Category Archives: livestock

February 2015 – New Chicks

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Exciting times, as today we are adding another 1,200 birds to the farm. This brings the total capacity to 4,000 layers.

The new flock is Lohmann Brown which is a change from the Hyline breed for the previous two flocks. This will also be a flock where we intend to test a new type of feeder that needs to be filled once a day rather than the current 3 times a day for the wooden feeders.

Photos below

baby chicks packed 50 in a box

baby chicks packed 50 in a box

Chicks now in brooder

Chicks now in brooder

Chicks now in brooder 2

Chicks now in brooder 2

2015 – A Look Ahead

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It has been a long time since the last update, however a lot has been going on in the background which is defining how the project is progressing. 

The highlights are: 

  1. Expansion – the ground work is being laid in 2015, however looking to at least triple the current flock numbers
  2. Experiments – New Breeds – we shall be looking to try out different breeds of birds to assess productivity potential 
  3. Experiments – Health Management Regime – taking all the learnings we will be reviewing our vaccination regime (for chicks) and health management for flocks during laying to extend the productive lifespan of the birds through proactive health management
  4. Experiments – Feed Automation – in our current facility which was not built for automation, the only change in the new flock will be feeders that are filled daily reducing the need for workers to keep entering the house
  5. Experiments – Water Supply Automation – in the new expanded facility the plan is to have full automated water supply a move which will reduce the costs of scaling 
  6. Experiments – Cage systems – this is for later in 2016, once the economics have been fully worked out, however this looks to provide the potential for increasing the density of the flocks within an area while reducing the labor intensive activities. 

All in all 2015 is looking exciting with new prospects and opportunities abound

Farm Record Management

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Currently the model I am using is as follows (all pen and paper)

1. Expenses Book – here I track all expense on the farm whether operational or capital expenditure.

2. Sales book – sales of eggs to clients which is balanced every Sunday to track Profit and Loss todate

3. Farm journal – for each flock track the water usage, feed given, medication given and any other occurences on the farm. Also for laying birds how many eggs are picked at each point in time. This enables the tracking of laying trends

4. Daily Production Log: total of eggs laid for each flock for each day

The plan is to move this records into Quick books to build a proper P&L but for now this works for us

What do you use, and what works for you? 

Laying Boxes

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This time around we have taken an early approach and invested in building laying boxes, experience is the best teacher right?

Why laying boxes? What have we learnt? In the first flock, we were unable to get the laying boxes built in time which meant:

  • Alot of the laying was done in corners and odd places that the chickens felt comfortable. So we had to continuously monitor and improve the quality of these adhoc laying spaces (corners) to reduce damage to eggs
  • Higher operational costs as eggs have to be collected more frequently, 5 times a day to reduce damage
  • Aggressive monitoring for cannibalism and egg eating 

What do the laying boxes look like this time? The design has the following elements:

  • Raised 1 foot (30cm) off the ground
  • Each unit is 10’ (3m) long so that they can be moved around as needed
  • 10 laying rooms each 1’ (30 cm) 
  • Tapering top so that no laying is done at the top, and also to reduce crowding in the rooms
  • At the front and back, there is a 4” (10cm) board to stop the eggs from rolling out of the box to the ground. In one of the houses with a skirting, there will be no back support since the laying box is flush with the wall.
  • Instead of using expensive wood pieces at the back, these have been replaced by hard brown paper.

The proceeding photos show the stages of design for the laying boxes

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Layer Health Management

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One of the biggest challenges facing poultry farmers is ensuring that the productivity of the birds stays high without having to spend alot on drugs to maintain immunity of the birds. Like all other businesses the factors controlling profitability are keeping productivity high and operational expenses low. The major expenses are feed, labor (cannot be altered much without significant capital investment), and medication.

The medication regime we are following is two fold:

  1. Added to feeds – regular
    • Acidomix
    • Methionine
    • Toxen Binder (Toxibab)
  2. Immunity booster – monthly with 1 day spacing
    • Deworming in drinking water 
    • New Castle in drinking water 
    • Vitamin booster for 3 days 

This helps us maintain immunity levels to lengthen the period of productivity while keeping costs within range.

What do you do to maintain the health of your layers?