Do you know that birds can waste a lot of feed? Your carelessness can also contribute to that. Below are some helpful tips that will help you avoid this costly wastage:
Debeaking: Debeaking or beak trimming has to do with cutting off the sharp points of the lower and upper beak. It helps to prevent cannibalism, feather pulling and feed wastage. Un-debeaked birds can waste 5 times the feed debeaked birds will waste.
Debeaking is a delicate operation that must be done by trained operators. Error can result in birds having difficulties with eating and drinking. This will eventually lead to unevenness in the flock (lack of uniformity).
Use the right feeder: In both round and straight feeders, feed wastage can be prevented by: Using feeders that have a lip (see Fig below) ensuring that the feeder is not more than 1/3-1/2 full Feeder depth should be at least
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Fig 1: Suspending the feeder so that the base is at the same level as the bird’s back will help reduce feed wastage & prevent dirt from entering the feed.
Laying birds need feed that are nutritionally balanced because of their high level of production. Imagine a laying hen laying 230-300 eggs per year. To maintain this high performance, they need well balanced feed. Let’s look at quality and quantity of feed.
Quality of Feed
For maximum/optimal productivity, your layers will need feed that are specially formulated to meet their nutritional requirement. The feed should be fresh and free from mould.
Throughout their life, your birds might need starter, grower, developer, pre-lay and layers feed. But the most common among these feeds are starter, grower and layers feeds. A change is made from one type of feed to the other only when the birds have attained a target
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Debeaking (also called beak trimming) is the act of cutting the lower and upper points of the beaks. The trimmed upper beak is usually shorter than the lower beak. Debeaking birds will help prevent feed wastage, cannibalism, feather pecking, and egg eating. Mortalities due to cannibalism can reach up to 15% in un-debeaked laying hens that are housed in aviaries, straw yards and free range systems. However when they are kept in smaller groups in cages, cannibalism is reduced. Birds that are normally debeaked are laying hens, turkeys, quail and ducks. Broilers meant for meat are not debeaked because they reach slaughter weight before injurious pecking start. However broiler breeders are debeaked because they are kept for a long time.
Debeaking machine
Debeaking a bird
Types of Debeaking Methods
There are two debeaking methods, namely the hot and cold methods. With hot method, the beak is cut and
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Your birds should never lack water (except prior to vaccination). This may sound very obvious but do not overlook it. A simple lack of water for a short time can reduce egg production/growth. Water quality is also important. Ensure that at all times, water should be clean, fresh and cool. Beyond that, the water mineral and bacterial content can affect birds in different ways. We’ll be considering that in a short while.
Birds are fun of muddling their water with dirt and faeces. So use waterers that are designed to keep dirt out or minimize it. Nipple drinkers are the best when it comes to keeping water clean. Wastage & dirt can be minimized in bell drinkers when they are suspended so that the base is at the same height as the birds’ back. Keeping dirt out of the water will minimize the incident of disease infections.
Mineral
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When a chicken is vaccinated or exposed to a disease, it responds by producing antibodies against that specific disease organism. Antibodies are proteins responsible for fighting bacteria, virus and other foreign substances that enters the body. What serological monitoring does is to extract serum from chicken blood and estimate the quantity of antibodies present in it. Serological monitoring has 4 benefits:
It helps you to know the right age to vaccinate. You’ll be able to develop a solid vaccination plan rather than guessing. It helps you to evaluate and improve vaccination programs. It helps you to determine the effectiveness of past vaccinations It helps you to monitor the flock for various diseases and you’ll be able to detect impending diseases. It helps you to rapidly detect diseases Personal Experience:
I once took 10 out of my 607 chicks to a lab (AnimalCare Asaba) for serological test. The result showed that
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Coccidiosis is one of the diseases that can cause long-term damage to chicks (reduced weight gain and increase mortality). Prevention was mainly done by giving routine preventive dosage of coccidiosis drugs on day 9-13 and it is repeated every 2-3 weeks. But with the emergence of coccidiosis vaccines, many farmers are turning to it because there is no problem of drug resistance (Update: The vaccine is becoming more and more expensive in Nigeria, so using drugs now seem better).
Advantages of Vaccination with Immucox® It is better than using drugs because there will be no risk of antibiotic resistance Vaccination can offer similar performance (in terms of live weight and feed efficiency) as anticoccidial drugs Flock uniformity is better at the processing plant with no drug residues Types of Coccidiosis Vaccines
Coccidiosis vaccines can be classified into attenuated and non-attenuated vaccines. Attenuated vaccines cannot cause diseases in chickens because
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Flies are usually a problem when the litter is wet or the environment dirty. The life span of houseflies is about 2-4 weeks but within this short period they can multiply very rapidly and infest your animal pen. Female flies can lay 6 batches of 75-200 eggs every 3-4 days. Having a fly control plan in place is important because flies can carry and transmit more than 100 human and animal disease-causing organisms.
Mite Source: http://www2.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef516.asp
Parasitic Wasp Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pasturebuilders/pest-control/
The general methods used to control fly problem include:
1. Preventing Breeding and Killing the Larva
You will have fewer problems of flies if you make your farm unconducive for breeding. You can accomplish this by keeping everywhere clean. A clean environment is the first step to take to control flies. This is because flies like to lay their eggs on dirty places like wet litter, dead animals,
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Rabbits are very wonderful animals. They’re both good as farm animals and as pets. Below are 27 wonderful facts about rabbits.
Rabbits need fiber (hay and grass) for proper functioning of their digestive system. They will die without it. Rabbits are prolific animals. In the wild, they can give birth up to eight times per year. Each litter will have 4-12 kits. Gestation period last for only 30 days! This means that if a rabbit gets pregnant, she will give birth after just 30 days! A rabbit’s teeth grow continuously throughout its life. That’s why they need hays to wear it down. They should also be given tough, fibrous tree branches, leaves and twigs to help wear down the teeth. Safe chewables for rabbits include orange or lemon trees, apple trees, willow, rose canes (remove thorns), maple, ash and pine trees. Wooden chew blocks can help wear down the front
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Geese help and protect other geese that are in trouble. When a geese fall out of the sky due to sickness, wound or when shot, two geese will follow it down. They will stay with it until it dies or is able to fly again. Then they fly out in formation and try to catch the flock. Geese, especially the Chinese geese, can be use to control weeds in plantations, crop farms and waterways. They prefer grasses to most broad-leave plants. They have been used to control weeds for crops like asparagus, berries, mint, tobacco, beets, beans, hops, onions and potato. Their use decline with the introduction of selective herbicides. But as awareness of organic farming spread, their use is increasing. In the tropics, success has been found in kiwi plantations, cotton fields, coffee, banana, plantain and pineapple farms. They are cheap to keep because they are good scavengers.
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Open-sided poultry houses are suitable for tropical climates where the weather is hot. It is also cheaper to construct than poultry houses in cold climate regions where the sides have to be closed and insulated. The main aim of poultry housing is to protect them from the rain, sun, draft and predators. You should always think about these while constructing poultry houses. Poultry house should not be expensive. However, durability, comfort and safety should not be sacrificed at the expense of cost.
Things to consider while selecting a location for your farm:
Don’t site your farm in a place that is prone to flooding. Ask people living around your proposed area whether the land flood during the rainy season. Nearness to the market is also important. Consider the transportation cost of buying feed, drugs, vaccines and selling your products. To prevent airborne diseases, site the farm as far away as
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