If you buy egg layers as day old chicks, it will take about 4-5 months before they start laying eggs. During this period when they are unproductive, they’ll just be consuming feed without putting some money in your pocket or eggs on your table. The only gain you might get is from the sales of feed bags or manure. From day old to 5 months time, one layer can consume about 9.3kg of feed. So you can estimate feed cost from that. There are other costs such as vaccination, transportation, electricity, drugs etc. The fact is that you’ll be spending money.
Now what if after you’ve spent so much money and those young birds finally start laying eggs and they suddenly start getting sick? You may have some pullets (young egg layers) that are doing great, but once they start laying you notice that diseases started coming up and mortality increase. How can you avoid such pain? Read on to find out.
To prevent diseases, pullets are usually vaccinated against various diseases. But the truth is that sometimes some vaccinations might fail to protect the birds. To check if the vaccinations were effective, here is what you do. After completing the vaccination program by 17 – 18 weeks of age (i.e. before egg laying begins), you’ll have to do serological test using the blood samples from about 25 birds. Submit the blood samples to a laboratory which will conduct the test and give you feedback.
If you don’t know how to collect blood samples from the bird, take them to the laboratory or call a vet to do it for you. Care should be taken in order not to contaminate the sample. The result of the test will tell you whether all your vaccinations were effective or not. Also, when you notice a drop in egg production during lay, the result of this test can show you which disease is involve and you’ll take proper action immediately.
And so, that’s how you can prevent diseases from coming up when your birds start laying those precious eggs.
Vaccination is not enough to keep a healthy bird. It is not a substitute for good management and clean environment. The trick to ensuring that birds stay healthy is to give them daily those of herbs and plant extracts.
Researches have shown that herbs and plant extracts are quite powerful and the good news is that even a backyard farmer can plant and produce his own herbs and plant extracts. For more information about this, download this free ebook and discover powerful herbs and plant extracts you can make and use to improve the health and growth rate of chickens.
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