Zambia Agribusiness Society

When we think of chickens, feathers may not be the first thing that comes to mind. However, these seemingly insignificant byproducts can be transformed into valuable resources through the process of value addition. In this blog post, we will explore the various ways in which chicken feathers can be utilized to create sustainable and innovative products. Join us as we delve into the fascinating world of feather value addition! 1. Feather Meal and Fertilizer Chicken feathers are rich in keratin, a protein that can be converted into feather meal. Feather meal is an excellent source of nitrogen and can be used as a high-quality organic fertilizer. It improves soil fertility, promotes plant growth, and reduces the need for chemical-based fertilizers. Farmers and gardeners can harness the power of chicken feathers to create nutrient-rich compost for their plants. 2. Feather-Based Animal Feed Chicken feathers can also serve as an ingredient in animal feed formulations. By processing f

Yes, you are right to go for the best feed, but I advise that to get the best results from the new feed, without destabilizing the birds with stress of feed switch, you need to make the changes in the following ways: It will take you between 3 to 5 days to completely change to new feed. On the first day of changing feed, you need to give 30% of new feed and 70% of the old feed. On the second day of changing feed, you have to give 50% of new feed and 50% of old feed. On the third day, you are meant to give 70% new feed and 30% old feed. On the fourth day, you just have to roll out on new feed 100%. Prepare the birds for the changes and protect them against such stress by applying Animal Tonic or Multivitamin for a period of 7 days starting a day before change of feed. Doing this, your birds shall just increase on performance, not affected by any changes in feed, improving appetite for the new feed, improving digestion of the new feed, no brown diarrhoea resulting from new

Vaccination plays an important part in the health management of the poultry flock. There are numerous diseases that are prevented by vaccinating the birds against them. A vaccine helps to prevent a particular disease by triggering or boosting the bird’s immune system to produce antibodies that in turn fight the invading causal organisms. A natural invasion that actually causes the disease will have the same result as the bird will produce antibodies that fights the current invasion as well as to prevent future invasions by the same causal organisms. Unfortunately birds that become diseased usually become unthrifty, non-productive or even die. An infection caused by natural invasion will be uncontrolled and therefore has the possibility of causing severe damage, however vaccination provides a way of controlling the result with minimal harm to the birds. Vaccines are generally fragile products, some of which are live but in a state of suspended animation. Others are dead. All have

Housing and environment Ideally the temperature for the first few days should be kept around 32 to 33ºC (at chick level). For a heat lamp or gas brooder the hottest area under its centre should be 40ºC with the coolest area being 24ºC. You can use a thermometer to check the air temperature at chick height. You will notice even if you do not have a thermometer your chicks will tell you if they are too hot or too cold. If the chicks are too cold they will be huddled under the heat source and if too hot they will be at the edges of the pen to escape the heat. Your chicks should be evenly spread around the pen with some eating, some drinking and some sleeping. As the chicks grow the temperature should be reduced by around 3ºC per week. Switch on the heat source 4 to 6 hours before placing the chicks so their environment including bedding is warmed to the desired temperature prior to their arrival. It is important to provide your chicks with fresh water daily. Ensure your drinke

Things to note about vaccines: Transport the vaccines in well-insulated cool boxes containing ice packs to keep the temperature constant. Administer vitamins a day to vaccination and a day after to minimise stress. Never mix vaccine and vitamins. Do not vaccinate sick birds. In case of any ongoing antibiotic flock treatment, withdraw the treatment two days prior to vaccination and don't give any antibiotic two days after vaccination. Minimise vaccine reactions by reducing exposure time after preparation. For vaccines administered through drinking water, the drinking time should be at most two hours. Discard the remaining water, wash the drinkers and provide fresh water mixed with vitamins. Store the vaccine at +2 to +8°C .Never store in the freezer. Never use chlorinated water during vaccination. Use powdered skimmed milk or chlorine neutralizing tablets to dechlorinate. Always vaccinate your birds early in the morning or late in the evening. Deny your birds water for two hours bef

As the saying goes, a well brooded chick is a well raised chick. Many challenges await the new chicks. Most can be prevented by good management and careful observation. Here are 15 stress factors you should watch out for during brooding: Cold, overheating and taking too long during transportation of the chicks. Delay in getting chicks on feed and water. Chilling and overheating during early brooding stages. Unsanitary surroundings - such as previously used Chickens litter or presence of rodent droppings. Pilling of chicks. Cold or wet litter and floor. Placing more than one variety of chicks together. Starvation (due to improper distribution of heat, feed, and watering equipment, and litter eating). Improper lighting of the chicks’ barn (chicks will not eat or drink in darkness). Debeaking and declawing of chicks. Dehydration (due to abrupt change of watering equipment or improper use of medication). Crowding (too little floor space and not enough feeder and waterer space). Hand

Another one to add to our list of respiratory diseases, this incredibly contagious viral disease plagues chickens in particular, rather than birds in general. Causes: As mentioned above, this one is very infectious and can be spurred on by factors like the age of the flock and the living environment. The virus can spread through a number of transmissions including feed bags, dead birds, infected coops, and those good-for-nothing rodents. But most commonly it can spread via the air. Symptoms: Chickens that have Infectious Bronchitis (IB) will eat and drink less and develop a watery discharge from their eyes and nostrils. They will begin to have heavy, laboured breathing, and their egg production can drop. However, while this is a common symptom we've seen multiple times before, often chickens who have contracted Infectious Bronchitis never recover to previous levels of egg production, and their egg whites can become more watery. Is it fatal? Generally not. While it

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 temper

Below is the cost estimate prepared by ‘Kuku Kenya’ for raising 100 improved kienyeji chicks up to the time they start laying eggs, mostly at 5 to 6 months of age. Note that the calculations are based on the current market prices which may vary with time and locality. The estimates are broadly based on the major expenses and may not include other unpredictable costs. We assume you have the structure and equipments ready. STEP 1: Purchase of Chicks Kuku Kenya Ltd. sells 3 days old improved kienyeji chicks (kari, kuroilers, rainbows, kenbro, premium kienyeji and sasso) vaccinated against mareks at 90sh each. Totalling to 9000ksh, call +254-725-285599 to make your order. STEP 2: Feeding First one week give about 1.5kgs of chick mash for the 100 birds. At 2 to 3 weeks of age give about 3.5kgs of chick mash. At 7 to 8 weeks give about 60g of growers mash per bird amounting to 6kgs for the 100 birds. Above 28 weeks give 140g per bird per day amounting to 14kgs for the 100 bir

To obtain maximum broiler production potential, management of the poultry house environment is essential. An important measure of a suitable environment is proper maintenance of poultry litter. Litter is defined as excreted manure mixed with bedding material. Both heating and ventilation systems must be continually monitored to ensure that the moisture content of the litter is controlled and the litter remains friable. If the moisture content becomes elevated and the litter is allowed to become "sealed," then the birds are being grown on a continually damp, slippery and sticky surface. This sealed litter is often referred to as being "caked." In this condition, the litter is simply saturated with water and the water is unable to escape. A severe litter moisture problem can result if large areas of the house floor surface are caked. It is more common, however, to find localized areas of caking near leaky watering cups, nipples, troughs or roofs. The litter in th

When we first delved into the world of chicken keeping, we read every book we could get our hands on to prepare. Our biggest concern was the chicken coop, and how to make our new flock of hens happy and comfortable on our little city lot. The advice we received was all over the place. So we ended up mostly winging it and hoping for the best. Back then there was not a lot of information out there about raising chickens, especially not about raising a small urban flock. Needless to say, we made a ton of mistakes, and having now corrected them, I’m happy to report our chicken raising adventure is going very well. These are the ten things I wish someone had told me, the ten biggest mistakes you can make while building and maintaining your chicken coop. If you can manage to avoid all of these, you’ll be well on your way to a very happy, healthy, and safe flock of chickens! The Top 10 Chicken Coop Mistakes Mistake #1: Not Planning Before You Build When you are ready to build a ch