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| 5 weeks old broiler chicken |
Every broiler farmer's dream is to achieve very
good weights, with low mortality, and raising birds in the shortest period
possible. This helps them to get better return on investment (ROI). Let's go through
some of the key points on how to achieve the best from our chicks.
Note: Chick quality matters, and
I advise farmers to get good broiler breed from good hatchery.
1. Thermoregulation/brooder temperature management
A day old chick cannot regulate its own body
temperature. Therefore we need to create a favourable warm environment for the
chicks.
Start warming the brooder room 5 to 10 hours
before chicks arrive. If you are brooding
in a new building, it’s better to warm the house at least for 24 hours before chicks’
arrival. A chick on a cold floor will refrain to eat and be inactive. The most
critical period of your birds is the first five days. Gradually within 2 weeks,
the chick becomes more capable to regulate its body temperature. The
temperature at chick level should run from 31 to 33°C and gradually stabilize
at 21°C at 28 days. Keeping chicks under high temperature will lead to energy
loss and poor growth.
In general, smaller chicks need a higher
brooding temperature than bigger ones. A simple and good way to check how your
chick is feeling is to hold its legs against your cheek. If you feel they are
cold you should raise the house temperature. Or, enter the brooder room barefoot,
so as they step on your feet you can easily feel if they are warm or cold!
Correct temperature management will assure high
weight gain, lower FCR, lower cull rate, lower mortality and practically reduce
bird growing costs.
2. Monitoring
Check your chicks after 24 hours to see if they
have been properly accommodated. Do a crop fill test on the chicks to see if
they have got access to feed and water! Randomly select 100 chicks. 95% of the
chicks should have full crops with a mixture of feed and water. If this goal is
not reached, go through a check list and see if something is wrong, for example
check for feed quantity in feeders and on the floor or on the brooder paper (actually
it’s always good to provide plastic trays for feeds in the first week!), water
quality and accessibility, water temperature, brooder temperature, feed quality
(pellet size), number of birds placed in the brooder, hatchery problems, can
all contribute to this feature.
3. 7th day weight gain
7-day old chick weights are an excellent way to
see how well did they start. Chicks should quadruple their day old weight within
the first 7 days. Each one gram of weight gain at 7 days will yield additional
6 grams at 35 days old!
4. 7th day mortality
This feature is also important to record.
Mortality of up to 0.5% in 7 days is considered a good result. If results are
way above, find out what has gone wrong, because this may lead to poor growth
rate!
This can happen because of poor quality feed,
poor quality chicks, high temperatures, poor brooder preparation, poor spacing.
5. Ventilation
This is an essentially important issue. The
chick house has to be sealed from any draft wind at chick level. This is
especially applicable in the first 14 days.
Never compromise ventilation
in order to keep the correct temperature. Use minimum ventilation fans to keep
the oxygen levels at the correct level. Or, as you create the brooder, you can
leave some spaces for air exchange. Cutting off the air totally may lead to
suffocation and death.
If you are using fans, the minimum ventilation
should run on 5 minute cycles, allowing ventilation to work 20% of this cycle.
That is 1 minute of fan ventilation and 4 minutes of no ventilation
continuously.
Avoid
using smoky charcoal in the brooder! The carbon monoxide produced from the poor
quality charcoal is poisonous and can cause death.
6. Feed
Use a high-quality pre-starter and starter
feed, the feed has to be distributed on paper sheets aside the drinkers. Feed
space using paper and plastic trays for the first week has to occupy 50% of the
floor space.
The first feed application on paper should be
50g/chick. Thereafter, topping up of feed on the paper and a gradual move to
the feeders.
Farmers who use pellets in day old chicks get
better weights than those who use mash!
7. Drinking water
Drinking
water should be from a tested well. Water with foul odour or wrong pH,
will not be consumed by the birds. Ideal pH is from 5.5 to 7.5.
Ideal water temperature range is 10 to 14°C,
though birds will consume water in a wider range of temperature. Do not supply
water above 30°C to the birds, it will not be consumed appropriately.
8. Stocking density
Stocking
density should run around 25kg/square metre by slaughter time. It is
preferable not to exceed the above density.
This means, 10 to 12 mature broiler birds per
square metre.
9. Vaccination
In order to protect your flock from pathogens,
a good vaccine supplier, and a good
vaccination application plan should be adapted. The vaccine
should be stored and shipped at the correct temperature, applied when the temperatures
are cool, and the right routes of vaccination should be used!
It is preferable to apply vaccines in the water
early in the morning, to avoid hot temperatures during the day, and utilize the
high water consumption in morning. Deny birds from water for 3 hours to create
enough thirst, in order for the vaccine to be utilized in 1 to 2 hours.
Water should be clean from antibiotics,
chlorine and disinfectant. Treat the water with a stabilizer or use skim milk
to neutralize any chlorine residues.
10. Biosecurity
Disease
control is one of the main challenges
of broiler producers. Strict measures to reduce disease load should be
implemented in the farm. Surround the farm with a fence to stop unwanted
visitors. Clean and disinfect the houses between depletion and introduction of
new flock. Establish and perform a vermin control plan. Mice and rats are known
for Salmonella and other serious diseases. Make sure that farm staff has full change
of clothes when going into the farm. Many viral and bacterial diseases can
remain in clothing and shoes, and so if not changed before entering the farm
may introduce disease into the broiler farm.
Use shoe dips with disinfectant, dip before
entering every poultry house. Apply vaccines correctly for utmost efficiency.
Incorrect application can reduce vaccine effectiveness and harm flock health.
Use an efficient incineration facility to
dispose of dead birds. Dead birds can attract vermin, wild birds, dogs, and cats,
thereby introducing viruses and bacteria on the farm.
Control
invading insects in the farm. Insects have been known as carriers of salmonella and
various viruses with a great potential to introduce disease in the farm.
We wish you achieve excellent results and hope these simple tips are of assistance!!
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