What do you think about using light over fish ponds to attract insects at night? Those that fall into the pond the fish would eat. Isn’t that cheap protein?

   

If you have rabbits, can you show us a picture and tell us one or two thing about them?

I’ve read that mushroom farming is quite lucrative. Is anybody here into it? Please give us some tips.

According to a May 2011 report by the humane society of the United State, titles “An HSUS Report: Food Safety and Cage Egg Production”, States in the US have begun legislating against cage egg production and dozens of major U.S. food retailers, restaurant chains, foodservice providers etc. are switching to cage-free eggs. Extensive scientific evidence strongly suggests this trend will improve food safety. All sixteen scientific studies published in the last five years comparing Salmonella contamination between caged and cage-free operations found that those confining hens in cages had higher rates of Salmonella, the leading cause of food poisoning related death in the United States. This has led prominent consumer advocacy organizations, such as the Center for Food Safety, to oppose the use of cages to confine egg-laying hens.
What’s your thoughts about this? Battery cage has made work so easy!

Broilers are fast-growing birds and this can put a strain on not only their heart, but also their legs. A common leg defect is spraddle leg. This is a situation whereby the feet tendons are weak, causing the legs to splay outward. Spraddle legs can also be as a result of vitamin/calcium deficiency or leg injury which may result when chicks are raised on slippery surfaces like newspaper.
Broilers are fast-growing birds and this can put a strain on not only their heart, but also their legs. A common leg defect is spraddle leg, also called splayed leg. This is a situation whereby the feet tendons are weak, the affected chick is unable to stand and its legs will be spread out to the left and right. In milder cases, the chick may be able to stand and walk in a too-wide stance with difficulty.


  chick-with-Spraddle-Leg.jpg (Size: 19.09 KB / Downloads: 10)
Image Courtesy of Fresheggsdaily.com.

   

Causes
1.    Vitamin & Minerals Deficiency: Without enough nutrients to develop strong muscles and bones, splayed legs might occur. Deficiency in vit D3 and calcium can cause the problem. To avoid this, add a few drops of cod liver oil to the chick water once a week for up to 5 weeks. Be sure not to add too much as this may result in runny stools. Alternatively, feed them only balanced feed.

2.    Leg injury: This may occur when chicks are raised on slippery surfaces like newspaper.

3.    Incubation Temperature: It can occur if incubation is not done at the correct temperature or if there is wide temperature fluctuation.

4.    Poor Position in the Egg During Incubation:

Treating Splayed Leg
It is easy to treat if you notice it at the early stage and you can do it yourself. You can do this by splinting the legs with tape, rubber band, band-aid etc. The pictures below will help. After splinting, the chicks will be able to walk with the splint after trying for some time. After 2 or 3 days, the chicks can be able to walk without the splint.


  Spraddle-Leg-correction.JPG (Size: 47.05 KB / Downloads: 10)
http://www.fresheggsdaily.com/2012/04/spraddle-leg.html


  Spraddle-Leg-correction2.jpeg (Size: 17.33 KB / Downloads: 10)
http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.co...e-leg.html

Visit: http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.co...e-leg.html and http://www.fresheggsdaily.com/2012/04/spraddle-leg.html.

Catfish farmers normally raise their fish until they attain a weight of 0.8kg or more before they sell. But in mélange farming, catfish are raised to 300-500g (for 2.5-3 months) before they’re sold either fresh or smoked. This method is highly profitable because at such a young age, catfish will grow faster while eating less feed.
It would be far more profitable if you hatch your own fish than when you buy them.

Possible Markets
• You can sell them fresh or smoked to market women that sell fish. They’ll buy in bulk and no packaging is required.
• You can sell them smoked to shops/malls or in offices like the banks, government institutions etc. You’ll get ready customers if it is well packaged.

Giving honor to whom honor is due: I got this idea from a forum friend called Robonski on Nairaland. From his posts and threads I see him as an experience fish farmer. If you have specific questions about this topic, you can contact him for help.

What is Withdrawal Period?
When you give drug to a bird, some of the drug will end up in the egg and flesh of the bird, but after some days it will gradually vanish. Therefore withdrawal period for egg or meat is the time between when you last medicate the birds and the time when the drug can no longer be detected in the egg or meat. Different drugs have different withdrawal period as specified by the manufacturer. If the drug given is also used in humans, then any egg laid between this period have to be thrown away and the bird must not be killed and eaten.

Pasted vent occurs when droppings stain the vent of the birds in questions. This is usually a sign that something is wrong and you should take action immediately.
Symptoms
• Diarrhea, whitish droppings, loss of vent feathers, red or bloody vent, soft, swollen abdomen, whitish sores on the vent and/or in the throat, sour crop, weight loss, drop in egg production.
Possible Causes
• Increase pH levels and an imbalance of bad bacteria in the digestive tract. If not taken care of, the bacteria may spread to the reproductive system and as far as the crop, causing sour crop.
• Dirty water, moldy feed, excessive heat, stress, poor health.
Prevention:
• 1 tablespoon/gallon of water of apple cider vinegar.
• Add probiotics powder to their daily feed.
• Give plain, unflavored yogurt occasionally.
Treatment:
• Use probiotics or Apple Cider Vinegar until you see improvement.
• Offer molasses flush (1/2 cup/gallon of water). Replace with fresh water after several hours. The molasses will help flush out the bad bacteria from the digestive tract.
• 2-4 tablespoon/gallon of apple cider vinegar with the mother in it.
• 1 table spoon of plain unflavoured yogurt per bird per day.
• Bloody droppings can be as a result of coccidiosis or necrotic enteritis. This is a serious condition with high mortality rate within a short time. So you need the help of a vet immediately or you can give them a coccidiosis drug.

If you have any questions regarding this writeup, please ask them here.

Hmm, I was surprise when my birds got infected with fowlpox despite the fact that they’ve been previously vaccinated. We have to revaccinate immediately to prevent further spread. Fowlpox and ILT are the only diseases that can be vaccinated for even when the birds are infected with them.

Hello all. I missed when I was suppose to deworm my birds, and now it is clashing with when I’m suppose to give routine antibiotics to prevent Mycoplasma G. infection. So can I give both on the same day?

I’m considering integrating beehives with chickens and rabbits in the future. So I’m wondering if there would be problem if I site behives close to poultry and rabbit pens. That is, problem of bee stings and any other problems.

How much honey can you get from a beehive over a period of time? I know it will differ due to difference in feed intake etc, but I just want an average value.

Hi poultry farmers in the house, what is the suitable housing measurement for 350 layers using battery cages.

1. Ebook #1: Free Range Snail Farming


The free range method of snail farming is cheaper and less laborious than the common intensive method. In this ebook you’ll get a very good idea on how you can build a free range pen, how to keep out predators like ants, lizards, birds etc.

2. Ebook #2: Rabbit Farming


I have my eyes on rabbit farming. Why? Because rabbits are prolific – they give birth to up to 7 babies at a go. Not only that, their pregnancy last of only 31 days! At this rate, rabbits can give birth 5 times per year and that’s about 7x5=35 rabbits per year per doe. This ebook covers rabbit housing, feeding, diseases, breeding, butchering for sale etc.

3. Ebook #3: Broiler Farming
If you have problem with excess broiler mortality, you can reduce it if you follow the advice contained in this ebook. You’ll discover a lot of things that most broiler farmers ignore or take for granted.

You can downloads all these ebooks here: Ebooks for Registered members

Animals will grow faster when fed diets that meet their nutritional requirement. The nutritional requirements will vary depending on the type of animal, productivity and age. Broiler chicks will have a different feed requirement from grown up broilers. Also cattle will have a totally different requirement from poultry. A cow producing milk will have a different requirement from one not producing milk etc.

To formulate feed that meet the animals’ requirements, different feed ingredients are usually blended in certain proportion to meet the requirement.

The ebook you’re about to download for free contains feed formulae for the following animals:

1. Egg layers (chick starter, grower and layers)
2. Broilers (starter and finisher)
3. Pigs (Sow, weaners and growers/fatteners)
4. Catfish and Tilapia

To download these free ebook, you must have made at least 10 posts in this forum. If you have made up to 10 posts, click on the link below to download the ebook

Download Feed Formulae for Various Farm Animals.

Some lice in chickens doesn’t suck blood. Would Ivermectin given orally be effective against such lice?

Hello fello farmers, how can I control lice? The lice chemicals I know of are pour-ons which you apply individually on the birds. But in a case where you have over 500 birds, do you treat them individually?

Pls I just want to know this in case I start tomorrow. After an antibiotic treatment, how long should it take before giving probiotics?

I’ve always wonder how commercial egg layers lay eggs without a rooster present. That’s not possible with other animals like goats, sheep, rabbits etc. How is that possible with birds?

Pls how Many Grams Does A Jumbo, Large, Small etc Eggs Weigh? Is that how eggs are sold in Nigeria?