How to properly feed laying hens. How and what to feed chickens to lay eggs better? Rules for feeding laying hens in winter

The productive qualities of poultry depend on the adequate nutrition that the farmer must provide to his livestock. No matter what direction chickens are bred, they all need a properly formulated diet consisting of varied and balanced ingredients.

After the poultry farmer has decided on the products that will form the basis for feeding the chickens (this will be discussed a little later), it is necessary to understand how many times a day laying hens should receive feed. A large amount of food will cause obesity, and a shortage, on the contrary, will lead to exhaustion. Both options will have the most Negative influence on livestock health and egg production. All components must be correctly sized.

IN winter time, it is recommended to feed the bird three to four times a day. For the first time, and before going to bed, it is best to pour dry feed or grain crops. Wet type mashes are distributed during the daytime, the same applies to boiled or raw vegetables. If necessary, the food can be warmed up a little until warm. In addition to food, birds must have fresh, clean water.

The better the egg production of laying hens, as well as their weight, the more feed they should receive.

For example: with a weight of 1.7 kg and an expected production of one hundred eggs in 365 days, a chicken will need 125 grams of feed per day; the same egg production, but the weight is 2 kg, the amount of feed increases by 5 grams. Next, for every 250 grams of weight you need to add 10 grams of food. Also, the indicator should be increased at higher egg production at the rate of 130 eggs - 5 grams, 160 eggs - 10 grams, etc.

Note to the poultry farmer! If chickens are kept in a room with no heating, then with approaching frosts it will be necessary to slightly increase the amount of feed or grain during evening distribution.

You can preserve the maximum amount of vitamins and microelements in food by following simple processing technologies. Using a number of recipes allows you to obtain food that will be well digested and completely eaten by birds.

Various feed preparation technologies

Name of food	How to cook	Note
Potato	Boiled in the usual way. The water is drained, the root vegetables are kneaded and mixed with bone meal	Can be given in pure form or use in mash
Carrots, fodder beets, radishes, new potatoes and other root crops	Used both raw and boiled depending on convenience	If necessary, vegetables are grated or chopped in any other way.
Waste from meat and fish production	Dacha is allowed in raw, but cut form, or boiled	You can save waste for future use by filling it with serum and placing it in a cool room.
Corn	Crushers or conditioners are used to grind to the desired size	In winter, grain crops are sprouted by soaking them in warm water for a day. Then the water is drained and the grain is left in a warm room until white shoots appear
Legumes	Pre-soaking and steaming are used
Waste from garden plants, vegetables, fruits	Grinding, scalding with boiling water for nettles

Good to know! To increase the amount of B vitamins, yeast is used. For 1 kg of wet food you need to add up to 10 grams of fresh yeast and mix thoroughly.

It is best to harvest meadow grasses in spring or summer. This is the time when the content of nutrients in herbs peaks. The plants are mowed and placed in small windrows for subsequent drying.

It is recommended to use a shady place for windrows, so that under the influence sun rays no destruction of vitamins occurred. Some farms install special hay dryers. The food can be considered ready when the rustling of the grass begins to be heard when turning.

Chickens will willingly eat not only meadow plants, but also coniferous branches. Their collection begins in November and ends in March. The following components are also eaten: seeds, leaves, fruits of wild trees. At the end of autumn and beginning of winter, when there is a shortage of green mass, crushed parts of wild plants are used as an excellent top dressing.

The constant purchase of such food for chickens is very expensive due to the high cost, however, laying hens still need it. Making feed with your own hands is a great help to farmers. In this case, it will be possible to avoid the content of growth hormones and chemical additives in food, which may be found in commercial feed.

With knowledge of the recipes and components of the bird in household will be provided with natural high-quality feed.

Feed recipes

Composition No. 1

wheat grain – 64.2%;
bone meal – 4%;
soda – 0.70%;
salt – 0.1%
limestone flour – 7.5%;
sunflower meal – 17.5%
premix P1-2 – 1%

Composition No. 2

wheat – 550 g;
barley – 300 g;
bran – 50 g;
sunflower cake – 100 g;
meat and bone meal – 40g;
sunflower oil – 20 g;
crushed shell rock – 50 g;
feed chalk – 27 g;
table salt – 3 g;
premix – 1 g.

Composition No. 3

corn grain – 45%;
pea grain – 7%;
barley-wheat mixture – 24%;
sunflower meal – 7%;
herbal flour – 2%;
bone meal – 2%;
fishmeal – 6%;
feed chalk – 2%;
salt – 0.1%:
soda – 0.7%.

Regardless of the chosen recipe, when producing compound feed at home, it is necessary to first ensure the quality and freshness of the components.

Despite the fact that chickens are unpretentious birds, they are picky about feed, they need to be given only healthy food in order to get high-quality products, be it meat or eggs.

Green potatoes with sprouts

It is in this form that root vegetables pose a serious danger to laying hens, and the same applies to the water in which cooking took place. Green potatoes contain excess solanine, which can lead to poisoning of livestock.

Bakery products

In no large quantities dried white bread can be given to chickens, but black bread has increased acidity capable of disrupting work digestive system. The result is diarrhea. Sweet pastries cause fermentation in the stomach and have a negative effect on the circulatory system.

Sausages

You should not give laying hens any type of sausage or frankfurters. Such products contain excess fat, seasonings, chemical flavors, dyes and preservatives. All these components can cause a heart attack or stroke in a bird.

Cheeses and milk

The body of laying hens does not produce the enzyme involved in the processing of lactose. Milk and cheese entering the stomach of birds lead to dysbacteriosis, and cheeses also contain salt and fat. What an excess of such components leads to has already been discussed.

First meal

For many poultry farmers, it is common practice to feed birds with table waste. Porridge and vegetable salads will not cause much harm, unlike soups. Most broths, with the exception of the vegetarian version, are prepared with a fatty base, which is very harmful to chickens.

Sweet products

The pancreas of poultry produces insulin, but not in sufficient quantities to combat high content sugar in baking. An excess of this component will become a favorable environment for the development of pathogenic fungus.

Alcohol

An exception can only be made for medicines with an alcohol base, they must be diluted with water before use. Such medications are used for treatment for no more than 7 days. More long term causes irreversible processes in the liver of chickens, which is unable to process alcohol.

What to feed laying hens so that they lay eggs well - diet composition

Poultry, regardless of the season, must be provided with high-quality feed. But, for example, in winter it is impossible to find fresh grass in the middle zone, and therefore you will have to resort to some correction depending on the time of year. Right choice food products will allow maintaining high egg production in laying hens even at the onset of the transition period.

As soon as the warm season arrives, chickens begin active egg production. At this time, it is recommended to diversify your diet as much as possible. Having a walking yard where the bird can independently find some of its food will be very helpful during such a period.

Thanks to various larvae, earthworms, and the first grass, the shortage will be filled vitamin complexes, formed in winter. Even if the owner takes good care of his chickens during the cold season, he may not always be able to provide the bird with perfectly balanced feed.

cereals (barley and wheat grain) – 45 g;
bran, oatmeal – 20 g;
pea and corn grain - 5 g;
green mass, vegetables – 55g;
bone meal, animal feed – 5g;
cakes, meal, feed yeast – 7g;
dairy products – 10g;
shell rock, feed chalk – 3g;
table salt – 0.5 g.

With the onset of autumn, chickens begin to renew their feather cover. At this time, the body is noticeably weakening, which is associated with deterioration metabolic processes. The faster the feathers are changed, the faster the hens will recover. Thanks to balanced diet You can support chickens during this difficult time.

increase in protein in feed;
feed more food of animal origin;
add vitamins to the mash;
add succulent feed (green matter, tops from garden plants, vegetable crops).

The diet should contain the following products:

fresh curd;
crushed egg shells;
feed chalk;
small shell rock;
beet tops and cabbage leaves;
boiled potatoes, red carrots, zucchini and pumpkin seeds.

The main task of the owner during these months is to provide the laying hens with the necessary energy supply. The food should contain proteins and carbohydrates that will help the birds survive frosts.

It is recommended to feed the bird with sprouted grain; unsprouted grains are pre-steamed before distribution for better digestibility. Yeast contains a large amount of protein, which means you can carry out yeasting, as described earlier.

Also in winter it is necessary to introduce various vitamin and mineral complexes into the diet. They can be added to drinkers or mixed with feed.

When choosing feed, the owner of laying hens should pay close attention to the following points:

compound;
best before date;
quality.

The bird needs to receive a sufficient amount of proteins, carbohydrates, fats and vitamins every day. Balanced feed has the most positive effect on the performance of domestic chickens.

Laying hens need to be provided with: grain of barley and wheat, crushed corn, oats. It is recommended to mix all this before pouring it into the feeders. To obtain egg products, there will not be enough cereal feed in sufficient quantities, and therefore it is recommended to diversify the diet with the following products:

root vegetables;
green mass;
table salt;
vegetables;
phosphorus;
calcium

There are a huge number of factors that influence loss of productivity. Most good reason called unhealthy diet, as a result of which eggs appear in soft shell that chickens can eat. In this case, the owner needs to completely reconsider the feeding method of his livestock.

This problem most often occurs in young animals due to a lack of minerals. For good egg production, feed must be saturated with calcium, phosphorus, and the necessary vitamin supplements.

What to feed chickens so that they lay eggs well, feeding laying hens: video

What to feed chickens in winter so that they lay eggs: video

As a conclusion, we can say the following: compliance with all aspects of feeding, together with a properly formulated and balanced diet, leads to the fact that laying hens show good egg production, which has the most positive effect on the farmer’s profit.

With proper feeding, chickens lay eggs all year round.

The diet for them should consist of whole grains and flour mixture, feed of plant, animal and mineral origin.

The diet of chickens from which eggs are obtained for hatching young animals must include feed rich in vitamins and containing easily digestible, complete protein.

Breeding chickens are fed sprouted grain: a source of vitamin E - up to 40 g per chicken per day.

Baker's yeast is a source of B vitamins. They are introduced with mixed feed daily in an amount of 3-5 g. Yeasting of feed can be carried out. Also included in the diet fish fat in the amount of 1 g per head. There should always be mineral feed in the poultry house.

An approximate daily ration calculated for one head of chickens may be as follows (in g):

grain (oats, barley, etc.) - 50;
flour mixture (oatmeal, barley, wheat bran) - 50;
hay flour - 10;
juicy feed (carrots, rutabaga, beets) - 30-50;
dry protein animal feed and plant origin(cakes, meat waste, etc.) - 10-15;
shell - 5;
bone meal - 2;
salt - 0.5.

An adult bird changes its plumage annually. Shedding usually begins in late summer - early autumn, when daylight hours are shortened, and is accompanied by a noticeable weakening of the body. The feather is changed within 2-4 months. At this time, the egg production of chickens decreases and egg laying may even stop completely. The earlier molting begins, the shorter the chickens’ productive period and the lower their productivity. With rationed feeding, compliance with the required length of daylight hours and good conditions When kept, the bird molts in the fall, the molting process is intense and ends in 1.5-2 months. A bird that has begun to molt in the summer, on next year leaving it is not advisable.

During molting of chickens, the diet is diversified with succulent feed, the proportion of protein feed, especially of animal origin, is increased, the diet is enriched with feed rich in vitamins, or vitamin preparations are introduced into it.

Feeding during molting should be less abundant than at the height of egg laying, but varied and high in calories. Poultry can be fed fish and meat and bone meal, fresh cottage cheese, and skim milk. You should give shells, slaked lime, chalk, bone meal, eggshells, as well as carrots, pumpkin, potatoes, cabbage and beet leaves, and legumes. It is good to feed molting hens grain that has sprouted until they hatch and yeast feed.

Usually the bird is fed 3-4 times a day. In the morning they give one third of the daily grain requirement, after 2 hours they feed the wet mash in such an amount that the bird eats it completely within 30-40 minutes after distribution. The dry mixture is poured into separate feeders as it is eaten. At night they are fed grain.

In winter, you can use the following ration per laying hen per day (in g):

cereals - 50;
wet mash (ground barley, oats, etc.) t 30;
boiled potatoes - 100;
sunflower cake - 7;
hay flour or nettle - 10;
curdled milk - 100;
chalk, shell - 3;
ground bones or bone meal - 2;
table salt - 0.5.

Used in feeding chickens the following groups feed: carbohydrate, mineral, vitamin and a number of additives.

Carbohydrate feeds include cereal grains (corn, wheat, millet, barley, oats, sorghum, chumise, etc.), potatoes and root vegetables with melons, cereals and milling waste (bran, flour, mill dust).

Protein feeds contain a lot of protein and are divided into feeds of animal origin (fish, meat and bone meal, meat feather meal, whole and skim milk, cottage cheese, etc.) and plant origin (legume grains, cakes and meals, yeast, flour from legumes, herbs and nettles).

Vitamin feeds are a source of vitamins and provitamins, which are contained in whole milk, flour from various herbs and tops of vegetable plants, pine flour, carrots, and green grass.

Mineral feeds, which include shell, chalk, limestone, feed phosphates, table salt, salts of macro- and microelements, serve as a source of minerals: calcium, phosphorus, sodium, chlorine, iron, etc.

If necessary, also use medicinal preparations as prescribed by a veterinarian.

In addition to feed mixtures, the basis of which is concentrated feed (grains of cereals and legumes, wheat bran, cakes, meal, etc.), leftover food, kitchen waste, vegetable tops and green grass are also used to feed birds, which can replace a significant part of the scarce grain feed .

It is necessary to ensure that wet food were in the feeder for no more than 2-3 hours, since in the warm season they quickly deteriorate, causing birds gastrointestinal diseases. Therefore, wet mash should be prepared immediately before feeding.

It is better to crush or flatten grain feed before feeding. Best sizes Ground grain particles are considered 1-2 mm. If wet mash is used, the grain is crushed to smaller particles, as this leads to improved use nutrients in the bird's body.

Legume grains (peas, vetch, beans, etc.) before feeding are soaked for 1-2 hours in water and then steamed or boiled in a minimum amount of water over low heat. Heat treatment legume grains increase the bird's protein utilization.

After washing, potatoes and root vegetables are crushed into pulp or paste using cutting machines or graters and immediately mixed with other feed. Potatoes are pre-steamed or boiled; The sprouts are removed from sprouted potatoes. After boiling sprouted or greened potatoes, water cannot be used to prepare mash, as it contains solanine, which causes poultry poisoning.

Grass or tops are crushed in wooden troughs into chops or passed through a meat grinder. The main thing is the minimum particle size of grass and tops. For feed purposes, use legume grass (clover, alfalfa, peas, vetch, sweet clover) before or at the beginning of flowering, nettle (previously scalded with boiling water), dandelion, quinoa and other herbs, potato tops (preferably dry, as they do not contain solanine), carrots, beets, rutabaga, radishes, cabbage leaves.

The bird eats mash well, into which horticultural waste is introduced - crushed carrion of apples, pears and plums, apple pomace, etc.

In the autumn-winter period, birds can be fed pine flour (3-10 g per head per day), containing a large amount of vitamins, as part of the mash. For this purpose, coniferous paws are prepared. They can be harvested until March. The needles are crushed and immediately used to prepare mash.

Feed mixtures for birds must include feed of animal origin (whole and skim milk, fish meal, meat and fish broths, minced fish, meat and bone meal, etc.)> containing a large amount of essential amino acids, the lack of which in the diet significantly reduces the productivity of chickens.
Therefore, many amateur poultry farmers breed earthworms on their property, which they feed to the birds even in winter.

Much attention should be paid to the mineral nutrition of poultry. Thus, to form the shell of one egg, a chicken consumes more than 2 g of calcium and 0.1 g of phosphorus. A good source of calcium are chalk, shells of mollusks and shells (it is better to boil live river mollusks first and grind them whole, avoiding them long-term storage), eggshells and limestone. All feed must be ground. Before feeding, eggshells should be well calcined at a temperature of up to 150°C for 10-15 minutes over an open fire, placing them in a frying pan or baking sheet, since boiling eggs does not always completely neutralize the shells from microorganisms. After this, the shells must be ground.

Use old slaked lime, which has been stored for at least six months. Freshly prepared and quicklime cannot be used. Natural limestones can be used as a source of calcium, but it should be taken into account that they may contain harmful minerals - impurities of fluorine and arsenic. Old wood ash, bone meal, and feed phosphates are used to enrich poultry diets with calcium and phosphorus. Table salt the bird is given in the form aqueous solution no more than 0.5 g per chicken per day as a source of sodium and chlorine. Excess salt in the diet causes increased thirst, decreased appetite and even poisoning.

Consumption drinking water depends on the productivity of the bird, its age and weight, temperature environment, humidity and amount of feed consumed. The bird consumes 200-300 g of water for every 100 g of dry food. Approximately at an air temperature of 10-18°C, a chicken drinks 250-300 g of water during the day.

At elevated temperature environment and consumption of dry food, the need for water in poultry increases. In hot weather, water should be cooled, and in winter - heated.

The diet for chickens is very important, since if it is disturbed, productivity quickly drops and egg laying may stop completely.

Experienced breeders have no problems feeding birds, but beginners often make serious mistakes, which is why they later complain about bad birds and lack of eggs.

Laying hens need quality nutrition every season. There is a special one, but, nevertheless, it is better not to be guided by it, but, knowing what food the bird needs, select their combination yourself, taking into account individual characteristics their chickens

Layer Feeding Basics

Despite all the unpretentiousness of the bird, you should not feed it only scraps from your table. Such feeding is the main mistake of an inexperienced breeder who keeps only a few animals. Food from the table can be given to chickens, but not as the main food, and if it is not spoiled. Even though chickens have a strong stomach, they should not eat spoiled food, just like humans.

The diet of a laying hen should be designed in such a way that it includes all essential vitamins and minerals.

If this cannot be achieved with feed, the birds are given special premixes to compensate for the deficiency. You can buy additives intended directly for chickens in specialized markets. You can easily replace them with a premix for dogs phytocalcivit, which is purchased at a regular pet store and costs no more than 100 rubles. A standard 500-gram pack of the drug will last 10 chickens for 1 month.

IN complete diet birds must include the following components:

wheat,
barley,
sorghum,
corn,
peas,
beans,
roots,
potato,
greenery,
shell rock,
minced bone,
cake,
yeast,
fish,
dairy products,
quality table scraps,
vitamin and mineral supplements.

Feeding chickens with compound feed is extremely undesirable, as this reduces the value of their eggs, lowering their quality.

If it is impossible to do without it, then it should be given only in an amount of no more than 20% of the total amount of food. A variety of food is the main key to good egg production.

It is very important that the bird does not become fat(in this case, she stops laying eggs), and therefore you need to know not only what to give the chickens, but also how.

Chicken feeding regime and standards

The right diet ensures that chickens produce eggs all year round. The bird will rest only 1 month a year, and then split it into short periods during molting.

The metabolism of chickens is quite fast, and therefore they need it for their well-being. receive food 2 times a day. The portion should be such that the bird eats it within 30 minutes.

This does not include vegetable and fruit waste, as well as watermelon rinds, which chickens can eat throughout the day.

The main food should not be constantly available to the birds, since in this case, constantly pecking at it in small quantities, they will interrupt their appetite and, as a result, will not receive the required amount of food per day.

Between feedings, chickens must get their own food by digging in the ground and nibbling grass.. Such nutrition will not reduce the appetite for the next feeding. For laying hens at home, feed should be divided into dry and wet.

Dry food- this is grain. They should be given in the morning feeding so that the pets receive the most high-calorie food before the day, during which they are quite active.

Wet food- these are boiled vegetables or mash. Compound feed is classified into the category of combined feed.

Feed must be given at the same time every day, which will allow you to receive eggs at a certain hour. This is very important to pick them up in a timely manner to prevent bird damage.

If the egg is left in the nest too long, the hens may accidentally crush it and taste the contents. This phenomenon is extremely undesirable, since after the test, in order to get a treat, the hens begin to deliberately peck at the eggs. To combat this problem, it is necessary to use special catch nests, in which the egg immediately rolls into a place inaccessible to the bird.

Rules for preparing feed (mash)

The mash can be prepared using leftover soup or whey. You can use cooked crushed cereal, non-moldy white bread or bran (bran is given once a week to ensure good digestion for the bird).

The mashes turn sour very quickly, and therefore they should be prepared immediately before feeding and only for one time.

All vitamin and mineral supplements are included in the mash. If the bird is kept in cages, then chopped fresh grass is added to the mash. Dry grass (mainly nettle) in crushed form is given to birds in winter to prevent vitamin deficiency.

The grain should not be given in its pure form, but by preparing a mixture from it. The base should be wheat, to which will be added barley, rolled oats, crushed corn, split peas, sunflower pulp and buckwheat (optional). The grain mixture is also sold in ready-made form, but the grain ratio in it is often incorrect and does not allow the bird to get everything it needs. The correct composition of the grain mixture is a very important factor in order for chickens to lay eggs better.

Watermelons are very beneficial for chickens. If they are available in large quantities, the bird simply cuts them into 2 halves and places them in the aviary. When watermelons are not in abundance, pets are given their rinds, grated or finely chopped. It is not advisable to give melon skins, as they can cause diarrhea in many birds.

Chickens must have access to clean and fresh water at all times.. The water should be replaced once a day. In order for the birds to receive additional vitamins, the drinking bowl can be filled with a decoction of nettles or calendula flowers. This drink will only benefit laying hens.

Fish and bone mince are best fed raw.. They can be added to the mash or introduced into the chickens’ diet 2 times a week as a separate daily feeding. In this case, the morning portion of food is reduced by half. It is necessary to cook fish only if it is large and the bird cannot swallow it normally.

It is good to use fish waste for feeding, which can often be purchased for little money at fish processing enterprises.

In the event that from time to time there are some disturbances in the feeding of the bird, and it does not receive the most varied diet, nothing terrible will happen and there will be no fewer eggs. The main thing is that deviations from proper feeding did not last more than 3 days.

How much feed do you need per day?

The daily ration of poultry is calculated in grams. Every day, chickens should receive everything they need, as this is the key to good egg production. On average, the volume of a laying hen's daily portion looks like this:

grain mixture - it should consist of 40 g wheat, 35 g crushed corn, 30 g barley, 10 g oatmeal, 10 g peas;
wet mash - 30 g;
boiled potatoes - 100 g;
sunflower pulp - 7 g;
chalk - 3 g;
bone meal - 2 g;
feed yeast - 1 g;
table salt - 0.5 g.

This daily diet allows you to get maximum amount eggs from a laying hen.

How to calculate portions depending on the body weight of the bird

The volume of a poultry feed portion is calculated not only by how quickly it eats it, but also by its weight. The main mass of food is considered to be 125 g, since this is enough for a bird weighing up to 1.5 kg, laying no more than 100 eggs per year.

Further, as the weight of the chicken increases, the portion is increased by 15 g for every 250 g of bird weight. The weight should be rounded up. Even if the chicken weighs, for example, 2.5 kg, the weight should be counted as 3 kg and feed should be added to this 50 g of weight as 250 g.

Not least important in calculating the volume of feed is the egg production of chickens. If a chicken lays more than 100 eggs per year, for every subsequent 30 eggs the daily portion is increased by 100 g. Rounding is also carried out upward.

Diet of laying hens at home

When a breeder takes the care of his hens seriously and competently and wants them to lay eggs every day, he prepares a summer and winter menu for them.

This is necessary, since with the advent of cold weather the bird requires more attention and due to a deficiency sunlight needs additional vitamins. Also, chickens also need additional feed for warmth, since the bird is only warm if it is completely fed.

in winter

For winter feeding, birds in summer dry nettles and prepare pine flour, and also store a variety of root vegetables. It is also necessary to ensure that there is enough cabbage.

When the temperature outside is down to -20 degrees, the bird should be fed in the morning and in the evening, but if the frost gets stronger, it becomes three meals a day.

After the night, chickens should be given soft and always warm food.. It can be mash or porridge. Cottage cheese must be added to them. Morning feeding also includes chalk, grass meal, pine meal and mineral and vitamin supplements. The first feeding also includes boiled vegetables and finely chopped cabbage.

Dry food, consisting of a grain mixture, the bird receives evening hours shortly before bed. Nothing bad will happen if the grain remains uneaten and lies in the feeder until the morning (this is only allowed if there are no rats in the house).

If possible, to make chickens lay eggs better, they should be given earthworms or maggots. Finding the latter is much easier, as they are sold in fishing stores.

Approximate daily menu for laying hens in cold period should look like this:

grain mixture 100 g,
boiled potatoes 100 g,
boiled root vegetables 50 g,
whey 100 ml,
cottage cheese 50 g,
dry nettle 10 g,
wet mash 50 g,
chalk 3 g,
sunflower pulp 7 g,
bone meal 2 g,
wheat bran 10 g,
table salt 0.5 g.

Potatoes should be on the poultry menu every day, since only the starch contained in it gives chickens enough energy to maintain the required body temperature efficiently.

In summer

During the warm period, chicken nutrition is significantly reduced. The bird does not have to spend a lot of energy on heating and, therefore, it does not need a lot of calories.

An approximate menu for a laying hen in the summer should look like this:

grain mixture - 40 g;
vegetable-based mash - 45 g;
tormenting mixture - 50 g;
yeast - 4 g;
fish oil - 1 g;
bone meal - 2 g.

The amount of salt remains the same. The bird receives all additional nutrition in the spring and summer on its own, being on an open range.

What should you not give to laying hens?

It is important for the breeder to know not only what to feed the chickens so that they lay eggs well at home, but also what not to give them. The following foods can seriously harm birds:

sprouted potatoes;
green potatoes;
decoction of potatoes listed above;
orange peels;
chicken - there is a risk of introducing various diseases to the bird;
quicklime;
freshly slaked lime;
moldy bread;
spoiled feed.

Video

Proper feeding of laying hens allows you to get delicious eggs throughout the year. Even a novice breeder, following the recommendations, can get excellent results.

Every poultry owner wants them to be productive. Many keep laying hens, and their high egg production is an indicator proper care and keeping at home. Poultry farmers often complain about the low productivity of laying hens, especially with the onset of cold weather. In this article we will tell you how to increase the egg production of poultry and how to properly feed laying hens.

Laying hens and features of their feeding

The productivity of chickens affects the profit of the owners who keep them. Very important when purchasing chicks choose the right breed with high egg production. It should be borne in mind that such breeds usually have high requirements for care and feeding. They are susceptible to conditions and diseases. Great importance has feeding of laying hens, compliance with the feeding regime.

Knowledge of the basic rules for feeding laying hens will determine final result. In addition to nutrition and breed, the egg production of a bird is affected by the age of the bird. Laying hens begin to lay eggs after 26 weeks of life. The active period of productivity occurs during the life period from 26 to 49 weeks of life. It is believed that chickens are unpretentious birds in keeping and feeding, however, feeding standards must be observed. They will increase the productivity of laying hens. The food should be rich in:

vitamins;
squirrel;
be complete and easily digestible.

Livestock specialists believe that the best stimulants for chicken laying are legumes. This includes:

lentils;
peas;
beans.

Chickens are usually not accustomed to such food, so at the very beginning they need help in consuming such food. Legumes must be steamed in advance and then added to the birds' food.

Feeding standards and diet

If you provide laying hens with the right feed, they will be able to lay eggs all year round. This is easy to do at home. Most often poultry farmers make your own poultry feed. What to feed laying hens at home? The diet of chickens should include:

mineral supplements;
vitamins;
compound feed;
corn.

All these important components in the bird's diet will help the birds lay eggs well. Currently, food is easy to buy and is available for free.

It is believed that birds should be fed twice a day and each daily portion should have a certain composition of all the necessary elements. In addition to these components, you can give other products that remain after the whole family eats. Chickens are unpretentious pets, so table waste will always find a use. In the villages people preparing a special mash, which immediately after cooking has a good consistency. If it stands for a long time, then it can quickly deteriorate. This food is best prepared for one-time feeding to birds. Feeders should be filled with 1/3 of the container's capacity to prevent chickens from trampling on the food.

Vegetation from a personal plot or vegetable garden is often used as vitamin supplements in feed:

vegetable tops,
herbs;
greens from the garden.

It is recommended to feed young laying hens not two, but 3 times a day. This applies to hens 48 weeks old. The amount of feed will depend not only on the age of the chicken, or its breed, but also on its walk. If the bird walked on fresh green grass during the daytime, then the amount of feeding should be less. It should be remembered that chickens have an excellent appetite and can eat a lot of food. If they eat more than they should, they will quickly gain weight and their egg production will decrease.

Feeding rules

Any breed needs to be fed evenly and regularly. On the quantity and quality of eggs, undoubtedly, affects food quality, number of feedings and portions of food, as well as different time feeding birds. When owners do not feed their animals on time, they constantly want to eat and only walk around the yard in search of food. In fact, these animals quickly get used to the daily routine and if they are fed at a certain time, they will rest calmly between meals.

The first feeding should begin in the morning, as soon as the birds wake up. If it is winter, then it is worth using additional lighting to increase daylight hours for laying hens. It is not worth rescheduling feeding times so as not to disrupt the usual routine. Morning diet can be made up of a mash with the following products:

ground grains;
boiled potatoes;
crushed eggshells;
bran;
food waste;
fish and bone meal;
salt.

Evening feeding should be 1 hour before the hens start roosting. No need to give them large portions, otherwise they will not be able to roost on time. IN evening time The diet must include whole grains, and a variety of them. It is best to give in different days certain grain. For example, wheat on Monday, corn on Tuesday, barley on Wednesday, etc. Feeding rates directly affect the quality and quantity of eggs. A laying hen can produce a maximum of no more than 100 eggs per year.

If an adult bird does not receive enough necessary substances in the stern, she cannot fully lay. If feeding is incorrect, you have to increase the feed rate. If you feed on time and with the right food, then the daily portion of an adult chicken will be 250 grams. With improper feeding, this figure may double. The taste of eggs also decreases and the eggs will be smaller.

This is very important in spring. During this period of time, many owners select eggs to put in the incubator. Incorrect feed and regimen will lead to the hatching of weak young animals.

Feeding laying hens at home

The nutrition of laying hens must correspond to natural needs. In natural conditions poultry most often feed on:

It is advisable to prepare food for the daily diet of laying birds with your own hands. In winter, the portions for birds should be increased so that they have enough energy to stay warm. Ideally it is necessary equip chicken coops with drinking bowls, feeders and thus save on expensive products. Daily diet birds should have the following composition:

grains - 120 g (wheat 20 g, corn 40 g, barley and oats 30 g each);
wet mash - 30 g;
green potatoes - 100 g;
cake - 7 g;
chalk - 3 g;
salt - 0.5 g;
yeast - 1 g;
bone meal - 2 gr.

This amount of food for laying hens at home will increase the activity of the birds and their egg production.

Approximate diet and norm for bird weight

It is best to give to domestic chickens in the morning. wet mash, boiled potatoes, crushed shells, bone meal, ground grain, salt and food scraps. In the evening, you should definitely give grain, but do not mix different varieties. The diet needs to be supplemented with other products that the chickens did not pick up during the whole day.

The above diet is calculated for the weight of an average-sized chicken. There are breeds that may differ in weight and egg production. With a weight of up to 1.8 kg and an egg production of 100 eggs per year, you need to give 125 grams of feed per day. From this norm, 10 grams are added for every 250 grams of bird weight over 1.8 kg. It is necessary to take into account the egg production of the breed, for every 30 over 100 eggs plus 100 grams.

Winter feeding

Particular attention should be paid to the diet of domestic chickens in winter. With the onset of winter, birds most often get sick and their mortality is observed. This occurs due to a lack of vitamins and other nutrients, malnutrition. Every farmer should know that in winter birds especially need certain products,

Adequate nutrition is the main condition for high productivity of laying hens and rapid weight gain in broiler chickens. Regardless of the purpose for which you raise birds, their feeding should be properly organized, varied and balanced. What to feed chickens - detailed information about this is presented in this publication.

The diet of chickens must contain a sufficient amount of components important for health in strictly defined proportions:

Variety of food for chickens

Organizing high-quality and varied nutrition for such omnivorous birds as chickens is not so difficult. One of the main rules is to make maximum use of waste, which is always found on any rural farmstead:

Rules for preparing feed

To maximize the preservation of vitamins and microelements, you must follow the rules for processing feed. If you prepare food in accordance with the recipe, it will be better absorbed and your pets will be more willing to eat it.

Wild food and methods of their preparation

The best time for harvesting meadow grasses is spring and summer. It is during this period that clover, quinoa, alfalfa, chicken millet, ashiritsa, china, manna, horse sorrel are especially rich useful substances. The grass is mowed and placed in small windrows to dry (preferably in the shade, since vitamins are destroyed in the sun). The hay is ready when it begins to rustle.

In addition to herbs, pine and spruce needles are added to the birds' food (it is best to collect them from November to March), as well as seeds, foliage and berries of wild trees - rowan, beech, birch, linden, ash, chestnut and shrubs - viburnum, rose hips, hawthorn , elderberries. In late autumn and winter, when there is a lack of greenery, the addition of crushed wild plants becomes an excellent help for good nutrition.

Feeding rules in homestead farming

The main rule is to give food at least twice a day:

early in the morning after waking up;
about an hour before the moment when the birds begin to prepare for bed (they enter the house and sit on a perch).

Feed your chickens as early in the morning and as late in the evening as possible to ensure healthy flocks and excellent productivity.

In the morning it is better to give wet soft mixtures of boiled potatoes, flour, vegetables and herbs with mineral supplements, and at night - a grain mixture, since it takes longer to digest.

Three and four meals a day are recommended only for young animals under the age of 8-10 months. The time for additional feed supply (wet and vitamin mash) is distributed evenly based on the length of daylight hours. In late autumn and winter, it is necessary to increase the portions to protect against hypothermia and to ensure that the birds receive enough energy.

Key rules of hygiene when feeding

Birds require gravel to grind food in their gizzards. If it is not in a separate feeder for a month or more, chickens may stop digesting up to 20% of their food, develop cuticulitis (rejection of the surface of the muscular stomach) and die.

Gravel should not be replaced with fine-grained sand, as it irritates the intestinal mucosa of birds, and in large doses can cause inflammation.

Diet standards

Let us consider, as an example, the dietary standards for meat-egg chickens. Such breeds are considered universal, more unpretentious and easy to care for, which is why they are most often grown on farms and on farms. personal plots. The percentage composition of the diet of meat-egg chickens is almost the same as that of egg-laying chickens, but the amount of food per head is slightly higher (up to 15-18%).

The table below gives the daily amount of food for one adult chicken weighing 2.6 kg, depending on the time of year (in grams per head).

Types of feed	in winter	in spring	In summer	in autumn
Whole grains (2 types)	50	45	40	45
Crushed grain (2-3 types)	50	55	60	55
Cake, meal	12	13	12	12
Wheat bran	10	10	10	10
Boiled potatoes	50	40	20	20
Yeast	3	4	3	3
Silage or root vegetables	40	20	-	20
Herbal meal and greens	10	10	50	30
Bone flour	5	7	5	5
Milk serum	20	30	30	20
Shell, chalk	4	5	4,5	4
Salt	0,5	0,5	0,5	0,5

During the breeding period, to increase reproductive abilities, roosters need to add 50 g of sprouted grain enriched with vitamins A and E (20 mg per kg of feed) to their regular diet. Feed in separate feeders out of reach of chickens.

Feed for chickens

It may well become the basis of the chickens’ diet, since it contains a whole range of substances important for their body. But in order for it to be truly useful, it is important to know the composition and dosage.

Video - Making a diet for adult chickens

What ingredients and in what proportions should be in the feed?

We offer you an approximate composition of a balanced feed that is easy to prepare at home.

The composition and proportions may vary slightly depending on the breed and age of the chicken population.

A big plus of preparing a nutritional composition with your own hands is your confidence in the quality of both each component and the final product. In addition, this will help save up to 60 percent of costs compared to ready-made feed.

In winter, the mash must be warm, and it is advisable to germinate the barley. If you have a small herd, then this food can be prepared in ordinary containers. For large volumes you will need at least a small mixer.

If you don’t have the opportunity or desire to prepare compound feed yourself, you can always buy ready-made feed in specialized stores or on the market.

Industrial feed

Compound feeds produced at specialized enterprises are of two types:

CC (concentrated feed);
PC (complete feed).

Concentrate feed contains no more than 12% of digestible protein, and for complete nutrition of chickens a minimum of 18% is required. This means that cake, meal, animal proteins and other additives additionally need to be added to the CC.

Essentially, this is grain ground and pressed into granules, waste from the flour milling industry, which sometimes contains up to 1.5% of the P-1 or P-2 premix (a mixture of vitamins, antioxidants, amino acids and antimicrobials).

If the CC already contains a premix, its additional addition is extremely undesirable (carefully look at the composition on the packaging).

As for PP, its composition is completely balanced, includes all the necessary components and does not require any additional additives. However, its cost is quite high.

Video - Compound feed: secrets of poultry farms

What to feed laying hens to increase productivity?

The egg production of chickens is negatively affected by any deviations from the feeding norm, be it undernutrition or overeating, so it is advisable to weigh portions before serving.

The composition of eggshells, consisting of 90% calcium carbonate, resembles the composition of human bones and teeth

A sufficient amount of grain, herbs, vegetables, and mineral supplements ensures quick laying and optimal body weight gain for laying hens. To increase productivity, the daily menu should be varied and well-balanced. If we talk about the variety of grains, then it does not consist of alternating wheat, barley and oats, but that the chickens receive all grain crops daily.

Proper nutrition is the key to egg production and optimal weight of chickens

Excellent sources of protein for laying hens are bone meal and mineral supplements. Thus, calcium for the hardness of the skeleton and eggshells must be obtained from shells, charcoal, edible chalk, burnt bones, as well as from wood ash that had lain in the open air for at least a month.

Daily diet of an adult laying hen

Raising chickens is one of the most interesting and profitable agricultural industries. Anyone, whether an amateur poultry farmer or a beginning farmer, does not necessarily need to purchase expensive feed to raise healthy and productive livestock. The main thing is to have a great desire and a minimum of necessary knowledge.