Giantfarmer:
I have 100 birds but they lay barely one and half crate daily, what Will I do to bring their back to laying 3crate

how old are they?
which brand of layers feed do they consume?
before they dropped in egg production, was there any change in the feed brand?
how many kg of feed do they consume per day?
hope they have constant drinking water supply ?
where they deprived of water before the drop in production?
when last did you deworm and vaccinate against new castle disease?
are they exposed to sunlight or hot environment?

correct answers to these questions may provide a solution

trychris:
I was following this thread and I realized the great works you have put into it. Please, my 4weeks old cockerels are dropping dead after closing their eyes over a short period of time. Their droppings are white and greenish in color. I have started giving them Cococinor since yesterday. Please is I enough to keep them from dying?

I may not really point our their problem with the few signs you have described. but by 4 weeks, they should have taken their lasota, Gumboro vaccine, coccidiostat and antibiotics. if not, the sickness may be due to skipping the aforementioned medications.

mhiztaNexy:


Thanks for the response. No red discoloration in the droppings. Today makes it the fifth day i administered antibotics and coccidiostat. I make sure there's water by supplying in d morning n evening.

I noticed the bird is now dull with no food in its crop part.

i will advice you do the following
1. provide heat in the pen house for them to feel warm so they can be thirsty to drink and eat
2. deworm them with kepromec oral for a day, be cautious not to overdose
3. start coccidiosis treatment. you can use the one that has combination sulphaquinoxaline, vitamin and antibiotics e.g. coccifor. treat for 5 days
4. put extra 3hour light for them to eat at night
5. incase you are rasing your broilers on deep litter, change the litter materials

mhiztaNexy:


Thanks for the response. No red discoloration in the droppings. Today makes it the fifth day i administered antibotics and coccidiostat. I make sure there's water by supplying in d morning n evening.

I noticed the bird is now dull with no food in its crop part.

I've had a similar problem in the past. what I did was to heat up the pen house so that the chickens would feel thirsty to drink and eat. there is greater % chance they have either coccidiosis or intestinal infections which would make them not to eat. which anticocci drug are you using?

mhiztaNexy:
How do you treat whitish discharge from vent of broiler. 6 weeks old and reduced feed intake. Thanks

is it there any red discoloration in the droppings? the reduced feed intake may be attributed to coccidiosis, intestinal worm, shortage of drinking water or low quality feed

hardcore007:


I'm sorry sir, could you pls tell what "ad libitum" means.
I've provided them light. But I turn it off most times around 2 or 3 am before I finally go to sleep.
I'll be really glad if I learn how to formulate feed, because I want to stock more 100 birds by next week.

ok, you can WhatsApp on 07032144195

ad libitum means providing feed for them at all times i.e unrestricted feeding.

hardcore007:
Pls, when should i start giving my 7 days old birds (broilers) booster ??

are you referring to Vitamin booster ?

hardcore007:
Bros, thank you so much.
I'm a newbie in this line of business.
I have about 50 birds (broilers).
They are 8 weeks old and it's aleady big for consumption.
But I want to start selling from next week.
I also have already restocked another 50, they are 7 days old today, and I just gave them vaccine (lasota), they are doing pretty good.
I never lost any bird so far. I put my time on it, I always check them time to time.

Now, I want to learn more about this business. I want a good source to be buying from. And I also want to be formulating my own feed. Though i did formulate one. It worked but not really like the normal feed I buy . I want to be selling my broilers in the 8th week. I need help on how-to feed them so I can get the result. I never mentioned there are some days I feed them 4 times daily
Bro pls drop your contact for us so those interested like me will call. Thank you.

that's a good one. one of the ways to generate money in broiler production is formulating your own feed. for your broiler to acheive good weight, you will feed ad libitum( don't ration feed for them) and provide extra lighting for them at night.

then there are two things about the feed formulation. I can give you a Broiler feed formula for free or teach you how to formulate at an agreed price.

for contacting me, you can check my mail address in my profile but I would like most of the discussions to be done here so that others would learn.

when they say something like this, just know that they are developing a virus to be injected in chicken in few years to come. that was how bill gate and obama predicted corona virus.

adebayour26:
I went through your profile. What I notice is that you are so consistent in what you do.

Sooner or later, I'll patronise you

thanks a lot sir

thanks a lot sir

I am through ooooo bye bye.
feel free to ask your questions. I will also discuss some additional topics later

adebayour26:
Thank you for all these. It's selfless service and yet you took your time to take us through all of these.
You are blessed always.

you're welcome sir

26. heat management

during dry season, most farm experience increase in mortality which can be attributed to rise in temperature in the poultry house.
you can avoid this problem while constructing your poultry house by making your roof high enough.
some people use asbestos sheets because they are good insulators. some put ceiling in the poultry houses also.

25. water management

you should always have clean and available water in your farm. sink a borehole or a well. some farms have 2 to 5 borehole in their farm because water is very essential for the birds. depriving your chickens of water can suddenly increase mortality, reduce egg production, increase egg pecking etc.

depriving layers of water for 3 to 4 hour period can will reduce egg production for about 3 days. broilers may even die instantly when water is deprived for about 3 hours.

there will be additional topics 25. water management 26. heat management

24. what works for another farm may not work for you

when setting up a farm, don't copy the modus operandi of another farm because sometimes they may be doing the wrong thing. their choice of poultry house may be wrong, their vaccination time table may be faulty, their method of litter disposal may be improper etc. but rather seek advice on what works best for you.

23. scale your workers according to farm stock.

throughout my visit to many farms, I discovered that about 60% of them have more ratio of staff to poultry stock. this implies that they much staff in the farm than required. having more staff increases your farm expenditures. 1 farm attendant is enough to handle 4000 to 5000 chicken. if you don't operate at this ratio then you are increasing your cost of production.

22. Be mindful of your farm employees

the success of your farm is highly dependent on your farm employees, Good employees raise good chickens while bad employees raise bad chickens. its as simple as that

21. don't reserve your produce for customers

sell your farm produce according to customers who are ready for pickup. do not reserve your eggs, broilers or old layers for customers even if they have paid. the maximum interval you can give them is 24 hours, if you don't see them sell to another customer who is ready to pack.
The reason for this is because after poultry produce are paid for, they will start losing value over time because you still have to continue your operational cost if the buyer is not ready for collection.
for example, a farmers sold 170 broilers at 2000 naira each(total of 340,000 naira) to a customer who wants to pack in the next 5 days. within that five days, 5 of the broilers died(that's 10,000 naira) and he spends 3500 naira daily to feed the broilers for 5 days(that's 17,500 naira). so in 5 days, he has lost total of 27,500 Naira.

20. seek for a good vaccine and drug outlet

your source of vaccine is very important. before you choose an outlet for purchasing your vaccines, make sure they have a good storage system. vaccines are stored at lower temperature to preserve its efficacy. if this temperature is tampered with, there will be vaccine failure after administration. I have seen farms lose thousands of chicken within few days because of vaccine failure.

if your farm is far from vet outlet, make sure you have a refrigerator for temporarily storing your vaccine before usage.

19. seek for a good feedmill

before setting up your poultry, you need to be sure of your source of feed. you should have access to feed stores or feedmill so that you easily place your demands. make sure your choice of feedmill is always on stock. because if you starve your birds because of unavailability of feed in feedmill it will reduce your poultry performance.

18. if possible formulate your own feed

formulating your own feed can save you about 15% cost on your feeding. in poultry about 70% of your running cost is feed.

for example, a farmer has 210 layers that consumes 1 bag of feed per day. He buys the feed at 3350 naira per bag which amounts to 100,500 naira per month. l later formulated feed for him at the cost of 2850 per bag( that amounts to 85,500 naira per month). He achieved similar result and still have extra 15,000 naira to save at the ending of the month.

if a farmer with 210 layers can save 15,000 from feed per month,
how much do you think a farmer with 21,000 layers will save?
do the math yourself

issues like paralysis in birds, poor egg shells, egg yolk discoloration can be corrected with proper knowledge of feed formulation.

I have an ebook and a basic software for feed formulation(comes with a price tag).

17. seek for advice from a practising farmer

Some poultry startups have poor business foundation because they consulted the wrong source. we have professions attached to the poultry industry such as, Animal nutritionist, Animal scientist, animal producer, animal health personnel, Animal technologist, Veterinary doctor etc. but most times people prefer consulting a vet doctor.

my advice is when starting a poultry farm, consult a practising farmer whether he has degree or not. The fact is almost 80% of farm owners in nigeria has no educational background in the poultry business, they learnt the business why practising it. I'm not against consulting professionals in the business though some will give you a proper guideline, but most of them have little or no experience when it comes to practical poultry.

there are somethings professional may not tell you, I will list few of them

1. don't roof your poultry house with zinc but aluminum or asbestos. if you use zinc, it will completely rust in 3 years because of ammonia emission from poultry feces. but aluminium will never rust

2. the length of the poultry house should be aligned in east west orientation so that greater portion of house will be under shade throughout the day. when your poultry is exposed to sun most times it reduces their performance. also if you study the wind, it normally blows from the east, so when its raining the poultry houses may be filled with water splashes if its not properly aligned in east west orientation.

3. a client complained that his layers are not laying well despite all his efforts. when his farm was visited, we discovered his poultry house was not bright enough because he covered the house with sacks. He was advised to remove all the sacks so that the poultry house would be bright(layers need good light intensity to lay). after he did that, his egg production jumped from 40% to 85% within a week. meanwhile his vet doctor was recommending drug to boost his egg production before our intervention.

like I said earlier,I'm not against consulting vets or animal personnel but when your investment is at stake, you need people with proven practical experience

16. don't sell on credit

from experience you have 99% chances of not being paid for the value of your produce( or not paid at all) when you sell on credit. this is due to the fact that your customers would try to share their losses with you when they buy on credit. for instance some would buy old layers or broiler on credit, by the time they want to pay, they start telling you stories how they lost some chickens on their way to the market, expecting you to share losses with them.

if you are a poultry enthusiast and follow updates, you'll notice some farmers burying their eggs during egg lot. this is due to the fact customers that carry on credit fails to pay up their debts.

15. don't get too comfortable, be proactive

when managing a poultry farm, don't be comfortable with what you know. always aspire to know more no matter your level of experience. things evolve everyday in the Poultry industry, for instance a particular antibiotics you use in your farm may become less effective due to the fact the bacteria in your farm has developed resistance to such antibiotics. Also dont tamper with your medication and vaccination program even if your chickens are doing well. I have been in a situation whereby my farm lost about 1000 birds in 7 days because of procrastination in vaccinating the birds of Newcastle and Infectious bronchitis.

14. you need to be mobile and accessible.

like I said earlier, poultry requires time and commitment. your mobile phones should be accessible no matter the jungle you're living in. because of farm work, I have 3 lines from different network providers. some customers also call at odd hours, midnight etc. when its easier for your customers to reach you, you sell your produce at ease. Also market your produce on online platforms like nairaland, jiji, facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, twitter etc. infact about 70% of my customers were gotten through social media platforms

13. Have a good record keeping.

having a good record helps a lot in the farm. it helps you to calculate your profit and loss. it also helps to monitor the sales of your products even when you're not around. the records to keep in the farm includes:
purchase records
daily feed intake
daily mortality record
medication/vaccination record
daily egg production record
daily sales record
etc.

your production record should balance with your sales record. if not, someone is stealing from you.

12. the farm should have residential building

having a farm house for your staff is very important. it provides a form of security and ensures work efficiency.However, some farm works are done at night such as brooding and rinsing of water lines. some farms also regulate lights for their breeders and layers at night to boost their performance. Having accomodation in your farm improves work efficiency because your staff are closer to the farm thus resuming early to work. but you may not necessarily provide accomodation for all your staff but the key staff like the production manager, security and technician should have accomodation in the farm. the only advantage is that sometimes farm occupants becomes the theif, but if you make them responsible for any loss in the farm they will definitely desist from such evil act.

11. you need to have a production time table

some poultry farm has failed to grow in their capacity because they cannot maintain steady cashfow. this is because sometimes they have little or nothing to sell due to their chicken is still in the growing phase(the layers have not started laying or the broilers are not yet matured). but they still have to pay staff salaries.

A poultry farm should always have something to sell all year round. if you don't satisfy your customers demand, they will start looking for another farm.having a production timetable keeps you in steady production.

Production timetable simply means planning your farm in way that you will have two or more batches of chicken of different ages. for instance if you are into layers production make sure you have a replacement stock that have already started laying before you sell your old layers. if you're into broiler production, you should have different ages, so that by the time you sell the big ones, another one should be ready for sale in 2 weeks interval.
having poultry batches of different ages helps you to maintain and increase your production capacity.