What a pleasure to have good fresh eggs for your meal or breakfast. And it's within everyone's reach! Indeed, if you have a little space around the house, it is easy to raise a few laying hens.
In addition to having nice new companions, you can enjoy their products every day.
What you need to know to have laying hens in your garden
Why is it good to have laying hens in your garden?
Domestic hens are easy to raise and inexpensive animals. There are many advantages to installing a chicken coop at home:
- Above all: the satisfaction of having fresh eggs every morning! They lay an average of two eggs every three days. Also, two hens will be more than enough for a family of 3 to 4 people. Well-maintained layers can live for ten years and will give around 200 eggs per individual and per year.
- Omnivores, they will enhance your household waste and table remains. Scrapes, tops, crusts of cheese ... All this will usefully complete their ration in a "zero-gaspillage" logic. Economical, isn't it?
- Chickens are also the allies of your vegetable garden, or your flower beds. You can collect their droppings by recovering the soil from the park to obtain rich manure for your plantations. Large earthlockers, they will help you weed. They also help to eliminate unwanted hosts from the garden.
- Curious and adventurous, the hens are ideal for children. They like to give them a little name, caress them, nourish them, and above all, collect the eggs! With a farmyard, it's a bit Easter every day.
How to pamper your gallinacean?
For the well-being of your casseroles, follow these tips:
- Try to have at least two, because the hen is a sociable animal.
- Provide an enclosure, preferably made with hen wire mesh (this will prevent it from getting her head between the mesh) and an area of 10 m² minimum per individual. Their place of life must include shade and a water point.
- Lace a closed and sheltered place for the night, a type of shed or chicken coop. This will be equipped with a perch and a "nest" space acting as a laid.
- Clean the chicken coop every week to limit odors.
- Nourish them with table remains, and your hens will have a healthy and varied diet. However, it will be useful to complete with grain-containing cereals, oilseeds, and protein to ensure a complete ration respecting all of their food needs.
- Avoid placing them on a concrete area, a balcony, or a terrace. Chickens love to peck the grass and scrape the ground to find insects.
- If you have a large garden, free them from time to time, to change their environment and fight against boredom. However, watch out for dogs or cats if you have chicks.
Which chicken breeds to choose?
To preserve breeds, bring your choice of so-called traditional and old hens. They will give you beautiful eggs and very good flesh. The red hen has a very good character and quickly becomes endearing. As well as the geline, the hen of Alsace, the Houdan, the Gâtinaise, the Marans, the Cuckoo Gray, and the Sussex Blanche ... The choice is large. Favor the breeds of your region for their safeguard!
In winter, the hens lay less or not at all. To ensure you a small production of eggs during this cold period, opt for a reputable poultry good laying in winter, such as the Alsace hen, the Touraine Geline, the Gâtinaise, the Favens or the Brahma a domestic hen Robust and imposing.
Ornamental hens
If you are not attached to egg production, you can also raise ornamental chickens. They are distinguished from layers by their coat, their feathers, and their general appearance. For the most part, they are smaller, pretty, and easy to maintain.
These are breed hens that generally have a more marked character or certain peculiarities: some are more affectionate while others are more aggressive.
For example, know that dwarf hens, in addition to being very pretty, are also known to scratch the earth much less and chase the slugs. If you have a small garden, the Beijing Dwarf and the Sabelpoot are made for you! Another example: the Batam of Beijing is deemed to be very calm and quickly adapts to its environment.
Another difference: an ornamental hen can more easily fly than a laying hen. It will also be more likely to cover and thus give birth to chicks. If you bring an ornamental rooster into your farmyard, expect to have lots of chicks quickly!
In our catalog, find the food dedicated to ornamental hens: in addition to promoting the production of good eggs, it allows your hens to keep a beautiful plumage.
Chickens also have their character: to know precisely that he will follow you, ask the sellers. Buy Your Chickens from Breeders, in Country Markets, OR in Our Gamm Green Garden Centers.
And in terms of regulation
Ask your town hall or your landlord about your lowercase project and laying hens in your garden. In certain municipalities and subdivisions, farming of farmyard animals can be limited or even prohibited.You will need a declaration of work if the chicken coop grip is equal to or greater than 5m² and a building permit beyond 20m².
N.B .: Do not try to breed hens on a balcony or terrace, they need to scratch the ground and peck the grass to feel good, and therefore lay.
How many hens?
To limit soil damage, smells and destruction of plants, limit the number of hens. A farmyard of two hens is more than enough to provide eggs to a family of 3 or even 4 people. A hen alone risks being bored and his health could suffer from it. The more they will be, the more time they will take you, think about it!
Avoid the rooster ...
The hen lays without a rooster, but cannot give chicks. The presence of the male is not at all recommended in your "livestock" of 2 hens. The rooster will exhaust them by its ardor (there are generally 7-8 hens for a rooster), and will also exhaust you with its very early song.
Know the hens
Before you get into the breeding of layers, you need to know a few things about them:
- They sleep perched. Place a chicken coop in the garden which has a perch, as well as a layer.
- They are very social, and cannot be alone, breed at least two;
- They have special water and food needs. Plan a feeder and a drinker. Make sure the drinker is always filled with fresh and clean water.
- To live in good health, they need a large space (count 10 m² per pool) to be able to frolic and eat. Deliminate their journey with a closed enclosure.
A well-nourished hen provides you with solid shell eggs. Fill your feeder with a complete mixture of seeds.
Know that there are different chicken breeds: some are rather an incubator and others are rather laying. However, some breeds combine these two sides.
Laying hens
- The hen lays eggs without a rooster but will give fertilized eggs in the company of a rooster.
- She lays from her twentieth week (around 5 months) and gives between 150 and 250 eggs per year.
- The hens lay better ascendant moon.
- During spring and until the start of summer, you can hope to collect 3 eggs per day with at least 4 hens. In autumn and winter, the laying decreases clearly.
- Beyond 3 years, it will give you much fewer eggs. From 8 years old, she no longer lays at all. You will therefore have to renew your livestock every 3 years.
- A domestic hen lives ten years.
إرسال تعليق