One of the most critical phases of breeding and raising chicken is the 45-day period from the time the chicks are hatched to the day they are brought to the free range to grow.
Brooding chicks requires extra attention because the quality of chicks your bring out to the free-range depends on their health and resistance to diseases.
The first thing which must be considered therefore is the heat in the brooder where chicks brought out of a hatcher with a temperature of 37.8 to 37.9 degrees Celsius.
For chicks which are hatched by Mother Hens, this would not be much of a problem because the hen will provide her chicks enough warmth under her wings to keep them warm.
In the man-made brooder, however, the heat produced by the hen’s body must be simulated.
A small thermometer inside the brooder will be very helpful in maintaining the heat at 30 to 32 degrees Celsius.
There are at least two visible indicators that the brooder heat is not sufficient and these are:
1. Chicks gathering under the light bulb;
2. Chicks dropping their wings.
Another very important thing to be considered in brooding is the shape of the brooder pen.
I used keep my chicks in a rectangular brooder but I noticed that whenever the chicks panic because of new sounds that they hear, they would tend to rush to a corner where they pile up on one another resulting in a very high mortaity rate.
About two years ago, I was introduced to a circular brooder originally used by duck raisers.
It is simply made out of plain GI sheets attached end to end using rivets then set up in a circular form inside the brooder house.
Since there are no corners, the risk of chicks being killed in a stampede is less.
Even at the time when we brought out our chicks in the range starting day one, the Circular Brooder Pen was used until they were strong enough to withstand the elements.
By the way, a chicken raiser must never be bothered by the death of some chicks in the brooder. Meron talagang mga sisiw na weak pati deformed yong mga paa and the vets could help you discover the reasons behind these cases.
For as long as the chick mortality does not exceed 5% of your chick population, you are still okey.
A farmer must always remember this: Anything that has life will die.
Our role is just to make sure that they do not die early so that we could use them in our farm production.
#FarmIsTheBestClassroom!
#AgricultureIsCommonSense!
(The Breeding & Raising of Backyard Chicken video material is produced by the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) Media Team is part of my official and personal advocacy to help farmers in Mindanao earn a decent income by raising chicken in the backyard or in the farm.)
https://fb.watch/aJ_D_q7e_b/
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