Poultry Signals - African edition

Poultry Signals is all about recognising healthy chickens and knowing what to do when you observe abnormalities. The books in the Poultry Signals series are published world wide, and now a special African edition is developed. This African edition pays more attention to less intensive systems of poultry farming in a warm climate than the original so that it fits the African farmer’s practice.

‘ The e q uip m e nt in t he ho us e is jus t a

A h e al th y l ay er

clear eyes nice and cheerful sound

red and clear comb and wattles

behaviour: alert, moves regularly, flies up

A practical guide for bird focused poultry farming

s m a ll p a r t o f k e e p ing c hic k e ns . Yo u a re

a f a r m o re im p o r t a nt f a c t o r t ha n y o u t hink .’

clean nostrils no injuries to head, neck, back and tail

closed beak

Not all poultry farmers maximise the full potential of their birds. This applies equally to laying hen farmers and broiler farmers. For a good performance during the production period, the house has to be equipped and managed correctly and efficiently.

But how do you know that what you are doing is right? Your chickens continuously send out signals: about their health, how well they know their way around their surroundings and whether they feel happy and comfortable.

full tail

concave back

proudly upright posture

Do you recognise the signals your chickens are giving? Do you know what to do if, for example, there are too many floor-laid eggs or if the chicks are spilling too much feed? Are you able to recognise the signals of heat stress? This is extremely important in Africa. And do you pay enough attention to biosecurity?

filled crop clean, moist and nicely pink cloaca

straight keel bone

sufficient space between pelvic bones (2 fingers)

wings well positioned along her body straight, yellow legs, and not overly warm straight toes

short nails

If you recognise the signs that point to potential problems, then make sure you are armed with information to take the appropriate steps to get your flock back on track.

clean, smooth and even plumage smooth and flexible joints

smooth footpads

A practical guide for bird focused poultry farming

straight neck

pink and moist mucous membranes

Poultry Signals® is a practical guide that shows you how to pick up the signals given by your animals at an early stage, how to interpret them and which action to take.

Monique Bestman studied at Wageningen University, with a particular focus on animal behaviour. She has worked for the Louis Bolk Institute for 20 years conducting research into the health and welfare of layers.

Poultry Signals® presents practical knowledge of animaloriented poultry farming in an easy, accessible format.

Marko Ruis is researcher at Wageningen University & Research on health, welfare and behaviour of poultry and pigs. Marko considers knowledge transfer to livestock farmers to be of the utmost importance.

Jos Heijmans worked as a veterinarian specialised in poultry health at the Animal Health Service (GD) and as a guest lecturer at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Utrecht.

Koos van Middelkoop has a wealth of experience in the poultry sector, in theory and in practice. After starting his career at Het Spelderholt Institute, he was geneticist in the commercial sector for 13 years.

ISBN 978-90-8740-349-2

www.roodbont.com

I m p ro v in g y o u r re s u lt s a n d a n im a l we lfa re In theory we all know more or less what to do. But not every chicken farmer puts this theoretical knowledge into practice. So Poultry Signals® doesn’t just devote space to the latest insights, but also focuses on how to turn knowledge into effective action.

By consciously examining signals and analysing them you can optimise your operational management step by step.

AFRICAN EDITION

9 789087 403492

Steps aimed at improving management: 1. What am I seeing?

2. Why is this happening?

3. Should I leave it or should I take action?

4. How do I solve the problem now?

5. How can I prevent the problem happening again in the future?

6. Bring about actual change.

7. See whether this has the desired effect, and if not start again at step 1.

By consciously running through these steps each time, you will improve your operating results and, more importantly, the welfare of your animals.

For healthy and happy chickens are to your advantage too!

POULTRY SIGNALS A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR BIRD FOCUSED POULTRY FARMING

firm droppings

A u th or s of th e o ri gi na l edi t i o n o f Poultr y Signals

POULTRY SIGNALS

POULTRY SIGNALS

Pou l tr y S i g n al s - A f ri ca n edi t i o n

POULTRY SIGNALS A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR BIRD-FOCUSED POULTRY FARMING

Contents

Partners I Dutch Poultry Centre II VIV IV Hendrix Genetics V Vencomatic VI Salmet VII Big Dutchman VII Introduction 4 Layers, broilers and dual purpose 5 1. S eeing more by looking more closely 6 Picking up the signals 7 Anatomy 8 Using the signals 10 12 What the bird wants Bird behaviour 13 Checking individual birds 17 First impressions 18 A closer look 19 2. The chicken and her environment 20 Ideal home 20 Choosing a system that works for you 21 Open sided or closed poultry houses?

22 Climate management in high temperatures 23 Effective temperature (wind chill factor) 24 Above 30°C: danger zone 26 Perches 27 Litter 28 Floors and litter 29 Litter quality 30 Wet manure due to excess urine 31 Footpads 32 Air quality 33 Drinking 34 Ensuring water quality 35 Vulnerable: young chicks 36 Water/feed ratio and gut health 37 Particles in drinking water (biofilm) 38 39 Cold water in hot areas Biosecurity outside the house 40 Clean outside the house as well 41 Biosecurity in the house 42 Vermin 43 Biosecurity in practice 44 3. Rearing hens 46 From small to big in 18 weeks 48 Quality of day-old chicks 50 The early days 51 House climate 52 A good start is half the battle 53 Cage rearing 54 Beak treatment 55 Methods of beak treatment 56 Light during rearing 58 Assessment at 16 weeks 59

4. Laying hens 60 Feed ingredients 61 62 Feed and feed management Feed and light 63 64 Feeding in hot weather Deficiency signal: eating feathers 64 What to look out for in feeding systems 65 66 Nutrition must suit the chicken Development 67 Ready to lay 68 The ideal laying curves 69 What makes a nest attractive 70 71 Egg shell cleanliness Avoid floor eggs 72 73 Risk factor for floor eggs Gear management towards nesting peak 74 Internal egg quality 75 Shell abnormalities caused before laying 76 Finding abnormal eggs 77 Shell abnormalities caused after laying 79 Cracks and features 79 Determining freshness 80 Egg production problems 81 Egg handling and transport 82 Pecking, feather pecking and cannibalism? 83 Feather pecking during rearing 84 Preventing feather pecking 86 Cannibalism 87 5. Broilers 88 Weak chicks 90 Identifying causes of death 91 Eating well 92 Drinking well 93 Yolk inflammation or navel infection 94 Assessing your birds 95 6. Health 96 Vaccinations 96 Vaccination methods 97 The right way to vaccinate 100 Disease signals 101 Gastrointestinal problems 102 Signs from droppings 103 Orange matter 104 Disorders in locomotive organs 105 Breathing is silent – problems aren’t!

106 Respiratory diseases 107 Sudden increases in mortality 109 Summary of the main diseases 110 Viruses 110 Bacteria 113 Gut parasites 115 Worms 116 Red mites 117 Index 119

Introduction

Do you hear what your chickens are trying to tell you?

Focus on chickens Poultry keeping is all about the chickens.

So providing a comfortable home for them and looking after them properly is a basic requirement.

Poultry Signals is designed how to house and care for chickens in the best possible way, so the focus is always on the chicken.

What is a chicken and what are its needs in terms of health, welfare and production? Poultry keepers who are aware of these needs check on their birds properly several times a day, making sure they cover the whole flock. They respond promptly to every irregularity and warning sign, and they have many well defined routines to help them. Everyone can learn how to observe and understand chickens so that they can manage their birds’ health, welfare and production better. But it requires practice.

Many people find that when it comes to observing and assessing their birds they can’t see the wood for the trees. The goal is to see the wood and the trees.

An important question a good entrepreneur regularly asks himself is: am I getting the very best out of everything? Or could I be getting even more?

Train yourself to look and see Proper care of your birds begins with critical observation. You can’t look at things with awareness if you are doing something else at the same time. Stop and think about the signals your birds are sending. The longer you spend on this, the more subtle signals you will see. It takes skill to read the signals before the consequences reveal themselves.

The three basic questions a poultry farmer must keep on asking themselves are: 1. What am I observing?

2. Why is this happening?

3. What should I do?

Not a manual Poultry Signals is not a manual, listing standards for all aspects of poultry farming. It is a guide that will help you look after your birds properly and translate their signals into actions that will help you run your business better. The book is written in a form that we hope will invite you to dip into it regularly, giving you lots of new ideas each time.

4

Poultry Signa ls; Afric a n e di t i on

Layers, broilers and dual purpose chickens

Body weight development 3500 Body weight (g)

Broilers or layers, in many countries farmers make a choice for either of the specialisations.

The demands placed on such highly specialised varieties mean that they need highly specialised care.In sub-optimal conditions these brands may face problems. Such conditions may occur in open housing in warm climates.

3000 2500

Dual purpose male

Broiler

Dual purpose hen

Still delivers quite some meat

Grows very fast

2000

Has a good meat value after laying

Little residual value

Layer

1500 1000 500 0

5

0

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

85

90

Age (weeks)

Egg laying curve 100

Standard Layer

Dual purpose

Standard Broiler

Eggs

Eggs and meat

Meat

Egg production (%)

90

Layer

80

High and long period of egg production

70 60

Dual purpose hen

Starts bit later, lower peak and lower persitence

50 40 30 20 10 0

20

25

30

35

40

45

50 55 60 Age (weeks)

65

70

75

80

On both ends of the spectrum you find the specialised, high productive brands/breeds, but there is a whole range in between that might fit your production system better for an optimal final result. Various poultry breeding companies have solutions for all purposes.

Differences in production characteristics between layers, broilers and dual purpose chickens

The Sasso is a brand that makes use of various strains, resulting in chickens that are more or less tailor-made for certain circumstances and purposes. Due to the slower growth rate, Sasso meat is more firm and has that rich chicken flavour, juicy and tasty like the traditional meat such as village chicken.

The Kuroiler is an Indian breed that is derived from crossing either coloured broiler males with Rhode Island Red females, or, White Leghorn males crossed with female Rhode Island Reds. This multicoloured, dual purpose breed produces meat and eggs (app. 150 per year), and can live on a diet of kitchen and agricultural waste.

Introd u c t i o n

5

CHAPTER 1

Seeing more by looking closer

If you only look at technical aspects such as laying percentages and egg quality, growth or feed and water consumption, you run the risk of missing important signals and being overtaken by events. You can pick up these signals from the

In a nice healthy flock you will want to identify irregularities as soon as possible so as to avoid problems.

chickens themselves and from their appearance, behaviour, manure and eggs.

Use all your senses. Even before you enter the poultry house, you’ll hear whether the hens sound different. Stand outside the door for a moment; don’t go inside straight away. Use your eyes and ears to see and hear how active the birds are and whether they are reacting more, less or differently to your arrival than usual. When you go in, you’ll smell whether there is a problem with the manure or the ventilation. Also use your senses to observe the heat and cold in the poultry house. Every irregularity needs to be attended to.

Farm blindness You can only recognise irregularities if you know what is normal. You will learn what is normal by observing as often and as objectively as possible.

6

But be aware of the dangers of farm blindness. Farm blindness is when you see the situation on your own farm as the norm. Limit farm blindness by talking to colleagues and advisers. Act on critical comments.

Limit farm blindness by talking to colleagues and advisers.

Poultry Signa ls; Afric a n e di t i on

Picking up the signals You can pick up a lot from a flock while you are cleaning, collecting floor eggs and scattering grain. But make sure you also do some inspections without doing something else at the same time. You will be more aware of the signals because you are giving the hens and their environment your full attention. So don’t combine an inspection with another activity like cleaning, collecting floor eggs or scattering grain. Activities - but also moods - detract from this. You will also disrupt the hens’ behaviour, causing relevant signals to be lost. The chickens will react less to your presence if you come into the house more often without doing anything specific.

An inspection is a tour of the whole house. Make sure you pay attention to all the birds. So look everywhere: front, back, middle, bottom, top.

Look from flock to chicken Start your inspection by observing the whole flock.

How are they spread out in the space? How are they using the different parts of the house? Are they avoiding certain places, maybe because the climate is bad there (draught, cold)? Try to spot the differences between birds. Are they uniform?

How do they differ? In alertness, condition or in another way? Pick up birds that seem different and take a closer look. If you discover an irregularity, see whether it is an incidental case or a signal of a bigger, underlying problem. Also pick up some birds at random and assess them. Irregularities are not always immediately evident.

This hen is not healthy and is a source of trouble.

Take this animal out of the flock.

C h ap t e r 1 : S e e i n g m o re by l o o ki n g m o re cl o s el y

Things you observe in detail can only be properly assessed in their context. So look from chicken to flock as well. Sometimes you will need to take a step back to be able to see things better.

Make sure you observe every corner in the poultry house and not just the ones at eye-level.

Watch the chain feeder and make sure all the birds go to feed and that there are none that keep running back and forth. All the hens must be able to feed.

7

Anatomy

Exterior

When you talk to your advisor or vet, try to use the correct terminology to avoid confusion. To be able to observe irregularities, you first need to be able to recognise a normal bird.

3

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

beak nostrils comb ear earlobe wattles neck hackle back shoulder

breast wing preen gland tail vent belly shank foot pad claw nail

2 4 5

14

8

1 6 7

10

13 9

15

11

12

16

17 19 20

18

8

Poultry Signa ls; Afric a n e di t i on

2

3

1

4

5

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

8 7 9 10 6 21 11

Skeleton

cranium eye socket nasal cavity nostrils cervical vertebrae dorsal vertebrae radius metacarpus ulna humerus pelvis

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

tailbone ischium pubis femur fibula tibia hock joint metatarsus sternum clavicle

12 20

15 13 17

14

16 19

18

4 5 1 16

2

3

15 14

Organs 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

lungs caecum ovaries kidneys oviduct vent rectum small intestine duodenum

C h ap t e r 1 : S e e i n g m o re by l o o ki n g m o re cl o s el y

6

12

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

pancreas 17 liver gall bladder spleen heart crop trachea proventriculus gizzard

13

7

11

8

18

10 9

9

CHAPTER 2

The chicken and her environment

Cage or floor: there is a world of difference between the two. With caged chickens, it’s mainly the farmer who calls the shots. In non-caged systems the hens determine what happens and you, the poultry farmer, have to respond

Nice layer farm with automatic feeders and drinkers, and manual layer nests.

accordingly. You can control their behaviour with food, water, light and other factors.

Ideal home The chicken prefers her living environment to be divided up in separate areas for resting, laying eggs, scratching, eating and drinking, dust bathing. For resting, laying eggs and dust baths she needs quiet places where she won’t be disturbed by other chickens coming and going. A healthy living environment naturally also includes the right temperature and the right amount of light, air, food and water.

The choice of a husbandry system is not a purely financial one. There are many other factors involved, such as how much time you have and what sort of jobs you like to do. There is no unequivocally `good’ or `bad’ system.

20

A farmer tries to mimic nature with the housing of chickens. Perches simulate the natural environment and prevent the hens from sitting on other elevations (like feeders, drinkers, etc.).

Poultry Signa ls; Afric a n e di t i on

Downsides of floor systems 1. Floor eggs 2. Dehydrated hens (risk of moulting) 3. When something goes wrong the consequences are more serious. An infection can spread through the entire poultry house more quickly, for example.

Relatively simple baskets where the hens can lay their eggs, but labour intensive to collect the eggs.

Points to consider with non-caged systems ● As a poultry farmer you have less leisure time because the work is less easy to delegate to others ● You must be more aware of the behaviour of your birds and know how to respond to it ● You must spend more time in the poultry house with the hens, so it is more hands-on ● The laying phase must follow on seamlessly from the rearing phase; consult your supplier about this. ● Ventilation systems work differently in non-caged housing: • fewer chickens, so less heat is generated • more sensitive to weather influences • with a range, ventilation based on underpressure is not possible.

Broilers can also be kept in cage systems. This colony system has advantages for bird numbers per house, feed conversion, meat quality and the use of medication. But it requires optimal climate control and large investments.

Differences between husbandry systems

Cost price Labour Operational safety Leisure time Animal health Dust Ammonia in house Food safety Natural behaviour Image

Cage/ enriched cage ++ ++ +/++ + + + ++ ---

Colony housing

Floor system

Aviary

Freerange

Organic

++ + ++ ++ + + + ++ -

+/+/+ + +/-+/+ +

+ +/+ +/+/-+/+/+ +

+/-++ ++

-+/-++ ++

Rating: ++ very good, + good, +/- average, - poor, -- very poor

C h ap t e r 2 : T h e c h i c k e n an d h er en vi ro n m en t

21

Open sided or closed poultry houses?

In open sided poultry houses there is often little that can be done about the temperature around the birds. But it is possible to place fans to cool birds down. Curtains are often used to prevent the house from getting too cold at night.

If the temperature gets very high or low, the feed, the amount of feed and the feeding time will need to be adjusted accordingly.

In open poultry houses or houses that allow a lot of light, the day length can’t be shortened and you have to deal with the natural day length. Getting the birds into lay at the required time may be a problem, particularly during rearing. A modified lighting scheme may help.

These windows can be opened, but they can cause draughts and can only be open or closed. There is little control.

22

In open houses climate control and lighting costs are limited, but so is your control over them.

In closed houses the climatic aspects can be regulated, so you are in better control of your production. But a reliable power supply is essential and the costs of housing and climate control are high.

You can restrict the influx of direct sunlight with a roof that extends well beyond the edge of the building. When building a new poultry house, make sure the length of the house runs east-west. This also limits light influx.

Too high density, leading to heat stress here (most chickens with open beaks).

Poultry Signa ls; Afric a n e di t i on

Climate management in high temperatures The optimum house temperature for laying hens is about 25°C. Up to a temperature of about 30°C you will notice that the hen can still regulate her own temperature reasonably well. Above that you will need to provide cooling. A pad cooler can lower the indoor temperature quite significantly when the outside air is hot and dry. Make sure the incoming cooled air is not directed straight onto the birds.

If there is no cooling facility, ventilation can help prevent heat stress.

Chickens cool themselves down by evaporating moisture by panting. When chickens pant, the air around the head contains high levels of moisture.

It is important to get rid of this air as quickly as possible so that more moist air can be given off.

A few extra fans that provide more air movement and are directed at the birds are an effective way of dealing with high temperatures. You should see the feathers moving in the airflow. As they can’t sweat, excessive cooling won’t affect the birds as long as the air temperature is higher than 26°C.

In intensive sunshine the roof of the poultry house can get very hot and the incoming air around the house can heat up to quite a high level. Spraying the roof creates a lot of evaporation of water from the roof which cools it down.

Foggers installed in the house provide evaporative cooling. But only when the relative humidity is not too high.

Provision for cool nights In tropical regions the outside temperature can often drop well below 25°C at night, and even to around freezing point. In open sided poultry houses you will therefore need to close the curtains at night. In this photo you can see that these curtains can be pulled up. The cold air flow should not be directed at the birds. Birds in a strong current of air below 25°C can catch a cold. In mechanically ventilated poultry houses, air inlets should be designed in such a way that the incoming air is directed to the ridge of the house where it will be mixed with the warm indoor air.

Evaporative pad cooling is a good cooling method that doesn’t require much electricity.

C h ap t e r 2 : T h e c h i c k e n an d h er en vi ro n m en t

23

CHAPTER 3

Rearing hens

Layer management

Layer management

The rearing of pullets is geared towards supplying hens that are healthy and problem-free. The rearing is successful when the hens are uniform and have a good weight and stage of development at start of lay.

Chick distribution within brooding rings Too cold To hot

Draught Ideal Good: constantly cheeping chicks evenly spread with a small empty circle in the middle directly below the radiation source.

Layer management

Too cold To hot Too hot: drowsy chicks spread around perimeter.

Hang the brooder higher.

46

The circumstances during rearing account for 60-70 per cent of the birds’ technical performance on the laying farm.

Too cold

To hot

Draught Ideal Too draughty: noisy chicks huddled together away from draught. If chicks start crawling over each other, the temperature in the huddled group will rise and cause the chicks to Layer management become overheated.

Too cold Too cold: noisy chicks huddled under brooder Hang the brooder lower.

To hot

Poultry Signa ls; Afric a n e di t i on

For each heat source serving 500 chicks, fit barriers in a circle approximately 6 metres in diameter. Enlarge this brooding ring regularly after a week, and remove them after three weeks, so that the chicks have enough space.

Make sure the floor is nice and warm and the litter is a few centimetres thick. Hang the heat source roughly at knee height so that all the chicks can sit in the warmth radiated from the heat source. As the chicks get older they need more space, so the heat source should be gradually moved higher up. This increases the size of the floor area heated by the heat source while still enabling all chicks to sit in the warmth at their own optimal temperature. An additional benefit of positioning the heat source higher up is that the temperature under the source on the ground gradually gets lower and you can slowly switch to space heating.

A clear case of draughts. But the corner of this area has been rounded so that the birds cannot be pushed into a corner.

Large brooding ring, but for most chicks too cold. They all sit together under the brooders.

Brooder too cold for the chicks. They all huddle up in the part where they can be warmed up by the sun.

This brooding ring is becoming too small and temperature is too high. The chicks are moving to the side of the ring.

A simple umbrella type brooder. But beware of fire hazard (flamable material with hot heaters)!

C h ap t e r 3 : R e a r i n g h e ns

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From small to big in 18 weeks Day-old chicks grow into sexually mature layers in just over four months. The development takes place on many different levels.

The last days in the hatchery Before they hatch, the chicks communicate with each other to encourage each other to peck their way out of the shell. After breaking the shells the chicks are just about exhausted and rest while they dry off. All their reflexes are present straight away. Day-old chicks flap their wings as they drop off one moving conveyor onto the next in the hatchery. If they are lying on their backs, they turn over straight away. In the hatchery the chicks undergo several treatments such as sexing, spray vaccination against infectious bronchitis and an injected vaccination against Marek’s disease.

Week 1-2 In the first few days they develop species-specific behaviour: ● they peck at everything to find out what is edible and to find something to drink; ● they eat their starter feed off poultry paper or feeding plates; ● they learn to scratch in the ground and take dust baths; ● play behaviour; running around together; ● they learn to roost during the day; ● the gastrointestinal system develops during the first week. Everything must be geared towards ensuring that this development is not interrupted.

Week 9-10

Week 5-6 Maximum physical development takes place in these weeks. All down has to be replaced by juvenile feathers (first moult). The skeleton is 50% complete.

Week 3-4

Week 7-8

Chicks learn to feed from feed troughs or pans.

Switch from starter feed to grower feed (phase 1).

During these weeks, hens are eager to be fed: let them eat all the feed in the chain feeder once or twice a day to combat selection.

Sometimes there will also be a partial moult which makes the chicks more susceptible to problems. The chicks fight to establish a (temporary) pecking order. Time for vaccinations.

Tasks for the poultry farmer: ● if available, provide a scratching area. ● first vaccinations via drinking water.

Moult during rearing Rearing hens moult four times. One complete moult and three partial moults. The order in which feathers moult follows a specific pattern. The first row of feathers is most important for determining the moulting speed.

Primaries 8

7

6

5

4

3 2

1

9

1 2

3 4 Wing Tip Fowl’s Body

48

Secondaries 1

10

Finger Feathers

Order of moulting

Axial

2

3 4 5

6

7

8

9

10 11 12 13 14

First row (primaries): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 Second row (secondaries): 11, 12, 13, 14, 10, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 1, axial feather

Source: Ron Jöerissen

Depending on the house, the poultry farmer will do the following ● aviary: chicks shut up on the middle tier; ● house with slats; chicks shut up on slats and/or in scratching area; ● beak trimming; ● vaccinations.

The birds are now almost fully grown in terms of size, but not in terms of muscle development and fat deposition. A partial moult takes place during this period.

Body feathers are replaced but tail feathers remain (second moult). Provided the flock is sufficiently uniform and is above the normal weight (i.e. not on the basis of age), you can slow down the increase of feed supply. To prevent unnecessary nutrient intake, switch to a phase II grower feed that contains less protein. This approach will result in efficient birds in the laying period.

Poultry Signa ls; Afric a n e di t i on

Critical periods during development

}

100 Critical period

}

80 60

Skeleton

40 20 0

Muscles 0

5

10

15

After: R. Kwakkel

During periods of slower growth (roughly weeks 10-15), the chicken is able to cope better, and restricting its feed can in fact be a good idea.

For the layer farmer, the second critical period is particularly important as this is the time when the flock is set up: an extra reason to provide optimal care.

Critical period

120

Growth (grams per week)

Not all parts of the hen grow at the same pace; a different part grows stronger in each phase.

In critical periods of rapid growth, chickens are particularly vulnerable. If something goes wrong then, their development will be impaired, resulting in the chicken coming into lay later or not achieving maximum production.

Sexual organs 20

Fat 25

30

35

Age (weeks)

Week 11-12

Week 13-14

During these weeks, administer vaccinations in the form of eye drops, wing injections and breast injections.

The second part of the partial moult starts in weeks 12-13. It continues until week 16.

Interruptions in the moulting process can be seen straight away in the replacement of the wing feathers. Stress factors and vaccination plans affect the start and end of this moult. Oviducts and ovaries start to develop.

Immunity continues to build up.

Week 17-18 The chicks are transferred to the laying farm.

Week 15-16

Besides weight, development is very important. Two pullets of five weeks of age. The one on the left is much better developed than the one the right. By grading and putting the less developed birds in a special section and giving them more care, you can increase uniformity of the flock.

C h ap t e r 3 : R e a r i n g h e ns

A chick is at its most vulnerable in weeks 16-20. The skeleton is 95% complete.

The laying organs begin to develop now.

This means a rapid increase in body weight: this is caused by fluid retention rather than higher feed intake.

The sound changes: the hens begin to cluck. The hens get colour on their heads and the combs get bigger. The final vaccinations are administered. Do a final check of blood samples, weight and uniformity.

Check the wing feathers to make sure the moult has proceeded properly, because this is an important signal as to whether the chick was raised properly.

49

CHAPTER 4

Laying hens

Laying percentage and egg weight depend on the breed of hen and the feed.

You can make the best returns from eggs if you take market demand into account: are you selling eggs per piece or per kilogram?

Eggs are the main source of income on a laying hen farm. But all sorts of things are involved in achieving a high laying percentage and good quality eggs.

Schedules aren’t written in stone Don’t apply schedules blindly. Look in particular at the development of the chickens. For example, give the chickens extra light if they have shed all their feathers. If they have been reared well, this will be at weeks 17 and 18, but this is not written in stone.

You want the hens to come into lay at the same time. So make sure that as many as possible have the same body weight and are in top condition when they are about to start laying.

If there are a lot of hens at the same stage of development, you can manage them well with feeding and lighting programmes. So fewer hens will come into lay early or late. Flocks that come into lay early are

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often unstable and worn out before their time. They take in too little feed, their body weight is too low, the weight of the eggs is too low, the quality of the eggshells is poor, they have poor laying persistence, higher mortality and a greater risk of bad plumage.

Tip An extra week of laying gives you more benefits than a week shorter rearing period. So if you buy reared pullets, don’t let your chicks be delivered before 17-18 weeks of age.

Poultry Signa ls; Afric a n e di t i on

Feed ingredients The quality and composition of the raw materials are one of the main factors in poor intestinal health. Significant changes in feed composition and digestion are also bad for the balance in the gut flora and therefore for the health of the gut.

Roughage ingredients such as whole grains stimulate the development of the gizzard. They prolong the time the feed mass remains in the stomach so the enzymes have longer to take effect. Mixing wheat with a core feed is also an excellent way of improving gut action, but take into consideration the local pricing of ingredients of course. If the droppings get too loose due to poor digestion, adding some more wheat can help. Adding whole wheat grains makes the droppings drier. Also make sure you increase the minerals, vitamins and anticoccidials in the mixed feed to avoid deficiencies.

The ripeness of wheat is highly weather-dependent, and the quality of the wheat may differ from one harvest year and one field to the next. An important quality criterion is viscosity. This is often ascribed to the use of fresh wheat and also to the wheat variety. You can mitigate the disadvantages of wheat with higher viscosity by using the enzyme xylanase.

Mycotoxins

Mouldy feed. Moulds can enter feed either during cultivation of the raw materials or during storage. They produce mycotoxins. Exposure to these toxic substances results in slower growth and weaker birds due to their lower resistance (they react poorly to vaccination and are more susceptible to disease). The symptoms are generally vague. To avoid harm from mycotoxins you can add mycotoxin binders to the feed. The liver, which is extremely important for neutralising toxins, can be supported with extra B vitamins, vitamin E and perhaps choline.

Too much wheat results in too little protein in the ration.

The chickens will eat selectively and will leave the wheat or discard it.

Check the wheat you use for impurities such as chaff and stones. Stones can cause serious damage to the feeding lines. Place a fine-meshed gauze on the feed hopper to filter out small stones and the like.

Don’t use these rotten grains as chicken feed!

C h ap t e r 4 : L a y i n g h e n s

61

CHAPTER 6

Health

A chicken can only perform optimally if it is healthy. Sick animals have less desire to eat and drink even though they need extra energy to boost their natural defences. Producing proteins for growth and egg production therefore takes a back seat as survival is their priority. Consumption of trace elements and vitamins increases in diseased birds.

No contact between laying hens and rearing hens Older flocks in lay regularly catch infections but are not troubled by them as they have built up sufficient immunity. However, they can transmit the infection to rearing hens. Even a mild infection can impact the immune system, causing a carefully drawn up vaccination scheme to be disrupted. So keep young birds in rearing strictly separate from older flocks.

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Don’t only call the vet if there is a problem, but also to keep your finger on the pulse and make other arrangements before something goes wrong.

Disease always costs money. Besides the cost of lower production (growth, eggs, development) you also have to pay for the treatments: the direct cost of the drugs used and the indirect cost of waiting for drug residues to disappear from meat and eggs. Preventing incoming infections is essential to avoid diseases on a poultry farm.

Another method of prevention of diseases is to use the birds own immunity by vaccination.

But if your hygiene is poor, vaccination alone is not enough. If birds are overwhelmed with disease organisms, even flawless vaccination will eventually fail!

Poultry Signa ls; Afric a n e di t i on

Vaccination Vaccination is a process in which the animals are infected with a much weakened or dead pathogen in a controlled way to build up a proper defence against infections. Keep the number of vaccinations to a minimum, particularly during the first five weeks. Each vaccination produces a reaction, during which time the birds will be slightly sick for a few days. This stress may hinder the birds’ development. Only vaccinate the birds if they are healthy. This also means waiting a while between live vaccinations so that the birds are fully recovered from their previous vaccination reaction.

Most vaccination reactions pass within 14 days.

Check that the chicks are fit and healthy before you vaccinate them.

Less is more Don’t forget that a very intensive vaccination scheme will not necessarily offer more guarantees.

Hindering growth before the fifth week of a chick’s life can have serious consequences later on. Also bear in mind that a repeat vaccination can severely reduce the immunity that a chick has already built up to a particular virus for a short time, and the vaccination will not take well because of the chick’s existing immunity. Repeating the same vaccination several times in quick succession is therefore risky in itself and is no guarantee for building up good immunity.

Breeder hens pass protection against a number of diseases to their day-old chicks via maternal antibodies in the egg yolk. These protect the chick against disease for a few days. But this protection will rarely last until the bird is slaughtered. So the birds still have to be vaccinated in the hatchery or on the poultry farm. Vaccines not requiring consideration of maternal immunity (no significant effect) and that are administered in the hatchery in-ovo, or subcutaneously are much more commonplace nowadays.

C h ap t e r 6 : H e a l t h

Newcastle Disease: worldwide, EXCEPT: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Greenland.

Gumboro/Infectious Bronchitis: worldwide.

Coryza: especially humid tropical regions and some other parts of Asia.

Fowl Cholera: mainly in the Middle East, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh.

Fowl Adeno Virus 4 / Angara Disease: mainly Pakistan.

Vaccination schemes differ between regions. Don’t simply copy a vaccination scheme from another region indiscriminately. There is no point in vaccinating birds against infections that do not occur in your region; this can even impact on your birds’ development.

Killed and live vaccines Individually vaccinating chicks is very precise but often too expensive to be feasible (killed vaccine is mostly used). Vaccinating by means of spraying or adding to drinking water may be good alternatives (live vaccine). Live vaccines provide faster protection.

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Poultry Signals is all about recognising healthy chickens and knowing what to do when you observe abnormalities. The books in the Poultry Signals series are published world wide, and now a special African edition is developed. This African edition pays more attention to less intensive systems of poultry farming in a warm climate than the original so that it fits the African farmer’s practice.

‘ The e q uip m e nt in t he ho us e is jus t a

A h e al th y l ay er

clear eyes nice and cheerful sound

red and clear comb and wattles

behaviour: alert, moves regularly, flies up

A practical guide for bird focused poultry farming

s m a ll p a r t o f k e e p ing c hic k e ns . Yo u a re

a f a r m o re im p o r t a nt f a c t o r t ha n y o u t hink .’

clean nostrils no injuries to head, neck, back and tail

closed beak

Not all poultry farmers maximise the full potential of their birds. This applies equally to laying hen farmers and broiler farmers. For a good performance during the production period, the house has to be equipped and managed correctly and efficiently.

But how do you know that what you are doing is right? Your chickens continuously send out signals: about their health, how well they know their way around their surroundings and whether they feel happy and comfortable.

full tail

concave back

proudly upright posture

Do you recognise the signals your chickens are giving? Do you know what to do if, for example, there are too many floor-laid eggs or if the chicks are spilling too much feed? Are you able to recognise the signals of heat stress? This is extremely important in Africa. And do you pay enough attention to biosecurity?

filled crop clean, moist and nicely pink cloaca

straight keel bone

sufficient space between pelvic bones (2 fingers)

wings well positioned along her body straight, yellow legs, and not overly warm straight toes

short nails

If you recognise the signs that point to potential problems, then make sure you are armed with information to take the appropriate steps to get your flock back on track.

clean, smooth and even plumage smooth and flexible joints

smooth footpads

A practical guide for bird focused poultry farming

straight neck

pink and moist mucous membranes

Poultry Signals® is a practical guide that shows you how to pick up the signals given by your animals at an early stage, how to interpret them and which action to take.

Monique Bestman studied at Wageningen University, with a particular focus on animal behaviour. She has worked for the Louis Bolk Institute for 20 years conducting research into the health and welfare of layers.

Poultry Signals® presents practical knowledge of animaloriented poultry farming in an easy, accessible format.

Marko Ruis is researcher at Wageningen University & Research on health, welfare and behaviour of poultry and pigs. Marko considers knowledge transfer to livestock farmers to be of the utmost importance.

Jos Heijmans worked as a veterinarian specialised in poultry health at the Animal Health Service (GD) and as a guest lecturer at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Utrecht.

Koos van Middelkoop has a wealth of experience in the poultry sector, in theory and in practice. After starting his career at Het Spelderholt Institute, he was geneticist in the commercial sector for 13 years.

ISBN 978-90-8740-349-2

www.roodbont.com

I m p ro v in g y o u r re s u lt s a n d a n im a l we lfa re In theory we all know more or less what to do. But not every chicken farmer puts this theoretical knowledge into practice. So Poultry Signals® doesn’t just devote space to the latest insights, but also focuses on how to turn knowledge into effective action.

By consciously examining signals and analysing them you can optimise your operational management step by step.

AFRICAN EDITION

9 789087 403492

Steps aimed at improving management: 1. What am I seeing?

2. Why is this happening?

3. Should I leave it or should I take action?

4. How do I solve the problem now?

5. How can I prevent the problem happening again in the future?

6. Bring about actual change.

7. See whether this has the desired effect, and if not start again at step 1.

By consciously running through these steps each time, you will improve your operating results and, more importantly, the welfare of your animals.

For healthy and happy chickens are to your advantage too!

POULTRY SIGNALS A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR BIRD FOCUSED POULTRY FARMING

firm droppings

A u th or s of th e o ri gi na l edi t i o n o f Poultr y Signals

POULTRY SIGNALS

POULTRY SIGNALS

Pou l tr y S i g n al s - A f ri ca n edi t i o n