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: 

Chicken Farm House Roofing

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Well good news, we are in final stages of negotiating for roofing of the main chicken house. The chicks are growing at a tremendous rate, and within the next 3 weeks we need to have moved them into their final home otherwise we will run into issues associated with crowding.

Their home is a 40’ x 25’ open structure, and we are looking to learn how many we can fit in there without causing crowding issues

Below are some photos of the structure through its construction:

House foundations ready for construction 

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View from upper end

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View from lower end 

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Brooder Expansion

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We are still chugging along, 3 weeks since the chicks came in, with 900+ birds in a space of 12’ x 15 ‘. The birds seem to have outgrown the place as they fight for food despite having about 20 different feeding points and 11 drinkers … 

Based from advice from our expert farmers we have made the jump and are now going to separate the chicks into two rooms to buy some time as we wait to complete their main lodging and accommodation.  

This is what the new place looks like 

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Vaccination Schedule up to Week 12

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Well today the chicks make 3 weeks, and we are going ahead with our regular vaccination schedule. I decided to share our schedule for others to learn and comment on. The vaccination is done every Thursday (Day 0) so every week mentioned below is based on the day the chicks were delivered 

  • Day 7 (Week 1) – IB via drop in eye
  • Day 10 – Mareks via injection under the wing 
  • Week 2 – Newcastle via drop in eye
  • Week 3 – Gumboro via drop in eye
  • Week 4 – Newcastle
  • Week 5 – Gumboro
  • Week 6 – Newcastle
  • Week 7 – Gumboro
  • Week 8 – Fowl Pox  
  • Week 9 – Fowl Typhoid 
  • Week 10 – Newcastle
  • Week 11 – Gumboro 
  • Week 12 – Debeaking 

After Week 12, I will update the schedule accordingly when the time comes  

Vaccination – Preparations and Setup

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Yes, we had a tough first week, but we lived through it although the losses were up to 10% of what we received, this is pretty high, but being inexperienced we can put it to the costs of learning on the job.

The vaccination schedule is every week for the next 12 weeks, with Newcastle and Gumoboro being alternated, I will post our vaccination schedule once I get round to typing it up. 

Here I explain how we setup for vaccination for those who like me are learning on the job. Pre-vaccination checklist:

  1. No vitamins or other medication in the water for the day before
  2. No water provided to the chicks for 2 hours before the vaccination, apparently to assist in ingestion especially the ocular ones which are administered one drop in each eye

First we created two separate areas within the brooder using plywood 

Brooder with separator for chicks vaccinated and those that are not

The vaccination operation was manned by 3 people – two vaccinating and one picking up the chicks and passing them to the other two. The reason for this is efficiency (due to split roles), but also to ensure that the operation is done quickly so that the vaccine remains chilled.

vaccination in progress

And once the vaccination is done the plywood is removed and the chicks are back to using the whole room as their playground. Also there is countinous monitoring for any changes in the behavior and feeding habits 

brooder after vaccination - chicks roaming around freely

Want to learn more about vaccination procedures from experts you can go to http://www.poultryhub.org/health/health-management/vaccination/

Day-old Chicks Arrive – Jan 3, 2013

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The big day is finally here, so at 6:30am we set off to pickup the day old chicks from the supplies shop. After making all the payments we verify that there are 1,020 chicks including a 2% bonus for the purchase. 

Into the back of the car they go and off we are to the site and the brooder, here is what it looks like 

Day-old chicks in brooder

You may notice that they are eating out of the boxes, and that is because we have given them Oasis nutrition for day old chicks (the green pellets) which we placed on top of chick mash (finely ground feed due to their gentle disposition) which they feed on for the first 2 days. In the water we added 10g of Glucovit (a combination of glucose and vitamins) to give them additional strength

A wide view of the brooder 

Brooder Preparation – Jan 2, 2013

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After the shopping was done the last step was to prepare the brooder which was a room 12” x 15” with a metal door plus a single window for ventilation. We would have gone for an additional window but we opted to keep the door and single window open for ventilation. 

Brooder preparationThe first step was to lay-out the bricks on which the pots (where we put charcoal for heating up the room are placed), after which we poured coffee husks on the floor and placed a brown sheet of paper on top. The brown paper is to ensure that the chicks do not eat the coffee husks in their early days which may lead to choking and digestion complications since their systems are not well developed. 

The temperature for the brooder has to be kept very warm (yes we kept sweating whenever we entered) since layers unlike broilers are very sensitive to cooler temperatures.

There is a separate set of sandals at the door so that anyone entering the brooder does not bring in contaminants, obviously this is a critical issue so we will be working on it continously.

Since the room was freshly built we left the pots running overnight to keep it warm and snug for the chicks coming in the next day.

Below is a photo of the brooder with all sheeting laid out and ready to go 

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