HOW TO RECIEVE AND TRANSFER BIRDS IN A BROODING HOUSE – HATCHERY

Receiving of  birds involves he process of transferring chicks from the hatching to the brooding house. In EBSU farm, there is no hatchery facility so the chicks  are gotten from obasango farm.

In the hatchery there are some precautions taken to ensure a save arrival of chicks, some vaccines like marks disease vaccine are given sometime at the hatchery. In EBSU farm, there are some basics equipments provided and preparations made before and during receiving of birds.

The house preparation practices are as follows

1.      Sweeping and packing of wastes from the brooding house.

2.      washing the floors,  walls and the entire house with water and disinfectants

3.      After washing, the house is covered with nylon bags or waterproof. The waterproof helps to prevent further entry of dust and organism into the brooding house.

4.      After covering the house with nylon bags the house is fumigated three times before the arrival of the birds. The fumigation is spaced with about a day or two days interval. The last fumigation must be done when the brooding materials are already kept in place. Two disinfectants are mixed during fumigation, this is because it makes the disinfectant more active against resistant organism

5.      Clear the grasses around the surrounding of the house

6.      Make sure that the bulbs are fixed well, that there are kerosene in the stove or lantana.

Apart from these basic preparations there are some other things that are put in place in the pens. This includes:-

1.      Fixing of torn nets and nylons

2.      Partitioning of the pens. This is done because the pens are wide, so they are partitioned with planks into about 1ft the partitions helps keep the chicks together but as they grow and increase in size the partitions are removed.

3.      Introduction of litter materials. The litter materials used are wood shaving and rice husk

The brooding materials made use of are;

Hover- for quick and even distribution of heat

Stove -to provide heat for the birds

Drinkers -is for drinking water

Feeding tray -is used to feed the chicks

Bulks/tauten it is  another heat source and for light at night.

In arrival of the bird, the following operations are carried out:-

i.    Weighing of the chicks to determine their average weight

ii.   The heat source are ingoted; that is stove or charcoal and bulls

iii.  The chicks are provided with only water glucose, vitamins and antibiotics is given to the bird through the drinking water 

Glucose and vitamin helps replenish dissipated/lost energy during transit and antibiotics which prevent chicks from bacterial disease that cause chicks mortality. The chicks are allowed to drink for 1 hour before introducing the feed.