Chicken meat is very popular throughout the world. It is seen as a healthy meat low in fat and rich in protein (lean meat). It is a meal for a family so you don’t need a refrigerator
To prepare for the chicks’ arrival it is best that you have a time plan or schedule
the house will be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected
shavings or litter on the floor
the brooder surrounds in place
the brooder heater checked and adjusted (if there is one)
feeders and drinkers in place. Chicks usually look for water first.
a supply of a small amount of starter feed is scattered on paper on the floor of the brooder so that the chicks can start to eat
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For the first 7-10 days the chicks will be brooded (see section 5.) Broiler chickens can grow very fast but only when well looked after and given good feed
After 3 weeks of age when the house temperature is less than 28–30 oC they grow best. In the tropics, the temperature is normally above 30 oC in the day time so they will grow a bit slower than usual
Chicken meat is very popular throughout the world. It is seen as a healthy meat low in fat and rich in protein (lean meat). It is a meal for a family so you don’t need a refrigerator
To prepare for the chicks’ arrival it is best that you have a time plan or schedule
the house will be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected
shavings or litter on the floor
the brooder surrounds in place
the brooder heater checked and adjusted (if there is one)
feeders and drinkers in place. Chicks usually look for water first.
a supply of a small amount of starter feed is scattered on paper on the floor of the brooder so that the chicks can start to eat
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For the first 7-10 days the chicks will be brooded (see section 5.) Broiler chickens can grow very fast but only when well looked after and given good feed
After 3 weeks of age when the house temperature is less than 28–30 oC they grow best. In the tropics, the temperature is normally above 30 oC in the day time so they will grow a bit slower than usual
Some chickens will die in the first week particularly those that are small and weak. You must remove and bury them immediately
You can expect to lose at least 4 - 5 chicks out of 100 in the first 3 weeks. Another 2 may die later. Mortality can be much higher especially if management and housing conditions are poor. Some broilers, as they get older, may become lame and are unable to walk and get to the feeders. This is partly a breeding problem but may be reduced by slowing growth in the second week
Ideally, chicks should be given a bought formulated diet. A commercial starter diet should be purchased and fed for at least the first 10 days because they need to get off to a good start
They will have eaten only about 250 g of feed during this time. This will cost you less than 25 ¢/bird
A grower diet will then be introduced by mixing what remains of the starter diet with the same amount of the grower diet. This will mean that they can adjust easily to the new feed
When the mixture is finished, chicks will be on the grower feed only
Check chicks several times a day to see that they are comfortable and have feed and water
Check your chickens frequently. They do not like it too warm.
It will be helpful if you have weighing scales so that you can weigh feed given to the chickens and get the live weight of a sample of 10 birds every 2 weeks caught with a simple leg catcher. This will tell you how well your chickens are performing
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Do your birds reach targets at 3 weeks and 6-7 weeks? This should be your marketing age range for best growth and feed consumption?
Weight gain is weight of bird divided by age in days then divided by the total number of birds to obtain the average weight gain of one bird
Feed efficiency is feed consumed (kg) during a fixed number of days divided by the total weight of all birds (kg) consuming that amount of feed
As a guide, the average weight of your chickens at 6 weeks should be 1600 g and at 7 weeks 1750 g
Feed efficiency should be under 2.5 kg feed for 1 kg of weight gain at 7 weeks of age [a worked example of these calculation is given at the back of the manual]
Although your chickens look healthy you must still inspect them several times a day. You do not want to lose any. They are now becoming valuable and attractive to a thief
8.1 Marketing
Selling your chickens profitably is essential. You can sell them
alive on a bird or on a weight basis
through a middle man who will take some of your profit for himself
dressed, plucked, eviscerated (guts) and organs (lungs, liver, heart) removed. This is time-consuming
sell to an abattoir for processing
In some regions you will not have all of these choices
