Category Archives: poultry

De-beaking Completed

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Finally we came to that time 12 weeks, when we have to debeak the birds. It was a tough process requiring careful cutting of the top beak (easy) followed by the lower one (can be slightly longer) which is more complicated because the tongue tends to get in the way. Cutting the tongue is fatal to the bird. 

2 days before the de-beaking, we de-wormed the birds to ensure that the antibiotics would be fully absorbed and it would be the last chance to do so before eggs were laid. 

The first two days after de-beaking were the toughest as it was evident that the process was very traumatic to the birds, as they are quiet (probably in pain) and docile (wonder whether its the medication) … They are slowly recovering and getting back into shape. 

The water consumption which had dropped to 60 litres for 900 birds, is now steadily climbing back to pre-debeaking levels of 120litres per day.

As always a few photos: 

Extension Completed – Chickens Moved

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Finally after a long struggle we have been able to complete the extension to move the chickens from the brooder to their final house. One major constraint we faced was with the cost of materials so we used alternatives, polyethene roofing instead of iron sheets and a mixture of burnt bricks/cement/sand as the flooring material instead of rock (to ensure the chickens do not scratch). 

On the first night however, due to transition stress and new environment, one of the chickens was crushed to death in a corner so we have to place bricks and plastic materials to change the corners to curves to prevent this happening again.

Photos of the migration below:

8 weeks – Still Growing Strong

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The chickens are now at 8 weeks, we had Fowl pox vaccination last Saturday and will be doing Fowl typhoid (injection into breast) this weekend as we draw closer to debeaking at 12 weeks. 

The house extension is almost completed so they will be moving to a breezier environment in the next 10 days depending on the weather conditions if it dries 

6 Weeks Out – Status

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Well the chicks are now almost 6 weeks and now there is a shift in gears to get more space for them (still working on the roofing expansion), and understanding the feeding rythmn and patterns. 

This week we will be removing the lanterns that provide the lights this week, the pots are no longer used for providing warmth since the chicks have grown their feathers to keep them warm, and additional larger size feeding troughs are to be added since the smaller ones are no longer as effective.

Photos below: