IMPROVING PERFORMANCE AND WEIGHTS IN BROILER FLOCKS - Sokies Feeds Limited

It is very important to have good uniformity in broilers to maximize the performance. Variation in their body weights causes lot of complications and problems. If the flock is not uniform, it will take longer time to grow

Many broiler farmers aim at higher weight, however they have faced so many challenges that can b tackled as here below.

1) Brooder preparations.

To reduce mortality, to stop disease challenges, and to produce strong birds, a farmer should prepare the house 3 weeks before arrival of chicks. Proper cleaning and spraying of the whole house with a strong disinfectant like VIROCID at least three times, and making sure all equipments to be used are washed, disinfected and dried. This include tarplins, feeders, plastic trays, coffee husks, plywood, drinkers, etc.
The brooder room is then locked up after all preparations are made.

2) Brooder temperature regulation.
Pre-heating of the brooder house 5-24hrs before arrival of chicks is required. Birds should be placed in a warm and comfortable environment. At day old, the brooder house should be 30 degrees( use a thermometer to control brooder temperature) at all levels. Chilling due to coldness will cause death, can render the birds inactive and stresses hence losses. Too much heat will lead to loss of energy through panting, leading to poor growth and death. Too much heat affects water consumption, when water gets warm the vitamins in it are destroyed, birds tend to neglect drinking hot water.

3) Location of feed and water in the brooder.

A disorganized brooder will yield non uniformly grown birds and poor weights. A buyer will then come and select only big ones, leaving the small ones for weeks to eat up all your profits.
Make sure birds don’t move more that one metre to look for feed or water. There should be adequate supply of feed and fresh water in a well organised brooder.

4) Spacing.

Squeezing many birds in a small confinement will not yield more weights. It will just lead to losses through disease outbreaks , and retarded growth. Broilers need adequate spacing of at least 10-11 birds in a square metre.

5) Feeds and feeding:

chicks that can locate feed in their first hours of placement will grow faster than those which delay.
The size of pellets given to your chicks will determine the growth rate.
The number of feeders placed in the house will determine the uniformity in growth.

Note: Broiler chicks should be started on feed trays(plastic) for the first 5-7 days. Even the smallest and weakest chick will be able to access feed. One plastic tray will feed 80 chicks. Chicks less that 7 days old can’t eat from big feeders. Some feed can be sprinkled on the brooder paper that we use to cover litter, so that all birds can easily access the feed in time. Giving birds highly nutritious and easy to digest feed like the INTRACO PRE STARTER PELLET from Sokies Feeds will help to accelerate their growth speed.

6) Feed quantities have to change on a daily basis. Most farmers don’t mind about the quantity they give some times they under feed which cause retarded growth, sometimes they over feed which causes abnormal weights and death. Have a guide that shows the quantities to feed every day, and always sample weights of your birds at arrival and every after a week to know if the growth rate is fine.

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