What to pay attention to when raising chickens in winter

The low temperature and reduced humidity in the air in winter can easily affect the growth of chickens, so doing a good job of health care is conducive to the growth of chickens.

1. Prepare in advance

Before the cold winter comes, conduct a comprehensive inspection and maintenance of the chicken house, block the cracks in the wall, replace the door and window glass, and prepare the film and straw curtains for the winter stand.

At the same time, the preparation and installation of heating facilities must be done well, especially in chicken farms that use coal-fired stoves for heating and brooding on heated kang, attention must be paid to checking the flue and chimney, and when smoke or air leakage is found, block and replace it as soon as possible or retrofit. Large-scale chicken farms also need to prepare enough commonly used drugs and purchase necessary green and juicy feed.

2. Adjust the diet formula

In winter, the temperature difference between day and night is large, and the chicken body consumes more energy at night. Properly increase the energy level of chicken feed, which can generally be 5% to 10% higher than the normal standard. In addition to increasing the proportion of energy feed, 1% to 2% animal fat can also be added to the feed. If conditions permit, an appropriate amount of brown sugar can also be added to the drinking water of laying hens.

After a long laying period and the test of hot summer, the laying hens in winter are exhausted and their physical fitness declines. At this time, more animal protein feeds should be fed to ensure that the chickens that have not yet moulted continue to lay eggs and promote the rapid growth of chickens that have moulted. Full feathers, restore egg production as soon as possible.

Add vitamin C to chicken feed, add 200 mg per kilogram of ration, or add baking soda, the dosage is 0.10% to 0.15% of the feed amount, which can not only increase the egg production rate of chickens, but also increase the thickness of eggshells to prevent Economic losses due to broken eggshells. In order to supplement vitamins, an appropriate amount of carrot or green radish should be added to the feed. The radish can be chopped and stirred in the feed before use.

3. Reasonably adjust the group

Eliminate low-yield chickens in old flocks and thin chickens in new flocks in time. The hens that have molted should be separated to form a new group, and the hens with bright red crowns and beards, large pubic spacing, moist and loose anus, and soft and elastic abdomen should be kept.

However, when adjusting the group of flat-raised chickens, putting in new chickens will destroy the original stable pattern and often cause fights. Therefore, when adjusting the group of chickens, it is necessary to control the number of groups. It is necessary to observe carefully and stop the pecking phenomenon in time. For hens with strong fighting and hens that have been pecked, they should be caged separately

4. Pay attention to supplementary lighting

In order to maintain the normal laying curve of laying hens, the laying hens should be moderately supplemented with light. You can turn on the light twice a day, the first time you turn on the light from 4:00 to 5:00 in the morning, and turn off the light after dawn, and the second time you turn on the light when it is dark, and then turn on the light until 8:00 to 9:00 in the evening Turn off the lights. When the light is insufficient in rainy and snowy weather, the lights can also be turned on during the day to supplement the light. It is necessary to ensure that the light time of the laying hens is stable at 16 hours a day.

5. Pay attention to daily management

Pay attention to watching and listening to the weather forecast. Before the strong wind and cold weather come, be sure to do a good job of preventing cold and keeping warm. Chicken nerves are very sensitive, and they are prone to adverse stress reactions to external stimuli. In winter, nerves are more sensitive and fragile, and a little stress will seriously affect productivity.

Therefore, in addition to doing a good job in regulating the small environment of the chicken house, the management personnel should act as slowly as possible during daily management such as feeding, water feeding, egg picking, and cleaning, so as to prevent adverse stress reactions that may cause production stoppage or induce diseases. Broilers raised outside the house should be driven into the house when the temperature is low at night. In order to promote the feed intake of laying hens, the feed can be added at night, with the chickens finishing the feed before turning off the lights. There must be a transitional adaptation period of 2 to 3 weeks for feed replacement to prevent stress reactions caused by sudden changes.

6. Do a good job in environmental disinfection

Winter is the popular season for respiratory infectious diseases. Therefore, environmental disinfection, equipment disinfection, and drinking water disinfection are also very important. Closed chicken houses still need to carry out air disinfection once a week with chickens. 0.5% strong disinfectant spray can be used, and the environment outside the house can be disinfected with 10% to 20% lime water, or 3% to 4% caustic soda spray.

Feed trays, buckets, buckets, drinking fountains, and other utensils in the chicken house can be soaked and disinfected with 0.01% Junduqing or Baidukill or 0.05% Strong Disinfectant Solution. Vehicles, brooms, shovels, and other utensils used for cleaning excrement should also be cleaned and disinfected regularly.

7. Prevent gas poisoning

In winter, it is also necessary to strengthen the cleaning of the chicken coop. If the feces and wet litter are not removed in time, ammonia or other harmful gases will often accumulate, leading to poisoning or other diseases. For broilers with faster growth, it is easy to cause ascites syndrome. Therefore, when raising broilers in winter, pay attention to the use of fresh, dry, soft, non-mildew, and good water-absorbing litter, and it is best to use wood shavings. The litter should be turned frequently to prevent hardening and hardening. The bedding to be laid must have a certain thickness, generally more than 5 cm. In normal operation, watering should be reduced as much as possible, and water leakage from the sink should be prevented from wetting the litter. In addition, ammonia-absorbing deodorants can be used to reduce the ammonia concentration in the chicken house, commonly used are ferrous sulfate, superphosphoric acid, copper sulfate, slaked lime, etc.

8. Block the loopholes in epidemic prevention

The main principle of epidemic prevention is to do a good job in environmental disinfection and immunization as soon as possible. It is necessary to carefully check and analyze against the immunization schedule, immunization record form, and immunization procedures for common chickens in autumn and winter. Chicken flocks, unvaccinated chicken flocks, and chickens with poor immune effects should be revaccinated in time according to the actual situation of the local epidemic situation, so as to close the loopholes in epidemic prevention and ensure that the flocks can survive the winter safely.

9. Pay attention to observing feces

The morphological characteristics of the feces typically reflect the health status of the flock. To manage the flock in winter, we must pay attention to the shape and color of the feces to find out the cause of the disease. While paying attention to the observation of the feces of the flock, and timely picking out the chickens with abnormal feces, when feeding, feeding water, and picking eggs every day, carefully observe the demeanor, appetite, and drinking desire of the flock. Sluggishness should also be picked out in time for further examination and treatment. Chickens are most prone to respiratory infections in winter. When observing chickens, don't ignore the observation and identification of breathing patterns and breathing movements. If a chicken is diagnosed with an infectious disease, it should be isolated for observation and treatment quickly, and the original flock should be carefully and comprehensively inspected, and the ground, litter, water tank, feeding trough, and air in the house polluted by the sick chicken should be thoroughly disinfected.

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