Broiler Chicken Farming
Broiler Chicken Farming and Management
It is a wish for any farmer to take farming as a business so that a reasonable profit can be obtained in any farming activities. For any farming in broiler production to be profitable a farmer needs to pay more careful to broiler chicks in the first 2 weeks as it remains a critical stage in broiler production for a reasonable profit to be realised .
Research has shown that broiler attain an average weight of 1.5 to 2Kg at about 6–8 weeks of age under good management system.Broiler can be housed on deep-litter, slatted or wire floor or cages. However, cage, slat and wire floor rearing of broilers are not as popular as litter floor rearing, due to problems like breast blisters, leg weakness and higher initial investment.
Broiler can be kept either in a single batch at a time (all-in all-out system) or multiple batches of brooding and rearing of broilers.
1. All-in all-out system
This system is used when a farm has a single batch, which belongs to the same hatch at a time. With this system, enough chicks are bought at once for the entire farm capacity. They are all reared at the same time and marketed in a single lot.
With this system, the rate of diseases spread among chickens is reduced as the system is hygienic and can have a rest period for disinfections. This system requires more capital and mostly is not suitable for large scale poultry business.
2. Multiple batch system
This system enables more batch to be bought at different times and reared at different times. You could have a batch interval of 1 to 4 weeks, when this system is used. With this system, you could be buying new chicks on every week and selling chickens every week depending on your farm capacity and capital availability. Usually, the broilers are able to attain a desired marketing age at around 5 to 6 weeks.
3. Cage rearing of broilers
Broilers can also be kept in cages in a system known as cage Rearing. It is similar to grower cages, but to prevent breast blisters from your broilers, you coast the bottom of the cages with plastic materials. The floor space with this system is just 50% needed in the deep litter system. With this system, there is no spending on litters and the system is known to reduce cannibalism.
Preparations for Chick Arrival
For optimal performance of your chickens, there are a few things which you must consider doing during the early days of your chickens. Below, we have outlined what you must do in each section, for you to be efficient in your broiler production.
A week before delivery of chicks
A week before the chicks arrive, make sure you consider doing the following activities:
- Cleaning and disinfecting cages or floor of the brooding area.
- Cleaning the building interior and all the poultry equipments to be used as well as the attached service areas.
- Checking the equipments to make sure each equipment is working properly and is adjusted to the correct height to match the height of the chicks.
- Make sure you determine the correct number of equipments, feeds and other materials to be used, to match the number of chicks.
- Disinfect the house and all materials and allow them to dry before the new feed comes.
What you must do a day before chick arrival
On a day before chicks arrival, make sure you do the following:
- Making sure that the heating system is set at 32 to 33 ℃ at chick level.
- Checking the water and feeding system to ensure that they are at the recommended height and are evenly spaced.
- Disinfect of the house and all the equipments for the final time and make sure you use Formalin 30% and Potassium Permanganate in a ratio of 1 to 3, respectively to fumigate.
Day of chick arrival
On a day of chick arrival, consider doing the following:
- Pre-heating the brooding area to a temperature about a range of 32 – 33℃ and make sure you check the brooder temperatures.
- Making sure the whole poultry system is operational and the water lines or troughs are full.
- Observing that the chicks in transit are not stressed up as this could increase mortality rate.
- Match the number of chicks and the required equipments, feeds and other materials used in broiler production.
- Make sure the chicks are evenly spread and the brooder has always the required temperature.
- Monitor the distribution and movement of the chicks during early hours.
Floor Space, Feeder Space and Waterer Space
The table below gives you a summary of floor space, feeder space and waterer space, required in your broiler production. The space depend on the size and age of bird at a time. Feeders and waterer space also depend on environmental temperatures and health conditions of your birds.
Table 1: Recommended spacing in broiler production
Table 1: Recommended Spacing in Broiler Chicken Production
Brooding Management
Brooding in poultry refers to the artificial provision of heat to birds during the early growing period when young chicks are unable to maintain body temperature without the aid of supplemental heat.
There are 3 systems for brooding chicks and these are described as
follows:
- Spot brooding: With this system, there are no surrounds, brooding zone is well lit for chicks.
- Whole house brooding: Hot air system in conjunction with fans and false ceiling.
- Brooding in surrounds: With this system a heater is placed above chicks and the birds are kept close to the source of heat by surrounds, which are gradually expanded as the chicks grow.
Temperature Management
Always make sure the brooder house has the required temperature to match the required level of chicks and you must take note that, the young chicks from a hatchery are unable to maintain constant body temperature and they need a summplementary heat. In transit, make sure the chicks are kept warm as well to decrease the mortality rate.
Lighting
During the early days of chicks in the open sided broiler house make sure you provide light 24 hours during the brooding period and this could be followed by 23 hour lighting with an hour darkening as chicks are growing till the marketing stage. The basis of an hour darkness is to prepare the birds in critical situations such as power failures in the chicken house. When birds are not prepared in an hour darkness training, a single blackout could cause panic and trampling in your broiler chickens.
Sex-separate Rearing of Broiler
It is advised to conduct sexing in broiler chicks, as the feeding requirements and amount of space required for male and female, is not the same. Males are known to grow faster than the females, hence it is recommended to keep them in separate. You can use feather sexing & vent sexing methods to separate males from females.
Feeding
Feed intake requirements for broiler
Broiler starter mash max feed intake 0.8Kg per bird, growers mash feed max intake 1Kg per bird, finisher mash max intake per bird 1Kg . If needs be post finisher max feed intake per bird 0.4Kg.
Key feeding points:
- The Starter must be in crumble form.
- The rest of the feed must be in pellets.
- The amount of feed per bird is just an indication, stick to the recommended feeding days indicated on the feeding table.
- For the first 10 days, feed should be on the pan feeders or on paper.
- From day 2, feed should also be put in the feeding troughs so that the chicks can learn to eat from it.
- Do not place feed or water directly under the heat source as this may cause the chicks to eat or drink less than they should.
- The second chick check should be a day after placement.•The crops of chicks should be checked the next morning to ensure they have found feed and water.
- At this time a minimum of 95% of the crops should feel soft and elastic, indicating chicks have successfully found feed and water.
- Hard crops show that chicks have not drank enough water, and water availability should be checked immediately.
- Swollen crops indicate chicks have drank enough water, but have not fed sufficiently. In this case, the availability and quality (smell, taste) of the feed should be immediately evaluated.
7-Day check
At 7 days, the weight of the chicks should ideally be 4 times their starting weight. If this is not achieved, something went wrong. You should go through the process and make sure that you find out what the cause of this is.
A Drug and vaccination program for broiler as provided for broiler by CP and PIAM
The table below provides you with the recommended vaccination program in broiler production.
Broiler Chicken Vaccination Program
NB : 5g = 1 tea spoon
Things to take note when vaccinating
- Birds need to be heathy
- Birds need to be on vitamins in last 2 days
- Water needs to be non-chrolinated
- Skimmed milk needs to be added in water 2g/L
- Water needs to be boiled and wait 15–20mins to get cooled
- Open Vaccines in water and let it stabilise before giving
- Bury or burn the empty bottles
- Use the formula below to calculate quantity of water required
Volume = (# of birds x Age of birds in days )/1000
Challenges in Broiler Production
- Mortality rate
- Nutrition and feedings
- Housing
- Ventilation, disinfection, vaccination
- Animal husbandry practice
- Poor management (untrained entrepreneurs)
- High production costs due to poor management and
- High input costs such as feed costs (up to 85 % of total costs) and chick costs
- Imports of feed ingredients
- Market instability due to open borders and internal
- Competition between small and large scale producers
- Policy does not protect infant industry– These results in lower productivity, market uncertainty, high risks, delays in selling products and eventual abandoning the production
Advantages of Broiler Production
- High feed efficiency
- Fast return to the investment
- High return compared to feed costs
- Low land requirements
- Adaptability to both small- part time enterprises and large commercial enterprises
- The operations can be highly mechanized with high output per hour labour