Mash for laying hens: how to cook, the best recipes and ingredients

What is a mash, how to prepare a balanced nutritious diet for a home-made laying hen without resorting to compound feed - this worries every breeder. To rush, as well as build muscle mass, the bird must receive a complete set of trace elements, vitamins, including calcium. The use of ready-made mixtures is fraught with poisoning and even death of chickens. We study the experience of professionals and amateurs, prepare the mash ourselves.

What is a mash

This is the name of a special compound that is fed to both adult hens and chickens so that they grow normally, do not get sick, and develop proportionally. The basis of the mash is crushed grain. The mixture is cooked wet, then the nutrients are added to it.

Of course, a chicken is not a pig, it will not be possible to feed it with household food waste in the full sense, but some leftover food from the table can be used. So you can vary the composition, simultaneously reducing the cost of it.

Pros and cons

The advantages of self-mixing include the following criteria:

1. Cheapness, ease of preparation. Good compound feed will obviously cost more.
2. Naturality. The composition of top dressing includes only natural products, no chemicals or preservatives.
3. 100% control of proportions, dosage, because everything is done by hand.

These were the advantages, but what about the disadvantages? They are also present. The stirrer is not intended for long-term storage and should be used up as soon as possible. Feed the bird with a stale mixture, get ready for negative manifestations - diseases, death of chickens.

Sometimes it's more economical to use cheap feed, and it's much less time consuming.

Which is better: feed or mash

The question is far from unambiguous, does not have a clearly defined answer. Compound feed is cheap, available, stored for a long time, does not require additional preparation before use. But there is a risk of poisoning, since it is not known what the composition was combined from, what was added there, how it will affect the chickens.

The stirrer is simple in fact, consists of natural ingredients, extremely nutritious. But - it takes time to prepare, does not allow storage in the finished form. Many poultry farmers alternately use both options, combining them wisely.

But most still tend to mix, as the optimal combination of trace elements and nutrients.

How to cook yourself?

At home, top dressing is prepared from grain, wheat, barley, corn are suitable. Fine gravel is added to stimulate digestion.

It is permissible to strengthen the mash with components to increase egg production, other additives.

The approximate composition is given below:

• cereals;
• boiled potatoes;
• meal;
• vegetables;
• bone meal;
• table s alt;
• chalk;
• greens;
• yeast.

If necessary, add egg shells, broth (meat or fish), milk. An excellent, balanced composition will be obtained if several varieties of grain are used at the same time.

For adult layers

In winter, laying hens traditionally produce fewer eggs than in other seasons. In order to prevent a complete drop in performance, a mash is being prepared for the bird.

For this you will need (components are given in grams):

• barley, wheat grain - 30 each;
• corn - 20;
• any greenery - 20;
• wheat bran - 5;
• meal - 10;
• shredded shells - 3;
• chalk - 2;
• s alt - 0.5.

The product is mixed with water, meat broth - to choose from. The approximate proportions of the mash are calculated using the formula 272 kilocalories per 100 grams of dry feed mixture. Give the finished mixture twice or thrice a day.

For chickens

Chicken formula is different from adult chicken formula. They are fed more often, and the food itself should be more dosed, aimed at uniform growth.

The most suitable base for kneading is whey or water. Additives (chalk, vegetables) are given to chickens on the 5th day after hatching from the shell. At 7 - finely chopped green shoots, crushed millet, fish oil are introduced into the diet. It is advisable to put sand and fine gravel in a separate feeder.

Newborn chickens are fed according to a special method: boiled hard-boiled egg (mashed), cottage cheese, herbs, mixed into a homogeneous mass in milk. From the age of 10 days, grown-up chicks can be fed with a mash according to the following composition:

• barley, corn grain - 13 grams;
• ground bone flour - 1 gram;
• meal - 0.5 grams;
• boiled potatoes - 4 grams;
• curd mass - 2 grams;
• greens - 7 grams;
• minerals - 1 gram;
• milk - 15 milliliters.

The components are indicated taking into account the approximate diet, they can be varied at your discretion. After such feeding, the chickens grow up he althy, quickly gain weight.

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