5 Your own fresh eggs! If you keep laying hens, you can quickly benefit from the advantages of having your own small breeding programme with few restrictions. Poultry breeds. All breeds of chickens lay eggs. However, breeders have been focussing on breeds specifically geared to lay eggs for almost 200 years now, whilst others are used for meat production. You should ideally clarify which breeds are best suited to your purposes with an experienced breeder. Clutches. A laying hen lays up to 300 eggs a year, the cycles depending on certain circumstances: • Age of the animal: Hens lay their first eggs at the age of 5 to 7 months and then regularly up to the age of 2 to 3 years • Season: The short days of winter slow down the laying rhythm, which then reaches its peak in the spring • Their own rhythm: Hens lay in a cycle of 5 or 7 days (4 laying days and 1 rest day, or 5 laying days and 2 rest days) • Food and water: A varied diet with grains (wheat, maize, oats, barley) and plants (grass, organic waste), bran mash or moistened bread promotes regular laying even in the winter. Sufficient clean drinking water must be provided. Life rhythm. Hens become active at sunrise and then have feeding, grooming, resting and of course laying phases. Sunset sees them back in the chicken coop where they sit on the perch and sleep. If you want to take a short holiday, feeders and drinking troughs with stores can allow you to leave them alone for a few days. Otherwise, chicken coops shared with neighbours or friends are a good solution. Eggs. The eggs hens lay are a reflection of the diet and life of your animals. They can vary in flavour and colour depending on the season and feed composition. Eggs from your own laying hens have been neither transported nor stored. They are simply fresh eggs that you can eat up to 28 days after laying. The egg is an exceptionally wholesome food. Its proteins consist of 23 amino acids, 9 of which are essential as our bodies do not produce them themselves. Poultry Farming
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