Notes on forced molting of chickens: improper management easily leads to death
Chickens
(1) Flock selection: in general, flocks with a low laying rate in the first year do not need forced molting (except for breeding chickens such as grandparent stock); only high-yielding chickens are worth molting.
(2) Culling beforehand: before carrying out forced molting, observe the flock. Select healthy, disease-free chickens with a wide pubic bone distance, relaxed anal sphincter, soft abdomen, and well-proportioned body shape and head for forced molting. Sick and weak chickens, and those with abnormalities of the head, eyes, comb, toes or wings, an excessively drooping rear abdomen, a hard feeling in the abdomen, or too low a body weight, must all be culled.
(3) Molting season and timing: when carrying out forced molting, not only economic factors but also the season and the condition of the flock must be considered. Forced molting in hot and cold seasons will affect the molting effect; molting in a cool season produces 5-7% more eggs than molting in a hot season. Carrying out forced molting when the flock begins natural molting gives the best molting effect.
(4) Immunization and deworming: 7 days before forced molting, deworm the chickens and inject Newcastle disease strain I; if this is done from May to November, vaccination is best.
(5) Light treatment: while starting water withdrawal and feed withdrawal, suspend lighting in open-sided poultry houses, and in enclosed poultry houses reduce lighting to 8-10 hours, continuing for 30 days from the start of treatment. After 30 days, in open-sided poultry houses increase lighting by 1-2 hours per week and restore it to 15-16 hours within 2-3 weeks (including daylight hours). In enclosed poultry houses increase it by 2 hours per week and restore it to 15-16 hours within 3 weeks.
(6) Adding shell powder: within 3-5 days of implementing molting, quite a few chickens still lay eggs, but there are more soft-shelled and broken eggs. To improve the eggshell quality of eggs laid before entering the non-laying period and to reduce soft-shelled and broken eggs, while starting water withdrawal and feed withdrawal, give 2 kg of shells per 100 chickens at one time; this can extend the laying days by 3-4 days.
(7) Control the starvation time: adjust flexibly according to the weight loss rate of the chickens, the health of the flock, the mortality rate and the season. Do not pursue weight reduction alone while ignoring other factors.
Chickens
(8) Feeding amount: when resuming feeding, feed evenly to prevent eating too much or too little at one time. The feed amount should be increased day by day to control excessive body fat. At the start of laying, the chickens should reach or approach the body condition they had before molting. When feeding zinc-containing feed, weigh the zinc amount accurately and mix it evenly to prevent zinc poisoning from overfeeding.
(9) Persist to the end and do not compromise midway: water withdrawal and feed withdrawal treatment cause great stress to chickens, especially after 10 days of feed withdrawal, when the comb turns blackish, the chickens are listless, thin as firewood, and appear about to die. At this point, if feeding begins, molting is likely to remain incomplete and egg production will not be high.
(10) Add multivitamins and methionine: to improve the effect of forced molting, about 15 days after the feed withdrawal treatment, appropriately supplement multivitamins and methionine continuously according to the laying situation of the chickens, to improve laying performance after molting.