Unlocking the Hot Season Secrets Every Poultry Farmer Must Know This Festive Season
1️⃣🅾️Ten (10) "Hot Season" facts every poultry farmer should watch out for.
The end of year period is a "cash in" period for most farmers.
Usually, a typical ‘harvest mind set’ prevents us from taking a closer look at subtle losses associated with productivity losses and minor errors.
The following are just a few of them:
- Decreased feed intake: This is usually to prevent excess heat generation. It's a natural tendency and could be made worse by factors such as subtle underlying diseases or overcrowding.
- Decreased immunity and a higher susceptibility to infections. Research has shown that birds are prone to sepsis (systemic/blood infections) due to micro gut leakages
- Decreased egg production:
Relative humidity is usually neglected by any farmers.
It is instructive to note the relationship between water intake, pen house temperature, and relative humidity! - Decreased egg sizes. Usually, due to excessive body water losses and stress. We all know that eggs contain a lot of water!
- Increased egg breakage/cracks.
These could be:
▪︎ Gross cracks : due to heat stress, overcrowding, excess salt levels in feed, vitamin D, and calcium deficiency.
Calcium deficiency tendencies can easily be combated with blends of calcium gluconate/Pantothenate, phosphorus, vitamin A, and D and biotin ( DICALMAX and Calphosol are recommended complete blend in such cases).
▪︎ Pin hole cracks : common with mechanical damage or in old hens.
▪︎ Micro cracks : Usually due to collision with other eggs and hard surfaces.
- A lot of bird deaths are caused by gut bacterial dys-biosis. This means that proper gut health was not established earlier.
- Control of pen house moisture prevents bacterial overload.
- Optimum levels of moisture can easily be achieved by getting a thermohygrometer (a thermometer with a humidity monitor).
- Mortalities due to heat stress should be monitored by heat management strategies.
- Electrolyte replacement is key to maximum productivity during this period. It is recommended to use extra-packed multivitamins with a complete arsenal of vitamins A, B, C, Folic Acid, Biotin and Amino acids ( MAXI-BOOST and Vitamino Conc Oral have demonstrated good field results in Poultry).
Courtesy: Allwright Technical Support Desk.
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