Good afternoon, experienced and novice poultry farmers! Today we will talk about feed for layers that increase egg production, or the basics of feeding laying hens in our material. Proper feeding of laying hens is one of the main factors that determine the level of productivity of hens of egg breeds and the profitability of poultry farming.
First of all, it is necessary to pay attention to this fact to farmers who use purchased full-feed compound feed.
Today we will look at feed and feeding nuances that have a positive effect on egg production.
How does egg-laying take place?
For humans, an egg is a food product. For a bird, this is a part of the body, its egg cell. The production of their own kind in birds occurs with the help of a fertilized egg. Marketable is not a fertilized egg. The question often arises whether a rooster is needed for laying hens for egg production, the answer is simple. Chickens lay eggs with and without a rooster.
Ancient chickens had seasonality in egg-laying. They rushed in the spring and incubated the chickens. The man "made" the chickens rush all year round. But the Japanese have learned to get 3-4 eggs a day from a chicken. To achieve these results, they use high-protein feed and adjust the light.
Many factors affect the egg production of chickens:
- Breed. It is generally accepted that egg production is a breed characteristic. Yaytsenoskaya breed gives 200-220 eggs per year, meat 150;
- Feeding. 80% of success depends on feed;
- Season. Everyone knows that chickens run worse in winter, but this can be fixed. But the egg is more expensive in winter. Many owners keep chickens only in winter, when the profitability is several times higher;
- Age. The highest egg production of young chickens (first year of life). In an industrial setting, chickens are kept only 10 months after the start of egg production. Then the chickens are allowed to eat, and in their place the young are again planted.
A useful article on moulting in chickens: when and how it starts, what to do and how long this period lasts.
How to increase egg production in chickens
For better laying hens it is necessary to balance the diet. An egg weighs 55-60 g and contains 45-50 g of pure protein. To
to synthesize this product in the body, protein is also needed. A chicken cannot lay well if it is poorly fed.
The diet for egg production includes:
- proteins;
- carbohydrates;
- cellulose;
- ballast substances.
The total weight of the consumed feed is 110-120 g. We want 55 g of them to come out with the egg (and this is pure protein), and what will remain for the vital functions of the organism?
Manufacturers have long ago solved this problem. They add synthetic amino acids to the compound feed for better egg production. It is from these products that protein is synthesized, and egg production increases.
Many poultry farmers also practice feeding domestic chickens with compound feed. However, in this case, the egg does not have the qualities that we want to have from domestic eggs. They have another:
- taste;
- structure;
- utility.
When raising young chickens, it is very important to know what to do if chickens are dying.
How to increase egg production in chickens at home
If some factors are taken into account (breed, age), then it remains to find out what is better to feed, so that 10 chickens carry 7-8 eggs daily (this is considered a good indicator).
Summer diet
If the chicken is in the pasture, then nature will take care of itself.The bird receives vitamins for egg production from greens, and as a protein the worm,
insect, insect larva. The host will fill the diet with carbohydrates by adding:
- wheat;
- corn;
- barley.
Winter diet
How to feed chickens correctly so that they rush well in winter? This issue needs to be considered carefully. It is easy to raise egg production, but it is difficult to keep it at a high level. If a feeding failure occurs once, then egg production is restored within 10-14 days.
Egg production directly depends on the balance of feeding. The winter diet must include:
- corn;
- barley;
- wheat;
- sunflower meal;
- soybean meal;
- legume waste;
- animal feed (meat and bone meal, fish meal, slaughterhouse waste, return, milk whey);
- juicy feed (fodder and table beets, pumpkin, carrots, cabbage).
Expert advice
Victor N. Travnikov
For about 20 years he has been breeding laying hens, broilers, geese, ducks and other poultry. Our expert who is always happy to help readers.
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Feeding chickens should be varied. The daily diet should contain all the ingredients. Animal feed should be at least 10 g per head daily.
Foods that contain essential vitamins
For inexperienced poultry farmers, it is better to consult with experts in advance or study the relevant literature on formulating a diet for layers. Particular attention should be paid to the winter diet of the bird, since an insufficiently balanced diet can adversely affect egg production.
Cereals
Coarse and partially crushed grain - —
it is the staple of the chicken diet. The most valuable chicken feeds are
corn and wheat, these grains contain a wide variety of nutrients (fiber, carbohydrates, proteins, minerals).
Wheat can be fed to the chicken herd in its entirety, and corn grains can preferably be passed through a grinder. Wheat flour is also included in the chicken diet, but it must be added to food mash, consisting of boiled and raw chopped vegetables.
Protein food
Plant and animal protein is the main building material in any living organism. Chickens get protein from a good owner in the form of dry, crushed herbal preparations, cake, cottage cheese and whey, fish or meat offal, leftover food from a person's table.
If the chicken herd is kept specifically for obtaining eggs, then fish additives in bird feed should not be abused, the eggs may have an unpleasant fish smell.
Did you know? Laying hens sometimes lay eggs with two yolks. But two chicks will never hatch from such an egg - there is very little space for the development of twins in a cramped shell.
Legume grain
If poultry is raised for meat (broilers and Gukovsky chickens), they need to include legumes in the feed. It can be:
- beans;
- beans are black and white;
- soy;
- peas;
- lentils.
Learn how to properly feed chickens, goslings, quails, broilers, ducklings, peacocks, pigeons, kids, pigs, goats, rabbits, dairy cows, calves, dairy goats.
All representatives of legumes have a very hard and dry shell, therefore, before adding beans (beans) to chicken feed, they are soaked for 8-10 hours in cold water, after which they are simmered for 30-40 minutes. The grains swell and become soft.
Mealy feed
Almost any grain is suitable for chickens, they are reluctant to peck only oats. To conveniently mix grain feed with other ingredients (vegetables, vitamins, minerals), the grain is ground into flour. It is in the form of flour from grain in the body of a bird that fiber is perfectly absorbed. As part of any well-balanced compound feed, the main component is flour.
Mealy feed can be made from:
- wheat;
- barley;
- rye;
- corn;
- amaranth;
- soybeans.
Roots
Chopped fresh and boiled root vegetables will help increase egg production at home. As soon as grated fodder or sugar beets are added to the feed mixtures in addition to grain, bone meal and grain meal, this will affect the quantity and quality of eggs laid by hens within a few days.
The zealous poultry farmer makes a stock of root crops for the winter to enrich the chicken diet in the winter. For this fodder or sugar beets laid for storage in trenches or piles dug in the ground, covered with a tarpaulin on top and sprinkled with a layer of soil 30 cm thick.
They love chickens and potatoes, but potatoes it is impossible to feed the birds raw, since in its skin, when stored in an insufficiently dark room, the poisonous substance solanine can form.
The high solanine content of potatoes can be seen with the naked eye - the skin will be greenish. Such potatoes are generally not suitable for anyone's food. For chickens, boil potatoes, knead them hot and feed them cold as part of mixed wet feed.
Important! Application of vegetable additives to basic mixed feeds such as cabbage, carrots and beets, will not allow egg production to decrease in winter. This is what serves as an incentive for massive autumn harvesting by poultry farmers.
Yolk color and egg production in winter
Domestic eggs laid by chickens in winter have a pale yolk. But the store-bought bright orange. Sometimes people wonder what to give to chickens so that the yolk is orange? Hay should be added to the diet. Of course, not in the form in which it is consumed by cattle, but in crushed, in the form of hay dust.
Best when hay is made specifically for chickens. In this case, the grass is crushed and dried in a form ready for feeding.
Preference should be given to:
- clover;
- alfalfa;
- sainfoin.
Leguminous herbs serve as the best supplement for egg production. The yolk turns out to be beautiful, vitamin-rich, and the egg production is high.
And what do they give in production? Compound feed. A pigment, xanthophyll, is added to it. It is he who paints the yolks orange. However, it should be borne in mind that all pigments have carcinogenic properties and their residual amount in products is strictly regulated.
List of essential vitamins and their importance for the body
It is possible to increase the egg production of chickens at home in winter only by adding artificially obtained nutrients to the feed, in summer they can be obtained both from grated vegetables (carrots, beets, Jerusalem artichoke) and from chopped green mass (nettle, dandelions, clover). You need to understand which vitamins are required by birds at different periods of life.
Vitamin A - birds need it from the first days of life. They begin to give it to chickens from the second day after hatching from eggs (mixing it with drink), this contributes to normal metabolism. Eggs with a light yolk and dry cornea of the eyes are a signal of its lack in laying hens. If vitamin A is sufficient, the eggs will be large and the yolk will be bright yellow.
Vitamin D - the first sign of its lack in the body: a thin, soft or completely absent egg shell. Birds receive this vitamin in the summer from the sun's rays on free grazing. When kept in winter, its absence leads to diseases such as rickets and deformation of bone tissue. To compensate for the lack of this substance, the bird is fed with yeast and hay meal, which have been irradiated with ultraviolet light.
Vitamin E - is found in sufficient quantities in sprouted grains (in sprouts) of corn, wheat, legumes, vegetable oil and dairy products. Its absence in feed causes the appearance of sterile (not fertilized) eggs. It is useless to lay such eggs in an incubator or put under a hen - they will not hatch chickens.
Vitamins B1, B2, B6 and B12 - you can provide the chicken herd with these vitamins by adding cottage cheese, beans, beans, soy, grain, bran, fish meal to the diet. B vitamins are responsible for the mucous membranes, endocrine and digestive systems. Their lack in the body can cause difficulty in laying eggs in chickens, muscle and skin diseases, deficiency in feathers and soft claws.
Of course, you cannot rely only on ready-made purchased vitamins, they need to be added to food for birds and in the form of dry crushed eggshell, crushed dry nettle, hydrated lime powder and fine sand. These components are ground, mixed in equal proportions and two or three times a week are exposed in a separate container in the poultry house for feeding chickens.
Regular fresh yeast is a vitamin B supplier and can be added by teaspoon to the total weight (1-2 kg) of grated feed. Regular fish oil purchased from a pharmacy is added to the food of small chickens twice a week. Fish oil contains vitamins A, B and D and can be added to small grain feeds.
Did you know? Chicken clucking is a real bird speech! In the studies conducted, up to thirty semantic "sentences" from clucking were identified: in some there is a call to collect for the sake of a tasty worm, others notify about the appearance of an enemy on the territory of the poultry house or a marriage call of a partner.
Pecking eggs
Sometimes the poultry farmer notices that the chickens do not just carry little, but also peck at their eggs. This problem of laying hens exists when there is a lack of calcium in the diet. If you look closely, the first thing the chickens do is eat the shells. In pursuit of calcium, they are even ready for cannibalism (pecking at their own kind).
To avoid pathology, and to increase the egg production of chickens, it is necessary to provide the layers with calcium feeding. It is best to take a natural shell. If there is no way to prepare it yourself, you can buy it. The shell must always be in special feeders.
All animal feed is a source of natural calcium. But the shell is a feeding for egg production.
Minerals
When chickens are kept indoors (or in winter), not only vitamins, but also minerals should be added to their feed. Phosphorus and calcium are required in the chicken diet. Minerals are very convenient to add to the feed mass: they can be bought ready-made in veterinary stores, or you can make such additives yourself.
For these purposes chalk is crushed, long-quenched lime, shells, dried eggshells. Additives such as phosphates and iodized salt can be added to drinking water for poultry. For pecking by chickens, a container with fine gravel is installed in the aviary, pebbles help the birds in digesting food.
When included in the feed of long-quenched lime, it is necessary to ensure that the period for extinguishing this mineral with water does not exceed six months, since all useful components will erode from it. Before serving, lime must be mixed in equal proportions with river sand and mixed.
If a eggshell, which is fed to chickens from purchased eggs, then it must be calcined for 15 minutes in an oven at a temperature of 180 ° C. Together with untreated shells, viral diseases can be brought into the chicken coop.
Water
Inexperienced poultry farmers sometimes pay very little attention to water. But the egg is 85% liquid. Biologists have long known that the absence of water in the drinkers for only 2 hours will slow down egg-laying by two days.
The water requirements are simple. She must be:
- clean (drinkers are washed daily);
- fresh (poured into drinkers 2 times a day);
- not boiled.
We also advise: What to do if chickens lay eggs without shells.
Are your chickens flying well?
Yes, not as we would like
Sand. Is it that important?
In summer, nature "serves" the bird. Chickens have no teeth.Their role is played by the gizzard using pebbles and sand.
If the bird is deprived of sand, then the feed will not be completely processed in the stomach, but will transit through the intestines without being absorbed.
In this case, the diet will supposedly contain all the elements necessary for good egg production, but there will be no eggs. While the poultry farmer is thinking about what to feed, the chickens suffer from a lack of ordinary sand.
The use of artificial vitamins
With all the efforts of farmers to make poultry feed balanced and nutritious, it is not always completely possible to provide it with natural vitamin supplements.
The most reliable way to preserve chicken in winter (closed) conditions is to add artificial vitamins to combined feed. The path to successful poultry rearing goes through a balanced combination of natural and artificial vitamin supplements to feed.
Will drugs help?
Preparations for increasing the egg production of chickens will have an effect if they are used for their intended purpose:
- with protein deficiency - protein substitutes;
- with calcium - mineral fertilizing.
When choosing a drug, it should be understood that these are chemical additives and they have nothing to do with good-quality feed.
As you figure out what needs to be done to improve egg production, go through each step and try to balance. The situation should change in 1.5-2 weeks. Chickens are very responsive to care.
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Discussion: 4 comments
- Vitaly:
12.12.2018 at 21:44Breeding chickens is my business for me. before, of course, I left everything to chance, I trusted mother nature. But if there is an opportunity to help chickens rush faster, then why not do it and help improve your business. I hope that the measures described above will really help me.
Reply
- Vadim:
12/15/2018 at 20:35
Of course, I have a great desire for breeding chickens to give the maximum result, so I will definitely review the nutrition of my chickens, according to the recommendations described above. And I hope that after that the chickens will lay much better, otherwise the results have not been very good lately.
Reply
- Dasha:
12/17/2018 at 20:49
If the chickens are properly fed, then hatching will actually be the most effective. I experienced this firsthand when I began to feed the chickens according to the above recommendations. And of course I wish I had seen this article before, because even earlier I could make my business more successful.
Reply
- Arina:
30.01.2019 at 20:14
Recently, my chickens have become worse at laying. I want to try feeding them according to your scheme. Hopefully this will give a good result.
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