Daily News

  PREPARATION FOR BROODING CHICKS The preparation for brooding chicks should start from about two weeks before the chicks are received. This is to avoid a last minute rush. The appliance should be moved out and thoroughly washed with a recommended disinfectant solution, like quaternary ammonia, and then allowed to dry. The litter should be completely swept out since any remnant could reduce the strength of the disinfectant subsequently used to wash the floor. Washing require a hot solution to detergent, under pressure, using a jet stream from a high pressure washing unit. The floor is then rinsed with disinfection. All crevices should be thoroughly penetrated and caked-up litter dislodged. The house then be sealed up and fumigated. (The open sided buildings used in the tropics do not easily land themselves to this treatment). The cobwebs and dust on the wooding frames should be properly cleaned before the litter is swept out of the floor of the house. In the case of...

MANAGEMENT OF CHICKEN FROM DAY OLD TO THE POINT OF SALES After booking for your day-old chicks, the next thing to do is get ready for the arrival of chickens. All the equipment and poultry house must thoroughly be and disinfect, the disinfectant such as Izal, A-Z germicide, Morigald, Dettol, and Ox-Virin are readily available. The brooding floor or the cage must be allowed to dry, the floor of the cage should be cover with cardboard or old newspaper and if it is deep litter the floor of the house must be cover with sterilized wood shavings and old newspaper on top of the wood shaving. The newspaper or cardboard must be removed the moment the chicken attained the age of 3 weeks. Upon the arrival of day-old chicks, all the chicks must be given glucose D (1g/ litre of water). A farmer must make sure the chicks sip the glucose fortified water by ensuring that the beak of each chick touches the water, this will make the chicks to regain all energy lost during transportation. The w...

POUSSINS These consist of male or female chicks but usually they are male by products or hatcheries. Raising these males is the alternative to killing them after sexing day old chicks; that is if the makes are of fast growing strain, they are raised separately from females and given broiler diets while the females are given pullet-rearing diets. Occasionally, both males and female may raise as poussins. A popular system for rearing these birds is the tier or battery brooder. These brooders must be designed to have enough head-room or else the chicks should be transferred to the floor for the remaining two weeks of brooding. They are fed on starter diet throughout the period. CAPONS The capon is a fowl which has been surgically or chemically treated A CAPON so as to remove the action of male hormones or increase the action of female hormones. The testes of the males may be surgically removed while both males and females may be given hormone preparations, usually oe...

LAYERS Layers are efficient egg producers, breeds used for eggs production in the industrial production system are almost entirely based on the White Leghorn and Rhode Island Red. Selection and crossbreeding techniques have resulted in productive laying hens producing 15 – 19Kg of eggs per year. In layer production, sometimes 2 phases of production are recognised: 1.      Growing phase up to approximately 140 days, and 2.      Productive phase from 140 – 560 days. ROOSTERS Roosters may produced with male and female chicks. Usually, males of dual-purpose hybrid are used. The females of these hybrids are commercially suitable as layers, while both the females and males, and particularly the latter, are suitable as table birds. The same hybrids are suitable for producing poussins. The hybrids of the birds used are the Rhode Island Red, Sussex   Plymouth Rock and sometimes the meat strain of the Leghorn. The birds are reare...