How To Raise Healthy Chickens, Bird Flu Prevention

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

While the Emergencies Ministry is developing chicken gas chambers, we, poultry farmers, are building enclosures and hatching chickens, despite any intrigues of enemies. Now I want to get a third brood, two have already grown.

I unambiguously reject accusations of irresponsible behavior, or even deliberate spread of a dangerous disease.

Pardon me, no one in my family has been sick with the usual flu for 15 years, while in St. Petersburg hundreds of thousands of people get sick every year and 2000 people die. So who said that my bird, which lives and eats better than me, must get sick? Did you know that Russia loses 60 thousand people every year only when it switches to daylight saving time? The fatalities in road accidents and from the burned vodka are not even counted. For some reason, this does not bother anyone as much as the exotic bird flu, from which only 104 people died in the entire history of observations, half of which are Chinese homeless people with a bunch of other diseases. Doesn't it seem to you that there is some kind of catch?

So, how can you and I raise such chickens that will not be afraid of any infection? The task in our amazingly rotten climate is almost impossible, and yet … So let's start, as the ancient Latins said, ab ovo, ie from the egg. In order for the chick to hatch strong and healthy, it is necessary to take care of the quality of the egg, that is, of its parents. Two weeks before the collection of eggs for incubation, it is imperative to change the litter in the house and in the nests. Sweep the dust. Examine the bird. We remove sick, weak, ugly, and also extra roosters. We add more ash for bathing, heavily lined with my dog shampoo, but be sure to dry it with a hairdryer afterwards. The feet should be treated with birch tar from ticks ("lime feet"). Feed Trichopolum, one tablet per 10 heads. This is from coccidiosis, i.e. that intestinal infectionwhich the birds will scoop out of the litter.

During this period, the bird should receive not only complete, but also as varied as possible food. Add mineral and vitamin premixes to wet mash and boiled crushed potatoes. Pay attention to the date of manufacture: 3 months maximum from the date of manufacture. In dry form, vitamins A, D, E necessary for future parents quickly decompose. If you use oil solutions of these vitamins, then remember that without vitamin F they cannot be absorbed by the body of the bird, and they must be diluted with refined vegetable oil in a ratio of 1: 3, because the concentration of industrial packaging is for carnivores, not birds. Vitamins A and D affect the quality of the shell (read: immunity of the future chick).

In addition to the above, vitamins of group B are very important for the health of the chicken. This is so that the legs do not spread out to the sides, the head does not tilt back, and the feathers do not grow in different directions, and in general there was enough strength to hatch from the egg. These vitamins are found in green grass. But where can I get it in winter? Stock up on hay or nettle brooms. I do not regret my cabbage a day, I rub carrots, fodder beets, turnips on a coarse grater, buy cat grass in a pet store. Be sure to include corn in the feed. If it is not in industrial compound feed, then we go to the supermarket for corn grits.

Protein complementary foods are of particular importance. Do your chickens peck eggs? Oh, how I, a fasting person, understand them! Last summer was so and so. Winter is harsh. In short, protein starvation. Our bird does not have time to accumulate enough vitamin D in the body over a rotten summer. The sun is not enough for all of us, therefore we do not want to multiply and multiply.

Buy cheap fish for chickens, cook together with scales, you can just fish heads or meat waste. Small fish can be fed raw. Remember: a chicken spends as much energy on the formation of one egg as a racehorse in a race! There is not enough sun, which means that it is the owner's task to provide the chicken with the necessary nutrition.

It's a good idea to give the rooster red pepper in the mash, all the eggs will be fertilized. For this you need vitamin E. And if you give them red wine! Are you laughing? And I have been giving it for many years, because I make wine myself: for myself, for friends, and for chickens for treatment.

This is where the question arises: when to take eggs for incubation? Last autumn was a long one. The bird molted for a long time. Therefore, I had the opportunity to collect the first hatching eggs only at the end of December. In short, the end of the molt serves as the starting point, and then hatch the chickens at least until the end of summer, but we must bear in mind that they must fledge before the cold weather and gain a sufficient supply of vitamins to survive the coming long winter. Moreover, the closer to spring, the more weakened the bird. It turns out that the sooner the chickens were brought out, the better! It is necessary to calculate so that by the first heat they are in the feather and are completely independent.

If your chickens lived without a rooster, then you brought it to the poultry house, then eggs for incubation can be taken only after 11 days. Until then, they will all be unfertilized.

Let's say we collected hatching eggs according to all the rules. Then the question arises: should they be placed under the chicken or sent to the incubator? There is no doubt that it is better to grow up in a family than in an orphanage. This is from the point of view of the chicken, but from the point of view of the owner, not everything is so simple. It all depends on how your house is set up and how it suits you best.

This season I have two broods so far, which I tentatively called "mothers" and "orphans". The first ones were hatched by two hens, 19 eggs under each, but only one moth became the "nursing mother". The second hatched in an incubator, 27 out of 36 eggs set. Now everyone is running in the same herd and I definitely do not distinguish which one is who.

To be honest, I don't know much about the owners whose chicken coops are sufficiently insulated to make the chickens feel comfortable in them. Therefore, chickens in Russia have been kept in the house from time immemorial. I spent the whole autumn building a chicken house, but when the "children" were hatched, the frosts in our Opolievsky volost, Kingiseppsky district, went off scale at -32 ° С. I had to live with the "chicks" in the same room. Instinct makes the hen constantly row to feed its brood. Imagine what it looks like at home. The dust layer on all surfaces was larger than the ejection of volcanic ash. The feeders are upside down, the drinkers are filled up. Now imagine the face of my tax inspector, to whom I explained why I could not tear myself away from the chicken coop in order to submit the declaration on time. I constantly had to fill up something, top up, correct.

With the "orphans" it was a little easier. I immediately put them in the chicken house under the lamp. One problem: wires in our area were stretched back under Stalin, and we only pay Chubais money, no return. In the cold, the old torn wiring does not withstand the load, which means that I cannot tear myself away from the incubator or the chicken house. If the light goes out, the whole brood sits in my bosom or by the stove by candlelight. How can I then explain to reporters why my chickens are so tame, cats do not steal chickens, and dogs do not offend cats? So we, like the Chukchi, come from the same yaranga!

It is even more difficult to communicate with the sanitary authorities, who for some reason decided that 100 rubles for a slaughtered bird is a sufficient payment. This is for my zapazushny! No, we will go to the gas chamber together, like Korczak with his pupils!

Let's say you have a good imported heater that can heat the poultry space up to + 24 ° C or more. Then it doesn't matter whether chickens grow with or without a hen. Most importantly, keep in mind that the heat should come from above and pointwise, i.e. it's hot for the chick - he went to the edge of the enclosure, froze - went under the lamp to warm up or hid under the fluffy mother. If we heat from below, we heat up the droppings and infection. Heat should only be on the back of the chicken, and his legs should be freezing. Therefore, in addition to the heater, it is necessary to hang an ordinary incandescent lamp in the chicken house, albeit of very low power. It is better that her cartridge is made of porcelain, and the reflector is made of metal or tin, so that the light does not irritate the eyes. Lamps from old Soviet photographic enlargers are perfect for these purposes. The feeder must be placed in the "cold" corner of the enclosure.

Litter is best made of straw or hay. Sawdust is good for older chickens, and small change is swallowed along with the feed, which will not go to her good. It is better then to use cat litter under the feet of the chickens. There is such woody granular.

Chicks are under extreme stress on the net. It's like a person in the zone! In addition, their legs suffer, their bones become bent, and painful bumps form on the heels.

Overlooking chickens is just as bad as not loving. If it is cold, then the "children" will sit under a hen (lamp) and starve; if it is hot, they will drink a lot and eat little, and everything will end with rickets. The result is the same. Within a month, the temperature should be gradually reduced to room temperature, changing the height of the lamp suspension and its power. In the first three days, the temperature in the chicken house is + 30 ° С, the first week + 28 ° С, then gradually reduce to + 22 ° С.

What to feed? The mistake of all novice poultry farmers is that they chop eggs for day-old chickens. Have mercy, they have not yet digested their primary inside, and the faster this happens, the stronger the chicken will be. The first step is to get drunk. And it is best to feed it with ready-made chicken feed, even better - with special broiler feed, in the absence of such, slightly boiled millet will come down. I recommend the feed that I buy myself - the Gatchina feed mill. They are of high quality, and in addition, there, during production and packaging, all sanitary rules are observed, excluding any infection in the feed.

It is necessary to drink constantly fresh clean water, only without bleach. Ascorbic acid, citric acid and glucose can be added to water. But potassium permanganate should not be used without measure - there will be no normal digestion. A separate drinking bowl should periodically contain milk whey or bifidokefir. Granular cottage cheese, boiled fish, vegetables will only strengthen the health of your wards. And green onions will make you and the birds forget about any flu forever. It was not in vain that our ancestors ate onions with black bread and washed down with kvass during Petrov Lent, therefore they were healthier than us!

All this is good, the smart reader will say, if the chickens are their own, but no matter how much the factory feeds, as they say, "not the horse's feed." Yes it is. There is such a trick. The strongest and healthiest chicks hatch 20 days and 6 hours after setting the eggs for incubation. Both the poultry farm and the good owner keep these chickens for themselves, and the later offspring are sent for sale. Whether he survives or not is a pure lottery. What is sold to you under the guise of day old chicks is usually more than three days old, they are overexposed to make them look decent.

Plus, if you were born in Auschwitz, it takes three generations for the offspring to be relatively normal. True, the buyers are good too! It's March outside, it's cold, but look what they are going for chickens with. That's right, just with boxes. Yes, but a day-old chicken needs + 30 ° С, I'm not talking about stress. This means that you must at least take a heating pad and a thermos with boiling water. Pour sawdust on the bottom of the box. Cover the backs with a downy shawl. After all, newborns are taken from the hospital in warm blankets even in summer.

They also sell chickens to you, i.e. culling, the maintenance of which at the poultry farm is further unprofitable. The bird is accustomed to a stable feed, heat and light regime, and they are carried to cold dark sheds, or even immediately driven out into the street. For goodness sake, there is no pen on her, she wouldn’t be sick! So it is best to grow your own bird, she is definitely not afraid of the flu.

There are several critical periods in the life of a chicken, overcoming which you will understand that now no tank can run over your chicken and you cannot catch it with any infection!

1-3 days. The incubation marriage dies, i.e. chickens affected by hypoxia (oxygen starvation). Somewhere they did not ventilate the room, did not cool the eggs on time, violated the temperature and humidity regime. The incubator must have a fan, there will be less losses. And the hen must be removed from the masonry by force, especially in the last week. If the chickens are orphans, then the first days the light should be on for 24 hours.

3-5 days. The chicken must completely switch from internal to external nutrition. It must be drunk, even if forced, and taught to peck food, preferably dry. Don't forget about sand and shell rock - these are the "teeth" of the chicken. Do not abruptly switch chicks from one type of feed to another, this causes severe nutritional stress. Make sure that there are no chicken legs in the feeders, the easiest way is to cut such universal feeders from plastic bottles. Do not place small chickens where there was an adult bird, everything must be cleaned to a sterile shine. Do not overheat, otherwise enzymes needed for normal digestion will not be produced. If the chicks do not bite on their own, put food on their backs, they see the moving food better.

5-21 days. Chickens die due to avitaminosis of the parent flock. What I already warned about above. Vitamins, succinic acid and glucose in water, immunoglobulin and your love can save even the most hopeless. During this period, the light should be on 24 hours a day, at the end, gradually reduce the duration of lighting, and by the age of one month, bring the daylight hours to 14 hours. Never keep chicks of different ages and households together. You cannot keep two hens with broods in one enclosure. The food should be complete, only dry, no wet mash! Add boiled crushed vegetables or raw grated vegetables, cottage cheese, chopped egg, greens as complementary foods.

21-45 days. Chicks need to fledge, which they use as much energy as a hen to lay. Plus they are still growing. This means a high-quality, varied diet, including vitamins A, D, E, F, phosphorus, calcium, sulfur, protein supplements, greens. Otherwise - rickets, crooked legs, fingers, keel, and most importantly, weakened immunity and all kinds of colds. At this stage, everything depends on you, not on nature! Keep chickens under the net to keep out cats, dogs, rats, foxes, crows and other predators. By gradually lowering the temperature, teach them to live without additional heating. Never walk chicks before 12 noon and after 6 pm. The metabolic processes during this period are very intensive, so the litter must be changed every day.

It is good to add fodder sulfur, millet and white cabbage to the diet so that the feather is lush, beautiful and shiny.

45-100 days. Chickens move into adolescence when their reproductive organs are forming. As you pass this period, so your chicken will lay. Even if the young are walking on the grass, premixes should be added to the feed, unless, of course, you feed the bird with complete feed. Teach your chicks to perch, just don't make them very tall and be sure to use a ladder.

100-150 days. At this time, young animals usually join the general herd. Make sure that the old chickens do not offend them very much, that there is enough food for everyone, so that pullets do not fly off high perches and do not beat with their breasts. Take ladders for the chicken step, i.e. no more than 10-12 cm between steps. Outdoor walks should be daily. Do not let youngsters get wet in the rain, i.e. there must be hiding places. Remove excess roosters early, even if they are all incredibly beautiful.

People say, they say, chickens are counted in the fall. This is true, only with a good owner the difference between what the hen hatched in the spring, and what runs around the chicken coop in the fall and asks for grain, usually tends to zero. Well, why should we look at densely populated Europe, I'm not talking about Asia, where there is little room for people, not that chickens are free to walk! And our birds are free, strong, healthy. Of course, until the sanitary authorities give an end to the bird flu, chickens and chickens will have to be kept in enclosures. If they are locked in chicken coops, they will not survive the next winter.

The aviary is easy to build from slats by connecting them with self-tapping screws. The sides can be tightened with a cheap fiberglass mesh (20 rubles running meters) or a mesh used to hide berry bushes. It is better to tighten the top with a reinforced film. The height of the aviary can be tailored to your height or the height of the chicken. In the latter case, we make the top opening, for example, as some make greenhouses for early greens, or you can simply cover with sheets of slate or iron. In short, the need for invention is cunning.

The infection will become a thing of the past, it will go away, but scrambled eggs from homemade eggs with a red yolk and a green onion and with a tomato will remain an eternal value! Raise chickens, this is a good, grateful business, but if there are questions or difficulties, please contact us in society. We will help, advise, prompt.