Prior to raising chickens, it’s need to fully prepare all the material and technical conditions such as:
- Cages, blinds, wind crank, heating appliances, troughs, drinking troughs. All of them must be disinfected before use from 5-7 days.
- Prepare enough food, essential medicines for chickens.
- Ensure airy cage in summer, warm in winter.
- It’s need to ensure the technical regulation of the floor about the height, drainage capability
- bedding material: husks, chips, 5cm -10 cm thick is sprayed disinfectant before use.
- Ensure air circulation in the cage.
Cages:
- The cages should be built on the high, ventilated ground, toward to the east or southeast to catch the sun and avoid sun light. If fully captive, appropriate densities is 8 Individual /m2 (chickens are raised for meat, raising on the inlaid floor) and 10 individual/m2 (chickens are raised for meat, raising on the foundation)
- If raising pasture chicken, cage is the place to avoid the sun and rain overnight, lowest density is 1individual/m2.
- Cage doors toward the south-east. Inlaid floor made by trellis or knited bamboo with 0,5m height in order to clean easilly, airy and dry.
- Barrier around the garden with B40 mesh, nylon mesh, wood or bamboo ... depend on the conditions of each household. Free the chickens on daytime and keep them in cage at night.
Cage for baby chickens:
- The dimension of the cage is 2m x1m, leg of the cage 0,5m height. It’s enough to raise 100 chickens.
- Use light to warm chickens (2 of 75W light bulbs for 100 chickens)
Trough:
- 1-3 day-life chickens: scatter brand on the lining in the cage for chickens.
- 4-14 day-life chickens: use trough of baby chicken
- More than 15 day-life chickens: Use hung trough
Water trough:
- Put or hang alternately trough and water trough in the garden. Change the water in it 2-3 times/day.
Sand tank, sand-gravel gutter:
- Chickens are very like sand-bath. It’s should be built tank with sand, cinders and sulphur for pasture chickens. Dimension: 2m long, 1m width, 0,3m high for 40 chickens.
- Use some tank of sand or gravel around chicken pasture place
The perch
The behavior of chickens is sleeping on a high place at night to avoid predators, to keep its feet wet, and to avoid infection. Therefore, you should make a perch in a cage for them.
The perch can be made by bamboo, wood (do not make it by rounded tree because it’s slippery. The distance from the inlaid floor to the ground is about 0,5m, the distance from each inlaid floor is about 0,3-0,4m to reduce the colliding, pecking and stooling to each other.
Nesting places for laying hens should be made at a dark places. One nesting place for 5-10 hens.
Garden for pasture: 1 chicken/1m2
2. Choose varieties
Selective breeding of chicks:
- Choose chicken as evenly as possible in weight.
- Choose those quick, bright eyes, cotton shaggy-feathers, compact belly, fat legs.
- Avoid selecting the chicken with “dry- legs”, crooked mine, bowed legs, exposed navel, saggy belly, vent with sticky wer feathers, saggy-wings, with deep black ring around the navel
Select good laying hens:
- Chicken is chosen not too thin, not too fat, at 1.6 to 1.7 kg at 20 weeks is very good.
- Small head, evenly short mine, crest large, bright red.
- Bright eyes, smooth feathers closed to the body, development of soft belly.
- Fresh pink anus wide and wet.
- The distance between the sternum and pelvis width of 3-4 fingers, width between 2 pelvis approximately 2-3 folded fingers
3. Nourishment and care:
Chicks should be transported in the early morning or evening to avoid the rainy days or tropical depression. Put chicken in the cage, water for drinking should be contained Electrotyle chicken or Vitamin C, only use cooked brocken-rice or immersed brocken-rice, corn for chickens at least 12 hours, feeding similar to 2 days. To day 3, then mixed with increasing amounts of food or self-mixer of secondary waste. Mixing medicines of coccidiosis in food from day 7 onwards, use Rigecoccin at 1 gr/10 kg food dose (or mix Sulfamid at ratio of 5%). Replace the lining paper of the cage and put the clean everyday.
Wash the trough, drinking trough, observe the status of the chicken, if you see any upset, moody, you should separate it immediately for mornitoring.
Use a 75W light bulb for 1m2 of shielded cage to keep warm, depending on the weather to adjust the heat by raising or lowering the height of the bulb.
Observed if the chickens gather around the bulbs, they are cold; if they avoid the light bulb, they are hot; if they gather in the corner, they are being draughty and if they eat and walk normally, the proper temperature. Lit throughout the night for chicken in the period to beware of mouse, cat and make chickens to eat more food.
Frequently observed manifestation of chickens in order to handle the unexpected happens. Chicken should be drunk water containing electrolyte or vitamin C when the weather changes.
chickens often eat and drink at the same time according to their behavior, therefore troughs and water troughs should be placed next to each other to provide enough water for the chickens and restricted chicken to drink dirty water in the garden.
If chickens are raised for meat, do not cut mine. For laying hens, to reduce the biting or pecking should cut mine (just cut the horns of mine) at week 6 or 7
Notice: chickens of different sizes should not raise them together in a cage, before raising a new round should disinfect all cages and tools.
4. Food for chicken:
Chicken is one of the sensitive animals, absolutely not use rancid foods , fungal infected foods, rotting foods for chickens.
industry foods or waste products of industrial -agriculture can be used for chicken feed but make sure the components: Energy, protein, minerals and vitamine. Controlling food intake and ensure food quality with reserve chicken to prevent being fat leads to decreased egg production.
For pasture chickens: mineral and vitamin problems for pasture chickens are not as important as chickens are raised in cages because they will automatically search for the body's needs.
After finished the period of baby chicken, the chicken can eat more vegetables. Earthworm and the worm are abundant supply of protein for chickens.
- Chicken should drink water, eat corn puree or broken rice at first. To stimulate the appetite of the chicken and keep the food is always delicious, the food should be sprayed once a little.
- Training for chicken to familiarize with the industry food into the next day. Should eat more meals a day, free food.
If use suspended trough, it should be regularly constantly monitored and adjusted the height of the trough for chickens to eat easilly and reduce food spillage.
Water must be clean and adequate. Chickens will die without water faster than a lack of food.
5. Hygiene and disease prevention:
Hygiene and disease prevention are the main issue and assignment and need to ensure clean in eating, living, drinking. Cages and gardens have always dry, clean and free of stagnant water in the garden.
Strict compliance with vaccination schedule depending on locality. In addition, it’s need to use some antibiotics to prevent bacterial diseases, particularly for pasture chicken, you need to prevent the coccidiosis disease when raising on the foundation or in the garden.
The causes of the diseases
- Young cattle, cattle weakened, susceptible varieties.
- Habitat:
+ animals are susceptible to disease when food is not balanced nutrition
+ The water should be clean
+ Air, temperature ....
Resistance ability
- Each animal had a mechanical barrier to protect itsefl
- Resistance by humans by injecting the prophylaxis vaccine (active resistance).
The hygiene and disease prevention measures:
The hygiene and disease prevention:
- Food is guaranteed
- Clean water
- Breeding animals have the high ability to resist with disease.
- Clean cages
- Must be cleared around the cages
- Good implementation process of veterinary in hygiene and disease prevention
Vaccine prophylaxis:
Some notices:
- Only when the poultry is in a healthy state
- Shake well the vaccine before and during use
- The opened vaccine uses only during the day, if not, they must be cancel.
- Use vitamine to improve for the poultry
Medicine prophylaxis:
- For gastrointestinal diseases: Oxyteracilin, chloramphenicol...
- For respiratory diseases: Tylosin, Tiamulin,...
- Do not use one kind of antibiotic in a row of the treatment processes. 3-4 days are enough for each course of disease prevention
