What compound feed is suitable for chickens
Compound feed for chickens is an important product, the main purpose of which is to feed the birds. The peculiarity of the feed is in its composition, because special mixtures are used for cooking, which can provide a balanced and healthy diet. Preparing compound feed for laying hens with your own hands is considered the correct and rather profitable solution for any farmer.
DIY compound feed for laying hens
Firstly, the price of a home-made version is significantly different from that of a purchased one, and secondly, only proven and healthy products will be included in the compound feed. So what do you need to know in order to prepare the best homemade compound feed?
Learn more about feed
It is no secret that the range of purchased compound feeds is increasing every year. However, the main ones are those types of chicken feed that are filled with the main ingredients that support the life of the bird. Mixed feed for laying hens should be filled with proteins and dietary fiber, chalk, ash and calcium. It is important that vegetable fat is present in the compound feed, vitamins, essential grains and soybeans. However, it must also be remembered that you need to provide your chickens with a balanced diet. The daily intake of vitamins must be calculated accurately. Compound feed for laying hens, depending on its composition, is based on proteins, vitamins or carbohydrates.
The first type of feed is a mixture of animal fats and plant ingredients. The composition of the feed for carbohydrate-type chickens is a mixture of cereals (wheat, millet, oats) and flour products. Sometimes it is enough just to steam them. Vitamin feed contains the daily norm of vitamins and extracts from vegetables, corn, etc. Also, coniferous flour predominates in the vitamin feed. Consider the well-known brands that make vitamin and protein complex feed for laying hens in more detail.
- Purina is a product designed for birds of all ages, which has only positive customer reviews. The only drawback of Purina is the high cost per bag of goods.
- Altai feed is a quality product filled with proteins, grain, carbohydrates and vegetable fats.
- Istra PC, the composition of which is a mixture of wheat, corn, fishmeal, minerals and amino acids.
- Aleyskiy compound feed is not a PC. Taking into account the opinions of farmers, the use of this feed does not correspond to GOST, and, moreover, the winged ones do not like it.
- Kurskiy is a high-quality PC for animals, made in accordance with GOST standards.
- Gatchina feed is awarded with international quality certificates.
- Shuisky is not a complete feed. The advantage of the brand is cheap goods.
- Granulated.
What food can be
The rating of compound feeds or reviews of experienced poultry farmers will help to choose one or another complete feed. Based on the form of compound feed for laying hens, it can be presented in 3 versions.
- Dry.Dry PC for chicken is filled with all the necessary nutrients, and is also available on the market in a huge range. Cooking such food with your own hands is not difficult, but you can buy it in bulk or as cereal. Do not give more than 120 g of dry food per day. It is often used to feed factory birds in order to protect them from obesity. However, it is still believed that it is best to give preference to homemade food, since purchased ones are of low quality and a small composition of necessary and important components.
- Wet (mash). You can often make your own chicken feed like this. The composition of wet compound feed for laying hens includes grains, cereals, bran and hay flour. If desired, it is filled with pumpkin, beets, carrots. As a liquid base, use ordinary warm water or heated whey in a ratio of 1 to 3. Green grass is included in the summer compound feed, and there should be enough of it to provide the laying hens with the necessary amount of vitamins. In winter, this or that vitamin can be substituted for birds fish fat... Feeding with wet compound feed should be calculated taking into account that the chicken can eat the rate in one hour.
- Combined. Feeding hens with combined feed is a fairly common occurrence. This feed contains ingredients from dry and wet types. Chickens can eat it up to 120 g per day.
Regardless of the choice, it is necessary to feed the chickens, based on the norms and necessary proportions. This is the case when a large number of useful components can be harmful.
Features of feeding hens
Before considering the technology for preparing compound feed with your own hands, you need to consider the feeding rate for layers. So, one chicken can eat up to 150 g of compound feed per day. In summer, when the bird additionally eats green and juicy food, the rate is increased by 20 g. It is also important to take into account the age of the laying hen, which will be achieved by a special table.
Young hens eat more and need more grains and vitamins than adult layers. For young laying hens, special feed filled with proteins and metabolism is used. Feeding with compound feed will be beneficial only if the necessary proportions are observed. It is believed that if the chicken eats more than it should, there is a risk of a decrease in egg production.
How to choose compound feed for hens?
It is believed that the best choice for laying hens will be the purchase of compound feed in granules PK-1. It does not need to be steamed or brewed, as it is made in such a way that it is ready to use without cooking. Feeding with this compound feed is considered leading and popular. Popularity and recognition are deserved, because the feed consists only of:
- wheat;
- sunflower meal and oil;
- limestone and meat and bone meal;
- feed yeast;
- table salt;
- vitamins.
Wheat in percentage is more than 60%. The composition of the KK-1 compound feed is less useful and nutritious in comparison with the previously described one, therefore it is better to refuse it when growing healthy layers. The recipe for compound feed for laying hens KK-1 is a small proportion of bran with a clear lack of such plant components as barley, wheat, cake. Instead of buying such food, it is better to make your own food.
The developed premix can be fed to chickens. Of course, it is not consumed in its pure form, but the premix is suitable for mixing with ordinary food in order to replenish the supply of vitamins. the composition of the premix from the manufacturer helps to improve egg production, because the shell becomes stronger, and the chicken's immunity increases significantly. It is worth noting the presence of all the necessary vitamins of different groups: A, B, C, H, K. In addition, many magnesium-calcium elements are included in one pack of the premix.
Do-it-yourself compound feed for laying hens, despite all the advantages of purchased products, is still the safest option for feeding. You will not only provide quality raw materials to the birds, but you will also be confident in their health. How to prepare compound feed at home?
Compound feed preparation
The best recipe for homemade compound feed for chickens has not yet been found, therefore several existing popular options will be considered below, the preparation of which will not be difficult at home. To calculate how many ingredients per 1 kg you need, you will need a calculator.
- Recipe with 1% premix. For cooking, mix 64% wheat grain with 5% meat and bone meal. Then the products are diluted with sunflower oil and feed yeast (2-2.5% each). 0.7% soda and 0.1% salt are added. The mixture is combined with 7.5% flour grains and 17.5% sunflower meal. At the end of the preparation, the premix is added.
- The recipe, which includes half a kilogram of wheat, about 300 g of barley, bran and sunflower cake in the amount of 100 g. Add about 50 g of meat and bone meal and a little less sunflower oil to the ingredients. It will not be superfluous to add 60 g of shell, chalk, table salt (no more than 3 g) and 1 gram of premix.
- A legume-cereal recipe that modifies the standard chicken diet. It is not difficult to make such food. It is necessary to separately cook up to 45% of corn and up to 7% of peas. Add wheat to barley (1-12% each), mix with sunflower meal (7%). The resulting mixture is diluted with 2% grass meal, 6% fish and meat and bone meal, 2% chalk. Unlike previous recipes, cooking here is completed with edible salt up to 2 tsp. and 0.5 tsp. soda.
Now you know everything about how to prepare compound feed for laying hens with your own hands. As it turned out, this is not an impossible task, and therefore even a beginner in chicken breeding can cope with it. Remember that poultry needs full and wholesome food as much as any other living creature, therefore feeding it should be as beneficial as possible. Well, what recipe for compound feed for laying hens to use is up to you!