Using of grass additive on the basis of stinging nettle (Urtica dioica L.) and chickweed (Stellaria media L.) in Japanese quails feeding

Breeding of quails is the branch of poultry farm-ing which is being actively developed in Russia in which topical issue is the search of cheap feed ad-ditives on the basis of vegetable raw materials which is an effective form of enrichment of birds diet with biologically active agents. An objective of this research was the assessment of the influence of grass flour on the basis of stinging nettle (Urtica dioica L.) and chickweed (Stellaria media L.) on the dynamics of live mass of Japanese quails and indi-cators of their egg production intensity. Three groups of quails at the age of 14 days were creat-ed. The first control group used the main diet pre-sented by balanced compound feed for quails. Two experimental groups in addition to the main diet received in the forage grass flour from stinging net-tle (Urtica dioica L.) and chickweed (Stellaria media L.). As a result of the researches the influ-ence of feed additive given above on additional weight of quails of breed Japanese was not re-vealed. However, it revealed that feeding quails with grass additive in the second experimental group (2 % of chickweed and 1% of stinging nettle to the main diet) egg production intensity came 8 days earlier, than in control group. In the first exper-imental group (3 % of stinging nettle to the main diet) - 4 days earlier. Besides, the influence of grass additive on the basis of stinging nettle (Urtica dioica L.) and chickweed (Stellaria media L.) on the intensity of egg production intensity of quails was established and in control group made 12 %, in experimental group 1 it was 31.6, in experimental group 2 it was 18.4 %. In the eggs of Japanese quails the maintenance of carotinoids and vitamin A increased: in experimental group 1 respectively 2.38 and 2.53 times, in experimental group 2 - 1.68 and 1.69 times. We believe that using grass flour on the basis of stinging nettle (Urtica dioica L.) and chickweed (Stellaria media L.) as feed additive to the main diet of Japanese quails is perspective for the application in poultry farming of egg direction.