What issues should be noted in broiler chicken farming?
???1. Selection of chicks
Some broiler chicken farmers focus only on chick prices and neglect chick quality. Chick quality is the foundation of successful broiler farming; only by purchasing healthy chicks of excellent quality can ideal rearing results be achieved. The quality of chicks directly affects the growth of broilers and the economic benefits of the farm. Therefore, chicks should be purchased from breeding farms with good quality and high reputation. When receiving chicks, remove sick chicks showing symptoms of omphalitis and pullorum disease, cull weak and deformed chicks, and strictly prevent the purchase of inferior chicks.
???2. Rearing method
At present, many farmers still use floor rearing, which easily causes chickens to catch cold and develop symptoms such as diarrhea. It is not conducive to the control of intestinal diseases, especially colibacillosis and coccidiosis, which are difficult to control. Using "raised net rearing" has the advantages of saving bedding material, reducing the occurrence of diseases such as coccidiosis and colibacillosis, reducing stress, and being easy to control the environment. It also provides uniform heating for the chickens, which is beneficial to growth. Therefore, broilers are best reared on raised platforms or plastic net flooring.
???3. Heating method
Coal-fired heating is currently a common heating method for chicken farming in rural areas. However, when coal burns, it consumes a large amount of oxygen in the house and produces excessive carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide and other harmful gases, seriously reducing the air quality inside the house.
The problems are mainly manifested in several aspects:
1. Poor coal quality, producing heavy smoke
2. Causing excessive carbon dioxide levels in the house
3. Incomplete combustion of coal leading to the production of carbon monoxide
4. Consumption of large amounts of oxygen, causing oxygen deficiency in the house
It is best to use heated brick beds (kang), radiators, or hot air furnaces for heating.
???4. Ventilation
In the early stage, one should not only focus on keeping warm while neglecting ventilation. Due to the high temperature inside the house, the air is stale and dry, and dust flies around, which can easily cause foreign body tracheitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, and airsacculitis. When designing ventilation, a skylight should be installed at about 60 cm above the roof ridge, which helps discharge harmful gases such as ammonia and also prevents large amounts of outside air from "backflowing" into the house through the skylight. In this way, the doors, windows, and skylight form a good ventilation route, which is more helpful for timely discharge of stale air from the house. In the later stage, while strengthening ventilation, one should not neglect the work of keeping warm, especially during disease outbreaks in the flock, severe weather, and seasons with large temperature differences between day and night. Be sure to avoid the invasion of drafty winds and cross ventilation.
???5. Mastering humidity
The high temperature in the brooding room often results in relatively low humidity inside the brooding house. If humidity is too low during the brooding period, the air inside the house becomes dry and dust flies around, which easily irritates the respiratory mucosa, causing it to become dry and reducing resistance. Pathogenic bacteria carried by flying dust are inhaled by the chicks, damaging the respiratory mucosa, causing ciliary movement to become inactive or the cilia to shed. Pathogenic bacteria enter the air sacs through the respiratory tract, making the chicks susceptible to respiratory diseases and colibacillosis. Low humidity in the chicken house also easily causes a large amount of water loss from the chicks' bodies, dry down, decreased appetite, increased thirst, and dehydration of the chicks. Therefore, it is also very important to properly manage the humidity inside the chicken house during brooding, maintaining the relative humidity in the brooding room between 60-70%. Practice has proven that humidity greater than 80% or less than 40% will have adverse effects on chicken growth. When humidity is too low, measures such as sprinkling water on the ground, spraying in the air, or placing water basins on the stove can be used to increase humidity.
???6. Emphasizing chick selection and group rearing
Chick selection and group rearing are important factors for ensuring flock health and uniform growth.
1. Chick selection
The first selection should be carried out when the chicks arrive at the brooding room. Weak and small chicks should be picked out and isolated for feeding, and deformed chicks should be culled to purify the flock. The second selection should be carried out at 6-8 days of age, or during the first vaccination of the chicks, isolating and separately feeding chicks that are small in size and poor in growth.
2. Group rearing
Male and female broiler chicks have different physiological bases, and therefore have different requirements and responses to environmental and nutritional conditions. For example, roosters grow faster while hens grow slower, with a body weight difference of about 27% at 56 days. Roosters' weight growth rate declines after 8 weeks of age, while hens' weight growth rate declines after 7 weeks of age. Based on economic benefits, they should be marketed separately. Therefore, broilers are best reared in separate groups by sex. After separating males and females, the diet levels can be adjusted separately, better improving feed utilization efficiency.
???7. Feed restriction and water control
To prevent broilers from growing too fast, feed can be appropriately restricted before 20 days of age to prevent nutritional metabolic diseases such as broiler ascites syndrome and sudden death syndrome. In the later stage, 1-2% garlic can be added to the feed, which can both prevent enteritis and promote feed intake, appropriately shortening the rearing days. During disease outbreaks in the flock, when treating systemic septicemic infections such as colibacillosis, viral diseases, and coccidiosis, water can be withheld for 0.5-2 hours before medication. In addition, when the flock is undergoing drinking water vaccination, water can be withheld for 2-4 hours. Of course, the duration of water withdrawal should also refer to factors such as the flock's age, season, growth conditions, and the half-life of the drug.
???8. Feed transition
Switching feed too quickly can cause diarrhea in broilers, leading to body dehydration, increasing the feed-to-meat ratio, and even causing disease outbreaks. The "transitional feed switching method" is introduced as follows: Assume A is the previous feed and B is the subsequent feed, each including feed from different periods or different batches.
First method: Mix 2/3 A feed with 1/3 B feed and feed for 1-2 days; mix 1/2 A feed with 1/2 B feed and feed for 1-2 days; mix 1/3 A feed with 2/3 B feed and feed for 1-2 days, then feed B feed entirely.
Second method: Mix 2/3 A feed with 1/3 B feed and feed for 2-3 days; mix 1/3 A feed with 2/3 B feed and feed for 2-3 days, then feed B feed entirely.
Third method: Mix 1/2 A feed with 1/2 B feed and feed for 3-7 days, then feed B feed entirely.
Using the transitional feed method is one of the ways to reduce feed transition stress.
???9. Medication
In rural broiler farming, the high medication cost per chicken is closely related to unscientific and unreasonable medication practices. It is mainly manifested in the following aspects:
1. Using a single medication, neglecting the combined use of drugs
2. The dosage is too small to achieve therapeutic effect, while a large dosage or prolonged use causes drug poisoning