Ten practical points on using vitamins in chicken raising

1. When the flock has a stress response (such as vaccination, moving groups, etc.), an extra 10% of VA, VE, VD and VC should be added.

2. When the flock has a chronic disease (such as chronic respiratory disease), an extra 10% of VA, VE and VC should also be added.

3. Adding an extra 5% of VA to broiler feed can improve feed conversion efficiency and help speed up the growth and development of chickens; for chicks, the lower the VA content in the feed, the higher the incidence of coccidiosis in chickens, so when chickens have coccidiosis, an extra 20% of VA, VK and VC should be added to the feed.

4. When chickens have fat syndrome, an extra 5% of choline chloride and 10% of multivitamins should be added.

5. In the hot summer, an extra 2% of VC should be added to chicken feed, which can improve the disease resistance of chickens, lower the body temperature of chickens, improve production performance and reduce stress responses.

6. During the peak laying period of laying hens, an extra 2% of VB2 should be added; to increase eggshell hardness, in addition to adding an extra 2% of calcium to the feed, an extra 2% of VA and VC should also be added.

7. When pullorum disease or coccidiosis occurs in the flock, a doubled amount of multivitamins should be added to the feed.

8. When a certain vitamin deficiency occurs in the flock, the amount of vitamins added to the feed should be 3 times the usual amount.

9. The amount of vitamins added to the feed of young chickens and breeding chickens should be 1 times the usual amount.

10. Generally speaking, cage-raised chickens should have an extra 10% of multivitamins added to their feed compared with free-range chickens.