Breeding mini meat chickens is a profitable and fairly simple activity. Possessing small size, high productivity and unpretentiousness to living conditions, representatives of this breed can be grown by both medium and large farmers, as well as simple owners of private farmsteads. Also another advantage of this poultry is its calm and docile nature.
Breeding history
Mini meat chickens were bred at the Zagorsk experimental breeding center in the 80s of the last century. Individuals of such key foreign breeds as Leghorn, Rhode Island Red, Plymouth Rock, and Cornish were used as parents.
Thanks to the selection work done, mini meat chickens of 3 main colors were bred:
- fawn;
- snow white;
- brown-black (red-black).
General description and characteristics
Compared to other breeds, mini meat chickens have a specific appearance, character, and have a number of advantages and disadvantages.
Appearance
Mini meat chickens are characterized by a compact body, small limbs with the size of the middle part (tarsus), on average, 30-35% smaller than other breeds, dense and even plumage. In addition to short limbs, a distinctive feature of such chickens is a leaf-shaped, small comb. Such chickens reach sexual maturity at the age of 6 months.
Character or temperament
Birds of this breed are characterized by a calm character - when released from the poultry house into an unplanted garden, they do not make total “excavations” in the beds and paths; They do not emit loud cackling, and quite rarely, out of impatience, they peck at the hands of the owner who brought the food. Mini meat breed roosters do not have a lively disposition and rarely attack humans.
Productivity
Chickens of this breed have the following productivity characteristics:
- The maximum weight when grown for meat products is the weight of chickens can reach 2.7 kilograms, cockerels - 3.0-3.1 kilograms.
- Egg production - with proper feeding and care, one chicken of this breed can produce up to 170-200 eggs per year.
- The weight of one egg - the weight of one egg, depending on the conditions of detention and feeding, ranges from 55-57 to 60-66 grams.
- Hatchability of chickens - when hatching chickens using the incubator method, this indicator is, on average, 85%.
- Survival of chicks - with proper care and feeding in the first days of life, about 94-99% of chicks obtained by incubation survive.
- Survival rate of adults - for various varieties of this breed this figure is more than 90%.
Advantages and disadvantages
The main advantages of mini meat chickens are:
- convenience of keeping compact chickens in small cages and enclosures;
- rapid growth of young animals in the first 6 months;
- large sizes of egg products;
- calm character.
The disadvantages of such chickens include:
- Susceptibility to diseases when walking in wet weather - due to their short limbs, chickens released into an open walking yard touch the wet ground with their bellies, which subsequently leads to severe contamination of feathers and the appearance of various diseases;
- Frequent diseases of the limbs due to unbalanced feeding or improper care and maintenance.
Variety of chickens
The main varieties of this breed of chickens are such as P-11, V-33, V-66, V-76, V-77.
P-11
P-11 is a mini meat variety of the famous Rhode Island. It is characterized by rapid growth, resistance to disease, and a calm character. Belonging to the universal type, dwarf Rhode Islands have both high egg production (capable of producing up to 200 eggs per year) and excellent taste of meat.
B-33
B-33 (dwarf Leghorn) - egg mini meat chickens with snow-white plumage, tightly fitting to the wedge-shaped body of the bird, shorter legs than the previous variety, and a small rounded head. The comb of cockerels in this variety is located strictly vertically, while in laying hens it is slightly lowered to the side.
B66
An adult individual of this species has pure white plumage, has a strong skeleton, a wide, well-formed chest, and short, but at the same time quite strong and correctly positioned limbs.
Mini-meat chickens of this variety belong to the universal type of use: the egg production of an adult chicken per year, on average, is 180-200 eggs; The weight of the bird, when raised for meat, at six months of age is 3.3 kilograms for cockerels and 2.7 kilograms for hens.
B76 and B77
Individuals of these varieties have the same characteristics as B66. They differ from the latter only in the color of the plumage - in chickens of the B76 variety the white plumage has fawn shades, while in individuals of the B77 variety the feathers are pale brown in color, with a characteristic golden tint.
Bird keeping
The high egg production and excellent taste of this breed directly depend on the proper maintenance of the bird.
Walk
For walking dwarf chickens, they use a small walking yard adjacent to the chicken coop and surrounded on 3 sides by a 150-centimeter fence made of chain-link mesh with a mesh of 50x50 millimeters. The size of such a yard is determined depending on the chicken population - 1 square meter of area is enough for 1 mini chicken.
To keep the yard clean, it is covered with sawdust; in the place where the container for food and water will be located, a small pitched roof is made from a piece of slate.
In early spring, you can let these chickens out for a walk in the garden - having a calm character, they will not make a large number of holes and will not create discomfort with loud cackling.
Chicken coop
For mini chickens, as a rule, they build a small frame poultry house with 3-4 perches, each 40 centimeters high, a walking yard located on the south side, connected to the main room by a square manhole. The height of the chicken coop must be at least 160 centimeters - this is necessary so that you can enter it without bending and collect eggs from the perches. When chickens are raised for meat, they are kept in cages.
Important. Since mini chickens are very sensitive to cold weather, a chicken coop designed for year-round housing must be insulated and all cracks through which cold air can enter the house must be sealed.
Care
Caring for this breed of chickens consists of such activities as:
- Timely walking.
- Maintaining cleanliness inside the poultry house, frequently replacing bedding on perches and in cages.
- Ventilate and disinfect the chicken coop every 6 months.
- Monitoring the availability of sufficient clean water in drinking bowls.
Also, when raising this breed of chicken, it is necessary to carefully monitor the condition of the bird’s limbs.
Nutrition
Such birds are fed with regular chicken feed for broilers and egg breeds. In summer, green grass mass and mineral additives (chalk, limestone, finely ground meat and bone meal) are also added to the feed. The average feed consumption per bird per day is only 120-130 grams.
Breeding
This breed of chickens is propagated in two ways:
- Natural incubation of eggs by a hen.
- Artificial production of chickens in homemade or special incubators.
The first method, although not expensive, is risky, since not every chicken will hatch eggs. The incubator method, while maintaining the required temperature, allows you to obtain a large number of healthy chickens in a relatively short period of time.
What diseases are they susceptible to?
This breed of chicken is susceptible to infection with infectious diseases such as:
- pasteurellosis;
- salmonellosis;
- pullorosis.
Among the viral diseases, mini meat chickens are affected by neurolymphatosis, nephrosonephritis, chicken pox, and bird flu.
In order to avoid infecting poultry with the diseases described above, it is necessary to keep the chicken coop clean, change the bedding, water and feed in the drinking bowls, prevent contamination of the feed with soil, and prevent wild animals from entering the chicken coop.
Important. If signs of dangerous viral diseases are detected in birds, you should immediately contact your local veterinary service to receive recommendations on the localization of the disease and the further fate of the uninfected bird..
