Domestic day old chicks: what to feed at home
If you decide to raise chickens for meat or eggs, you have two options: buy young chickens or purchase a household incubator once and raise them yourself. The second option is more profitable. Caring for day old chicks and feeding them at home is not such a difficult process.
How to feed day old chickens at home
For the first time, the chicken should eat no later than two hours after hatching. The sooner he swallows his first grain, the faster his digestive system begins to function and develop. If he does not eat right away, this will negatively affect his health in the future.
Domestic day old chicks require careful handling.
If you see that one of the babies is not touching the feeder, plant it separately from the others and feed it with milk mixed with egg yolk from a pipette.
Chicks should be fed frequently – every two hours. The older they get, the less often they need to be fed. In this case, portions should be increased with age.
Here’s what to give to newly hatched babies:
- corn;
- greenery;
- dairy;
- purchased vitamins;
- ready-made feed.
In a day, it will be possible to include ground oatmeal, semolina, barley groats and millet in their menu. After a week, you can feed the chickens with mixtures of cereals. A mixture of barley, wheat, corn and oatmeal, mixed in equal proportions, is ideal. For any mixture, it is imperative to give greens and dairy products.
Lighting is very important for day old chicks. In large poultry farms, they have light for 23-24 hours a day. On small farms, this is not profitable, so you need to give the chickens light for at least 12-14 hours. If you do decide to give them more light, sometimes turn it off for 15 minutes. This will help the chicks get used to the dark, and future power outages will not cause panic.
Chickens don’t need complicated equipment. All you need is a feeder and drinker.
Regardless of the floor in the chicken coop, a special bedding is required for the chickens. This can be, for example, straw or wood shavings. It will keep the room dry. Of course, the litter must be changed periodically, because a humid environment is an ideal condition for the reproduction of pathogenic microbes.
Household day old chicks will benefit you if you care for them properly, create optimal housing conditions and feed them correctly. This task requires a certain skill, but over time you will master all its basics.