The broiler is built to grow quickly. For beginner poultry farmers, the question arises: how to feed broiler chickens so that they grow quickly and are healthy. In order to obtain high quality meat and in a timely manner, one should understand the issues of feeding in accordance with age groups.
What to feed broilers for rapid growth
Compound feed production has long simplified the feeding of broilers. To quickly gain weight is enough:
- buy a bag;
- carefully read the label;
- calculate the dose according to the number of birds;
- pour compound feed;
- pour water.
It would seem that everything is simple. However, when you come to the market, you can see a great variety of different feeds, which feed is better for broilers, which and when to give preference?
From an early age, chickens should be fed the most balanced feed. If the chicken gains weight in the first 10 days, then he will double it, if not, it will be impossible to compensate for the losses. That is why from the first days of food should be:
- balanced;
- highly nutritious;
- benign.
In the first days of life, starter feed is needed. However, no one can guarantee that everything necessary for the chicken's body was put in it. That is why supplements are needed for rapid growth. As such, use:
- boiled egg;
- fresh fermented milk cheese (cottage cheese);
- curdled milk;
- whey.
Starter food should be fed from the first minutes of life. It must be freely available and at will. When figuring out how to feed broiler chickens with compound feed, one thing needs to be taken into account - no one should interfere. A chick at any moment should come to the feeder and consume as much as it sees fit.
After 10 days, stop giving eggs and cottage cheese, but continue to feed yogurt and whey for up to a month.
How many days to feed broilers starter? Answer: first look at the packaging. Different manufacturers give different recommendations depending on the composition. Some may call the first feed "Prestarter" and recommend up to 7 days. They can then be divided as follows:
- 0-15 days;
- 15-30;
- 30-45;
- 45-60.
It all depends on the manufacturer. When fattening broiler chickens, you need to understand that the numbers on the package are very arbitrary. If there is not much feed left, and the age is “gone”, feel free to feed (sometimes this is nothing more than a marketing ploy).
When figuring out what to give broiler chickens and stopping at compound feed, it should be understood that the quality of the meat will be far from ideal. The compound feed contains many different substances that the body does not need, for example:
- preservatives (food should be stored for a long time and fats should not oxidize);
- antibiotics (they will not allow the development of microorganisms in the feed);
- fungicidal preparations (they will prevent the germination of microscopic fungi in feed);
- substances that prevent self-compression (the food will always be in a crumbly state);
- and much more (information may be closed by the manufacturer. Even inspection authorities sometimes cannot find out what exactly is in the structure).
If you want high-quality, high-value meat, environmentally friendly, and not just to grow faster, use the table.
Broiler feeding table
Small broilers and those that have been for more than a month should be fed several times a day, adhering to the norms given in the table.
| Number of feeds by name
on the head per day |
Age of broilers in days | ||||
| 1-10
days |
10-20
days |
20-30
days |
30-40
days |
40-60
days |
|
| boiled eggs | 3-4 g | ||||
| Sour-milk cheese | 2-4 | 4-5 | 5-6 | ||
| Whey milk | 4-5 | 4-5 | 4-5 | ||
| Return milk | 3-5 | 3-5 | |||
| Grain mixture (wheat, corn, barley, oats, rice, buckwheat) | 3-4 | 6-15 | |||
| Grain mix (wheat, corn, barley, oats) | 15-30 | 40-50 | 50-70 | ||
| Cakes and meals | 1-2 | 3-4 | 5-6 | ||
| Meat and bones, fish,
bone flour, slaughterhouse waste |
2-3 | 4-5 | 5-6 | ||
| Boiled potatoes | 3-5 | 3-5 | |||
| Grain legumes | 2-3 | 2-3 | |||
| Salt | 0,1 | 0,1-0,2 | 0,3 | 0,4 | 0,4 |
| Green herbs (piraeus, dandelion, timothy, clover, sainfoin) and succulent food (beets, pumpkin, carrots). | 1-2 | 3-4 | 5-10 | 10-20 | |
If there is no compound feed, it is better to use grain mixtures. In this case, the rule “The wider the composition, the more balanced the feeding will be” works.
The grain mixture can be served in the form of a mash, as well as brewed with boiling water and served as a porridge. Temperature treatment will not make the diet more nutritious, but the feed will take on a more digestible form. Readability is a valuable indicator. Chickens from 0 to 1 month should not feel hungry, then the weight gain per unit of feed will be high.
For better palatability of cereals and mash, the food can be sweetened with sugar. The taste buds of broilers are well developed and the feed will be more palatable.
At 20 days, they begin to accustom them to a feeder with sand, a shell. It's not the same for a bird. Sand - performs the function of teeth (for grinding food in the muscular stomach), and the shell is a source of organic calcium. It is great if there is free access to whey, and if not, then it is the shell that will replenish the calcium reserves of the rapidly growing skeleton and muscle mass.
Introduce each new type of food into the diet gradually. During this period, follow the bird, especially pay attention to the structure of the afterbirth.
Poultry farmers often practice feeding both compound feed and homemade feed at the same time. There is common sense in this. To understand what feed to give, the age of the chickens should be taken into account. Some practice feeding only with compound feed for up to 2 months, but finish for broilers with natural feed. In this case, the meat will be tastier.
Compound feed reviews do not matter. This is because so many factors influence growth and development. In addition, the quality of the feed of the same enterprise may be different depending on:
- parties;
- production dates (old grain or vice versa young);
- quality of raw materials introduced into the product.
Reading reviews, you can often find both positive and negative for the same type of food, this is normal. The purity of the experiment cannot be maintained even at 50%.
What are broilers fed at the poultry farm?
The answer can be simple - compound feed. However, this is not the case at home. The nutritionist does the following:
- agrees with the feed mill on deliveries;
- discusses the recipe for age groups;
- takes samples from each batch;
- takes them to the laboratory for biochemical, microbiological and toxicological studies on the main indicators (protein, calcium, phosphorus content, toxicity, microbiological indicators);
- gets the result.
Only after the results of this entire procedure, a decision is made to purchase and feed a batch of feed to chickens of any age.
Does it happen otherwise? Yes, but the results are deplorable. For an amateur poultry farmer, such a procedure is not possible. Research is very expensive. All you can afford is to ask for a certificate confirming the quality of the feed. It should match (on paper and on a bag of feed):
- the name of the feed;
- manufacturer's name;
- lot number;
- date of manufacture.
There are a lot of counterfeit products on the feed market. That is why when weighing, for example, 2 week old chickens, you do not find the right indicators. Compound feed for poultry farms (custom-made) and for amateurs are made differently. They do not report amino acids, vitamins, minerals. They are more filled with ballast and therefore have low nutritional value and digestibility.
The frequency of feeding at the poultry farm is constant. Compound feed is fed into the feeders. As soon as the bird has eaten, the food itself is poured. At home, this is also possible with the help of special feeders.
At the age of one month, chickens begin to consume more feed. They grow intensively, metabolism increases and the feed must be especially balanced. After a month, you need to constantly feed green food. Chopped grass is poured as it is eaten, 3-4 times a day.
Water occupies a special place. Clean, constantly filled drinking bowls are a must when feeding both compound feeds and homemade feeds. If a bird is thirsty for an hour, its metabolism is disturbed, and recovery will take a lot of time and metabolic energy.
When keeping broilers for meat, all links of a single chain are important:
- stern;
- light;
- temperature;
- humidity;
- content area;
- feeding front.
If you are purchasing a new batch of feed, do not feed all the chicks at once. Separate 3-5 and follow them for 4-5 days. This will be the control group. If all is well, continue feeding the entire herd.
Feeding broiler chickens and raising healthy birds is not difficult, but there are no trifles in this work. Adhere to the rules of feeding and keeping, this will avoid unforeseen situations and cases.
I am just starting to learn how to raise chickens and of course I am interested in how to feed them properly. I will take your advice and put it into practice.
Thank you for showing me how to properly feed chickens. I hope that now my chickens will quickly gain weight.