Farmers carefully consider the diet of their feathered pets, but many poultry farmers doubt whether it is possible to give hard or steamed peas to laying hens. Legumes benefit the bird's body and contain a considerable amount of vitamins and bioactive compounds. But in order not to harm your feathered pets, you should follow the rules for including the product in the diet.
Can chickens be given peas?
Peas are useful for laying hens; their presence in the diet is recommended.Bean groats are a rich supplier of proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, amino acids, and mineral elements to the birds’ bodies. Like other legumes, peas stimulate egg production in laying hens. Therefore, many farmers prefer to feed it to chickens during the fall and winter months to increase the number of eggs produced.
Chickens have poorly developed taste buds. They consume peas without problems, both individually and as part of liquid mash and dry grain-legume mixture.
Laying hens should be introduced to beans gradually. In order for the bird to get used to the new product, it should first be given steamed or slightly boiled. After thermal exposure, the cereal softens and is more actively absorbed in the bird’s body.
The steaming process is simple: you need to immerse the peas in a container with boiling water and leave until it cools.
Benefits and harms
Peas bring great benefits to the body of laying hens due to the rich content of bioactive substances:
- prevents mineral, amino acid, vitamin deficiency;
- increases the number of eggs produced by chickens;
- improves the condition of the skin and feathers of birds;
- maintains the normal functional state of the heart, vascular system, and digestive tract;
- normalizes oxidation and restoration processes in the body;
- strengthens the immune system, increases the body's immunity to infection;
- Gently cleanses the kidneys and liver of toxins.
Not only cereals, but all parts of legumes benefit the chickens’ body. Farmers dry pea greens and make silage from it.
The product can be harmful only if it is given in dry form to laying hens who are not accustomed to receiving such food, and also if the norms for inclusion in the diet for adult chickens and chicks are not followed. If a chicken without the habit eats dry peas, then its digestive tract may be disrupted, and the substances contained in the product will not be available for absorption.
Compound
Peas are rich in substances necessary for birds. It contains:
- B vitamins, tocopherol, biotin;
- mineral elements - potassium, calcium, sodium, phosphorus, magnesium, silicon, iron, manganese, copper;
- amino acids – more than 10 essential and almost 90 nonessential;
- omega group and other fatty acids.
Price
The advantage of legume feed is its cost-effectiveness. When cereals are introduced into the diet, the cost of feed is reduced by several percent. Peas can be successfully used as a replacement for expensive bone and fish meal.
The nutritional value
Peas are a high protein product. The protein concentration in it is at least 2 times higher than in grain foods. Therefore, in poultry farming, legumes are used as the main source of vegetable protein necessary for building tissue in the bird’s body.
Pea cereals also have a high energy value. 100 grams of product contains about 300 kcal.
Digestion process
It is not advisable to give beans to small chicks; they may experience disruption of the digestive tract. High protein feed can be included in the diet of chickens that have reached 2 weeks of age.
Adult laying hens are offered cereal without fear, but to improve the digestibility of heavy protein foods, it is advisable to give the birds additional sand and small pebbles.They are harmless to the bird’s body; they grind food in the digestive tract, making it digest faster.
Rules for feeding peas
Laying hens can be given any legumes, but the absorption of peas is the best. The optimal volume of cereal for an adult laying hen is 15-20% of the total food volume. Chickens are given a little less - about 10%. Chicks are given the product exclusively in steamed form, while “teenagers” can be fed raw cereal added to a liquid mash.
It is useful to give sprouted peas to laying hens. The green mass is finely chopped and included in liquid vegetable mash. During the cold months, when fresh herbs are not available, poultry farmers provide dried legume herb flour.
When should you not give?
A bird that is not accustomed to heavy, high-protein food should not be immediately given a dry product. The transition from steamed to solid cereals should be gradual.
Peas are placed in the feeder not whole, but in crushed form. It is forbidden to give the whole product to laying hens - the bird’s stomach will not digest it.
