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In the spring, the owners of private farmsteads begin to think about what layers they would buy this year. Those who like high-yielding egg crosses know that these hens lay well for up to a year and with long daylight hours, so they should be replaced with new flocks in the spring. If you buy an egg in February or chickens in March, then just in time for the summer you can get young laying hens who will conscientiously provide the owner with eggs all summer long.
However, the author of the video claims that his broken browns conscientiously provided him with eggs even in winter, although he prevented this in every possible way, settling them in a cold dark barn.
The best breeds of laying hens
Lohman Brown
An egg cross bred in Germany. The goal of the Lohmann employees who hatched this hen was to create a layer with high productivity, easily adaptable to any conditions. They have achieved their goal. Today, broken people can be found almost everywhere. Like any laying hen with high productivity, the broken ones have a small body weight.
A chicken weighs 2 kilograms and carries 320 large eggs weighing more than 60 g per year. Young hens start laying at the age of 3 months, but after a year their egg production decreases. However, for a homestead, a decrease in egg production is not critical. Even a dozen culls culled after a year for another year – another in the season is quite capable of giving its owner 8 – 9 eggs a day.
So the herd will have to be updated quite often.
They rush almost until the last day, and most often die from a water bladder formed in the oviduct.
It is up to the owner to decide whether to bring the laying hens to this date, kill the hens earlier or take them somewhere, for example, to the stable with the words “let them live with you”. Bred in a completely safe environment, broken people have lived in safe conditions for generations, left to fend for themselves, will soon be destroyed by dogs or foxes.
Lomans are an autosex breed. Roosters are broken white. Chickens can be distinguished by sex from the first day.
One-day-old hens are broken red-brown, cockerels are yellow.
To reach their full potential, they need a warm room in winter, long daylight hours, and high-protein, quality food. Domestic breeds of laying hens at home do not require such supervision.
Pushkin striped-motley breed of chickens
Bred twenty years ago, the breed was approved only in 2007, but during this time it managed to gain popularity among the owners of private farmsteads. Of course, the owners of the gardens should have liked the very poorly flying and inactive chicken, which will not puzzle all day how to get into the garden or house, and will be satisfied with the food poured into the bowl.
The Pushkin striped-motley was bred, crossing the Australian egg Astrolorps and the egg-bearing white leghorn. The blood of white and colored broilers was added to the result of crossing to increase body weight.
It cannot be said that the result was stunning. Broiler meat has better taste characteristics. Nevertheless, the Pushkin breed has good meat and a fairly high egg production (220 eggs per year). Eggs are smaller than those of egg crosses (58 g), but with high fertility (>90%). To rush, like other, universal breeds, Pushkin begins at 5,5 months. The survival rate of chicks is also above 90%. But at a grown age, up to 12% of chickens die. Most likely, they do not die from diseases, but when they try to transfer them from porridge-egg food, which is traditionally fed to small chickens for grain or compound feed.
There are two lines in the Pushkin breed. They took her out at once at two breeding stations: in the city of Sergiev Posad and St. Petersburg. In Sergiev Posad, a smaller number of rocks were added to the Pushkin one, which makes this line more stable. But St. Petersburg is heavier and more egg-bearing. However, over the course of twenty years, birds of different lines have been mixed several times and now similar characteristics can be found in both lines.
Most of the Pushkin chickens are variegated, although the roosters are white. Combs, wattles and lobes should not be red. The comb of Pushkin’s chickens is pink. Earlobes can be not only pink, but also white or white-pink.
Chickens weigh a little – only a couple of kilograms, but roosters can grow up to 3.
Pushkinskaya has another interesting feature, which she also inherited from the ancestors of industrial productive breeds: when trying to catch her, she clings to the ground, hoping to hide. This behavior is typical for broiler breeds and egg crosses, which have no fear of humans.
Features of keeping and growing the Pushkin breed of chickens
Due to the unpretentiousness of the two main parent breeds, the Pushkin striped-motley is also undemanding to maintenance.
When breeding the breed, the main emphasis was placed on frost resistance, so that even chickens can walk on the street. But in cold weather it is better to take care of a warm room for adult livestock and young animals.
Chickens of this breed are unpretentious to feed. You can not spend money on expensive specialized feed, giving the bird grain and simple compound feed (and do not forget to remove 12% of the young animals who died from “diseases”). You can feed adult chickens 2 times a day. If feeding is carried out more often, then the daily norm is divided into smaller portions.
The main problem in breeding the Pushkin breed remains the purchase of a purebred bird. There is always a risk of buying crossbred Pushkin chickens.
Kuchinsky anniversary breed of chickens
Also a relatively new breed, registered only in 1990. It was bred using meat and egg and egg foreign breeds, the breed of Liven chickens that has almost disappeared today and the Moscow White. From foreign breeds of chickens, the Kuchinskaya took good egg production and quick weight gain, high vitality of chickens, a strong physique and autosex. From domestic she got unpretentiousness and frost resistance.
Work on the breed has been carried out since the 60s of the last century, but the original version did not suit the breeders with the predominance of meat characteristics, since the goal was to get not a meat, but a meat-egg breed. Therefore, the work was continued and, as a result, a modern version of the Kuchinskaya jubilee was obtained.
Productive characteristics
The modern version of the Kuchin laying hen is gaining weight of 2,8 kg, carrying up to 180 eggs per year. The weight of one egg is on average 60 g. Adult roosters weigh 3,8 kg.
The maximum egg production rates are observed in the first year, in the future, the indicators decrease. But the plus of the breed is that they rush all year round, stopping egg laying only for a period of intense molting.
The Kuchinsky jubilee breed of chickens is distinguished by high rates of fertilization and hatchability of chickens. From the eggs laid for incubation, up to 95% percent of the chickens come out. By the age of 5 months, roosters should weigh 2,4 kg, chickens 2 kg. 5 months – the age of slaughter of chickens of this breed.
Features of the standard of Kuchinsky jubilee chickens
Given that many owners keep heterogeneous chickens together, if you want to buy a thoroughbred bird, you have to beware of “fakes”, that is, chickens that have other breeds in the genus. Often this can be seen in color. Although, a sign of uncleanliness may not appear immediately, but only after molting. Kuchinsky Jubilees should not have white feathers in color.
If a rooster is needed simply for “crowing in the morning”, and a chicken for food eggs, then the problem of unclean breeding is negligible. If the livestock was bought with an eye to breeding and selling thoroughbred poultry, unpurebred chickens must be culled.
Chickens after one cage of a rooster are able to carry eggs fertilized by this rooster for three weeks. Which, by the way, is often mistaken for a manifestation of mythical telegony.
Two color options for Kuchinsky jubilee chickens
The breed standard provides for only two color options: double outlined and bordered.
double outlined
In chickens, each feather has a double edging, which creates the effect of black spraying.
The hen in the lower left corner has a double outlined color.
Bordered
Kuchinsky anniversary
Serious shortcomings of the Kuchinsky jubilee breed include their increased aggressiveness. It is better to keep Kuchinsky chickens separately from other animals and not to plant other chickens with them. Although sometimes an aggressive rooster guarding its territory is a good substitute for a dog.
Feeding the Kuchinsky anniversary
Kuchinsky are perfectly adapted to realities, therefore they do not require special feed for themselves. You can feed adult chickens and feed young ones using traditional methods, giving adult chickens grain and waste from the table, and young chickens with boiled eggs, semolina and greens, or you can feed them with industrial compound feed.
Poltava clay breed of chickens
The breed was bred in the forest-steppe zone of Ukraine by folk selection. Easily acclimatizes in different areas. The breed has been known since the end of the 100th century, and in the first third of the XNUMXth century it was considered one of the most egg-bearing, giving XNUMX eggs per year. The color of the chicken of that time was only clayey.
As a result of the development of industrial production of eggs and the breeding of egg-bearing crosses, it faded into the background and its numbers began to decline.
In order to preserve native breeds in the Borki farm of the Poltava region, measures were taken to increase the productivity of native breeds of chickens. As a result of these measures, the Poltava clay hen not only gained a couple of colors: black and zozulist, but also significantly increased egg production. Today, the Poltava clay hen lays up to 217 eggs per year.
The improvement of the breed of Poltava clay chickens continued until the collapse of the Union. During the devastation, a significant amount of valuable breeding stock was lost, which affected the current state of the breed. While there was such an opportunity, Poltava clay chickens were selected not only for egg production, but also for body weight. As a result, in 2007, the Poltava clay chicken was registered as a meat and egg breed.
In addition to the rather high egg production, chickens of this breed weigh 2 kg, roosters more than 3 kg. The eggs of the Poltava clayey breed are medium in size and weigh 55-58 g. Due to the presence in the genotype of the golden gene that determines the color of these chickens, the eggshell is brown on top.
Colors of Poltava clay chickens
Unfortunately, today the black and zozuly (from Ukrainian “zozulya” – cuckoo) colors are practically lost, although work is underway to restore them.
Therefore, today, as in the 19th century, the main color of these chickens is clayey in different variations of shades.
Poltava clay chickens can be either light yellow or dark yellow, almost red.
The Poltava Clay Rooster has darker wings compared to the body, a rose-like crest, red feathers on the neck, a black tail and an impudent look.
Features of keeping and breeding Poltava clay chickens
In general, chickens are unpretentious and easily adapt to various conditions, but chickens need to be protected from the cold. This breed of chickens has good vitality, Poltava clayey embryos are more resistant to the Rous sarcoma virus than embryos of other breeds of chickens.
Poltava clay chickens can be kept on the floor or in cages. When kept on the floor, they need bedding made of straw, sawdust or peat.
They feed Poltava clay chickens with whole grains or compound feeds. They are equally good at assimilating both. They especially love corn and waste from its processing. Since corn is a high-calorie product, chickens can become obese.
When breeding hens per tribe, the hen:rooster ratio should be 8:1. Chickens of this breed today can only be found in collections that preserve the gene pool, and in household plots. There are no poultry farms breeding this breed.
At the same time, the breed is quite valuable specifically for private backyard poultry farming, as it has properties that are important primarily for a private trader: resistance to diseases, vitality, high egg production, good taste of meat.
Conclusion
Breeds of laying hens today there are a huge variety. All breeds are very difficult to cover in one article. On the Internet, you can find references to very interesting highly productive laying hens like “Shaverovsky Cross 759” or “Tetra”, but information about them is most often contained in a “two words”. This means that hardly anyone could share their experience in buying and keeping these breeds of chickens. You can try to find these breeds and become a pioneer. If the main task is to obtain products, then it is better to stop at the already proven egg crosses Loman Brown and Highsex. And for getting both meat and eggs, domestic breeds of chickens that can fatten up a good weight in the climate are better suited.