Currently, the market for poultry farmers represented the mass of all kinds of hybrids of poultry. Most of all, of course, hybrids of chicken - the most common poultry on the planet, are bred. There are both meat breeds, and breeds of egg type. We will talk about one of these breeds, the main quality of which is egg production - Moravian black, in this article.
Inference history
Moravian black breed of chickens - a hybrid, bred by breeders of South Moravia, one of the regions of the Czech Republic. The task of the breeding work was to obtain a highly productive egg type cross, for keeping in households and for the purpose of commercial breeding. The goal was successfully achieved.
Important! For all breeds of the egg type, and for the Moravian black in particular, it is extremely important to have enough calcium in the body. Calcium is the main material for egg shells, and with a productivity of about 300 eggs a year it really needs a lot. For this purpose, chickens are fed fermented milk products, and adults are given chalk and egg shells to eat.
Works on breeding were carried out in the 60-80s of the twentieth century. In the eighties, the works were completed, after which they approved the standard of Moravian black, an egg-type breed of chicken. 
Today, these birds are found primarily in their historic homeland, in other countries they are not widely spread. Although on the territory of the post-Soviet space you can find farms specializing in the breeding and sale of the incubation material of this breed.
High rates of egg production are distinguished by chickens broken brown, legbar, maran, amrox, barnevelder, bielefelder, redbro, velzumer, highsex, master gray.
Description and Features
Moravian black has a body of small size, but quite firmly knit. Compact bird species add thick, close-fitting feathers to the body.
Exterior
As the name implies, the bird has a black color. The chicken has rather short gray legs with a yellow tint. The neck is medium, the head is small, the comb and the earrings are red in color of medium size.
Character
Moravian black is enough active breed. Chickens love to spend time walking in the yard, dig in the ground in search of various chicken delicacies. Roosters do not differ pugnacious character, they get along quite well both with their fellows and with cocks of other breeds.
A distinctive feature of chickens is their excessive fearfulness. They react very badly to changes in the environment, which may affect their egg production. Layers are afraid even of their own owner, when trying to get close to them, they often rush to flee. 
Hatching instinct
For various reasons, Moravian black has no instinct for egg hatching. Therefore, for breeding chickens would be more appropriate to use an incubator. Store the incubation material at a temperature of 10-12 ° C. Eggs respond well enough to fertilization, an average of 8 out of 10 eggs are able to bring healthy chickens.
Familiarize yourself with the selection criteria for the incubator and the characteristics of the devices: “Laying”, “Ideal hen”, “Cinderella”, “Blitz”.
Weight indicators
The weight of an adult chicken is 2-2.3 kg. This is a normal weight for chickens of this breed, the main quality of which is egg production. Rooster usually weighs 0.5-0.8 kg more.
Did you know? A chicken can only lay eggs in daylight or electric light. Even in the case when it is time to rush, but the bird is in the dark, it will wait for dawn or the inclusion of artificial lighting.
Annual egg production
The breeds of egg-type hens usually ripen later than the rest. Moravian black begins to lay eggs in about six months to seven months. Sometimes, rarely enough, birds begin to trot later. This indicator depends on the feeding, stress and some other factors. 
By the beginning of egg production, the chicken has a mass of about 1.6-1.8 kg, after which it grows and develops for another 6 months, reaching its usual weight indicators by this time.
These toilers are able to bring up to 300 eggs during the year. Eggs are usually beige in color and weigh about 60 g. High egg production affects the external data of the bird. At the peak of egg production they have bald spots, feathers are strewed, and in general their exterior leaves much to be desired at this time.
It is interesting to read about the benefits of chicken eggs and egg shells.
Feeding ration
Egg-type chickens need a special diet. If you want your chickens to run well for quite a long time, while maintaining their health, you should take care of feeding them properly.
Adult chickens
Czech layers are best fed twice a day. Some features of the diet of this breed, which should pay attention:
- all grain used to feed the hens of a given breed should consist of ½ of wheat, 3/10 of corn and 1/5 of the remaining cereals;
- every day, birds need to eat vegetables. Suitable cabbage, cucumbers, zucchini, carrots, radishes, potatoes and others;
- for egg-type layers, it is especially important to pay attention to vitamins and minerals. To do this, use bone meal, chalk, egg shells, special additives that are sold in vetaptekah.
In winter, coniferous flour is injected into the diet. All these necessary supplements should be given to the bird along with wet food.
In winter, coniferous flour is injected into the diet. All these necessary supplements should be given to the bird along with wet food.We advise you to read about the nutrition of laying hens: composition, rate of feed for a day.
Chickens
This breed, due to breeding, has a very high survivability of the offspring. The survival rate is approaching 100%. This is primarily due to the fact that the Czech scientists managed to overcome some of the characteristic genetic diseases.
Chickens grow very quickly, at the age of 1 month their weight already reaches 350-380 g. Only the hatched babies are covered with black down with light tips of their wings. Below are the main points that you should pay attention to when feeding chickens:
- For the first 15–20 days, chickens are fed with mixtures that are common for this age, which include eggs, corn, and green grass. If there is a possibility, fermented milk products will be an excellent addition;
- as babies grow, boiled cereals and vegetables should be added to their diet. Chicks at the age of 1 week add bran, millet and sunflower cake to food;
- great for feeding mixture for young egg type;
- the first 4 months the chicken grows very intensively, in order to avoid improper development, it is necessary to enrich its food with proteins, micro and macro elements;
- for normal appetite, it is also necessary to observe temperature and hygienic requirements (they are no different from similar recommendations for chicks of other breeds).
Did you know? In 1971 in the USA, and after 6 years in the USSR, as a result of selection work, they received eggs of leggorn, in which there were 9 yolks each.
What else should you take care
Czech layers can not be attributed to capricious breeds. They are quite content with the necessary minimum conditions: chicken coop with normal air temperature, fresh dry bedding, clean house and ventilated air.
Chernushki normally tolerate frosts down to -5 ° C. In this temperature range, they may well walk in the yard. In case of stronger frosts, it is better that the chickens stay indoors, as frostbite of the scallop is possible.
In the warm and dry coop should make roost. There are no special requirements for such a design, any bars, cuttings from a shovel, etc. will do. 
It should only pay attention to some of the nuances:
- roost must be strong, confidently hold several birds;
- use a planer and sandpaper to remove all the burrs and polish the timber well;
- one adult hen needs 0.25 m perch length (in winter it can be reduced to 0.2 m). From this indicator and should be repelled in the manufacture of perches;
- the perch should be approximately at a height of 0.5 m from the floor of the chicken coop, 0.3 m from the wall, and 0.35-0.4 m from the neighboring perch.
Important! As you know, chicken has poor night vision. If the hen house sharply turn off the light, not all birds will have time to take their place on the roost. The remaining birds in the dark will not be able to do this. It is therefore recommended to turn off the light in two stages: first remove the main lighting, and after the whole bird takes its place on the roost, turn off the lighting completely.
For drinking pots You can use small, fairly wide and shallow containers (you can cut plastic containers with a capacity of 5-6 liters to a height of 6-8 cm). Also do not forget to equip the chicken coop with electric lights. 
In winter, it is better to feed the chickens directly into the straw bedding, they love to dig in the ground, looking for what they can profit from. For summer feeding, you can build feeders, but for the above reason, it is better to just sprinkle the feed on the grass.
Familiarize yourself with the advantages of buying, as well as self-manufacturing and arrangement of the chicken coop.
It is also worth picking up bathing place. They love to swim in the dust, but swimming in the ashes with sand is not just a pleasant procedure for them, it is also a means of fighting ectoparasites. Put in a suitable place a container with ashes having low sides, for example, a basin made of galvanized. 
Take care also of arrangement bird pen. An indispensable condition - it must be green. Birds do not like walking on a concrete floor, but they feel great on the summer green lawn, walking and looking for worms.
Schedule a place for walking birds. Dig along the perimeter of the pillars, between which stretch the grid. This is the simplest variant of the pen, which is quite suitable for walking chernushki. The height of the pillars, and accordingly the entire fence, should be not less than 2 meters.
Take into account, any stress negatively affects the egg production of your bird, and vice versa, good living conditions have a positive effect on the productivity of the hens. 
Pay special attention laying nests. Egg production is the main breed quality, so the hens will spend a lot of time in the nests. The Moravian layer has compact dimensions, it does not need a large nest, it will be enough to put together a wooden tray about 40 cm long, 35 cm wide and 25 cm deep. The bottom of the tray must be lined with hay or straw.
The optimum air temperature at which the hens are the most productive - 10-25 ° C. Such a temperature is good not only for egg production, but also for poultry health.
With the decrease of daylight in chickens begins moult. It is not always possible to notice molting immediately, since the plumage of a given breed does not differ in an ideal state even during a year. Obvious signs of the beginning of the process of molting are poor appetite, decreased activity and agility of chickens. At this time, all the resources of the bird's body are aimed at restoring feathers.
Important! When making a paddock, prikopayte grid to a depth of 0.3-0.4 m. This measure will not allow those who wish to eat chicken eggs. Do not make wall pens below two meters in height. Opinion that the chicken can not fly - erroneously, she may well jump over a 1.5-meter fence.
Birds update the pen, preparing for the upcoming cold weather. With the help of vitamin supplements and protein nutrition they should help with this. A good addition to the diet are sunflower seeds, fish oil, crushed corn. Such additives will help to quickly recover feather cover. 
The good egg production of the Moravian black lasts for about three years, after which it begins to fall noticeably. Based on this figure, you should prepare young layers that will replace the "retired".
Chernushki have good immunity. In addition, as already mentioned, breeders managed to rid the breed of some hereditary diseases. However, you should not forget about vaccination, if you do not want to face the troubles and universal diseases of the whole chicken coop. Periodically check the bird for the presence of lice and other parasites, as they are not insured from any living creatures, even with excellent health.
Advantages and disadvantages
A few words about the advantages and disadvantages of the Moravian black.
Positive traits:
- Excellent egg production.
- Breed is absolutely undemanding to conditions of maintenance and feeding.
- The developed immunity and the work of breeders provided this breed with a high percentage of young animals survivability and extremely low adult mortality.
The disadvantages of this breed:
- The incubation instinct is developed very poorly.
- The breed is quite rare in other places, except for their historic homeland.
Did you know? In 1930, a chicken leggorn nicknamed Princess Te Cavan laid 361 eggs for 1 year.
From the above, it should be concluded that the positive qualities of Moravian black are much more than its minor drawbacks. If you find a farm (nursery) in your region that breeds this breed, or sells incubation material, try breeding and keeping chernushki. The undeniable positive qualities of this breed - unpretentiousness and high productivity, more than compensate for all insignificant negative points.
