Caring for day old chicks: keeping rules and how to raise them from the first days

Buying day-old chicks is much cheaper than grown-up chicks, but novice poultry farmers often fear the death of the purchased livestock. After all, babies require special attention. Knowing the rules for caring for day old chickens will allow you to grow chickens without any problems, significantly saving the budget, and getting he althy and productive birds in your own backyard.

Selection of he althy offspring

Buy chicks better in the spring, from mid-April. Warm weather and green grass will allow the young to get stronger faster. They are purchased from breeding farms or from trusted manufacturers, otherwise there is a risk of mass death of the purchased bird.

Before buying, you should carefully examine the chickens. He althy chicks are active, they squeak, immediately react to the sound, turn their heads with curiosity. To check the birds, you can lightly tap with your finger on the box in which the babies are. They have clear eyes, uniform, dry and soft down.

The tummy of the babies is lifted and felt, it should be soft, which means that the chick has fully used the necessary substances from the egg. Examine the cesspool, it should be pink, clean, without traces of mucus. The chickens are stable on their legs.

Chickens and cockerels are selected by examining the cloaca. Do this carefully, without harming the chicken or causing him pain. Males will have a small bump. The second way to determine the sex of the baby is to turn it over, holding it by the paws. It is believed that the hen will pull her head to her chest, the cockerel will simply hang, stretching his neck.

After the purchase, babies must be delivered home. For transportation, a cardboard or plastic box with holes for ventilation is suitable. A soft cloth or paper, a disposable absorbent diaper or hay is placed at the bottom. If the distance is short, the chicks are fed and watered already at home.

What to feed day old chicks?

Chicks should receive a balanced diet. The diet of babies consists of:

• hard-boiled, finely chopped egg yolk;
• fresh cottage cheese;
• finely ground cereals (semolina is suitable, oatmeal ground in a coffee grinder, corn grits).

Groats are added so that the yolks with cottage cheese do not stick together into lumps. The food should be crumbly. Babies are fed every 2 hours, even at night. Grains in the mixture should be changed.For example, first, semolina is added to the feed mixture, after 2 hours - the yolk with cottage cheese and ground corn, then - with oatmeal. To teach the chicks to peck, the mixture is gradually shaken off the tip of the knife. The chickens quickly figure out what to do.

You can use ready-made feed with vitamins and prebiotics. The granules are small, optimal for chickens and contain a complex of necessary elements. It is called "zero", or starting.

Food should not be left in the feeders, chickens can climb into it with their feet, rubbish and feces of chicks that have fallen into food often cause illness and death. Leftover feed is removed immediately after feeding.

From 5-6 days, finely chopped green onions, nettles, grated carrots and fish oil are added to the diet, 0.1 grams per chick. There should always be clean water in the drinkers, it must be ensured that the chicks cannot climb into it with their paws.You should drink boiled water, you can add a couple of crystals of potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate) to it. The solution will turn a faint pink color.

Lighting and air temperature when rearing chickens

In the first days, chickens need lighting and additional heating around the clock, because they do not yet have normal thermoregulation, and they freeze even in a warm room. Drafts are fatal for babies.

For lighting and heating, chicks are placed in a brooder or kept in a box under a lamp. The temperature of the content from 1 to 7 days is 34-35 ° С. It is necessary to take care of the chicks and constantly monitor their well-being, if they huddle together, it means that the heating is insufficient, when they breathe heavily and spread their wings, you need to lower the temperature.They heat the chickens with an infrared lamp.

Preparation for keeping chickens

Depending on the number of chickens and the capabilities of the poultry farmer, various habitats are organized for babies.

In boxes

So the chicks are kept by novice poultry farmers or if there are not too many babies. A box with birds is placed in the warmest place, away from drafts. A lamp is installed above it for lighting and heating.

Important: the chicks should not be crowded, because then stronger chickens can accidentally crush weak relatives.

The bottom of the box is covered with soft paper or cloth. Change as it gets dirty, several times a day. Drinking bowls and feeders are also placed there. Babies' paws and fur should not be wet.

In cages

Special cages for chickens are called brooders. They are equipped with heating and a lamp for lighting.The design can be bought or made independently. The brooder is equipped with a pallet, which facilitates the cleaning process. The cell is divided into several compartments. Usually one of them contains strong active chicks, the second - a weakened population. Sick babies are placed separately.

The cage is equipped with drinkers, feeders, perches for grown chickens. Chicks can come under the lamp to warm up or move away if they are hot. In the brooder, chickens are kept up to a month old in the cool period, and 3 weeks in the warm season.

On mats

Raising chickens on a deep non-replaceable litter allows the livestock to move freely, the birds grow up active. For bedding, sawdust, peat, sunflower husks are used. Its components should be crumbly. For heating, a reflector is installed, illuminated with ordinary lamps.

This type of keeping is appropriate with a significant number of chicks. The litter is periodically sprinkled, it should not be damp and dirty. Its thickness is 10-15 centimeters. The floor under the litter is concreted or treated with lime. Perches are equipped for grown chickens.

Bringing pets under a mother hen

So the chicks get less than in the incubator. There are several reasons for this:

• not all hens make good hens;
• chickens stop laying eggs;
• show aggression towards other residents of the chicken coop;
• can crush eggs and chickens.

For incubation choose a calm chicken 2-3 years old. Fertilized eggs are harvested within a few days. 10-13 eggs are laid under the hen so that she can safely cover the clutch. Choose even, smooth specimens of the same size, the chicks should hatch at about the same time.

In a shaded corner they build a nest. It is made from scrap materials. Usually this is a box made of chipboard or plywood, lying on its side. Be sure to build a small threshold 8-10 centimeters high so that the eggs do not roll out.Straw is laid at the bottom of the nest, the mother hen lines it with feathers herself.

She must always have water and food nearby so that the hen does not leave the nest for a long time. Hatching chicken chicks up to 30 days. She herself trains the chicks and cares for them. It is very interesting to watch this process.

Of course, little chickens are a lot of work. But this allows you to acquire the knowledge and experience necessary for a person who decides to start breeding chickens in his own backyard.

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