EXERCISE
Make a list of what you will need to do to prepare your chicken house for the arrival of a batch of day-old chicks
6. FEEDING
Feed is 60-70% of the costs of producing commercial poultry.
Feed is the major constraint (difficulty) to producing poultry in developing countries
Compounded (mixed) feed is expensive. There may be no feed mill and mixed feed is not readily available in many regions.
Feed may have to come a long distance and probably will be very expensive and unreliable so you have to order well in advance.
Often, only very few suitable ingredients (feedstuffs) are produced in the country and most are imported.
Fish meal (rarely) or fish waste, also palm kernel meal, brewery waste, copra meal, wheat bran and rice bran, broken rice may be available. But these are largely inadequate for formulating a high – quality, commercial poultry diet especially for broilers
Feed ingredients are mixed according to a special recipe to provide a balanced diet
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Baby chicks need a feed of the highest quality. That is one that is especially high in good quality protein (e.g. soybean meal, fishmeal) to match the protein found in meat and eggs
Chicks also need a source of feed energy (wheat bran, cassava, cereal grains) to make them grow well
Chicks also need other nutrients (minerals and vitamins) but only in small amounts
A specialist person formulates (puts together) diets suitable for chickens. That person should also give you good advice on what to and how to feed your poultry
If some feedstuffs are available locally, farmers who receive the right advice may want to mix their own ingredients
First there is a need to get in a stock of the raw materials (ingredients). You will need to weigh out the ingredients or have containers which will hold known weights of different feedstuffs
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The feedstuffs must be thoroughly mixed with a shovel or in a home-made mixer. It can be made from a drum. Also a cement mixer can be used.
Do not store your feed for too long
Weevils will quickly destroy your feed
Ingredients and the mixed feed must be stored in a dry place and safe from birds and rats
6.1 Choice feeding
Sometimes it is better to let the birds select their own feed and balance their diet themselves. This is called choice feeding or self-selection. Feed ingredients are not mixed together but are placed in separate feeders (about 3) and the chickens in this way make a choice. There are only certain situations where this can be done, usually when the birds are on the ground or the floor.
Sometimes a grain balancer ration is available from the feed mill. This special feed (high in protein) will allow local ingredients to be used and the balancer meets those
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nutrients that are still deficient in the locally - available ingredients. This allows the birds to select a complete diet.
EXERCISE
What are those things that are most important in feeds for feeding chickens?
7. HEALTH AND DISEASE PREVENTION
Chickens are fragile and can get sick very easily especially when young
There are two major sources of disease.
Diet if not correctly formulated can result in the bird getting a metabolic disease due to a nutrient deficiency (vitamins or minerals) in the diet
Other diseases are caused by minute organisms called bacteria and viruses. It is often necessary to treat the chicks as soon as they hatch with a vaccine which allows them to resist the disease if it occurs. This is normally done at the hatchery. Newcastle disease is present in many countries and chickens need to be vaccinated more than once (see section 7.1)
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Remember that “prevention is better than cure!”
Many diseases can be prevented by keeping your poultry house very clean
Overcrowding of birds can cause disease
Do not allow other poultry on to your farm (e.g. neighbour’s scavenging chickens)
Do not allow other poultry farmers to enter your shed
Place a foot bath with a disinfectant in it or limestone outside the door of your poultry house
Have a special pair of boots/shoes that you will use only when you are working in your poultry house
Leave sufficient time between batches of birds to clean the house and get rid of diseases that need to have a bird (host) to survive
Remove old litter, dirty bags and contaminated rubbish and dump them far away but in a responsible place that will not contaminate the environment
Discard damp, old feed. It can grow mould which can produce toxins. They can kill or make your chickens sick
All in-all out systems in which all birds are the same age help to reduce disease out breaks
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External parasites such as mites, lice and fleas can make your poultry feel uncomfortable. This will affect their growth rate and egg production
Insecticides are used to treat the infected birds. A dust bath will also help to reduce these external parasites
Internal parasites such as different worms and minute protozoa causing coccidiosis can be prevented by medication
This is done routinely by adding a coccidiostat to the mixed feed for broilers
Remove immediately sick birds and bury dead birds.
Never eat or sell sick birds; they will make your family and others ill
7.1 Newcastle disease
There are two diseases that are particularly dangerous in many low-income countries
