Tag Archives: water

Core Areas in Poultry Farm Operations that need Daily Assessment

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The ever growing demand for poultry products has led to increase in number of people getting attracted towards poultry farming. It is a profitable business prospect.

However, running a poultry farm is not as easy as it appears. Starting and making it a successful business venture is something entirely different. You are not going to be merely a chicken farmer, instead you have to be an entrepreneur as well.

Taking this business to pinnacle requires putting in much more efforts. For operating this business you need to pay attention to the delicate care and maintenance.

Explore some helpful tips and solution to help your poultry farm/s perform at their maximum potential.

Feed Management

The quality of feed remains the main determinant factor in successful poultry farming. You must ensure that the birds must have an easy access to feed. From adequate feeder line height as per the height of the birds to reduce on the feed wastage and mixing feed with litter. INTRACO-CONVERSION FEEDS LTD provides good quality concentrate feed best for your birds.

Water Management

Water being the most important nutrient accounts for more than 70% of the bird’s daily drinking needs. In fact, poultry consume more water than feed during its lifetime. So an abundance of clean water is more than essential. A proper water management process will reduce challenges and maximize performance. Keep a check for:

  • Evacuation of biofilms and mineral build up in water lines using CID2000
  • Pressure, mineral content, quality, height, and accessibility.
  • Cleanliness of drinker lines and containers prior to flock placement
  • Water supplementation with APSA AMNOVIT as an anti stress pack improves egg production

Biosecurity

Biosecurity refers to those measures taken to prevent or control the introduction and spread of infectious agents to a flock. One ought to reduce inlet of diseases to the farm and also spread of the diseases with in the farm. Use of a premium disinfectant in footbaths and car baths like VIROCID helps reinforce biosecurity on the farm

Brooding Management

The period immediately after hatch requires special care and attention for the chicks. You must spend more time during this critical brooding phase. It ensures a good start in poultry production and will impact on the future health and performance of the birds significantly. Maintain brooder mortalities low using CARMINO PLUS or APSA AMNOVIT in water for the first 10 days. Access the duo from any conversion feeds shop near you.

Downtime between flocks

To help reduce transmission of disease between flocks it is essential to keep an adequate downtime, i.e. at least 28 days. This will include appropriate cleaning and disinfection measures plus, it will also allow time to prepare for the next flock.

Litter Mangement

While it is common for the birds to peck at the litter, the same acts as bedding in a poultry house. This means litter condition and quality put a serious impact on the bird’s intestinal health and profitability.

Dusty litter can be an indication that the birds may not be drinking enough. It can cause some respiratory problems like cough and flu. MIST dusty houses with VIROCID DISINFECTANT to reduce on the bacterial load.

In wet litter problems, the ammonia levels in the house rises. This poses danger to bird health potentially as it presents a vicious cycle for intestinal health. It serves as a breeding ground for potential pathogens. This can be a starting point for intestinal stress, further leading to diseases.

Stocking Density

Also referred to ‘crowding’ it is one of the most sensitive issues in poultry industry. Generally, a higher stocking density in addition to crowded housing conditions exerts a negative impact on performance. This will be leading to stress to both the birds As far as a comfortable stock density is concerned, it is said to be of 1 layer bird per square feet and 2 broiler birds per square feet.

Transition Monitoring

This will aid in understanding what is happening in the house. The examination of the activity of the flock and increase in the frequency at which houses are walked in helps early disease detection. Always check on the activity of birds very early in the morning before birds are given feeds, check on the colour of droppings for any abnormalities.
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Lastly, try to establish a strong communication and coordination between everyone involved in running your farm. This ensures a stronger and more successful management program for your business and birds.

Vet Bahati Robert Juma
0758943235
0786712645
Conversion Feeds Ltd

Week 5 - Adequate Spacing and Numbers of Feeders and Drinkers

Brooder Week 5 – Learnings and Look Ahead

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The chicks are now 5 weeks in the brooder, with a mortality rate of 0.4%, weights less than the management guide (which are based on environmentally controlled conditions) but within range and closing fast, weight uniformity distribution of over 70% and improving.

This post is about lessons learnt in this flock and what we have done differently:

  1. Hired brooding services from a poultry focused service provider who provided a worker for the brooder and a vet who visited regularly: 3x per week in the first two weeks, 2x a week later, currently at 1x per week
  2. The vet provided also supervised and carried out vaccinations as per the recommended schedule
  3. Focused on building immunity in the first 3 weeks, now growth and development of the pullets
  4. Weighed the birds to provide benchmarks for the growth, but only used the data for tracking so did not adjust diets to bring up the weights
  5. Adjusted the chick and duck mash formula, to provide the necessary energy levels and texture for easy feeding.
  6. Provided recommended levels of feeders and drinkers to reduce bullying and contention for deed
  7. Bio-security improvement: started leveraging powdered construction lime for initial disinfection and at entrance to the brooder, disinfectant spraying every week on the premises and proactively spraying inside the brooder with a high mist disinfectant (selected not to have any major side effects for the birds)
  8. Collecting data on feed and water consumption on a day-to-day to better understand the changing patterns – increase in feed consumption is at 4g per bird per week

As always a selection of shots from brooder:

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Q & A: How can I manage Biosecurity on a Poultry Farm

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Question: I hear practitioners talking about bio-security being a requirement on a poultry farm, why do I need it, how do I do it?

Answer: Biosecurity is a practice designed to prevent the spread of disease onto your farm. It is accomplished by maintaining the facility in such a way that there is minimal traffic of biological organisms (viruses, bacteria, rodents, etc.) across its borders. Biosecurity is the cheapest, most effective means of disease control available. No disease prevention program will work without it.

Best Practices:

Contributions by: Mugisha James Frank of Jade Commodities Ltd, Ssekatawa Charles – Veterinary Consultant with Surebreed Farming Operations, Peter Ssenkungu of NutriNova Limited, Dr. Sewagudde Samuel – Genesis East Africa Ltd and Nakato Winnie Fernandes of Vic and Val Ltd.

Our understanding of biosecurity is mitigation of risk in case of disease occurrence or outbreak….Measures taken so far are;

  1. Controlled access into the farm through fencing. Farm divided into two zones, buffer zone fenced off with barbed wire and clean zone with chain link. General movement is from buffer to clean zone. Poultry coops are within the “clean area”
  2. Restricted access to the farm by visitors. Any visitors who come in have their shoes sprayed with a disinfectants or common bleach.
  3. Professionals in the poultry industry are considered as the highest risk and require special permission to access the farm because they have accessed other farms so are more prone to carry bio-hazards.
  4. Manned access points were we do spray both individuals n vehicles using disinfectants like biosafe or common bleach like JIK
  5. Records kept on a daily basis on the accessibility of the farm.
  6. All staff have protective gear in terms of uniforms, dust masks n boots.
  7. Water filters fitted to each tank in the water distribution network to reduce the incidence of Ecoli
  8. Isolation of coops for flocks from each other
    • Poultry coops spaced from each reduce air-borne contamination. The minimum distance is 20m, with 50m being the international recommendation. The open nature of the poultry coops requires breaking the effect of direct flow of air from one house to another. Beyond 15m, the air flowing from one coop gets diluted with fresher air outside the coop reducing the contamination of air entering the next coop.
    • Each poultry unit is strictly manned by one person.
    • All poultry units have footbaths whose disinfectant is changed on a daily basis.
    • Feeders n drinkers washed on a daily basis, with those of a coop washed separately from others.
    • No sharing of equipment between poultry coops.
    • Each poultry coop has a separate sick bay and isolation ward.
    • Feeds for each coop stored separately so that there is reduced contact during feed distribution
  9. All mortalities recorded and inspected before disposal.
  10. Periodical water and feed tests say every 3 months to monitor their quality.
  11. Housing is provided 4 all poultry attendants, so there is reduced contact with the outside world.
  12. Posters placed all round the farm, reminding staff of the importance of maintaining set biosecurity standards.
  13. After offlaying a flock from a coop, thorough cleaning, of the poultry house is done along with the equipment that has been in use in the coop. This is done multiple times, and a time period of at least 3 weeks to increase the effectiveness of the process.
  14. Vermin control by keeping grass within the farm short and clearing bushes.
  15. Placement of rubbish bins for easy disposal of garbage n vaccine / viral bottles
  16. Periodic burning of garbage

Additional comments and inputs are welcome…