is extremely important to choose the right breed of chickens for breeding, as well as to master the technique of keeping them.
Breed selection
For home breeding, breeders often choose representatives of the following types of breeds:
- Meat... They are distinguished by their large size and average egg production. Females of meat breeds are recognized as good hens.
- Egg... They have a small mass - on average up to 2.5 kg, but differ in increased egg production. Of the shortcomings, it can be noted that chickens of egg breeds are often exposed to various diseases.
- Meat and egg... Not as prolific as egg breeds, but they are heavier and are also excellent brooders. They do not require special conditions of detention and are excellent for breeding at home, since they have a calm disposition and are rarely subject to diseases.
To breed chickens at home or in the country, you must initially purchase chickens. To do this, you should immediately contact reliable suppliers who sell individuals of productive breeds. The most popular of them can be found below:
Breed | Egg production (pieces per year) | Weight (kg) | Description |
Lohman Brown | 315 | 2-3 | Hardy chickens that have brown plumage. They lay eggs weighing up to 64 g. They show high productivity for 80 weeks, so it is unprofitable to keep them further. |
White Leghorn | up to 330 | 2-3 kg | The most highly productive domestic breed of Mediterranean origin. Egg production decreases after a year of keeping. Females lay eggs weighing up to 60 and with white shells. |
Hisex Brown | 315 | 2,3-2,7 | Chick survival rate is high - 99%. When walking, they begin to lay eggs from 4 months. Chickens lay large eggs - weighing 70 g. |
Rhode Island | 230 | Until 3 | Chickens of this breed are distinguished by increased mobility. They adapt well to free range. They have brown or dark golden plumage. With their participation, it is possible to breed broilers by crossing a chicken with a rooster of the Kuchinsky Jubilee breed. |
Amrox | 200-220 | 3,5-4,5 | Meat and egg chicken breed, bred in Germany. Its representatives look quite massive because of the loose plumage, loosely fitting to the body. Egg production decreases slightly after the first year. The eggs have a firm light brown shell and weigh 56-60 g on average. |
Adler silver | 180 | 3-4 | Peaceful and calm bird with beautiful, but poorly developed plumage. Begins to lay eggs at 6 months. The egg production period lasts up to 4 years, and during this period the number of eggs does not fall. |
Moscow black | 170-180 | 2,5-3,3 | The plumage of these chickens is very beautiful - black with golden feathers on the neck. From the age of 5 months, large eggs begin to lay, which in weight can reach 62 g. |
Russian white | 250 | 1,5-2,4 | A hardy and frost-hardy bird that has a calm temperament and grows quickly. Ripens early - by 5 months. Lays white eggs weighing 56-60 g on average. |
New Hampshire | 220 | 2-3,5 | A friendly bird with red-brown plumage. Not afraid of frost. Lays yellow-brown eggs weighing 60 g. Productivity decreases by 3 years. |
Barnevelder | 180 | 2,4-3,5 | Dutch breed of domestic chicken. It quickly gains muscle mass, but reaches puberty quite late - at 6-7 months. Lays large eggs weighing 80 g, but small eggs may be encountered at the beginning of laying. Their shade is different - from terracotta to dark brown. |
It is better to purchase a batch of day old chicks at a poultry farm with a guarantee that the livestock is thoroughbred and healthy.
How many chickens do you need to breed?
The optimal number of heads on the farm depends on the method of keeping chickens, of which there are two:
- Floor... The number of birds will depend on the area of the premises, since 1 sq. m can not come more than 5 individuals. The inside of the house must be warm (over 5-7 ° C), light and dry, otherwise the performance of layers may suffer. It is also necessary to take care of the perches, on each of which you need to allocate 20 cm per 1 individual. You need to arrange perches at the same level.
- Cellular... Each cage can accommodate 5-7 birds. To get fertilized eggs in the future, a rooster must be present in the herd.
Where to start breeding chickens at home? Build cells or do without them? The breeder will give you the answers to these questions in his video below:
It is believed that in conditions of cage keeping, chickens develop faster, rush and gain weight.
Organization of the place of detention
Before proceeding with the arrangement of the chicken coop, it is necessary to decide on what the content of the livestock will be - seasonal or year-round. In the summer, you can simply organize a light shelter and a walking area, and in the winter it is better to re-equip a warm barn or build a new chicken house. How to make a chicken coop yourself - read here.
When building a chicken coop, the following recommendations should be considered:
- The height of the walls should be at least 1.8 m. It is advisable to insulate them so that the optimum temperature in the room is maintained at 15 ° C. Chickens may feel more comfortable in colder temperatures, but their productivity may be affected.
- There must be a foundation in the hen house - concrete, brick, columnar or tape. You need to lay a floor on it, preferably wooden. If the foundation is concrete, it must be covered with sawdust or straw. To prevent chickens from freezing, the thickness of such flooring should be more than 10 cm.
- The roof of the chicken coop should be complete, without leaks. It is better to make it gable, since in this case it is possible to organize an attic in the room for storing chicken feed, hay and various utensils.
- To make it light in the room, you need to make at least one window, but the light from it should not hit directly on the nests. You also need to hang up a lamp, as hens love lit areas. The lamp should be placed in a shade to reduce the likelihood of fire and also to keep the light source clean. The lights must be turned off at night.
- The chicken coop can be equipped with a simple ventilation system. To do this, you need to make small through holes in two opposite walls. One of them should be located at the top, and the other at the bottom.
- In the depths of the hen house, you need to equip the perch poles at the rate of 30 cm for each individual. The distance between them should be 35 cm, and from the floor - more than 0.5 m. The timber used for perching must be twisted so that the chickens do not get hurt. Between the poles, it is worth putting trays for collecting chicken droppings, which in the future will greatly simplify the cleaning of the chicken coop.
- Nests should be nailed to the wall near the perches. They can be made open or closed, but the second option is preferable. The optimal size of the nest is 30x40 cm. It must be lined with straw and insulated with sawdust. For the future, it should be noted that it is better to remove eggs from the nests in the morning.
- Install drinkers and feeders in the chicken coop, slightly raising them above the floor so that less dirt, droppings and other debris get into them. You need to clean your inventory at least once a week.
- It is necessary to clean and disinfect the chicken coop at least 2 times a year. In this case, it is necessary to fill the floor with new straw or sawdust as it gets dirty.
When organizing a chicken house, you need to remember that it must be warm, light and clean so that its inhabitants can feel protected and not be exposed to unnecessary stress. This will allow you to get the most out of your chicken breeding.
Walking arrangement
The chickens kept at the dacha need daily walking, so it is advisable to organize a space for the birds near the hen house, where they can walk freely in good weather. It is believed that for each individual you need to allocate 2 square meters. m of territory in the fresh air.
The walk must be fenced off with a net so that the chickens cannot escape and trample the plants in the garden. For these purposes, it is better to use a mesh netting. In addition, it is worth building a transparent canopy over the walk so that in the summer a shadow is created in which the chickens will hide from the sun. In order for them to have free access to food and clean water, several feeders and drinkers should be placed in the walking area.
If you need advice on how to make a chicken feeder yourself, then this article will be useful to you.
Experienced farmers recommend that you equip the manhole with a door so that wild and domestic animals cannot enter the chicken coop. In the summer, the walkway can be left open, as birds often go out into the fresh air during this period. In winter, walking should not last longer than two hours, and it is possible only if the air temperature is not lower than -14 ° C. If severe frosts come, chickens need to be kept in an insulated house around the clock.
Chick care
Keeping chickens is considered a simple matter, however, for successful breeding, you will need to take into account a number of rules:
- To hatch chickens per rooster, you need to place from 5 to 10 females. Layers should hatch eggs for 5 days. Further, new eggs can be placed under them.
- If the chickens do not hatch offspring, you will need an incubator, which can be purchased at the store or made by hand. Young growth in such a device can be obtained in 28-29 days.
- Chicks should be kept in a box lined with newspaper. It is better to use an incandescent lamp to heat it. There is also a more budgetary option - a container with hot water wrapped in dense material.
- In the first days of life, it is necessary to breed the brood at a temperature of about 30 ° C. It can then be lowered to 20 ° C.
- You need to feed the chickens with three types of food - liquid mushy feed, dry feed, chopped eggs and cottage cheese. The latter category will allow chicks to receive proteins that are needed for the normal development of the muscles of the digestive tract and the production of vital enzymes.
- Mushrooms should form the basis of the chicks' diet for the first 10 days, and then dry food can be introduced into their menu. Its share should be half of the daily ration by the age of 2 months of chickens. At the same time, they can only be given whole grains after a month, otherwise they may choke.
- Drinking bowls with clean water must be installed in cardboard cages. For some time, you can mix a small amount of potassium permanganate into it. This drink will disinfect the stomach of the chicks.
- You can move chicks to a common chicken coop at the age of 3 weeks. By this time, they can already be given carrots, nettles, bran, wheat, tops, chalk or shells. Full transition to adult food can be done at 2 months of age.
Fresh milk is forbidden to chickens as it disrupts digestion and causes plumage to stick together.
Features of breeding laying hens
Eggs of domestic hens are better than factory counterparts in a number of parameters - nutritional composition, weight, natural yolk color. They can be sold at markets, private outlets or fairs, having previously received a veterinary examination. To do such a business, it is necessary to breed laying hens, among which the following breeds are distinguished by high productivity and adaptability:
- Kuchinskaya jubilee;
- Leghorn;
- Hisex;
- Loman Brown;
- Pushkinskaya.
Find more information about good laying hen breeds here.
It is better to buy egg crosses in the spring season. Their age should be from 3 to 4 months, since young animals begin to rush from 5 months. Thus, you can quickly compensate for the costs of buying and keeping chickens.
Conditions of detention
To breed hens at home, it is necessary to provide them with appropriate conditions of detention:
- The temperature in the chicken coop should be kept at + 25 ° C. Excessively low indicators are unacceptable, otherwise the productivity of layers will suffer.
- Lighting should be natural and artificial. For the first one in the hen house it is necessary to make a window and a window, and for the second one - to install incandescent lamps. Daylight hours should last from 6 am to 7 pm. In the cold season, it can be extended with artificial light.
- In the hen house, it is imperative to install nests at the rate of 1 nest for 3-4 individuals. They must be placed at a height of 0.5 m from the floor.
- Install a sufficient number of feeders and drinkers in the room so that the birds do not choke and do not arrange fights during drinking and feeding. For this, one should proceed from the following calculation - 10 cm per 1 individual.
- Keep the coop clean and remove droppings as they become dirty. It is worth changing the litter 1-2 times a week, as well as not allowing it to get wet.
- Organize a place for poultry walking near the chicken coop. To do this, you can simply fence the area adjacent to it with a mesh with small cells.
It is believed that 10-20 hens will feel comfortable on an area of at least 2x3 m.
Do you need a rooster?
When settling laying hens in a ready-made room, novice breeders are interested in whether it is necessary to add roosters to them. This is not necessary, since egg production even increases slightly in their absence. However, many breeders still prefer to keep males in order to maintain the structure of the flock. In addition, unfertilized eggs are not suitable for an incubator.
To decide what to do for you, we recommend that you additionally read the article on when a rooster is needed for laying hens.
Feeding
Laying hens are unpretentious in their diet, although they need a lot of protein. To do this, the following food must be present in their diet:
- wheat;
- compound feed;
- fish or bone and meat and bone meal.
In addition, they need an increased amount of calcium in order for the eggshell to be hard enough. Its reserves can be replenished by adding special additives to the feed. These include:
- a piece of chalk;
- crushed eggshell;
- crushed shells;
- yeast.
Once a week, chickens should be given salt for better absorption of food and the destruction of helminths (worms).
They should also be given root vegetables and herbs on a regular basis. The best additives to the feed mixture will be;
- carrot;
- cabbage;
- zucchini;
- potatoes;
- beet;
- nettle;
- beet or carrot tops;
- quinoa.
At the same time, it is extremely important to adjust the diet of the chickens depending on the season. In autumn, they can be given pears and apples, but in winter, the percentage of grain should be increased and the proportion of root crops should be reduced. In addition, you need to constantly monitor the availability of clean water in the drinkers. In winter, it should not be allowed to freeze.
You can read about how to make drinking bowls for chickens and chickens yourself in this article.
It is necessary to feed the chickens 2-3 times a day. In the morning, you need to give protein feed like wheat and bran, at lunch - a mash, and in the evening - grain. It is imperative to feed them at the correct time, otherwise their egg production may suffer.
Features of breeding broiler chickens
To obtain meat for sale, it is most advisable to breed broilers that belong to a selective meat breed of chickens. They have high growth rates, therefore they are actively developing and quickly gaining body weight. Thanks to this, the cost of feed mixtures is lower than when breeding mixed crosses.
Breeders offer various crosses bred by crossing meat breeds. The following broilers are distinguished by high indicators of productivity and quality of meat:
- ROSS 301;
- ROSS 708;
- Broiler-61;
- COBB 500.
Representatives of these crosses should be bought at the age of 10 days. In this case, you need to choose active chicks with shiny eyes.Make sure their belly is soft and taut, the fluff is even, and the wings fit snugly against the body.
Breeding methods
There are two ways to breed broilers:
- Intensive... Assumes the purchase of young animals every trimester. Allows you to breed chickens all year round.
- Extensive... Livestock is purchased from spring to mid-summer. Young growth is grown to the required performance, and then slaughtered and sent for sale. Breeding starts only next season.
Regardless of the breeding method, the resulting meat can be sold in private stores, markets and fairs. It is in great demand than the meat of poultry farms, because it is more tender, aromatic and tasty. In addition, such meat is considered not only dietary, but also more complete due to its high protein content.
Conditions of detention
Newly bought chickens can be kept in boxes, but not too crowded. For this, 1 sq. m of area should not come more than 15-20 individuals. The optimum temperature on the first day is 30 ° C. Subsequently, it can be lowered daily by 1-2 ° C and stopped when the indicator reaches about 20-19 ° C.
After a few days in the box, the chicks can be transplanted into cages. Each of them should contain no more than 20 individuals. There is another way to breed broilers - on the floor or on a litter, which involves the mandatory use of filings from sawdust, wood and bark. In this case, you must follow these rules:
- Sprinkle each square meter with 1 kg of quicklime powder, and then sprinkle the sawdust with a layer of 10 cm.
- Create ventilation in the room.
- Maintain a humidity level not higher than 65%.
Fattening
Broiler feeding needs to be given the utmost attention, since the intensity of their growth will depend on this. The diet of birds should be made up as they grow up:
- From 1 to 3 days... Feed the chickens boiled eggs, milk and cottage cheese.
- 3 to 5 days... Add chopped fresh herbs (20%), sprouted grains (10%), grass flour (5 g) to the menu.
- From day 5... Mineral substances should be introduced into the diet at the rate of 3 g for each individual. Supplements in the form of bone meal, chalk, and crushed seashells are considered the most useful.
- From day 15... The menu can be supplemented with carrots, boiled meat. It must contain such products.
- oatmeal;
- millet;
- crushed wheat;
- corn grits;
- crushed barley.
- From 3 weeks of age... 20% of the feed mixture must be replaced with boiled potato roots.
- From 2 months of age... It is required to exclude protein foods from the diet, replacing them with herbs.
In order for the chickens to actively gain weight and not get fat, it is also necessary to strictly observe the diet. In the first week, they should be fed 8 times, in the second - 6 times, in the third and fourth - 4 times. Upon reaching the age of one month, they can be transferred to 2 meals a day.
Breeding chickens as a business
Many breeders raise chickens to get eggs or meat for sale. The nuances of the business are determined depending on the direction of activity. It is believed that raising beef chickens is more profitable than raising hens, but it also costs more to keep and feed the birds.
When breeding layers, profit can be obtained from the first month and over the next six months, until the egg production of hens decreases. It is believed that one hen produces 1 egg every 2 days. She begins to rush at the age of 4.5-5 months, and the period of her active productivity is about 6 months, after which she will need to update the livestock.
A small farm can keep up to 30 animals. If we assume that the market value of a dozen domestic eggs is 60 rubles, then 2,700 rubles can be obtained per month, and 14,850 rubles for the entire season.
If you breed broilers for meat, you will need to spend more money on their maintenance, since these birds require more expensive food and better growing conditions. In addition, it must be taken into account in advance that, on average, a third of the young dies. As for the advantages, it should be noted that broilers grow rapidly, adding 50 g every day. On average, they reach their maximum weight in 1.5-2 months, but no longer than 80 days.
It is generally accepted that the net weight after slaughter of the chicken is 2 kg. The market value of poultry meat is 250 rubles per kilogram. Thus, for one individual, you can save 500 rubles. If the farm contains 30 individuals, then they can earn about 15 thousand rubles.
For more information on raising chickens as a business, see the video below:
On a large farm, layers and broilers can be raised at the same time, but they must be kept in different rooms.
With proper chicken breeding, every breeder can get the highest quality eggs and meat. Moreover, such products can be successfully sold in shops, private outlets or at fairs. For waste-free production, poultry manure should be used as fertilizer for the vegetable garden. Starting with a small farm, you can gradually gain experience and increase the turnover of such a business.