Chicken care rules

Successful breeding of chickens at home is impossible without knowledge of the basic rules for keeping and caring for poultry:

  • Coop. To keep chickens, it is necessary to build a comfortable chicken coop with insulated walls and ventilation. Any farm building or barn can be converted into a poultry house.
  • Equipment. The room must be equipped with special wooden perches on which chickens will sleep. These structures are usually made of wood and are located 1 meter above the floor level. To calculate the size and number of these poles, you should know that one bird occupies about 20 to 30 cm.Chicken roosts are placed in the form of stairs at a distance of at least 35 cm.
  • Drinkers and feeders are placed inside the house and outside.
  • Walked. Laying hens need free range and exercise on warm days of spring, summer, autumn and even in winter. Egg production rates directly depend on how much the chicken can move and walk in free grazing. Usually for these purposes, a chicken "walking area" is organized close to the hen house, fenced with a wire mesh. The grazing area is calculated at the rate of 1 m² per bird.
  • The question is often asked why chickens are so fond of "swarming" in the dust? The fact is that this procedure helps the bird get rid of harmful insects and chicken fleas. It is advisable to place ash "baths" on the site, in which the chickens "bathe" with pleasure.
  • Nests for laying eggs. Chickens need to rush somewhere. To do this, in the hen house in secluded and dry places, nests are arranged at the rate of 4 pieces for a dozen birds. These can be old wicker baskets, deep wooden crates lined with straw, sawdust or hay.
  • A manhole for the entrance, from where the chickens will freely enter and exit the chicken coop. The outlet is made rectangular or rounded with a diameter of 35 cm.
  • Content temperature. Poultry egg production depends on the creation of the optimum temperature in the house. The chicken is actively carried at a temperature of +22 to +25 degrees. For this reason, the house needs to be heated. To avoid unnecessary heat losses, poultry houses do not make high ceilings, the recommended height is up to 1.8 meters, which is the best fit for chicken coops.
  • Lighting. In the summertime, a long daylight hours are quite enough for the chickens to actively grow and fly. In winter, in order to organize normal conditions, it is recommended to artificially continue daylight hours until 14 hours. Therefore, artificial light sources are installed in the poultry houses.

Chicken needs grooming

Periodically, in the premises for keeping poultry, the ceiling, walls and floors are treated with a disinfectant, usually slaked lime or another similar agent is used.

Why do healthy chickens die?

People have been breeding domestic chickens for a long time. This is not surprising, because chickens are the most unpretentious poultry. It would seem that it is easier to breed a dozen chickens, give them food and, after that, only have time to collect fresh eggs. You can watch with affection the cute chickens, listen to their clucking. What chagrin poultry farmers experience from the fact that their favorite layers begin to die. Unfortunately, the death of domestic birds is not such a rare occurrence.And if the chicken died, how to determine the reason for this unpleasant event?

There are several reasons why chickens die:

  • Improper diet and deficiency of vitamins and minerals.
  • Poor conditions for keeping poultry, exceeding the sanitary norms for the density of accommodation and high crowding with poor-quality ventilation can lead to instant mass death of birds.
  • Excessive overheating or freezing of the bird, the presence of drafts.
  • Viral, infectious and microbial diseases.
  • Damage by parasites and worms.

Overheat

Determining the reason why chickens die is always difficult. Even with the best care, birds can die from a caring farmer. Chickens can die at any time of the year: in warm weather and in winter.

Why chickens can die in summer

Any poultry breeder is looking forward to summer when his hens will be able to lay more eggs and meat chickens will gain weight. Therefore, if the chicken, on which so many hopes were pinned, dies, the farmer experiences a real shock and bewilderment.

The main reasons why laying hens die in summer:

  1. Various infectious and viral diseases.
  2. Poor poultry conditions.
  3. Severe pollution of the chicken coop.
  4. Insufficient quantity and quality of feed and drinking water.
  5. Impossibility of free walking.
  6. Unsuitable temperature conditions.
  7. Bird age.

Regardless of the reason why the laying hen died in the summer, it is necessary to instantly identify and eliminate the errors that caused such an unpleasant situation. It is very important to prevent its repetition, since one single case of the appearance of a dead individual for some unknown reason can lead to mass death of a bird. No wonder there is a humorous saying - a semi-question "why the Irish mistress kills a chicken 2 times." The answer is obvious - in the event of the death of a chicken, it is important to prevent re-infestation of the entire poultry house.

Treatment and prevention

To understand why chickens die, one should carefully observe the behavior of the bird and evaluate its vital activity. If the hen is inactive, crumpled, sits in the corner of the hen house and has lost its appetite, then such signs indicate the possible death of the bird. While these symptoms may not be present with serious illnesses, they do occur in stressful situations. But when these symptoms are added by a sharp darkening of the chicken's crest, and there is a sharp loss of weight, the death of such an individual will be inevitable.

Darkening of the comb

Often the answer to the question of why chickens die is the problem of insufficient attention to adult birds, while pullets are provided with balanced feed and are better looked after.

It is not only laying hens that are susceptible to infectious diseases. Chickens, beef breeds, broilers are even more vulnerable to disease and require even more care and a complete balanced feed.

For the treatment of domestic birds, it is advisable to have a first aid kit with medications designed to combat common diseases. If the chicken is infected and has colibacillosis or salmonella, then treatment should be started immediately. There are several groups of medicines for poultry:

  • Antibiotics. These include tetracycline, ceftriaxone, biomycin, metronidazole, chloramphenicol tylosin 50.
  • Antiparasitic drugs and anthelmintic drugs, such as levomizole 75, alben, insecto acaricidal mustang.

Many farmers and poultry farmers use folk remedies for treatment and prevention:

  1. Adding a weak solution of potassium permanganate to drinking water.
  2. Medicinal "brooms" of tansy, chamomile, nettle, wormwood are hung on the walls and ceiling of the poultry house.
  3. Chopped green onions, garlic, pumpkin seeds are mixed into the feed.
  4. Treatment of wounds and pecking is done with hydrogen peroxide, iodine solution or ordinary brilliant green.
  5. When a chicken is infected with ticks, the bird weakens so much that it cannot even take off to its perch. To protect against chicken ticks, it is recommended to disinfect the entire poultry house, treat the bite wound with iodinol, brilliant green or iodine. You can pollinate the bird with Sevin, dry tobacco mixture or wormwood.
  6. A good protection against bloodsuckers will be spraying the chicken coop room with a mixture consisting of 1 liter of water with the addition of 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil and 2 salt spoons of dishwashing liquid.
  7. Room treatment with vodka and garlic tincture. Poultry can also be sprayed with this solution.

Chicken coop

This is just a short list of folk remedies for the treatment and prevention of diseases of domestic chickens. Preventive measures will help protect domestic birds from sudden disasters - viral diseases and protect them from parasite damage.

Tips from experienced poultry farmers

To protect and prevent poultry from various diseases and misfortunes, you should read some advice from experienced farmers and poultry breeders:

  • Poultry feed should contain sufficient vitamin A. A feed additive made from carrots, fodder beets, fish oil and milk will provide the need for this important trace element. Unfortunately, traditional corn and wheat cannot boast of the presence of this vitamin.
  • Chickens benefit from fresh green grass rich in vitamin B. Therefore, grazing and access to green vegetation is so important.
  • It is recommended to change the main feed every two years.
  • For the treatment of gout in laying hens, salicylic acid is added to the drinking water at a dosage of 0.5 tablespoons of acid per 1 liter of water.
  • Poultry feed should be balanced. Excessive amounts of protein in the diet of a bird negatively affects its internal organs. The chicken starts to get sick, it develops diarrhea, apathy and lethargy, from this the bird can die.

Poultry behavior should be closely monitored. Chickens cannot tell about their ailment, but their appearance and physical condition can signal the presence of a disease and a violation of their vital activity.