Recommendations on the best way to feed day-old chicks at home

What to feed day-old and older chickens is a question that often arises among novice poultry farmers when independently hatching offspring from eggs. The extent to which a beginner finds comprehensive, complete and reliable information on it will determine whether the business he has started (breeding egg or meat chickens) will be successful, interesting and profitable.

Chicken 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, undamaged ingredients.
2. Feeding chickens hatched in an incubator or taken from a hen at home must be done at the same, strictly defined time.
3. Chickens should not 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, in the box with the young chickens there must be a container with clean, boiled and warmed to room temperature water.

What to feed egg-laying chickens

In order to raise highly productive laying hens and cockerels from egg-bearing chickens, they must be properly cared for and fed, starting from the first days of life.

Newborns

After being incubated or brooded, newborn chicks need to be given some time to dry out and get on their feet. At this time, there is no need to disturb them or provide them with food that they will not touch. As soon as the fluff dries and becomes smooth and acquires a characteristic color, the chickens need to put food in the box.

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

Daily allowance

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

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

Up to a week

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

Over a week old

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

Two-week-old chickens continue to be fed the same mixture as week-old young animals.

Menstruation

Chicks over 4 weeks of age are gradually transferred to feeding with medium-ground grain, and from 6 weeks of age they begin to be fed whole grain. At the same time, feed rates are gradually increased. Also, the grown-up bird is already given crushed grass mass, a small amount of shells, chalk, and pebbles.

At three months

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

What to feed meat chickens

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

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

Intensive

With this rearing technology, young animals are kept in small cages, 10-12 individuals per 1 square meter. For normal growth and development of birds in such a specially insulated and well-ventilated room, the temperature is maintained from 17 to 20-21 ⁰C and air humidity 60-70%.

To feed young broilers raised using this technology, special multi-age combined feeds for meat breeds are used. To improve the digestion process, various limestone materials, fine gravel, and dry wood ash must be placed in the feeders. Broilers are raised in this way all year round.

Extensive

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

This technology is designed for short-term (no more than 4 months) rearing of broilers and is used only in the warm season. In early spring, as well as late autumn and, especially, 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 chickens?

The frequency of feeding depends on the breed of bird and its age.

Thus, the frequency of feeding young eggs of 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 starting from the 10th day of their life. In this case, they use the shell removed from a well-boiled egg. To make it more convenient for the chicks to eat, it is thoroughly ground to the state of flour, consisting of particles no larger than 1.0 millimeters in size.

On a note. The shells fed to young chickens are rich in calcium and various vitamins - this helps strengthen the bones of chickens, providing their bodies with a large amount of vitamins and microelements, minerals and other substances necessary for normal growth and development.

Experts recommend using domestic eggs as a source of shells - their shells are stronger and richer in the beneficial substances described above. Store-bought eggs, compared to home-made ones, have weaker, and therefore less useful, shells.

Important points when shaping the diet of young animals

When raising and feeding chickens, you must adhere to the following important rules:

1. Feeders are filled to 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 adding a new feed mixture, the feeder is thoroughly cleaned of any remaining residues that can become a source of rotting.
3. Weak and poorly nourished chickens are fed using a pipette with a mixture of yolk and low-fat milk, separately from the rest.
4. The water in the drinking bowl or the container that replaces it is constantly updated, preventing it from becoming contaminated with food particles.
5. In order to reduce the risk of digestive disorders and infection with various diseases, a weak solution of potassium permanganate is added to the water weekly.

When keeping grown-up young animals in chicken coops, the room itself, feeders and drinking bowls are thoroughly cleaned and disinfected once a week using a 5% solution of formalin and soap emulsion.