Learning advanced techniques can help take your chicken farming to the next level. Sam Noble, representing Heifer Ranch in Perryville, AR, offered “Advanced Brooding” as a recent webinar hosted by Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT).
Despite her farm’s name, Noble has 10 years of confinement and pastured poultry experience as a poultry production specialist. The farm also raises woodlot pigs and grass-fed sheep.
Bedding, heat, lighting, feed, water, air and welfare are the basics. But paying closer attention to the details can help promote poultry welfare.
For example, the target temperature for chicks corresponds to their age. Chicks one to four days old should have a target ambient temperature of 92º F. For those four days old, it’s 91º. At day seven, it’s 88º. At 14, it’s 74º. By three weeks old, 55º.
Noble stressed that the recommended temperatures should at least be where the birds access feed and water. The minimum temperature away from that area should be 88º.
Stocking density also matters. She recommends at week one, 0.25 square foot per bird. That rises to 0.5 at week two and 0.75 by week three. After three weeks, it’s time for pastured birds to head outside.
To fine-tune the brooder environment, Noble said farmers should set up and turn on the heat 24 to 72 hours before the chicks will need it. Check the air and floor temperatures, as the bedding and floor should be warm because that’s where the chicks will live.
“I like everything rounded so they aren’t hung up in corners,” Noble said. “If there’s a 90º angle, they won’t necessarily go around that corner. We want to eliminate corners as much as we can.”
As for ventilation, the humidity target is between 30% and 50%. Anything above 60% humidity “affects your litter quality – how the brooder feels to the chick,” Noble said. “The main thing is that at least in the brooding phase, it will be adding moisture to your bedding. That’s my concern.”
She also discussed biosecurity, including changing boots, wearing gloves and using hand sanitizer.
Birds can also get sick because of piling, starving and stress. Drafts, corners, cold bedding, scary sounds, obstacles and uneven heat can cause chicks to pile on each other. If there isn’t enough feed and water space, if there’s too large of a space available or changes are too sudden, birds can starve.
“When you receive chicks, there’s a percent that don’t make it, typically within the first four days,” Noble said. “Chicks live off their yolk sacs the first few days of their life. By that third day, they will have absorbed the yolk sac … By the time it’s used up, if they don’t find food and water, they’ll start to die off. If you’re seeing a lot of mortality around that fourth or fifth day of life, look at your feed and water space. Make sure you’re making slow changes to their environment. They need time to adjust.”
Scaling a farm’s brooding is easier with a few steps that Noble calls “game changers,” including automation of feed, water, heat and ventilation, which saves on labor.
“If it is really cold outside and you’re over-ventilating, the heaters will be constantly running,” Noble said. “Are you wasting fuel or electricity if you’re using heat lamps? Stir up that bedding once or twice a week. Turn it over.”
That can save money on bedding costs while keeping the birds cleaner and more comfortable.
Especially when the birds are newly arrived, it’s vital to check on them several times per day. “I really, really like records, whether it’s something you scratch on a notebook or on a tablet,” Noble said. “Did the water spill? Did you have an increase in mortality?”
Develop a protocol for power outages so that the lack of automated systems and tools like heat lamps doesn’t kill birds.
“Vitamins can give them a little boost,” Noble said. “I give them a pack. If you’re dealing with just a few birds, there are mixtures you can buy from Tractor Supply that’s a water additive. Usually, the key thing is vitamin D, which is a game changer for rickets and calcium.”
Ventilation types include natural ventilation (open air and circulation fans) and power ventilation (enhanced with air inlets and curtains working with exhaust fans using negative pressure).
It’s essential to monitor carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), ammonia and static pressure. Handheld devices can help keep track. Too much CO2, CO, ammonia and/or humidity negatively affect growth.
Proper lighting helps foster growth. Noble recommends evenly distributed light without any dark, shadowy areas. On their first through third days, birds need 24 hours of light. By days four through 21, add an hour of darkness every other day. Continue this until the light times match sunrise/sunset prior to moving to pasture.
Starter feed requires 20% crude protein, 1,350 kcal./lb., 4% – 5% fiber, 6% – 8% fat, 0.43% methionine, 1.20% lysine and 0.75% threonine. For minerals, shoot for 1% – 1.2% calcium, 0.75% – 0.9% phosphorous, 0.2% sodium or less, 80 ppm iron, 80 ppm zinc, 70 ppm manganese, 10 ppm copper, 0.4 ppm iodine and 0.3 ppm selenium.
The main health issues Noble looks at are dehydration, ascites, E. coli, mold infection and rickets. Ascites, also called “round heart” and “water belly,” involves dilation of the heart, which makes the organ feel floppy and causes fluid to accumulate round the abdomen. Ascites is an issue associated with poor ventilation.
E. coli affects the heart, air sacs and abdominal cavity. Mold infection causes small, circular nodules around the trachea, lungs or air sacs. Birds deficient of calcium, phosphorus or vitamin D can be susceptible to rickets.
Birds with inadequate biosecurity and other management measures can experience bacterial and viral infections, “especially when they’re in that brooding phase,” Noble said.
She likes to reserve a “hospital box” for chicks that aren’t walking well. A smaller space means they don’t have to walk as far to food or water. It makes it easier for her to pay more attention to them.
Moving birds to pasture is a multi-step process for Noble, as she doesn’t want to stress them. She corrals groups of birds into a smaller pen, then divides the pen into sections using crates.
“You’re decreasing their temperature,” Noble noted. “They’re not so reliant on outside heat. When we transport birds out to the pasture, we put them into a smaller catching pen.”
One to two people per section will do it. Then she brings the crates to the birds, always using slow, controlled movement to crate the birds – about 10 per crate.
“We don’t want to chase birds around,” Noble said. “It can injure the birds and injure us. We don’t want jumping and flapping.”
To move them into the trailer from the crate, she creates a funnel with partitions to help direct the birds.
“They’re not like cattle; you can’t push them all at once,” Noble said. “I move up to 50 at a time. Monitor the corners so there’s not piling.”
She also avoids overfilling the trailer and moving them during high heat, as that would stress the birds.
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