Brooding in Poultry Production

Greetings to all steemians. Hope all we had a great day? I am fine. Today I will be sharing with you some tips about poultry farming and most especially brooding. This is always the most difficult moment in poultry farming because it entails a lot of daily sacrifice from the farmer. So I hope the little I am about to share will be of great importance to many. Thanks.
Brooding is know as the taking care of chicks from day one old to around week 8 in respect to age. This is usually characterized by increasing the room temperatures and giving adequate care within this period when the chicks are still small. Brooding houses are made in such a way that from day one old till fattening there is enough heat.

When the chicks are brought in on the first day, they are given an anti stress treatment. The chicks are always fragile and during transportation they are sometimes badly stress up. This treatment is always given before their first food know as starter is served. Heat have to be regulated and much care is taken on them. On the 7 day the first vaccine is administered on the chicks. This is usually followed by another one on the 14 day and the 21 day and then the chicks are being introduced to open air. Temperatures here are moderate and well reduce.
There are two types of brooding sayings which we have the natural brooding and the artificial brooding.

• Natural brooding

The natural brooding methods are mostly used in small farms or poultry where just a limited size of chicken are raised within a year. Looking at the size, some hens can brood about 15 to 29 chicks. This type of hen provide the necessary heat or warmth needed by the chicks. When she (hen) want to placed the chicks, it’s always so necessary to first looked at the health of the hen if it’s free from ticks and other parasites.

• Artificial Brooding

Artificial brooding on this other hand can be known as the taking care of dat one old chicks in the absent of or help from the hen. For this to be done, only heat is to be applied externally to warmth up the room. This type has many good impacts over the natural brooding and can be discuss as will be seen below:

• With artificial brooding, chicks are always reared at anytime any period at any place within a season or a year.
• There is an increase in the number of chicks reared just in supervision of one person within a single room.
• In respect to cleanliness, it can be easily be taken care off at daily bases.
• Different seasons have different temperatures and with artificial brooding, the heat within the brooding room can be regulated either reduce or increase depending on the time.
• Concerning feeding, there is always a plan and this helps with the growth of the chick.

Brooding in Poultry Production

A sample of a brooding house.

The most important thing in doing brooding is a good brooder. This always help to regulate temperature and letting in of air, light and space to avoid diseases and most importantly fire accidents are avoided too. This is because saw dust is highly used and in the brooding house with high temperatures if fire drops on it then the whole brooding can collapse.

daily maintenance in the brooding house

There is an increase in the demand of day old chicks. Many have now enter into the business at small and large scale to produce a source of protein to our society. But a major challenge is always how to start and the time to take care with intense observation to avoid any i circumstance.
Thanks for finding time to read on my post.