Broilers vs. Layers: Which One Should You Choose?

The reason most farmers prefer raising broilers to layers is because of the fast Return on Investment (ROI). However, some cases of poor broiler growth makes farmers regret why they started poultry business.

First, most farmers only research on how much they can make as profit when they invest some money in poultry business but forget to calculate the risks to know if they are up to the task they want to venture into.

Secondly, they only hear that broilers grow very fast but don’t know why they grow very fast or what makes them grow very fast. No wonder one farmer would raise 6 weeks broilers giving him up to 3.5kg while another farmer would raise same broilers at 6 weeks still battling with 1kg.

Farmers who find themselves in the category of poor broilers growth are often farmers who take the shortcut. If you’re aiming at staying long in the poultry business, you should understand that learning first before reaching out for your wallet to put your money inside the business is the best decision you would ever make.

Poultry management is not that difficult if you have the right knowledge but if you don’t, believe me you’d at some point regret why you ever started.

So, what are the major reasons for poor growth performance of broilers?

The reasons are not limited to the ones I’ll list below but these are the most common.

1. Bad stocks

While we have different species of broilers, one thing peculiar with them is their fast growth. However, if the parent stocks or breeder stocks are not of good quality or are infested with diseases, you may battle with very poor growth. If you stock in bad birds, all your efforts to boost their growth including all the best management may prove abortive.

2. Poor feeding

If you are not ready for poultry business please don’t get started. Broilers are heavy feeders and every farmer taking up broilers production must be ready to empty their bank account. One good thing with broilers is; as long as they are good quality stocks, they will keep converting every bit of feed they consume. This simply means the more you feed them, the better and faster they grow.

Note: If your chicks are from bad breeders stocks, no amount of feeding will correct their poor growth.

3. Poor biosecurity

Most farmers believe as long as their birds are given food and water and the pen is big and beautiful then they will always do fine. While this is true, a beautiful pen with dirty surrounding and poor litter management will always expose your chickens to diseases. Also, not streamlining the kinds of people you allow close to your pen or handle your birds. Anyone can transfer diseases to your birds especially if they are poultry farmers too.

4. Poor brooding

No wonder most of the farmers that complain of poor growth are farmers who prefer buying average (4 to 6) weeks birds. Do you know the brooding process can determine your general chickens’ performance throughout their life-cycle? While most farmers are scared of brooding their chicks themselves for the fear of diseases and mortalities, it is actually very simple to brood chickens from day old and, before 10 to 14 days you are already through with the brooding stage.

Two of the major advantages of brooding your birds yourself are:

1. You are sure of the process you are undertaking and how it will affect your birds after the brooding stage.
2. You are sure of the kinds of birds you are raising and from which hatchery you get them.

Most farmers who brood chickens for sale at average stage for the purpose of making high profit may underfeed them, prefer to buy cheap DOC and or even lie about their age.

My advice to farmers who buys 4 to 6 weeks birds to raise them to maturity is to check their size and weight. Do you know broilers can reach maturity by 6 weeks? So, if someone is giving you a bird of 6 weeks that doesn’t weigh up to at least 1.5kg don’t buy it. In fact, I’d prefer you buy 17 to 21 days old chicks with good growth rate.

5. Bad feeds or low quality feed

What kind of feed do you use for your birds? Bad feeds will not only make your birds not grow well, it’ll also make them vulnerable to all kinds of poultry diseases since they don’t get enough nutrients from it.

A bad feed may have stayed too long since manufacturing date, have some toxic contents or does not have the necessary ingredients in the formula. It is not surprising that the farmers who experience amazing growth results are farmers who formulate their feeds themselves. Formulating your feed yourself may not mean that it’ll be cheaper than commercial feeds but you are sure of the feed formula which guarantees that your birds will get all the necessary nutrients to combat diseases and grow well.

6. Diseases

Disease infestation can cause retarded growth in chickens. Just like humans, a sick person may not be able to eat well and even if they try to eat at all, they may not be able to digest the food well to convert it to nutrient for growth and development. The same is applicable to chickens which is why you’ll often see non-digested food particle in the poop of sick chickens.

Also, the antibiotic used for the prevention and treatment of diseases can reduce growth performance until the birds are perfectly healthy and start replacing the worn out tissues. The good news is, chickens converts feeds fast so their tissue replacement process is very fast too.

Farmers must learn to limit the amount of antibiotics used for chickens for ensure they don’t tamper with their normal growth performance.

How to avoid poor growth performance in broilers?

1. Get good quality chicks direct from reputable hatcheries (if possible avoid untrustworthy agents who tamper with your orders.
2. Brood your chicks yourself so you’ll know the brooding management used for raising your birds and the true species of broilers you are raising from DOC.
3. Ensure optimal biosecurity.
4. Feed your birds well. It is better to buy 100 birds with enough money reserved for their feeding than buying 200 birds without feeds to meet up with their normal feeding.
5. Avoid too much synthetic drugs and vaccines. Learn how to raise your chickens without synthetic drugs and vaccines that could fail or not work at all. There are many natural herbs you can use to raise your chickens without any risk of failure or hindering their growth.

This is where we will be ending our discussion for today. Remember to share your comments, views and opinions.