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Do you have passion for poultry and really wish to stay long in the business? Then, obey these rules!
A.Rule (1)
…”Only order for birds you can conveniently take care of”.
This is the most important rule of all.
Instead of stocking 500 birds and then struggle to feed them or give them medication, buy 200 ,feed and give them good medication.
Trust me, you’ll make more profit than keeping 500 and struggling to feed and give the medication. If this happens, you’ll battle with stunted growth, recurrent morbidity or disease outbreaks and high mortality.
B.Rule (2)
…”Never borrow money to start poultry business unless you are an expert”.
Of course, there is no expert in poultry business. In fact, we learn everyday. Every stock you take in will always teach you something different. However, Haven learnt from all the different characteristics displayed by each stock, you get to know more and won’t be excited when challenges come. You’ll know how to handle them without much damage.
C.Rule (3)
…”Be vigilant”.
The little things you don’t take as anything matters.
If you want to succeed in poultry, you must take it as a real business. Do you know what a business man does every morning when he gets to his store? He pray, then open the store and go round to check if everything is in its place. He take stocks of what he met there and relate with his records yesterday before closing the store.
Don’t just open your Pen and start rushing to give your birds feed and water and rush out again. Check around. Watch how they behave when you came in. Check what fell and what is no longer in its place.
D.Rule (4)
…”Never ignore warning signals”.
Yes, I call them warning signals.
1.Bad smell
2.Withdrawal from feed
3.Moodiness
4.Withdrawal from water
There are numerous warning signals i can’t mention here. In fact, they are so many
A farmer must know how his birds behaves when they see him enter the in the morning. How they behave when he serve them feed. He should know the very active terrors and gentle lambs
If you keep these signals, you’ll easily spot when something is not right.
E.Rule (5)
…”Never change feed indiscriminately!”
I know you do this. Yes, you.
When farmers talk about changing feed from this to this and that then this all in the name getting better result, I’m always scared for them.
Whether you are changing from a bad feed to a good one, you must be very careful.
Do you know every change in feed affect your bird negatively first before gradually bringing in the results you don’t desire? Most of the times, you may suffer withdrawal, coccidiosis, feed wastage, stress and more.
Imagine changing from mash to Pellet indiscriminately. Do you know what that means? Have you studied the difference between mash and Pelleted feed and the process of digestion?
They may contain the same ingredients but the formulation process varies so is the digestion process.
Note:
I don’t mean changing from starter to grower or finisher but changing from one commercial feed to another .e.g change from Ethiochicken / Alama to other brands.
Even whenever you need to change from starter to grower follow the rules 75% starter and 25% grower, then 50% grower and 50% starter and finally 75% grower and 25% starter. At the end you change 100% to grower feed. You can follow the same rule whenever you need to change from one phase feed to other. This one works for feed of the same brand too.
Each company use their own unique ingredients to make their feeds although they may give the same nutritional content. Before using any feed for your birds, find out first about the feed and make sure you stick with it.
F.Rule (6)
…”Never let your birds run dry of water”.
Have you heard of heat stress? If it has happened to your birds then you’ll understand what I’m saying.
Heat stress can wipe your entire flock. And it may leave your birds vulnerable to all kinds of infection as their immune system get weakened and may take more than 14 days to fully recover.
Your birds can survive 48 hours without feed but they can’t survive 7 hours without water.
Instead of running out of water, please, run out of feed.
G.Rule (7)
…”If you can’t drink that water, don’t give it to your birds”.
Some farmers takes chickens as they are just animals and nothing matters. Maybe they’ve forgotten they are dealing with delicate live animals.
Waterborne diseases are some of the deadliest disease and most difficult to control. Imagine a tiny drop of harmful substance inside the drinking water; it’ll contaminate the whole water. If it was feed, it may not be that bad.
Please, if you can’t drink that water, don’t give it to your birds. I’m not talking about medicated water.
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