How to take care of your kienyeji birds in rainy times

Like other livestock farmers, poultry keepers are struggling to keep their chicken healthy during this wet season.

Notably, during the cold period, birds increase their level of feed intake to generate heat and stay warm. You might also notice sudden shift in chicken behaviour as the birds adjust to weather changes. Your birds may tend to huddle in groups to keep warm.

Ventilation of the poultry unit is important and it’s advisable to construct poultry houses using cheap and easily available building materials such as timber, iron sheets and bricks. It is preferable for a poultry house to be set in an East to West direction. The poultry house should provide:

.Protection from weather and predators

.Adequate ventilation and shade from direct sunlight

.Floor that is easy to clean and disinfect

Also of importance is the housing which has an impact on the birds’ health. To help you understand this, I will first address types or houses.

Deep Litter House

A bedding material such as wood shaving, rice husks or straw is laid on a concrete or earthen floor.  The bedding absorbs moisture from poultry droppings and aids in keeping the floor dry.

Since the chicken are always in contact with their litter, the danger of exposing the chicken to litter-borne disease causing microorganisms and parasites is reduced by good litter management practices. For instance, occasional turning or adding of fresh bedding and removal of old manure.

Slotted floor house

In this system, chicken are placed on a raised floor having slots though which their droppings fall to a holding pit under the floor to reduce contact between birds and litter. In some houses, only a portion of a deep litter floor is provided with a slotted floor (the perching area).

Battery cage house

In this system, individual or a small number of birds are placed in wire or plastic cages. Battery cages are suited to layer more that to broiler housing. The cages are arranged in a house in ways that maximise space utilisation and allows for rearing of a large number of chicken. Usually, feeding, watering, egg-collection and grading are automated.

Feeding

Chicken have a natural tendency to scratch or select preferred feed particles in the feed particles in the feed. Poultry feeds are expensive and poultry feeding equipment is designed to allow adequate access of birds to feed but minimising spillage. Feed using locally available feeds for example maize, sorghum.

Brooding

This refers to duration of raring chicks from time they are a day-old to about six to eight weeks of age. Day-old chicks are bought directly from hatcheries all through hatchery appointed agents. The chicks must be sheltered and provided with warmth for the first three to four weeks of life after which they have developed feathers for insulation. Brooder is warmed using appropriate but cheap source of heating for instance special jiko that burns slowly emitting heat over a long duration.  Infra-red bulbs are also used – warming is regulated with respect to chick’s behaviour. By observing the birds keenly, you can tell if they are OK.

. Too cold chicks pile up around the heat source. 

. Too warm chicks spread away from source of heat and lie with spread wings.

.They are comfortable – about 32 degrees centigrade when chicks are calm feeding and spread evenly over floor space.

 - The writer is a Technologist in the Department of Animal Science, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology