₦airaland Forum

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AwealthDRL:
God bless you for the efforts put on here. Please contact me I'm interested in this. awealthayo@gmail.com

Will do.

It's a good thing this thread made front page a few days ago. I didn't expect it to get there. Now that it did, it had a wider reach and it has given me more impetus to dish out more tips. I also saw a lot of interest from people. Feel free to reach me via mail here on nairaland and I will definitely reach you back.

Let's continue from where we stopped. On day 6, still place your birds on antibiotics. By now they must have reached a certain level of stability as regards disease resistance. Place them on ordinary water the whole of Day 7. This will be in preparation for their first dose of Gumboro vaccine that will come up on Day 8.

Now it must be noted that it is very possible to notice traces of early stages of coccidiosis in your brooder between Day 4 and Day 5. We are prepared for this. This was why the coccidiostat was purchased. If you notice distinct yellow poo on the floor of the brooder by the 4th day, you may have to stop administration of antibiotics and place the birds on an anticocci drug. Clean up your drinker. Fill it up with water to the brim and draw 1ml of the recommended coccidiostat, using a 5ml or 10ml syringe. Empty it into the drinker and stir. If you have 4 drinkers, each one of them should get 1ml of the coccidiostat. This preventive measure should run from Day 4 till the end of Day 5.

As a rule of thumb, the broiler poo is the window through which you know what goes on in the body of the broiler. If you can decode the poo, you will have healthy birds.

tocin44:
I plan to raise Noilers and Cockerels long-term, like say April to December.

I'd like a suggestion cheaper source of feed asides this bagged feeds that the price keeps going up every day. Maybe something I can produce myself in large quantity at a significantly lesser cost.

I know they don't need any special feeding like broilers and they will have enough time to mature unlike broilers that are raised for a short period and consume a lot of feed.

You may have to take a course on feed formulation. That way you'd know the feed requirements for the noiler birds at various stages of growth. The females are placed on grower feeds and this is eventually switched to layer feed at some point because they lay eggs. You just need a good knowledge of feed formulation.

Love800:
Hw can i reach u, mr.

Send me a mail here on nairaland. Will respond accordingly.

Blackpromise:
Hello.
Nice write-up about poultry.
Can you send me your whattsapp number to
kunleblackrule@gmail.com
Thank you.

Will do, thanks.

Masky2000:
Thank you so much for this information
But if I may asked, what volume of water can one use for the above mentioned quantity of Glucose and Antibiotics,
Also can one see a picture of your recommended Feeder and Drinker

Attached below is a sample feeder and drinker you can use for your day old chicks. The drinker accommodates approximately 4 litres of water.

As regards the volume of water, each drinker is about 4litres. So whatever mixture you are making for the birds, it should be based on 4 litres of water.

Seeck:
Please I have over 8months old noilers that are yet to start producing eggs, what could be the problem and what can I do to resolve it?

Try changing the layer feed you've been using so far.
If there's been a disease outbreak, treat accordingly and place them on feed high in protein.

Eberex:
The cost of feeding is skyrocketing

Send me a mail here on nairaland. Will give you a tip or two on what to do as regards feeding.

wuyexzy01:
lol... oga OP, im 1100% sure that you are not into poultry farming. More importantly i will give it to you that your writeup abi na thesis mke i call ahm is top notch. ANY LIVING SOUL ADVISING ANYBODY TO GO INTO POULTRY FARMING AT THIS TIME IN NIGERIA IS A DEV*L INC****E. at this point in time its not financially attractive to new entrant. those of us in the business are only trying to keep the business afloat. everything is expensive. the price of maize which takes nothing less than 50% of their feed has taken all the profit. thats even if you are mixing the feeds on site.
For more INFO. ask around from real farmers.

No doubt, the cost of raising poultry birds is quite high, like I said at the beginning of this thread. Poultry business isn't for people without money to spend. If you have limited resources, you must have to stick to what you can afford to do, which was why I suggested that one can go into raising birds for just 2 to 3 weeks.

Yes, I am 100% into poultry Production and we have found ways of being in business despite the fact that a lot of farms are shutting down. It is not easy but it's what we love to do.

YoungDaNaval:
What might be the cause of this?

This level of mortality could be as a result of a number of things.

It could be as a result of vaccine failure in the hatchery. I have seen a situation where a farmer lost 400 point-of-lay birds. Following investigation, it was found out that the birds weren't given vaccine againt Merek Disease in the hatchery.

This level of mortality could also result from an outbreak of disease in the poultry farm although it must be at a very devastating level for this number of mortality to be recorded. Diseases such as Newcastle disease, coccidiosis are known to have very high mortality rate, if not well managed.

gemini35:
I, love this, but a friend of mine use to produce his feed with his hand , corn,millet,soya beans, and he go to slaughter and buy cow blood cook and dry it, also buy cow bone burn it grind every thing together he told me is economical and saves a lot of money, adding multivitamin in their water feed them day and night within 1 and half month the broiler Will be so hefty like 5 months broiler, can you shade more light on this locally made feed.

The truth is if you are raising birds in commercial quantity, it is adviceable to use commercial feeds. It saves you a lot of headache and stress. At the end of the day, if you critically look at the cost difference between a feed you formulated yourself and the commercial feed, you'd find out that the difference isn't that much. So why go through the stress?

Ceejay501:
pls drop your contact number

Please send me a mail here. I will reach out to you. Thanks.

Abaniwealth:
Sir how much can one sale it at 6wks.

What you sell at 6 weeks is totally dependent on your cost of production at 6 weeks. I could decide to sell at N4000, and the next farmer may decide to sell for N5000. Your environment is also a factor. If your target market is a posh estate, you can actually sell at a higher price because you know that your prospective customers can afford to part with more.

Abaniwealth:
please this is my number 08064811410.. I am dam interested in rearing a broiler infact I have started but I need someone to educate me more.. Though I started with not less than 60,000.
Please what app me sir..

I will contact you.

professore:
what is the least capital one can invest in this business with? Thank you.

With the current economic realities, you can actually raise 50 birds with a budget of N60,000 for a period of 3 weeks. You can sell the birds at this stage and make some profit.

jmoore:
Anyone advising you now to enter poultry business is a bad adviser.

I understand you may have fears about this business but while you are afraid, many more people are going into it and prospering. All you need is the finance, technical know-how, a place to keep the birds, a market and you are good to go.

YoungDaNaval:
Also remember to tell us about the risk involved

If anybody tells you there aren't risks involved, that person is definitely telling you lies. Just as in everything you do in life, there is always some level of risk. As regards this business, you could place an order for birds and you receive low quality day old chicks. They will feed till eternity and you will never get a good weight. It happens. There could be disease outbreak in your farm. This is a very common occurrence but what matters is how you respond to these outbreaks and the best way or ways to tackle it. You could also have the problem of sales. One thing is raising these birds and it's entirely a different ball game selling them.

Hence, you must be prepared at all fronts to make sure you are selling and Making profit at the same time. If you have issues of outbreaks in your farm, send me a mail here. We will continue from there.

hartopher76:
Which feeds do you think is the best in the market?

There are many brands that have highly competitive feeds in the market today. You have companies producing feeds like Ultima, NewHope and indeed many others. They also come with varying prices. You check your pocket and know the one to go for. Ultima is always good. You can go for Ultima.

ednut1:
Op do you have your own poultry

Yes, I do.

Dadatao1998:
Hello, please i am interested in chicken production ( broilers and layers.
I just want to start small by constructing cage and rearing them in the cage.
I need guidelines on how to go about it, you can reach me on : Zero Eight 1 2 -one 9 eight twenty-two 9 seven

I will contact you. Thanks.

Amazinggrcae:
Thank u very much @TheFarmer1.
Pls can u give us the name of those energy boosters,glocuse, multivitamin and antibiotics.
Thanks

Hi. The glucose you can use is just about any glucose suitable for veterinary use. As for Multivitamins, you can use Ivory Arc multivitamins or any other good one. As regards antibiotics, you can use Ampidox, Megadoz, LGP Erythromix and others. If you need further assistance, you can send me a mail here on nairaland.

At the end of the 3rd day, clean up the drinker and administer fresh antibiotics in their drinkers. Discontinue with glucose. Do not add glucose by the end of Day 3. Just place the birds on the recommended antibiotics. Follow this routine till the 5th day. At this point, you should have no mortality if you follow all the steps that I have listed here.

On the second day, around 6pm, remove the water content of the drinkers. Wash them properly and, again, add 1 teaspoon of the antibiotics and glucose. They will drink this for the next 24 hours.

Because Broilers are prone to diseases that can manifest at any point, there is need to also purchase what we call coccidiostat. This drug is specifically used to prevent coccidiosis in your brooder and farm in general. A sample picture of a coccidiostat you can buy is attached below. You will have need for this drug in the coming days.

Quality control in most of the hatcheries in Nigeria isn't top notch. Most day old chicks (DOCs) tend to get infected with all manner of microbes while at the hatcheries. If you fail to acknowledge this fact, it may spell doom for you in the brooder. It becomes very important to start prevention/treatment against these microorganisms before they lead to unexpected mortality.

In the evening of day 1, introduce your birds to antibiotics. A sample picture of the antibiotics you can use is attached below. Around 6pm of the arrival day, put fresh water in their drinker and place 1 teaspoon of the recommended antibiotics as well as 1 teaspoon of glucose in each of the small drinkers. Stir very well and place them at strategic spots in the brooder.

The recommended antibiotics comes with an infusion of vitamins. DOCs need vitamins at this early stage to help build up their immunity and also encourage feeding. They should drink this mixture till 6pm of the following day.

Now that your birds have arrived and have taken in glucose water for at least an hour, introduce the nutritious broiler super starter feed into their feeder. For 100 birds, you need to have between 8-10 feeders and 4 drinkers. These will be enough to ensure the birds have unrestricted access to food and water.

Closely monitor them intermittently. Look out for birds that aren't drinking. Dip their beak into the drinker. This will give them a headstart to take in water. While you do all these, make sure you sustain the heat coming from your heat source. Place the heat source in a central place so that the warmth can circulate evenly. Monitor your brooder temperature using the thermometer. Temperature should range between 34-37 degree celcius. If you don't have a thermometer, closely look at the birds. If they are crowded together and making chirpy sounds, it means that the heat isn't enough. You may have to increase warmth. If they are evenly spread out, it means the temperature is good enough. If alternatively the birds are dispersed to corners of the brooder, panting and aren't feeding and drinking, it means the temperature is too high and you must reduce the heat.

Whatever you do within the first 24 hours of the arrival of the birds goes a long way in determining if you will have a successful brooding or not.

timmond:
. What weight should 12 days old chicks acquire sir

A 12 days old chick should weigh between 400-450 grams. This is dependent on the feed and Broiler breed you are using though. High quality feed/ day old chicks could give slightly more than this. Again, Broiler weight greatly depends on the management practices of the Farmer. If you don't feed your birds round the clock, with high quality feed, you may never hit the required weight.

ashpanez:
Brooding time nko? I thought brooding takes up to 3weeks.(21dats).
I am sorry o, but I don't quite understand ur market

At 2 weeks, it is expected that a broiler is done with brooding and should be removed from the brooder. So a 3 weeks old Broiler is old enough to be sold.

Let's assume that your birds all arrive in one piece, you know you are on the path to success. You then need to administer the birds with the first dose of Intraocular Vaccine or what we call I/O. Each chick gets a dose of this vaccine through their eyes. This is to prevent Infectious Bronchitis in young chicks. Although these birds get a dose of this vaccine in the hachery, it is always adviced to give them another dose, just to rule out the possibility that any of the chicks may have been omitted from getting a dose.

While you are off getting the chicks, there is usually need to have someone at the brooder, who will set up the drinkers with appropriate level of glucose in the water. It is also advisable to preheat the Brooder before the arrival of the chicks.

Gradually introduce the birds into the brooder and watch them closely while they drink and run around. Do not feed the birds for the first one hour after arrival. Allow them to take in as much glucose water as they can. This will help them stabilize and wear off stress that may have occurred during transportation period.

Now that you have placed an order for your favorite broiler and you have a verified arrival date, what you need to do next is to set your brooder up for welcoming the birds. The arrival day is usually a day filled with all manner of expectations. First, if you are expecting the birds from a distant hachery, what happens if you open the carton and find out that you have 5 dead birds out of the 51 birds you expect in a carton? What happens if you find out that a good number of the birds in your carton are down with some kind of paralysis? What happens if the bus carrying your consignment is involved in some kind of accident?

This is the reason why I said that the arrival day is filled with a lot of expectations. This is also the reason why you must buy from a verified vendor. That way, you know who to hold responsible if your birds don't arrive in one piece.

ashpanez:
Op u mentioned selling broilers within 21 days. Do u mean 21 days from day old or 21 days after brooding.
And if u mean after brooding, how possible is that. Pls through more light on the possibility

What I mean is 21 days from day old. Infact, most of my birds are ready for market by day 18. By the 18th day, I already have birds weighing almost 800 to 900 grams, with well formed feathers. So, yes, you can start selling and making profit by day 18.

Tunjoel:
I want to say a big thank you @theFarmer1. The write up is well detailed sir. I have three questions before you continue


1) Please recommend a good brand of super starter feed that gives results from experience

2) How many bags of feed will raise 100 broilers in 9 weeks

3) Which breed will you recommend. I have been using Zartech overtime but I want to change to a better one sir

Thank you Boss

You are welcome, Joel.

For the first question, I will recommend you use Ultima Super Starter Feed. Use this for a period of 2 weeks or 14 days. By the 15th day, switch over to Ultima Starter till the birds are 28 days old. From the 29th day, start finishing your birds. Place them on Ultima Finisher.

For the second question, 100 birds will eat an average of between 30 - 32 bags of feed for a period of 9 weeks. This will enable you hit an average weight of 4kg by the end of the 9th week.

For question 3, Zartech Broilers belong to the broilers called Cobb 500 strain. They are good in their own right but I will suggest you use Ross 308 from Sayed, for a change. These birds will hit an average weight of 1kg by day 21 if you follow the steps and guide I have given so far. You will definitely get birds weighing over 4kg by the 9th week.