In chicken farming we have touched on egg production, bed management and housing management. Today we will talk about housing management and biosecurity.
Housing structure: for layers egg production there are two different types. First one is battery cages, layers are pegged in tiers in cages going up. The other is dip litter system. There are differences between the two but the end result is the same, that is, to have maximum egg production and we want our flock to perform well so that we do not run into losses.
Biosecurity
It does not matter how many chicken you have, in biosecurity, it‘s about preventing diseases or protecting the lives of our birds. The first thing we need to see everytime we get to a farm is a foot dip or wheel dip in cases where vehicles get to your chicken place.
In the foot or wheel dip is where we put our disinfectant and everyone who is coming from wherever should disinfect their shoes. In the foot dip ensure that the dilution is correct.
Precautions
We recommend that besides your foot dip, you should have another dip with just clean water to clean up the soil in the boots before dipping them into the foot dip with the disinfectant.
Have a hand sanitizer outside the chicken house to sanitize and clean your hands before handling chicken feeders, drinkers, eggs and also chicken themselves. Also minimize number of visitors because they ma carry pathogens or bacteria and bring it to your flock.
Housing structure
For housing structure, we have laying nests in there, the birds are feeding and drinking. This is basically where the birds go and sleep and they can lay eggs. In the afternoon, they are free to move in and out. There are several things we need to consider in housing.
First is the stocking density, how many birds we are putting per sq metre. For broilers, 10-12 birds per sq metre but in layers reduce to 6-7 birds per sq metre. These gives space for feeders, nesting boxes and drinkers. Ventilation and good lighting are also very important.
