How to feed day old chickens: the best mixtures and rules at home

How to feed day-old and older chickens is a question that often arises among beginner poultry farmers when hatching offspring from eggs on their own. It depends on how comprehensive, complete and reliable information a beginner finds on it, whether the business he started (breeding chickens of egg or meat breeds) will be successful, interesting and profitable.

Chick Feeding Basics: What Beginners Need to Know

Beginning poultry farmers need to learn 3 main principles of feeding chickens:

1. Food for young animals of all ages should include only natural, unspoiled ingredients.
2. Home feeding chicks hatched or brooded should be done at the same fixed time.
3. Chickens shouldn't be hungry. In the first 8-10 days, for this they need to be fed every 1.5-2 hours.

In addition to timely and proper feeding, young chickens also need water - for this, a container with clean, boiled and warmed up to room temperature water must be in the box with young stock.

What to feed chickens of egg breeds

In order to grow highly productive laying hens and cockerels from egg-bearing breeds, they must be properly looked after and fed from the first days of life.

Newborns

After an incubator or a hen, newborn chicks should be given some time to dry and stand up. At this time, they do not need to be disturbed, to substitute food for them, which they will not touch.As soon as the fluff dries and becomes even, acquires a characteristic color, the chickens need to put food in the box.

From the first day, a small amount of dry finely ground wheat or corn grains is included in the diet, placed in a small flat container.

Per diem allowance

On the second day, feed is prepared for small chickens, consisting of the following components (in terms of 1 head):

• crushed mass of hard-boiled egg - 2.0-2.5 grams;
• fat-free cottage cheese - 1.0-1.5 grams;
• semolina - 1.5 grams.

Until a week

Until the age of 7 days, young animals are fed the same mixture as day-old chicks, with the gradual addition of cereals and milled wheat to the feed.

Older than a week

Week-old chicks are fed a protein-rich mixture of cereals (crushed or ground wheat, corn), various cereals (semolina, buckwheat, oatmeal), with the addition of a small amount of fat-free cottage cheese.

Two-week-old chicks continue to be fed the same formula as week-old chicks.

Monthly

Chicks over 4 weeks of age are gradually transitioned to medium grains, and from 6 weeks of age they begin to give whole grains. At the same time, the feed rates are gradually increased. Also, a grown bird is already given a crushed herbal mass, a small amount of shells, chalk, pebbles.

In three months

At the age of three months, young animals are transferred to a standard diet, consisting of specialized feed, self-produced grain mixtures.

What to feed chickens of meat breeds

In order for broilers to gain weight as quickly as possible, they, like young eggs of the egg direction, must be properly fed from the first days.

There are two main technologies for growing young meat breeds - intensive and extensive. Each of them corresponds to a specific feeding ration.

Intense

With this growing technology, young animals are kept in small cages, 10-12 individuals per 1 square meter. For the normal growth and development of the bird in such a specially insulated and well-ventilated room, the temperature is maintained from 17 to 20-21 ^{C and air humidity 60-70%.}

For feeding young broilers grown according to this technology, special combined feeds for meat breeds of different ages are used. To improve the digestion process, various limestone materials, fine gravel, dry wood ash are necessarily placed in the feeders. Broilers are grown this way all year round.

Extensive

With this growing technology, young animals live in an ordinary spacious chicken coop, eat both compound feed and green grass mass, every day they look for additional food on their own in a large walking yard or on a grassy pasture, to which broiler chickens are also released daily.

This technology is designed for short-term (no more than 4 months) growing of broilers and is used only in the warm season. In early spring, as well as in late autumn and, especially, in winter, it is not applicable due to the lack of natural food in the pasture and walking yard located next to the chicken coop and a significant decrease in air temperature in an uninsulated simple room.

How often to feed the chicks?

Feeding frequency depends on bird breed and age.

Thus, the feeding frequency of young egg breeds at different ages is:

• 1-10 days - 6 times per knock (feeding every 2-3 hours);
• 10-45 days - 5 times a day (feeding every 2.5-3.5 hours);
• over 45 days - 4 times a day (feeding every 3.5-4 hours).

Chickens of meat breeds are fed more often:

• 1-7 days - 8 times a day (feeding every 1.5 hours);
• 14-20 days - 6 times a day (feeding every 2 hours);
• 21-27 days - 4 times a day (feeding every 3 hours);
• from 28 days of age until slaughter - 2 times a day (feeding every 6 hours).

At what age can chickens be given shells?

Egg shells are given to chickens from the 10th day of their life. In this case, use the shell, taken from a well-boiled egg. In order to make it more convenient for the chicks to eat, it is carefully ground to the state of flour, consisting of particles no larger than 1.0 mm in size.

Note. The shell fed to young chickens is rich in calcium and various vitamins - this helps to strengthen the bones of chickens, provide their body with a large amount of vitamins and microelements, minerals and other substances necessary for normal growth and development.

Experts recommend using homemade eggs as a source of shell - their shell is more durable and rich in the nutrients described above. Store-bought eggs, compared to homemade ones, have a weaker and, accordingly, less useful shell.

Important points in the formation of the diet of young animals

When raising and feeding chickens, the following important rules must be followed:

1. Feeders fill only 1/3 of their volume - this is necessary so that the feed mixture does not spill out of the feeder and is not trampled by the bird.
2. Before filling in the new feed mixture, the feeder is carefully cleaned of residues that can become a source of decay.
3. Weak and malnourished chicks are pipetted with a mixture of yolk and low-fat milk, separately from the rest.
4. Water in a drinking bowl or a container replacing it is constantly updated, preventing it from being contaminated by food particles.
5. In order to reduce the risk of indigestion and infection with various diseases, a weak solution of potassium permanganate is added to the water weekly.

When keeping young stock in chicken coops, the room itself, feeders and drinkers are thoroughly cleaned and disinfected once a week with a 5% formalin solution, soapy emulsion.

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