Factors you must consider when buying day-old chicks

Poultry farming is the easiest but trickiest farming ventures to start. Stories about successful poultry farmers are all over and everyone yearns to be the next big thing.

For one to be a successful poultry farmer, there are factors you should get right and this begins from day one of production; how you select your day-old chicks.

A farmer has to be sure whether they want to rear broiler, layer or dual purpose poultry. This decision is dependent on the prevailing market needs, available resources both human and non human as well as the time the farmer has to run the farm.

Farmers too have to know what breeds of poultry they want to work with depending on their availability, growth rate, disease resistance and market acceptance by consumers.

The future of every poultry farm relies on the initial stock. The day-old chicks! Walking around the estates, you come across adverts for day-old chicks every few metres. Have you ever wondered what it takes to produce the right quality chicks or the factors to consider before buying chicks from a specific source? Read on.

Process of production of day old chicks

Poultry and poultry houses are known to harbour bacteria that cause zoonotic infections. Such include salmonellosis and shigellosis. Such bacteria like salmonella can breach the shell integrity into the egg-causing early infections.

Research

Due to these bacteria, extreme hygiene has to be practised at the hatchery including fumigation of eggs before hatching.

This eliminates all pathogens to ensure hatched chicks are healthy. The eggs are also cleaned to remove gross dirt before incubation.

If this is not done, one may buy day-old chicks from an unapproved source then few days or weeks later, despite you doing everything right, the birds might come down with one infection and this could be the source of your problems.

If a hatchery manages to posses these characteristics then it meets the bare minimum required to produce good quality chicks. With this in place, then the hatchery must be inspected by the veterinary authorities and licensed to be in the business of chick production.

Most farmers are duped by unscrupulous dealers who invoke names of trusted brands in the market. A physical visit at the hatchery is therefore a must to also examine their health and history record.
Vaccination and health status of chicks

Before purchasing chicks, a farmer must confirm if they have been vaccinated against common poultry viral diseases such as Marek’s disease. If the birds are not vaccinated in the hatchery, then one must have a veterinary surgeon on stand by who would give the vaccinations to the chicks as soon as they get to you to prevent diseases or death.

Ecological region

High breed chicken is highly sensitive to extreme fluctuations in environmental temperatures. An aspiring farmer is therefore advised to purchase birds from hatcheries within their ecological area. Chicks bred in areas with low environmental temperatures are likely to die of heat stress if taken to areas with high environmental temperatures.

The knowledge about temperature changes will also help a farmer prepare himself adequately for energy needs like solar, electricity or cooling gadgets in case of extreme heat.

Time

Time is also an important factor when buying day-old chicks. This is because day old chicks require a lot of care and attention especially in the first five weeks of purchase. Therefore, youmust clear out your schedule and ensure that you would have time to care for them when you buy them.

Size

When you buy day-old chicks, they are usually so small that 1,000 of them can fit into a tiny space. But you shouldn’t allow this initial size deceive you; as they grow older, they begin to consume a lot of space and if you didn’t do proper space planning at the point of buying day-old chicks, you would face a lot of space challenges.

Means of transport

Since they are very delicate, it is important to use special containers when transporting day-old chicks from their current location to the destination you want to send them. Use containers that are hard on the outside and soft on the inside.

When the inside of the container is soft it will act as shock absorber to protect the chicks from bruising. Day old chicks are very delicate and find it difficult to sustain injuries when they are bruised and they may die. The container should be put in a place that will prevent vigorous shaking and movement because when that happen your chicks will crash into each other and some will get their limbs and other parts of their body broken.

Ventilation during transit

The type of transport you use to carry the chicks should be well ventilated to enable proper breathing of the chicks which is extremely crucial during movement. The portions allocated for the ventilation shouldn’t be too much as to expose the chicks to strong wind as it can cause death through suffocation.

Once all the desired factors are in place, the farmer should be able to have all the structures and equipment ready for the take off of the farm.

- The writer is a veterinary surgeon based at the University of Nairobi