Construction scheme of free-range laying hens

The modern free breeding of laying hens is not the large-scale free raising of the original local chicken breeds, but the selection of high-yield laying hens suitable for free breeding, using orchards and woodlands for large-scale free breeding. In order to make high-yield laying hens in the state of free breeding can also play a higher production performance, we must take scientific feeding, light, heat prevention and cooling and other measures, let's take a look at the construction plan of free-range laying hens.

House

In free-range laying hens, the house mainly acts as a place for hens to rest and lay eggs at night. General houses can be built in the shape of an open shed with three walls facing north and south, with a height of 1.5 to 1.8 meters, high in front and low in back, and the span of the chicken house should not be too deep. It would be better to use about 4 meters, and the sun can shine into the house in spring and autumn. The length of the henhouse can be determined according to the number of chickens, but it should be divided into compartments of 3 to 4 meters, so it is easy to put egg boxes, and each room can accommodate 100,120 chickens. The top frame had better be made into a steel pipe structure or a hard wood board, so as to effectively support the overlay to prevent the wind from blowing, and the top cover is successively laid with double-layer plastic sheet, linoleum, straw mat, the outermost layer is covered with asbestos tiles, and fixed to the purlin with iron hooks to keep warm and insulated, prevent wind and rain, warm in winter and cool in summer, and the cost is low. The front of the house can be hung with sacks or straw curtains. When the temperature is low, the chickens can go in and out freely, while the house keeps a certain temperature. The floor of the chicken house should be hardened with concrete 50 cm along the wall to prevent rats from burrowing. The ground can be compacted with plain soil in other parts. The ground can be covered with 3-5 cm coarse sand for chicken sand bath. In the place near the north wall of the chicken coop, the perch is made of round wooden sticks or bamboo poles. The perch is installed as a ladder. There are 4-5 ladders with a height of 25 cm and the width of each ladder is 20 cm.

Egg laying nest

The laying time of high-yield laying hens is generally concentrated, so the number must meet the needs, otherwise the chickens will lay eggs everywhere. The laying box can use a double-layer laying box for meat breeder chickens, or you can use bricks to build a grid of 35 centimeters square along both sides of the gable, and the nest is covered with wheat straw or straw. The number of egg boxes (nests) should be 3 to 4 chickens, and the egg nests should be hidden. The area of the fence around the selected site can be determined according to the number of chickens and the trees and vegetation in the area. Fencing can be done in a variety of ways, such as plastic mesh, barbed wire, bamboo, wooden fence, etc., setting the mesh size and the height of the net, so as to prevent not only chickens from drilling or flying out, but also the invasion of wild animals. Plant some grape, ivy, towel gourd and other vines or vegetables that can climb the wall at the root of the wall. The playground is a place for chickens to obtain natural food. There should be luxuriant fruit trees, trees or flowers. Some trees and flowers can also be planted artificially. Grass can be eaten by chickens. Trees can provide shade for chickens in hot summer, which helps to prevent heat stress. You can build some shade awnings for chickens before the trees become a forest.

Replenish material

High-yield laying hens should be kept at a high level of egg production and replenishment are inseparable, and replenishment buckets or troughs should be set up in the henhouse or in the rain-proof place on the outer wall of the henhouse. The barrel in the house is placed in the middle of the henhouse, and a bucket with a diameter of 40 cm can feed 20 chickens at the same time. The bucket is hung by rope or wire to prevent chickens from perching on it at night. Feeding troughs are set up outside the house and in the free-range area according to the range of activities of the chickens. pay attention to the shade and rain shelter facilities above the trough. The amount of feed supplement can be determined according to different seasons, the vegetation of the free-range land, the number of Cordyceps sinensis and the foraging of chickens. Usually supplement feeding twice a day. Feed once when you turn on the light in the morning, do not feed at the time when the eggs are concentrated every day, whistle the chickens in the evening and replenish them again, each time according to 80% or 95% of the feed intake of caged chickens. The remaining 5% to 20% allow chickens to feed on Cordyceps sinensis in the environment.

Water

Give the chickens regular drinking water three times or four times a day. Waste of feed should be prevented when feeding chickens. Drinking water equipment can use trough, basin or automatic drinking water equipment. Automatic drinking fountains can be used around the henhouse, and drinking basins can be placed at a fixed point away from the henhouse to ensure that chickens can drink clean water without effort. Do not put drinking water equipment in the henhouse to prevent water overflow from polluting the environment. Note that it is best to wash the sink every day, clear the chicken droppings and other sundries in the sink, so that the chickens can drink clean, clean and hygienic water.

Lighting

The role of light is to stimulate the gonadal development of chickens, maintain normal ovulation and enable chickens to engage in feeding, drinking, communication and other activities. The ovulation time of chickens is generally controlled within 2 hours after laying eggs, but in order to lay eggs during the day, chickens do not ovulate 2 hours before dark, so in order to ensure the high yield of free-raised laying hens, should be given the same light procedures and light intensity as intensive cages. Therefore, the chicken house should be equipped with lighting system and a certain amount of light bulbs according to the size of the building area and the light intensity of adult chickens. The light bulb is generally installed in the place where the layers rest at night, and the space of the henhouse with an area of 16 meters and 2 square meters can be met by a 40-watt light bulb.

Make-up light

The way of replenishing light in free-range laying hens is basically the same as that in caged chickens, and the time of replenishing light is determined according to the condition of sunshine. As the season of free rearing of high-yield laying hens is controlled from March to November, the brooding period is completed from October to February, that is, the week age of hens is about 16-17 weeks at the beginning of stocking. The natural light in March is about 11 hours, when it begins to replenish the light, increasing by half an hour to one hour per week to 16,16.5 hours a day, and is constant. After laying eggs for 5 or 6 months, the daily light time was adjusted to 17 hours a day. The way to replenish the light is to fix it at 5 o'clock in the morning every day. Usually, the free-range chickens will be whistled back to the henhouse at about 6: 00 in the evening at about 6: 00 in the evening. At the same time, the feeding will be made up to the specified time. Once the light is fixed, don't change it easily. The bulk breeding site is generally remote and the power supply is unstable. If the feeding quantity is relatively large, a small power generation equipment can be used for emergency use.

Ventilation

The body temperature of the chicken is relatively high, it can actively look for cool shade in the free-range condition, and it can cool down through sand bath, so there is no need for cooling equipment in the chicken house. As the chicken house has an open shed with three walls, there is sufficient air exchange inside and outside the house, and there is no need to install fans or fans. It is very important to protect free-range chickens from the rain in the rainy season. Choose high and dry places in the fence area to build several shelter to prevent sudden thunderstorms. Under normal circumstances, the breeder can call the chicken back to the henhouse by whistling according to the weather, and the individual chickens who can not come back can take shelter from the rain nearby.

Rotational grazing

Divide the fence according to the size of the site, the number of growing grass and the number of free-range chickens, adopt the method of regular rotational grazing, and so on, one should rush to another piece of free-range land after almost enough herbivore, so that the chickens will have edible grass, insects or leaves every day. At the same time, it is also beneficial to the ploughing of the orchard, the treatment of chicken manure, the management and fertilization of fruit trees, the use of medicine, to ensure the rejuvenation and growth of forage grass, and to prevent the spread of diseases among chickens. In order to ensure that free-range chickens have sufficient forage grass, some forage grasses that can be eaten by chickens can be planted in advance, such as alfalfa, ryegrass, dragon claw millet and so on. The main purpose of free breeding is to improve the quality of eggs, so that chickens can feed on Cordyceps and other edible things in the external environment. After a period of time, the Cordyceps sinensis in the free breeding area will be eaten up by the chicken grass. Therefore, the free raising land should be divided into several free raising areas according to the number of free raising chickens, the length of the free raising time and the free raising season. Let the small areas that have been fed rest and recuperate, and then free up after the restoration of vegetation, so that the chickens have edible Cordyceps sinensis and other things throughout the free-range period.

Conclusion: the free-range breeding of high-yield laying hens needs to provide reliable supporting facilities, and measures should be taken according to local conditions to reduce the cost as much as possible on the premise of meeting the physiological and production needs of chickens. The open shed structure of the slope roof with three walls has the advantages of low cost and good ventilation. Egg boxes are arranged along the gables on both sides of the house, the middle hanging bucket is placed in the middle, and the perch for chickens to rest at night is placed in the back gable, which is not only easy to manage, but also convenient to replenish light and materials. In terms of light supplement measures, measures similar to those of caged chickens were taken to make ovulation and egg laying of free-range chickens more regular. In order to make free-range chickens get enough nutrition and water, it is very important to add a certain number of feeding points and rehydration points in the stocking area. we should also pay attention to the environmental protection in the stocking area and take turns to breed.