How to grow broilers at home, maintenance and care
Chicken meat is considered one of the best in terms of quality and benefits for humans. In order to have a clean product, it is advisable to raise broilers at home. Everyone can do it, even a novice poultry farmer. The main thing here is to properly keep the chickens, feed them. Then, after a short time, tasty meat is obtained.
Features of growing broilers at home
Broilers are cooked from day 1 for meat, because it is not for nothing that the name of a bird is translated from English as “fry on fire”. But meat is best taken from chickens. Chickens are needed to lay eggs. They are mated so as to continue breeding the breed.
For large farms, it is important to quickly build up meat, so hybrid crosses are bred. They can only be grown in an artificial environment.
In an individual farm, broilers can be successfully raised if the recommendations for keeping and feeding chickens are not ignored. Do not delay the slaughter of chickens. And for breeding the breed, they take roosters and chickens in the same proportion.
Broilers are bred extensively. Chickens are bought in the spring, and after 2 months they are sent to the slaughter. Year-round intensive rearing is aimed at purchasing young stock every 3 months.
For beginners, broiler farming requires some knowledge. But they are available, not difficult.
Advantages and disadvantages
Broilers should be grown on the backyard because:
- an increase in mass of 3-5 kilograms occurs quickly;
- it is easy to take care of them;
- provide a tender and juicy product;
- do not require a large area for walking;
- at the bottom they are easily plucked.
You can keep the bird in different ways, depending on the capabilities of the owners. Broilers are calm, do not create problems for summer residents. The disadvantage of the breed is that the hens carry few eggs. But broilers were also created for meat production, not for egg production.
Breed and chick selection
Poultry breeding begins with the purchase of chickens. It is best to purchase both roosters and chickens, so that later you can breed the bird yourself. Chicks should be selected from reliable producers. Their age should be 10 days. By this time, the young are already stronger, they will be less sick. Younger chickens require special care and special conditions. They are more likely to die from disease. When buying chickens, choose those that are active and mobile. You need to carefully examine the appearance of the chickens.
If the eyes do not shine, but are dull, and the plumage is unevenly distributed, then you should not take such chickens for divorce.
Of the breeds, broilers ROSS-308 are best suited for growing. Six months later, these white undersized individuals grow to a weight of 2.5 kilograms. Chickens run well.
The broiler KOBB-500 is famous for its fast weight gain. The breed should be raised for meat and eggs. In the breed Change, weight gain is quite fast. Chickens easily tolerate unfavorable living conditions, rarely get sick. Of the popular breeds, one can single out the Cornish, Cochinchin, Faverol.
Broiler management methods
Wherever chickens are kept, they need to be dry. Ventilation is installed in the room, but the bird should be protected from drafts. The bird should rush in a specially designated place.
Outdoor breeding
Broilers should be kept on the floor with deep bedding. They choose a room of such an area that there are up to 12 individuals per 1 square meter. A suitable method for keeping both in summer and winter. The main conditions are temperature and humidity. Before settling in, the chickens warm up the room to 26 degrees. This is the optimum temperature below which chicks will develop health problems. Gradually it should be raised to 30-35 degrees.
Youngsters of ten days of age are prepared in such a room where the humidity will be 60%. As broilers grow, humidity should be at 70%. The light burns in the chicken coop for days.
To make it easy for the bird to adapt to the conditions of detention, a room is prepared in advance with:
- washing, disinfection of walls and floors;
- drying;
- filling the floor with lime, using 1 kilogram of substance per square meter;
- installation of lighting;
- laying on the floor of a litter of sawdust, shavings.
All the time when broilers are kept, the condition of the litter is monitored. In winter, do not forget that the litter should be thicker than in summer. It should be changed as it gets dirty. Do not place containers with water on the bedding. After all, raw, it will lead to the multiplication of pathogenic microorganisms, poultry diseases.
Cell breeding
Broilers can be successfully bred in cages, since they are inactive, they are comfortable in a confined space. It is necessary to prepare the place taking into account the fact that up to 18 chickens or 9 adult chickens can fit on 1 square meter.
If there is little space on the site, the cells are arranged in 2 tiers. The advantage of growing in cages is that natural ventilation occurs there. The bird is protected from the rain by a secure roof. Care includes compliance with air temperature control. Broilers do not tolerate sudden temperature changes. Chickens grow better at 30-35 degrees Celsius.
Litter is laid on the floor of the cages, which must always be dry and clean.
Breeding broilers in an incubator
To reduce the cost of purchasing chickens, summer residents are trying to breed the birds themselves in an incubator. And here you need to competently approach the choice of eggs:
- Material should be taken only from chickens over 2 years old.
- The hen must be healthy and strong.
- On examination, no damage is found on the shell. In size, take the average, regular shape.
- Before laying, the breeding material should be stored no more than 3 days in a dark and cool place. It is possible to determine whether an egg is fertilized by scanning it. A dark dot is visible in the center.
Before placing the eggs in the incubator, they are washed in a solution of potassium permanganate. The incubation period lasts 21 days. At this time, the temperature is maintained at 37.5 and 37.2 degrees, humidity is 50-65%. In the first week, eggs are turned several times a day.
Feeding features
Hybrid crosses have a clear feeding scheme. Each period of broilers' life requires a certain set of nutrients.Someone buys ready-made complexes for feeding poultry, others independently make up the proportions. Broilers need fresh water at all times. Its temperature is within 30 degrees. Sugar or potassium permanganate is rarely added to the water.
From the first days
The resulting day old chicks especially suffer from a lack of water. This must be taken care of. They are given water with sugar diluted in it. Dissolve a teaspoon in a liter of water. Many poultry farmers advise using boiled eggs for the first feed, chopping them finely. Others mix millet with egg powder.
The composition of the prelaunch feed includes corn. It is the basis of nutrition along with wheat or bran, milk powder, barley, soybean meal. One chicken is given 10 grams of feed per day. By 2 weeks, the amount increases to 25 grams.
Drinkers are constantly filled with fresh water. It is useful with 1-3 crystals of potassium permanganate or sugar.
Eight day old chickens are given a whey mash. Add cottage cheese, chopped egg, chopped shell, chopped onion to it. A little later, the amount of greens in the feed is 10%.
The basis of chickens' nutrition is corn - 48%, soybean meal - 20%. Wheat is enough 12%, fish meal - 7%, brewer's yeast - 5%. Be sure to add chopped greens, a little chalk, and fodder fat.
Young animals are fed up to 8 times a day. If everything does not peck, then the feeders are cleaned of food debris by washing.
No antibiotics
The debate about whether or not to use antibiotics when growing broilers has not subsided for a long time. At home farmsteads, they try to exclude medicine from the diet. But it is believed that without antibiotics, broiler mortality increases. Regularly including small amounts of preparations in poultry feed, they provide accelerated growth and rapid weight gain.
Whether or not to give antibiotics to broilers is up to everyone to decide. But when a disease occurs, you cannot do without them..
Compound feed
Combined feeds are given to chickens from birth. Only the ratio of the feed components changes. First, a pre-start mixture is needed for chickens. Ready, it contains all the essential vitamins and amino acids. You can mix it yourself.
As the chicks grow, the grain ratio changes. Be sure to include corn and wheat, cake or soybean meal in broilers' nutrition. It is useful to mix in a little bone or fish meal, chalk. It is necessary not to forget about greens, which are successfully represented in compound feed by fresh nettles, previously scalded and chopped.
The frequency of feeding is important. If at first it reaches 8 times a day, then it is gradually reduced to 6-4.
Transfer of young animals to the chicken coop
It's time to move the grown chickens to the chicken coop. The premises are prepared in advance, they are washed, whitened, and disinfected. The floor is sprinkled with lime, sawdust in a layer of 10 centimeters. Wash feed and water containers clean. They must be suspended in order to properly care for them. An adult bird will need bathing containers. They are covered with wood ash. Shell rock and ash are prepared in the feeders.
Before placing the young, the chicken coop is heated to 27 degrees Celsius. Broiler chicks need to feel comfortable. They need to be light, warm and dry.
Broiler disease prevention
An artificially bred hybrid needs protection from disease. Preventive measures should be taken to get quality meat from poultry.
It is better for 5-day-old chickens to take Enroxil in solution for soldering. The feed should be fortified for 10-day-old chicks. In 2 liters of water, dilute 1 milliliter of Vitasol.
Vaccination is carried out for broilers on the 11th day of life. Repeat it 2 more times every 5 days.
To protect against coccidiosis, you need to give the drug "Tromexin", 2 grams of which is diluted in 1 liter of water. It is important to vaccinate chickens on the 23-28th day of life.
How long does a broiler chicken grow before slaughter
Broilers should be kept until a certain time. It is advised to slaughter the bird in 2-2.5 months. Otherwise, over time, broiler meat will become tough and dry. If broilers are left for longer than usual, their appetite will not decrease, but the weight gain will stop.
Common mistakes
Mistakes in broiler management lead to the fact that individuals die or stagnate. The main thing is to prevent litter from rotting. Mold will form on it if the drinkers and feeders are on a layer of sawdust.
It is necessary to constantly clean the premises, cages from droppings. In this case, it is worth disinfecting the walls, floor, drying them in order to exclude the development of diseases.
When broilers' nutrition is not balanced, there are few vitamins and microelements in it, the birds begin to peck each other's heads. Weak specimens suffer the most from attacks.
You need to feed young animals at the same time. Do not forget about clean warm water. Broilers often die due to dehydration.
Thanks to compulsory vaccination, all birds can be saved if symptoms of the disease appear in some individuals.
A profitable business will be successful when you are competently involved in raising broilers.
Everything is too complicated and there are many incomprehensible moments. It is written that they buy chickens in the spring, and after 2 months they are sent for slaughter. What's the point? They won't grow up at all.
As for everything else, it is necessary to periodically clean the chickens, give them compound feed, and feed the chickens a little with shells and eggs. The first time they sit under the lamp. In principle, that's all, there have never been any problems.