How To Choose And Buy Chickens For A Summer Residence

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

We buy chicken

In the spring, many summer residents feel an irresistible desire to acquire some kind of living creature, especially cute fluffy chickens are attracted to everyone, and even now, despite the danger of bird flu. But there are many problems with young animals, buying an adult bird seems easier. However, both poultry farms and private owners are eager to sell what they themselves do not need. This is not always a sick or old bird, more often people say about this "not for a horse". How not to be mistaken?

I want to give a number of useful tips that, I hope, will help the readers of the magazine choose a really good bird that can thank the owners for taking care of the high egg production.

If you decide to keep chickens only in the summer, then the easiest way is to purchase an adult bird at a poultry farm, but if you are going to leave the birds in the country in the winter, to breed chickens, then it is better to purchase a breed bird in strong private breeding farms. It should be borne in mind that poultry farms, first of all, sell culling, i.e. the bird, the keeping of which has ceased to be profitable, therefore, it is impossible to impose high requirements on industrial poultry, especially since it is difficult to provide the stable feed, heat and light conditions necessary for it in summer cottages.

It is best to purchase a five-month pullet for the summer. Unfortunately, in spring, young animals of this age do not exist on private farms, because in this case the hatching egg would have to be taken in the fall, when the free-range bird sheds.

The purchase of any living creature must be taken seriously. First of all, you need to prepare a place for its keeping, food and containers for transportation. You should not wear formal clothes when going to buy chickens, take an apron and a rag with you, because without taking a chicken in your hands, you cannot determine how good it is.

For transportation, it is better to use a suitable size box, just do not poke holes in them, just make two shallow cuts on two edges and push the cardboard inside. These holes are enough for air flow, and the bird does not catch a cold.

So, we take the chicken in our left hand, press it to us, and hold it tightly by the paws with our right hand. We are waiting for the bird to calm down, after which we begin the inspection. First of all, we probe the keel, it is desirable that it be even, any deflections and curvatures are a sign of rickets and can affect performance. Next, we examine the plumage of the kochnya (in other words, the lower abdomen and butt), it should not be heavily contaminated. Otherwise, there is a fear that the bird is infected with intestinal infections, for example, in the spring the most common disease is coccidiosis, which means that the feed is poorly absorbed, and the egg production will be the same.

The most important point in inspecting a purchased bird should be belly palpation. The belly of a healthy chicken is soft, the cloacal opening is widened. The distance between the ends of the pubic bones is 3, and between them and the posterior end of the sternum - 4 fingers.

If the selected laying hen meets all of the above requirements, you can proceed to the external examination. The crest should be bright, fleshy, the catkins are well developed, the eyes are lively, shiny, the pigmentation of the claws, beak and skin on the tarsus is bright. The scales on the legs are tightly pressed, there are no spurs. In general, there should be nothing cocky in a chicken, otherwise such birds are called intersex, popularly called "kuropekhs", it is believed that they bring misfortune. In fact, this is the result of closely related crossbreeding, a clear sign of degeneration. If such a hen also sings like a rooster, she is supposed to immediately roll her head until troubles hit the owners.

The beauty of plumage, of course, plays an important role when choosing a hen, but it must be borne in mind that outstanding layers give up all the reserves of the body during the period of intensive egg-laying, while their feathers become dull and brittle. Such a bird looks very shabby! During the molt, it sheds its feather completely and runs in the needles of young feathers like a hedgehog. Choosing such a chicken, the buyer should understand that she is demanding on the quality of feed and conditions of keeping. Our climate is cold, poorly dressed chicken will catch cold. In my opinion, the “middle peasants” are still better.

Moving to a new place is a stressful situation for any bird. At first, until it gets used to it and calms down, the chicken may not lay. This is normal. Head shaking is a sign of stress in chickens. Ascorbic and succinic acids can ease addiction. Vitamin C should be given for 3-4 days, 4-6 tablets per head, and succinic acid is now available in tablets, soluble in water, a quarter of a tablet a day with a drink for a dozen chickens is enough.

To a greater extent, chickens suffer from food stress. You cannot abruptly replace one type of feed with another, therefore, when buying a bird, you need to inquire about what it was fed, and try to feed it with the same for the first time, and then smoothly transfer it to your feed.

Organize nests for chickens. If they are somewhere at a height, then there should be ladders, flying off, the bird often injures the oviduct. It is better to have a "lining", i.e. something that looks like an egg, for example, a plastic case from a "kinder surprise" toy, only of a suitable color and filled with something, otherwise the chicken will notice the catch.

Summer in the Leningrad Region is often very damp, this weather always promotes the multiplication of parasites, which cause great damage to the health of the bird, so be sure to carry out preventive treatment of the bird purchased in the spring. First, you need to drive out the worms. You can buy the necessary drugs at any veterinary pharmacy. The simplest are piperazine and phenothiazine. Secondly, you can save the bird from fleas and lice by washing it with ordinary dog shampoo from ectoparasites, of course, if you have only a few chickens. Then you need to wipe it thoroughly and dry it with a hairdryer. Remember, a wet chicken dies from hypothermia! All the mats should be cut out, the feathers "seeded" with larvae should be plucked out, the damaged skin should be lubricated with Vishnevsky's ointment. Usually, places where lice accumulate should be sought under the wings, around the tail,on the belly and in the mane at the beard. There is a special powder for lice, it is simple to use, it is very effective, but not always on sale.

In the future, ash and sand baths will be quite enough for the prevention of ectoparasites. It is better not to try exotic agents such as dust or kerosene, otherwise, together with parasites, their carriers can be corroded.

It is good to lubricate the legs of chickens, in order to avoid knemidocoptosis (calcareous legs), with sulfur-mercury ointment or birch tar.

Now I am constantly asked how to reliably protect poultry from influenza, except, of course, vaccination. The answer is: do not let me out on the street from about mid-March to the end of June. If you let it out, then only into an isolated courtyard covered from above (for example, with a reinforced film), into which even a sparrow should not fly into. Cover the grass that you will feed to the bird in some area with a film or lutrasil. And plant more onions per feather in the beds especially for the bird. Add citric acid to the water at the tip of a knife or lemon, if you don't mind.

Troubled? And how you wanted! This is how economic wars look now. War has been declared on us, we must win it and save our poultry industry!

I hope my simple tips will help budding poultry growers choose healthy birds.