How To Care For Chicks In Their First Week

What should be paid attention to in the rearing and management of chicks? Today, we will give you a detailed description.

Preparation before the arrival of breeder chicks

• preheat in advance to reach the required temperature, generally at 26 to 28 degrees Celsius, then rise to 32 to 35 degrees Celsius after the arrival of chicks. If using warm air furnace heating, do not blow hot air directly to the chicks by sprinkling water on the ground or spraying and other methods to raise the humidity to 65% to 75%.

• Prepare cooled water, available food materials, vitamins, electrolytic multivitamins, and glucose before the chicks arrive. Put the cooled water with 3% glucose and vitamins into the cage half an hour in advance.

After the chicks arrive

Drinking water

• Whether caged or flat, chicks should drink water as soon as possible after they arrive, and it is best to use the water line. Water dispenser at the same time for caged chickens because they are curious about the water line nipple and will keep pecking. So they can quickly drink water to improve their survival rate. For free-range chickens, you can put the open food tray flat on the bedding, a handful of water to the available food tray surface, sprinkling water so that the water in the tray into a water droplet in the light reflection induces chickens to drink water.

• Whether caged or flat, the water in the waterer should be added less and more diligently, and the waterer should be cleaned daily.

• In drinking water, to pay attention observation, the chickens that will not drink water should be manually conditioned to drink water. Until they can drink, glucose water should not be drunk too long, and 2 to 3 hours can be replaced with clear water.

Open food

• Chicks can start eating 3 to 4 hours after they arrive to drink water. On the first day, it is best to mix the material with water and give it to the chickens to eat. It can promote their digestion, prevent dehydration, and improve their survival rate.

• Caged chickens can be fed in a bucket or on a paper pad for the first three days and then switch to a trough on the fourth day. Flat chickens can be provided in an open tray or a paper box with chickens for the first three days and then switched to a small bucket on the fourth day.

• chickens drink water and open food 12 hours later should touch the chicken crop one by one. The chicks that did not drink water and eat material were singled out and placed in a spare cage (pen) for individual care so that chickens drink and eat the material.

Temperature: look at the chickens to apply the temperature

• The temperature is appropriate, and the chicks are evenly distributed around the heat source in a point-like distribution.

• high temperature, chicks away from the heat source, open mouth breathing and drinking more water, appetite should be promptly cooled.

• low temperature, chickens crowded piles of standing, filled in the center of the heat source, constantly emitting twitter screams, which should be heated.

• uneven temperature and chicks crowded at the heat source. It is necessary to find out the cause in time to avoid losses.

Light.

As in most brooding cages, 3 to 4 layers overlap vertically, so the light bulb should be high and low cross-distribution, the brighter, the better. 1 to 3 days of 24 hours of the morning, and then reduce 1 to 2 hours a day until natural light.

Precautions

1. many farmers believe that the higher the temperature of the chicks in the field, the better, conducive to the absorption of yolk. And temperature even to 37 ~ 38 degrees Celsius. This has caused great harm to the development of the chicken itself. High-temperature chicken feeding down, early growth and development will be affected, and the feathers will be messy and slow to change.

2. ignore ventilation. Many farmers believe that during the first week, chicks have unnecessary ventilation and fear of chicken cold. This will cause poor ventilation during the brooding period and lead to poor air quality in the brooding room. Destroying the chick’s respiratory epidermal cells makes it easier to infect with respiratory diseases.

3. On the fourth day, the lights should be turned off an hour before withdrawing the material so that chickens entirely drink water.

4. The humidity in the first week of brooding should be focused on monitoring. If the humidity is below 50%, it will lead to poor product performance and poor flock uniformity. The humidity should be increased immediately to prevent chickens from dehydration.

5. caged chickens, due to the temperature difference between the upper and lower layers, will affect the chicken uniformity. So at 5 to 7 days of age, when the beak is broken. And the size of the group at the same time. The upper and lower layers of the chicken exchange the position, which is conducive to improving uniformity.

6. In winter, if the chickens get cold during transportation, don’t put them directly into the coop after arrival, but put them in the work room to relieve them first. If placed directly inside the house, the chicks will suddenly go from the low-temperature transport vehicle to the high-temperature brooding house. The stress will increase, increasing death.