Grower Management

Grower Management

a. Feeding and watering:

• During this period they are given a special kind of feed known as grower feed which have about 16 percent crude protein.
• The floor space requirement for each bird ranges from 0.111 to 0.139 sq meter (1.2 to 1.5 sq ft) during the grower period.
• Longitudinal/ hanging feeders of large size should be used for providing feed to grower birds.
• During this period the feeder space for each bird should be 6.5 cm (92.6 inch).
• For the initial few weeks, growers should be provided water with automatic or pan and grill type of waterer.

b. Deworming:

The growers need to be dewormed once in every month with drugs like Piperzine, Albomar, Levamisole, etc. In this regard, expert opinion for the local veterinarian should be taken.

c. Litter management:

• In the management of litter, the objective should be to maintain moisture content of 20 to 30 per cent.
• Dampness causes wet litter, soiled plumage, breast blisters and excessive liberation of ammonia gas.
• Stirring of litter everyday prevents caking up. This is done generally after the 2 week of age. Caked litter if noticed should be removed immediately.
• When the litter gets moist due to humidity in the rainy season, super phosphate may be mixed at the rate of 1 kg per 9.3 sq meters (100 sq ft).

d. Selection of pullets:

1. The best of the pullets should be selected for egg production.
2. The pullets should be uniform in size and weight.
3. Pullets with morphological defects such as lameness, blindness, emaciated etc should not be selected for transferring them to layer house.

e. Transfer of pullets to the layer house

1. Pullets should be transferred to layer house before laying.
2. Birds should be transferred at the age of 16-17th weeks, so that the stress period will be over by the time they start producing eggs at 20th weeks of age.

Management of Layers (21 -72 Weeks)

1. Chickens at the point of laying is known as pullet.
2. Present day hybrid chicks starts laying from 19-20 weeks of age and continue laying for a period of one year or more.
3. For each bird 2.5 sq ft of floor space is required.

a. Preparation of the house

1. The house should be cleaned and disinfected before and should be made ready well ahead of pullets arrival.
2. The feeders and waterers should be placed well before the arrival of pullets. In case of laying, flock hanging feeders are used.
3. For every 25 birds there should be one large size hanging feeder.
4. The laying nest should be placed 7-10 days before the onset of egg production.
5. For every 4-5 birds there should be one laying nest. The nests should be placed by the side of the walls at about 30cm (1ft) above the floor level.
6. Litter material or paddy husks should be placed inside the box, so that eggs do not break while being laid.

b. Feeding and watering of layers:

1. Pullets should not be given layer feed till they attain 5 % egg production.
2. The birds should be given feed twice a day.
3. Each bird requires about 110 to 115 gms of feed per day in case of white eggers. For brown eggers the feed requirement is 120-125 gms per day per layer.
4. Birds should be provided with fresh drinking water every morning. It may be noted that layers drink 3-4 times more water than the feed they consume per day.

c. Lighting:

1. There exists positive relation between light hours provided to bird and their egg production.
2. Lighting should be increased gradually from 20th week i.e. on set of egg production till it reaches 16 hours per day and maintained at that level thereafter.
3. The bulb should be fixed at 8 feet above the floor and good reflectors should be used to direct all light to the bird areas. The bulbs should be checked and cleaned regularly.

d. Collection of eggs:

1. Eggs should be collected 4 times in a day.
2. The first collection to be done around 9 AM followed by 12 AM, 2 PM and lastly at 4 PM.
3. Eggs should be collected in egg trays or bamboo made basket.

e. Culling of poor layers:

1. Culling is the procedure of selection and rejection of unproductive and poor producers.
2. Poor layers should be culled to minimize the cost of production. By doing so farmer can save some amount of money for not needing to buy feed for the non-layers
3. The characters that should be taken into consideration for distinguishing good and poor layers are as follows.
4. Appearance: The healthy bird is more active, more alert, vigorous, well fleshed but not fatty, tight feathering with tail and wings carried up. Deviation of any of these characteristics is the indication of poor layers.

f. Moulting:

Moulting provides an indication about the laying capacity of a bird. It is natural and physiological process to renew old feathers at the end of first year of laying. Early moulters are usually poor layers, whereas late moulters are usually good layers.

g. Broodiness:

There may be a few broody birds in a flock. A broody bird will sit in the nest box but will not come out unless forced. They are non-layers and thus, cullable.

Cage Layer Management

The advantages of cage rearing are easy management, housing of more number of birds in limited space, clean egg production, less problem due to parasites and other diseases, easier culling, etc. Some of the disadvantages include high initial investment, wet dropping, odour and fly problem. To offset these problems, elevated cage houses are useful.

Four birdcages are ideal for commercial layers. The specification of a 4 bird cage is as follows.

Since there are two different measurements in height, the floor of the cage will have a slope towards front. Most material for laying cage floors is welded wire fabric. Sometimes the wire is coated with plastic. Most cage floors are constructed of 14 gauge wire to give necessary strength. Usually cage floors are constructed of wire with a mesh size of 2.5 x 5.0 cm (1 x 2"). The wire floor should be extended past the front of the cage for 18 cm and rounded up so as to collect the eggs there. To conserve space, thereby reducing the investment in the house in which the laying cages are placed, many methods have been developed to house birds in a given area. Single-deck, double-deck or triple-deck arrangement can be adopted.

The floor of the cage should be about one meter higher than the ground level. In order to collect the droppings from the cages a shallow pit at a depth of 30 cm from the floor level at length-wise just under the cages may be constructed.

Long, continuous troughs are used for feeding caged layers. Water is supplied by channel running the length of the cage unit. The water channel is usually placed above the feed trough outside the cage. Instead of water channel, nipple drinkers can also be provided. Birds should be dewormed once in every 3 months.