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Raising and Keeping Chickens – Part 3 of 3
| By pinoyfarmer | July 10, 2007 | 
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Source: Better Farming Series 13 – Keeping Chickens (FAO – INADES, 1977, 48 p.) How to protect poultry against disease Preventing poultry from getting ill
64. Buy at the animal husbandry centres day- old chicks or three- month- old pullets
That way you get poultry of a good breed that resist heat, dampness and diseases.
These birds are in good health and have usually been vaccinated.
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65. Pay attention to cleanliness
The poultry house, and the feeding and drinking troughs must always be very clean.
You must clean them out often.
66. Do not put too many birds together
If you put too many birds together, they may wound or even kill each other.
The stronger ones peck the weaker.
The grass in the run is soon eaten up by the birds, and cannot grow again.
Diseases are passed more easily from one bird to another.
67. You must not put hens together with ducks, guinea fowls, turkeys.
The diseases of ducks, guinea fowls and turkeys can be given to the hens.
For 50 laying hens, you need an area of about 25 x 20 metres.
68. Take any sick birds out of the run
You must not eat sick poultry.
You must kill them and burn them so that the microbes are not left in the ground to be passed on to the other birds.
It is also better to take out of the run hens that are too thin and do not grow any more.
They do not resist diseases well and can give them to the poultry in good health.
69. Ask the animal husbandry service for advice
When a bird is sick or dead, take it to the animal husbandry service, or to the nearest veterinary assistant. Then you must follow his advice, so that the disease is not passed on to all the poultry in the village.
Often you see all the poultry of a village killed by the same disease. This must be avoided.
70. Get all poultry vaccinated
All poultry bought at animal husbandry centres that have not already been vaccinated, for instance day- old chicks, must be vaccinated.
Vaccination
71. All poultry must be vaccinated when they are very young, before they have begun to lay eggs.
Young birds that have not been vaccinated do not resist diseases, and die.
If you have to vaccinate a hen that is laying, it will not lay any more eggs. Vaccination is generally used against fowl pox, cholera and Newcastle disease.
There are two chief ways of vaccinating:
· mixing the vaccine with the drinking water; · by making injections.
The animal husbandry service teaches farmers how and when to give injections. Ask the animal husbandry service for clear instructions and vaccine.
There are many poultry diseases. Some of them are difficult to recognize. We shall deal only with the main diseases.
72. Bone disease
The birds walk with difficulty; they limp. The leg bones are badly formed.
This disease is chiefly caused by lack of vitamins and mineral salts. So these birds must be given food that contains more vitamins and mineral salts, such as vegetables and crushed bones and shells.
73. Pullorum disease
The chicks are listless, walk with difficulty. They have a very big belly and drag their wings. Their excrement is liquid and turns white. Many of the birds die at the age of 8 days.
The disease is transmitted by the hens’ eggs. A hen that has had pullorum, even if it has been cured, always produces infected eggs. All its chicks will be diseased.
Such hens can be kept to eat or to sell the eggs, but should not be kept in order to have chicks. To prevent poultry from catching this disease, do not buy chicks from unknown sources.
The animal husbandry service that sells chicks gives farmers a certificate saying that the chicks are free from this disease.
74. Fowl pest (Newcastle disease)
Fowl pest is a very common disease and very dangerous.
It kills very quickly a large number of poultry. The birds breathe very heavily and very badly. They digest their food badly.
When they have this disease, they cannot be treated: there is no medicine.
But you can prevent the birds from getting this disease.
You must not mix chickens of local breeds with the chickens bought from the animal husbandry service. All poultry must be vaccinated.
75. Coccidiosis
Parasites living in the digestive system are the cause of this disease.
Blood is seen in the excrement of chicks between 10 days and 3 months old.
If the chick is not dead in 30 days, it will always remain thin and will be very late in laying.
To cure diseased poultry, you can mix in the water coccidiostats that stop the disease.
But to prevent poultry from catching this disease, you must:
· not put too many birds together; · be very careful about the cleanliness of drinking troughs and poultry houses; · put coccidiostats in the drinking water.
There is no vaccine against coccidiosis.
The coccidiostats are provided by the animal husbandry service.
76. Pecking
The birds peck each other. They pull out feathers and make the skin bleed. Then the birds become more and more vicious.
If there are too many poultry in a run, if their house is not shaded from light, if the drinking and feeding troughs are not big enough, the birds are quick to fight, and may even kill one another.
You should:
· take out of the run all the wounded birds and those which are most vicious; · treat the wounds with a bad- smelling medicament; · sometimes cut off the tip of the beak.
You can also hang bundles of vegetables or green grass from the roof of the poultry house.
Then in reaching for this food the poultry get tired and become less vicious.
77. There are many other diseases such as fowl pox, spirochetosis and cholera.
There are vaccines and drugs against several of these diseases.
Ask your animal husbandry service for advice.
78. 100 birds at various ages need the following:
|
Age |
Space in the poultry house |
Drinking troughs |
Feeding troughs accessible from both sides |
|
NOTE: 1 metre of perch is sufficient for 5 or 6 adult birds.
You will need:
5 poles, 4 metres
9 poles, 2.5 metres
2 poles, 8 metres
8 poles, 3 metres
1 pole, 3.5 metres 70 laths for the roof 17 mats Hay or straw for thatching Poultry wire netting, 22 metres One roll of wire Fittings for the door 300 mud bricks Sand Nails, 6 kilogrammes Inside all poultry houses put feeding troughs and drinking founts.
If you want to raise chicks, put in brooders.
If you want to raise laying hens, put in nests.
Floor plan Horizontal poles
c 2 poles, 8 m
d 2 poles, 6 m
e 3 poles, 4 m
f 8 poles, 3 m
g 1 pole, 3.5 m
79. You can build the poultry house that was described without spending much money.
You make the walls of earth with wooden posts or with clay bricks.
You can make the roof with straw or with big leaves, or even with old sheet iron.
The ground of the poultry house must be well firmed. You can also cover it with concrete.
80. The poultry house must be built
Near the farmer’s own house
Because he has to go to the poultry house several times a day.
On dry ground
Damp ground is dangerous for poultry, which get diseases as a result.
If the ground slopes, you must dig a ditch all round the poultry house to get rid of rain water.
Sheltered from sun and wind
You must build the poultry house in such a way that during the greatest heat it is sheltered from the sun, so that, in the evening when the heat is less strong, the sun can shine in.
Orient the ridge from east to west.
During the rainy season put mats and branches on the sides of the poultry house to prevent the rain and wind from getting in.
For 50 hens
The poultry house can be: 4 metres wide x 4 metres long x 2 metres high.
For 100 hens
The poultry house would be: 6 metres wide x 6 metres long x 2 metres high.
Do not make solid walls more than 0.5 metre high. Close the remainder of the space with wire netting or bamboo laths.
81. In the poultry house put wooden boxes or baskets. Put straw into them. These are the nests in which the hens lay eggs.
Collect the eggs three times a day: every morning, at noon, and in the evening.
There should be a sufficient number of nests. You need one nest for every five hens.
On page 43 a laying nest for 50 hens is shown. The perches are hinged so that they can fold up and enclose the nests at night.
82. Poultry rune
These are needed so that the poultry can walk about and find green grass, insects, worms. Put a fence round the run so that the poultry do not run about everywhere, and to protect them against animals.
Leave trees to give shade.
Divide the run into two parts. One part only is used while grass is growing again in the other part.
The runs should be big enough: for 50 hens you need a run about: 25 metres wide, 20 metres long.
83. Feeding troughs should be sufficient in number and long enough for each bird to have its place when it wants to eat.
Feeding troughs should not be too wide, so that the birds cannot leave their droppings in them.
Hollowed out bamboos could be used, for example.
On the next page Is a good type of feeding trough. It can be made In the village.
Nail the bottom of the trough to two planks. To the right and left of the trough nail two perches.
The sides of the trough are made of thinner boards. They are higher if the trough is for hens.
They are lower if the trough is for chicks.
To prevent the hens from leaving their droppings in the troughs, add a wooden bar that turns (a roller).
If the trough is outside the poultry house, make a little roof of sheet iron.
In that way the food is sheltered from the rain and stays clean.
Take off the roof to fill the trough.
Feeding trough; Roof of an outdoor feeding trough
Drinking troughs and fountains
84. The hen drinks a great deal.
A hen can drink more than a quarter of a litre of water a day.
Drinking troughs must:
· be big enough and in sufficient numbers to hold plenty of water; · be big enough for a number of birds to drink without getting in each other’s way; · keep the water clean; · not let the chicks fall into the water.
You can use:
Bowls or buckets put on a stand or let into the ground and partly covered by netting.
Home- made drinking troughs and fountains with founts
For chicks: put the water in a shallow bowl or can at which the chick can drink easily; take a bottle and fill it with water; turn the bottle upside down and put the neck in the bowl; lean the bottle against a wall or make a support as shown on page 43.
As the chick drinks, the water in the bottle flows into the bowl.
An ordinary 10- or 15- litre bucket serves very well too. Sink it in the ground so that only about 10 centimetres are out. Be sure to change the water frequently.
You can make a very good drinking trough from an old kerosene can, as shown on the facing page.
Bought drinking troughs with founts.
If you have a lot of poultry, and you take very good care of them, and if you can sell them easily, it is better to buy drinking troughs with founts.
Poultry
85. If you buy day- old chicks, you must protect them from cold and from animals – rats, snakes, cats.
Put the chicks in the brooder for three or four weeks.
To protect the chicks from predatory animals put them in a big wooden case or In a big basket. See the picture on page 45.
Put netting over the top.
To protect the chicks from cold, put a storm lantern in the middle.
Surround the lantern with netting so that the chicks do not burn themselves.
A storm lantern gives enough warmth for 20 to 40 chicks.
Reduce or increase the warmth when the chicks are too warm or when they are too cold.
The chicks are too warm when they go away from the lantern.
The chicks are too cold when they crowd up to each other.
To feed the chicks, put a feeding trough and a drinking fount inside the brooder.
The case is covered with netting to protect the chicks from dogs and cats.
The case is covered
How to choose and look after hens to produce chicks
Summary
86. Choose hens of a good breed, that do not have pullorum disease.
Mate them with a cock of good breed that also does not have pullorum.
In that way the eggs are fertilized: they produce chicks.
Choose hens that give a lot of big eggs.
In order to know which hens produce a lot of big eggs, they are made to lay in nests that close after the hen has gone in.
Choose hens that sit on the eggs.
These hens should be big, in good health and have plenty of feathers.
Separate them from the other hens.
Put them in a corner of the poultry house surrounded by netting, with a feeding trough and drinking trough with fount.
Feed them very well and protect them well against parasites.
As broody hens do not move, they can easily catch parasites.
Kill these parasites with wood ashes or with products that are sold for the purpose.
37. I am a farmer:
I have very little money to spend but all the same I want to keep chickens. Then my family and I can eat more meat. I can give my children more eggs. I can sell hens and eggs and have more money.
What can I do?
I must buy as little as possible.
I shall use as much as possible what I can find in the village, such as wood, remains of food and the harvest.
I shall look after my poultry with great care.
· I choose the sue. · I build the poultry house.
All I have to buy is a few nails, a few planks and a little netting. For the roof, the walls, the fence, and the troughs I use what I find in the village.
At the animal husbandry centre I buy chicks.
They are not sexed: there are males and females. When the chicks are two months old I separate males from females. I dispose of the males when they weigh 1 kilogramme or more.
· I vaccinate the chicks. · I feed my poultry
with grain that I produce myself, with the remains of food and harvests, with green grass or vegetables.
· I take as food for my family
the young cocks, the eggs, hens that have ceased to lay.
· 1 sell
the cocks that my family does not eat, the eggs that my family does not eat, the rejected hens that my family do” not eat.
Related Posts: Raising & Keeping Chickens – Part I Raising & Keeping Chickens – Part II
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