Chickens, due to their omnivorousness and unpretentiousness, are the most common animals in private household plots. Both elderly people and teenagers are capable of containing this type of bird. It is very important to choose the breed of chickens correctly, so that at the exit you get the greatest return on investment, that they rush well, gain weight and eat any feed.
It should be noted that for private farmsteads, industrial breeds of laying hens, which will be slaughtered a year later, are not very suitable. For their own needs, people will never begin to use growing technologies that involve the use of hormones and antibiotics, which squeeze the bird’s entire life out of the bird’s body in a year. Private owners need such breeds that even give a smaller number of eggs per unit of time, but they will live three to four years and will delight owners with ecologically clean products all their lives.
These include meat and egg breeds of laying hens: Zagorsk salmon, Kuchin anniversary, Moscow black, Adler silver.
The Adler breed has the so-called Colombian plumage, a leaf-shaped crest, yellow legs and red earlobes, and a well-developed skeleton. The live weight of its representatives at the age of 60 days reaches 870 grams in hens and 1100 grams in males, while adult males weigh up to 4 kilograms, and laying hens weigh up to 2.8 kilograms. Adequate nutrition and proper content of chickens of this breed provides egg laying, which in the first year reaches 220 eggs, covered with a brown shell, weighing up to 80 grams and above. The first egg of a bird of this breed is laid at the age of 165 to 180 days, in some cases - before 125 - 130 days.
Adler silver chickens of laying hens must be hatched in order to renew the breeding herd from late May to early June. In this case, they will grow in their natural rhythm, under conditions of increasing daylight hours. Such birds are physically strong, practically do not get sick, do not suffer from loss of the oviduct, which sometimes happens with those that were hatched early and started to rush. Recently, birds of the Adler silver breed of laying hens have experienced a decrease in the average weight compared to their ancestors. This fact is associated with the process of increasing egg production, which leads to their "relief".
The males of this breed have some remarkable qualities:
1. They are inferior to chicken feed.
2. When they find something tasty, they call the chickens, and they themselves eat only what remains after them (for this reason, the males often do not gain weight).
3. Roosters accustom young chickens to rushing in certain nests (they climb into the nests and summon the chickens there).
This breed of chickens is gullible, it is easy to train them to approach the call: “tsypa-tsypa”. It is important to remember that goodwill towards birds improves their mood and well-being, as chickens are very sensitive to human emotions.
It is very important to comply with all the rules of their maintenance and feeding, only then you can count on the maximum profit from such a household sector as poultry farming. Laying hens are able to give up to 5 - 6 eggs per week with full feeding. One of the ways to increase egg production is the yeast of previously sprouted, dried and ground grain, which is fed to them.
Feeding of birds should be carried out at the same time intervals, 3-4 times a day in winter and 4-5 times in summer. The first feeding is carried out as early as possible, and the last - as late as possible. Water is supplied in special automatic drinkers. It is also necessary to provide chickens with minerals in the form of chalk, shells and eggshells.