Chickens are popular household birds. They do not require large expenses, painstaking care, but there are many benefits from them. There are two main types of chickens - egg-laying (layers) and meat (broilers). Both breeds are well bred on small farms.

General rules for caring for chickens

Keeping laying hens is possible in two ways: in a cage or on a walk. It is better to decide right away, it is not worth combining - egg-laying chickens are very sensitive to changes and stress, this immediately affects their condition and productivity.

It is worth making a choice based on your capabilities and the number of birds. Keeping them in cages will require high costs for their manufacture, but large areas will not be needed. Another way, with the possibility of walking, is more attractive for raising chickens, but you need to provide them with a pasture area.

Content in cells

Aviaries are best made from a welded cage. The size can be determined at the rate of 7-8 chickens per square meter.

Content in cells

Advice!Poultry farmers are advised to equip a double bottom with a slight slope in the cage. In this case, the eggs will roll to the right place, and the cage will be clean.

If there are a large number of chickens, the cages can be arranged in tiers. The main rule of such cultivation is regular cleaning and disinfection. In addition, you should take care of good lighting - natural light may not be enough for the life of chickens and roosters. It is important to control air humidity - about 70% and temperature - 18-25 degrees.

Walking content

This method of cultivation assumes the presence of a chicken coop, combined with a free exit area for walking. The area under the pasture should be fenced off with a one and a half meter grid. Place drinkers and feeders, nests for laying eggs around the perimeter.

Walking content

In this territory, hens, roosters and chickens can easily get along. It should be borne in mind that poultry do not tolerate cold and drafts well - the shed should be well insulated.

Nutrition

Correct and balanced nutrition plays an important role in the productivity of chickens. Their diet should include:

  • Proteins - cake, legumes, bone meal;
  • Carbohydrates - fodder, grass;
  • Fats - corn, oats;
  • Vitamins A, B, D.

Compound feeds can be bought ready-made, they are quite expensive, or you can cook it yourself - the cost is reduced, but you have to spend a little time to prepare them. To make a combined feed at home, you need grain, bone meal, flour mixture, juicy feed. It is also possible to add vitamin and mineral complexes.

It is recommended to feed the chickens 4 times when kept in cages. In the morning and in the evening it is better to give dry food, in the afternoon - grass and succulent food.

Advice! On a walk, succulent feed should be limited, provided that there is green grass on the site.

Domestic chickens are quite delicate creatures, prone to diseases. One of the signs of pathology in the body is diarrhea in chickens.

Chickens vilify: how to treat

Diarrhea in goslings: how to treat

In a healthy state, the laying hen is active, mobile, watches everything that happens with interest, stands firmly on its feet, eats well and rushes. The presence of such signs as drowsiness, staggering, poor appetite, blanching of the crest indicates a poor state of health.Often, diarrhea is added to these symptoms - chickens begin to defecate with loose stools.

Blanching ridge

If you have these symptoms, you should find out why the chicken has diarrhea.

In a normal state, chicken droppings are:

  • Intestinal - dense structure, brown. Perhaps white blotches are present - this is a uric acid salt.
  • Cecal (night). Dark brown color, liquid consistency.

Signs of diarrhea - the droppings become liquid, the color changes, the anus of the hen is dirty, the nest is wet. The bird is sluggish, does not eat, drinks more. Before treating diarrhea in a chicken, it is necessary to find out the reason why it could be fed. The color of the stool - white, green, black, bloody, brown - will help to understand this.

If diarrhea appears in laying hens, the appearance of the chair will tell you how to treat it. There are two main groups of factors that provoke the disease:

  • Unsuitable conditions;
  • Diseases.

Sluggish bird

Deterioration of well-being can be caused by even insignificant, at first glance, factors:

  • Stress. It is caused by transportation, change of environment, diet, habituation to new neighbors. The stool becomes thinner, but the color does not change. Brown diarrhea does not require treatment. Over time, the hens will adapt and the droppings will recover.
  • Poor quality feed. Not all chickens have the same diet. With a lack of vitamins and minerals, vitamin deficiency can develop. With an excess of succulent feed and green grass, the chicken may develop green diarrhea.
  • Drinking contaminated water. Contaminated water is an excellent breeding ground for bacteria and microorganisms that interfere with the digestion process. Litter will have a watery texture;
  • Hypothermia or overheating. Chickens are sensitive to low temperatures or drafts;
  • Poisoning. This is more true for birds in the pasture. They eat almost everything that catches their eye. Eating buttercup or milkweed can cause stomach upset.

Advice!Do not store feed in aluminum or copper containers. During the oxidation process, substances are released that can harm the health of birds.

If the cause of the disorder is one of the listed factors, you can get rid of it using the following methods:

  • Revise the diet - add more dry feed, bone meal, diversify cereals, add vitamin supplements;
  • Monitor the purity of the water, change it often, clean the drinking bowls;
  • Insulate the chicken coop, regularly clean and disinfect the cages and perches;
  • Activated carbon can be used as a sorbent - it will help remove toxins and improve the functioning of the digestive tract;
  • To prevent the disorder, you can water the chickens with a weak solution of potassium permanganate for several days.

If diarrhea is a symptom of a specific disease, their nature should be determined and properly treated.

Newcastle chicken disease

Definition of the disease depending on the color of the litter:

  • Green dung in chickens, in addition to an overabundance of green fodder, may indicate the development of viral diseases such as trichomoniasis, spirochetosis, and Newcastle disease. It is possible to determine exactly what kind of disease affected the birds only by laboratory methods. But in the presence of some symptoms, one can assume the development of one of these diseases - an increase in temperature, a putrid odor of droppings, mucus from the beak, the development of paralysis, blindness, redness or blue discoloration of the comb.
  • White diarrhea signals a bacterial infection - salmonellosis or pullorosis. These diseases spread quickly to all livestock and are fatal to chickens. In addition to white stools, symptoms of infection are lethargy, apathy, refusal to eat, and drowsiness.
  • Yellow diarrhea in chicken appears as a result of liver damage due to infection with helminths. Chickens do not rush, eat poorly, lose weight. Another possible option for such a symptom is Gumboro disease, its other signs are ruffled feathers and trembling.
  • Bloody diarrhea is possible when infected with coccidosis through poor-quality feed.Chickens become lethargic, the goiter increases, the ridge turns pale.
  • Black diarrhea indicates the development of clostrodiosis, a bacterial infection that affects the intestinal mucosa. It is accompanied by a strong odor and gas bubbles.

Clostrodiosis of chickens

Treatment

Viral diseases are practically not amenable to treatment. Vaccination is used as a prophylaxis. If evidence of infection is detected, diseased birds should be isolated.

Bacterial infections, in particular pulloresis, clostridiosis in chickens, can be cured with traditional antibiotics Enrofloxacin, Biovit, Zanaprim. Such popular drugs as Levomycetin, Biseptol are also quite effective. The dosage of Biseptol is an eighth of a tablet twice a day for an adult bird. The chicken dose is cut in half. It is recommended to give this drug into water and pour it into the beak with a syringe.

If a chicken has yellow diarrhea, the veterinarian will tell you to treat it, usually anthelmintic drugs are prescribed. There are special products - Tetramisole, Flubenvent. It is permissible to use Pirantel, available to all. After a medication course to restore microflora, probiotics Emprobio or Flosan should be added to the feed.

Important! During the period of drug treatment, you should not eat chicken meat and eggs. You can enter these products into the diet no earlier than a week after recovery.

In the absence of dangerous diseases, diarrhea is well treated with folk methods. For yellow or brown diarrhea, clay can be used. It is diluted in water and given as a drink. If the color of the droppings has not changed, it just became liquid, you can give the chickens rice or oat broth. It envelops the stomach with a protective film, soothes and normalizes the digestive tract.

Often a little dry red wine is added to drinking water, which disinfects well and speeds up the metabolic process.

To calm and improve digestion, you can brew chamomile. In addition, one should not forget about the potassium permanganate solution.

Diarrhea is a fairly common phenomenon when growing domestic laying hens. In most cases, loose stools occur with indigestion caused by the peculiarities of the content and do not require special treatment. But you should carefully monitor the well-being of the birds so as not to miss the development of a more serious disease. Timely treatment and prevention will help to protect the chicken population from infections, viruses and worms.