There are no problems with the assortment of products in supermarkets today, especially when it comes to semi-finished products and chicken meat. But, despite this, most summer residents prefer to grow domestic broilers over the summer period. This is no accident, because such meat can be considered truly environmentally friendly, because you know for sure what your birds consumed. The taste in these meats is also qualitatively different from the store.
When choosing chickens, the question arises as to which breed is the most convenient for growing, resistant to diseases, and also differs in fast weight gain. The broiler is most often chosen. For three months, these birds reach 5 kilograms of weight. Of great importance is what you will feed your bird. You can buy ready-made dry mixes or cook them at home yourself. The composition of the feed for broilers made with your own hands is the topic of our today's article.
Recipe for success
So, the first thing you need is to choose chickens that have good genetic potential, and provide them with quality nutrition. What should it be? Good feed provides the growth and development of poultry. Of course, ready-made mixtures look more preferable, because their packaging already contains the content of fats, proteins and carbohydrates, which means that you do not have to invent anything yourself.
However, today industrial feeds have become different in that a large number of growth stimulants and vitamins are added to the mixture. This is not so bad, but most of them contribute to the retention of water in the muscles. As a result, the quality of the meat suffers greatly. Such can be bought in the store, but we want to get excellent chickens. The composition of the feed for broilers made with their own hands is not at all complicated. For this, only the age characteristics of the chickens should be taken into account.
"Starting" composition for chickens
The nutrition of babies should be balanced and high-calorie and give the yellowfish all the necessary substances for intensive growth. Now they will change almost every day, and the lack of any trace element can affect a fragile body. So, the composition of the feed for broilers, made with your own hands, includes four components:
- Corn - it is extremely important for the stomachs of chicks.
- Peas.
- Wheat is a source of carbohydrates.
- Barley is an ideal product for good digestion.
Possible additives
All cereals are crushed so that kids can digest them. Do not forget that we are talking about chicks from the age of birth to 14 days. Manufacturers often add vegetable fat, a vitamin-mineral premix, and antibiotics to this mixture. At home, it is best to replace these components with skim milk or yogurt, fresh grass and cottage cheese.
What else can be added to broiler feed? With your own hands, you are creating not an analogue of factory mixtures, but a truly optimal diet, which contributes to the fastest growth and development, weight gain. Even in starter feeds, you can add a little sunflower cake and table salt, fish concentrate, meat and bone meal, limestone or shell rock.
The second phase of life - the development of muscles and bones
Your chicks are 14 days old. Chickens have changed a lot during this time, they are already starting their first molt. How to feed broilers at this time? The second type of feed should provide a set of muscle mass and the formation of the skeleton. The faster this process is completed, the better the process of gaining weight will go, which is the ultimate goal. The grain composition may remain the same, but the grinding should be larger. Obligatory components should be protein and amino acids, mineral and vitamin complexes, enzymes and antioxidants.
Different approaches to poultry feeding
In fact, this decision is based on the individual experience of each house. In large poultry farms, whole teams of livestock specialists decide how to feed broilers. Usually they divide the entire life cycle into three periods and, based on this, choose the optimal mixture. The first food is given to chickens aged 1 to 3 weeks. Its task is to strengthen the immune system and preserve the life of fragile yellowhorotics. At 4-5 weeks, the chickens are already quite large, and the composition changes to the starting one. Now in the bird muscles are formed and bones are strengthened. After the seventh week, the last phase begins, when the bird gains weight due to a large amount of fats, proteins and carbohydrates.
The composition of the feed for broilers at home usually changes twice over the entire period of life. Up to four weeks, the bird is given starter kits, and after and until the slaughter - finish. In addition to composition, the size of individual fractions also changes. For chickens, the whole feed should be crushed to a state of small grains, and after four weeks the granular form is optimal.
Fattening birds after 14 days
First of all, you need to understand for yourself what is included in the broiler feed. But in parallel, the second task also arises, you need to know exactly how much feed you need to give daily to the entire livestock. About 25 g per day are spent on one chick at the age of 14 days. Now just multiply that number by everyone. You got a number and now you know how much mixture you need to prepare for a day. However, we still need to calculate in what proportion all the components will be included in broiler chicken feed. The composition is approximately as follows:
- Corn is about half the volume.
- Meal or cake - 19%.
- Wheat - 13%.
- Meat and bone or fish meal - 7%.
- Fodder yeast - 5%.
- Dry return - 3%.
- Fresh or dried grass - 3%.
- Feed fat - 1%.
At the same time, the amount of feed needs to be adjusted every day, as the chick is growing rapidly and changing.
Yeast and wet mixers
Dry mixes are an important feed for broiler chickens. The composition may vary slightly, but the base should remain the same. To diversify the diet of chicks and stimulate good growth, cereal mixtures are subjected to yeast. It’s not difficult to cook them. Pressed yeast is diluted in water, and then all other ingredients are added there. About 15 kg of the mixture comes out to 15 liters of water. It remains to mix thoroughly and put in a warm place. After six hours, it can be fed. For chickens aged 14 days, you can add carrots or boiled potatoes in small quantities.
Finishing feed
At home, usually nothing changes. The composition of the feed-finish for broilers is similar to that which you gave since 14 days. The only difference is volume. With good growth from two weeks to a month, you need to give from 50 to 120 g of feed per bird. From a month until the very bottom - about 150 g.
From a month, you can add bread and boiled potatoes to the mixture. Very useful is the introduction to the diet of carrots or yellow pumpkin in grated form. To improve the digestive tract, the formation of the skeleton and the normal plumage in the diet should be present chalk and gravel, bone meal and sulfur.
Healthy supplements
Despite the fact that after a month the chickens do not look so tender and weak, it is extremely important to maintain a full diet. At this age, the skeleton is growing rapidly, which means that the need for calcium is increasing. You can knead the milk with the bird; it may not be the freshest, but also not peroxide. The ideal option is fresh cottage cheese or yogurt. Greens is an essential supplement that not only contains vitamins and minerals, but also helps digestion. It can be peas and clover, sow thistle and dandelion. The grass is cut into pieces and added to the mash.
Feeding recommendations
The success of the cultivation largely depends on the cleanliness of the feeder and its size. Organize the space so that each bird can find a place around it. Unsanitary conditions contribute to the development of infections, and this is a direct path to disruption of the digestive tract of chickens, illness and even death. Therefore, it is necessary to clean the detention facilities often and very carefully. Feeders should not be filled right up to the top, but a third, so that a significant portion of the food does not appear to be scattered and trampled. For prevention in the morning, the bird is given a 1% solution of potassium permanganate. After that, the drinkers are rinsed and clean water is poured.
Instead of a conclusion
Buying ready-made feeds is much easier than making them yourself. However, today many farmers are faced with the fact that the bird grown on them does not differ in taste from the store. Of course, chickens grow much faster, but the meat at the exit is loose, watery. Therefore, they refuse such mixtures, especially since their purchase is more expensive than cooking at home. But you will always be sure that the grown meat is completely natural and will bring nothing but good.