How to grow poultry in the country during the summer

Recommendation points

• Chickens, ducks or geese? What poultry is more profitable to breed
• Poultry plot
• Chickens
• Ducks and geese
• Indo-women
• Turkeys
• What to feed the bird
• Poultry breeding methods
• Breeding poultry with an incubator
• Buy young at a local incubator
• Live incubator – goose, duck or turkey
• How to care for a hen
• How to properly care for young animals

In this article, we will tell you how over the summer you can not only grow a crop of vegetables and fruits in your garden, but also poultry in your garden plot. What kind of food and care to use, put eggs in an incubator or buy chicks right away – read about all this in our article.

The suburban area is not only outdoor recreation and barbecue, but also hard work, thanks to which we can enjoy fresh vegetables and fruits from our own garden. Meat stocks are not in the last place. Since the summer resident begins his work in early spring, it is possible to breed poultry for meat.

Chickens, ducks or geese? What poultry is more profitable to breed

	Survival after hatching	Feeding time before slaughter	Feed consumption before slaughter	Bird weight at the time of slaughter	Containment Mode	Primary requirements
Chicks	80%	4-5 months.	15-20 kg	3-4 kg	Aviary + grain + chopped greens	No dampness
Ducklings	95%	3 months.	25-30 kg	4-6 kg	Aviary + grazing + grain	Large container with water
Indo-kids	one hundred%	4 months.	10-20 kg	3-4 kg	Free grazing	Lack of dampness, large grazing
Goose	99%	4 months.	20-25 kg	8-10 kg	Free grazing + grain up to 2 months, after – an open-air cage 5×5 m, periodic grazing	Sufficient water and greenery in the aviary, large grazing
Turkey poults	60%	5-6 months.	15-20 kg	10-15 kg	Free grazing up to 3 months, then 3-4 times a day	Free grazing, no dampness

The table shows the approximate amount of feed for a certain period. There is no exact daily allowance for chickens. Feed poured into the troughs can crumble, trample and get wet. Therefore, it should be removed immediately and applied fresh. The most accurate recommendation would be that there should always be food in the feeder..

Poultry plot

In order to determine which type of bird to grow, one should take into account the size of the plot that is allocated for the household.

Chickens

If there is very little space on it, then chickens are the most profitable option. They do not require a large area. Lack of grazing can be replaced by self-cutting plant feed. They don’t require a lot of water. Since they are more difficult to keep free, they require more grain when in a small area..

If you keep chickens for preparing meat, then they should be cut after 3 months, when they reach 3-4 kilograms. After this time, the chickens begin to lay and lose weight..

Ducks and geese

Ducks and geese require more attention. Chopped greens will not be enough to feed them – they need grazing and water. But this does not require a separately sown area or a natural reservoir..

Waterfowl sweep away any weeds located near housing, and you can provide them with water using an artificial pond. To do this, it is enough to dig in a container for water or lay out a small depression with a stone in the distant part of the cottage, in order to avoid unpleasant odors near the living quarters. After 3 months, the bird gains from 6 to 10 kg (geese).

Indo-women

Indo-kids from birth require greenery. Even a diurnal duckling, with its soft beak, is able to nibble on grass. If it’s enough to begin with, Indo-girls generally ignore grains..

Turkeys

Turkeys are very picky about food. They need certain supplements of greens and special attention. But they require less feed in the presence of grazing – free, unlimited territory with weeds.

After 4–5 months, they reach 10–15 kg, and subsequently can be a “living incubator” for incubating and rearing young animals. The turkey does not understand who hatched from her – turkeys, chickens or goslings. She adjusts to the “interests” of her brood, and it is sometimes interesting to watch her patiently wait for her waterfowl children while they swim.

What to feed the bird

For chickens and turkeys, the desired feed is wheat, corn and oats. For waterfowl – mixed feed from all types of grain, chopped root crops, green mass and silage. After a month, it is recommended to add sand to the feed. Since waterfowl process food very quickly, the sand gives the impression of satiety, which allows them to lie down longer and “get fat”.

Poultry breeding methods

There are 3 ways to breed young animals:

• breeding poultry with an incubator
• buy young at a local incubator
• live incubator – goose, duck or turkey

The most convenient way is to put her own eggs under the hen. But not all summer residents have the opportunity to keep a bird in the winter. Therefore, in the spring, they buy small chicks at a poultry farm, hatch them using their own mini-incubator, or still put the purchased eggs under the hen. At the same time, duck eggs can be placed under the chickens, chicken eggs can be placed under ducks and geese, and any and in larger quantities can be placed under the turkey than under any other poultry..

Eggs can be laid in a special incubator at any time of the year, but early spring is the most optimal option when there is already grass, because any bird requires vitamins contained in weeds and cultivated plants.

The incubator is easy to use, especially if it has an automatic egg-turning function and the ability to connect to the battery during a blackout. If you follow all the recommendations and rules for using the incubator, you can grow a bird from several bookmarks per season.

Breeding poultry with an incubator

Today, there are various mini-incubators on sale that replace live hens, under which no more than 21 eggs can be placed. Up to a hundred eggs are laid in the incubator and all eggs are looked after at the same time, and subsequently chickens.

For the same number of eggs, you will need about 8-10 hens, which also need care during incubation. One can only imagine how inconvenient it is to look after so many bird families. In addition, a large area is needed so that each family is on a separate site..

Manual turning incubators are the most troublesome device because the owner needs to manually turn each egg several times a day.

Incubator with mechanical turning allows one movement to turn all eggs at the same time using a special mechanism.

Incubator with automatic egg turning is the most convenient to use. The owner is only required to monitor the readings of the heat and humidity sensors.

It is important to select the correct eggs before starting incubation. To do this, you should purchase a special ovoscope, with the help of which the eggs are shined with bright light, which allows you to distinguish defective ones:

1. Incorrectly positioned air chamber in the egg. Instead of the upper part (as it should be), it is located in the middle and moves freely when the egg is turned.
2. The yolk is not clearly expressed, mixes with the protein when stirring or stuck to the wall of the egg.
3. The presence of a kind of cobweb inside the egg.

The egg should not be dirty on top – this is an incipient infection that can infect the rest of the eggs during the incubation period. Seed material is best purchased at poultry breeders (incubators), where everything is checked by experienced veterinarians for the presence of diseases.

Considering that hens sit on eggs in late April or early May, then you can lay the incubator in late February – early March. In early August, the bird will gain sufficient weight and can be cut.

The difficulty is that after the mass hatching of the chicks, individual care is required. Since they cannot be let out into the street yet, they require a spacious warm room. For a large number of young animals, an ordinary box will not work even at night. There should be a place for them to bask under the lamp and a compartment where the chickens can go out to eat and drink water. If all this is in a small area, then the feed will be mixed with water and droppings, the chickens will begin to get wet and hurt.

Buy young at a local incubator

Things to consider when buying day old chicks:

1. When choosing chickens, you should pay attention to their wings. If feathers have already appeared on them, then he is already more than 3 days old.
2. Weaker chicks can be easily distinguished by weight. If you pick up chickens, it is easy to determine if they are the same weight or not. The weak will seem like a fluff compared to the healthy.
3. If you tap your finger on the cage in which they are located, the most nimble ones run over their heads in search of food. These are the healthiest.
4. Distinguishing a chicken from a cockerel is difficult. Here is one of the popular ways: take the chicken by the legs upside down. If it flutters its wings and pulls itself up – a cockerel, if it squeaks, but hangs – a chicken. At 3 weeks of age, it is easier, there are already feathers on the tails. They are different for the chicken and the cockerel. In the cockerel it sticks up like a triangle, and in the chicken it is a loose fan.
5. Do not hesitate to look under their tail – if it is wet, it is a defective chicken or duckling. But it is best to buy weekly young growth. These birds are already drunk with special vitamins, the pestilence will be minimal.

Live incubator – goose, duck or turkey

A bird that incubates eggs by itself, and then cares for them, is popularly called a kvochka. The fact is that even during incubation, it emits certain sounds (clucking), as if communicating with the contents of the egg. Subsequently, the chickens react unquestioningly to these sounds. You cannot put as many testicles under the quota as in an incubator. But if you simultaneously lay eggs under it and lay an incubator, then when all the youngsters hatch, the incubator brood can be given to the mother.

Special care for the hen-mother is not required. The main thing is to give food on time, remove processed and trampled ones, and also change water more often. To avoid infections affecting small chickens, it is advisable to add manganese or furacilin to the water and often clean it in a paddock designated for walking.

How to care for a hen

Only the first 2 weeks will need special attention. During this time, the little ones who do not fit under the kvoca must be taken under the lamp at night so that everyone can warm up. But it will be better if the family initially has its own premises on the street, to which there are some requirements:

1. The minimum height of the chicken coop is 1.5 m.
2. To ventilate the room, there must be a window that will be open in the summer, but covered with a pest net.
3. The coop should have roosts for chickens and older birds.
4. There should be no feed in the room!

A lamp for night heating should be installed in the corner of the room. Kvochka herself understands when the chicks are cold and brings them into a room where there is additional heat. She herself chooses a place near the lamp so that those chickens that do not fit under her are closer to the heat emanating from the heating device.

As for the mother’s turkey, her front feathers are fluffed up so that they are able to warm up to 30 goslings or ducklings, which are much larger than turkeys. But leaving them without an additional heat source, hoping for a “hot” turkey, is not worth it. Too many chicks under one mother risk “suffocating” from the temperature of the sow and the rest of the chicks, despite the sufficient fresh air.

How to properly care for young animals

If the chickens are with their mother, then this saves the owner only from the hassle of special heating at a certain temperature. Also, if a brood with a quill is free, there is access to pasture with grass, then the owner does not need to mow it on his own, chop and feed the young. After hatching eggs, a hen needs the same vitamins as her children. Finding a suitable herb, she calls the others, and thus, everyone replenishes the body with vitamins. Therefore, the people say that young growth grows faster in freedom and with a mother-kvochka. But not all summer residents have the opportunity to keep hens..

Poultry pen cleaning should be done several times a day. Chicken droppings and dampness are harmful to young animals, even small waterfowl. At two weeks of age, the bird can be taken outside and left in a special enclosure, covered with a net on top. This will prevent predators from attacking birds. Even a common crow is dangerous for small chickens..

Chickens or ducklings raised independently by the owner require additional feed. These are green onions, garlic, dill, parsley and even nettles. They contain all the vitamins necessary in the first days of life. In order for them to be constantly on fresh grass, if it is impossible to graze them, you can make portable fences made of soft wire or mesh, according to the principle of a children’s playpen, only more. Chicks very quickly peck the grass around them. After that, the square “arena” can be rearranged to another area. Part of the fence must be covered so that you can hide from the sun, or put it in shaded places.

Even if the bird is not planned to be kept in the winter, a room intended for it should be mandatory. Do not put water and feed in it, because dampness leads to infections that affect the bird, and the feed scattered in the shed attracts rats, mice and other pests that can carry diseases.

Now, using these simple tips, you can see from your own experience that poultry farming is not such a difficult task..