It is true that broilers eat a lot. However, it is also true that most poultry keepers over-feed their chicken and at the end of the day, make big losses.
But the bottom line is, each broiler needs not more than 2.2kg of feeds from day one to the eighth week when it is ready for sale.
However, farmers who do not care, feed their broilers over 5kg, hence reducing the profit margin.
To effectively feed them, you should be aware of the feed requirements of the birds. For example, broilers need feeds with a higher Digestable Crude Protein (DCP).
This means that the food should have a lot of mukene, soya and sunflower, which have more DCP compared to maize and maize bran.
From the first to the fourth week, the chicks require feeds with DCP content of 24%, while from the fourth to the eighth week, they require a protein content of 22% in the feeds.
For a farmer who is mixing his own feeds, say, in 70kg bags, you will need 40kg of whole maize, 12kg of mukene, 14 kgs of soya beans and 4kg of lime.
When mixed within the above quantities, the 70kgs will have 23% DCP. In every 70kgs, you should also add 250g of table salt.
