During breeding broiler chicken, farmers always face all kinds of challenge. Autumn is usually the favorite season for many farmers, because the weather is suitable for broiler chicken growth However, the hot summer will bring about a series of problems.
Temperature of breeding broiler chicken is between 18℃ and 24℃. During temperature, the boiler chicken in its thermoneutral zone. In thermoneutral zone, broiler chicken could keep body temperature and not need to change in feeding amount, behavior or metabolism. However, in hot summer, when high temperatures and high humidity occur simultaneously, the broiler chicken may occur signs of heat stress. If we don’t take action in time , this could result in the death of the chicken.
Today , we introduce we should take action when using broiler cage in hot summer to prevent high temperature influence chicken.
Point 1 take efficiently action to reduce temperature
Ventilation
In the summer with high temperatures and high humidity conditions, ventalation management is very important. Proper ventilation can eliminate harmful gases, control the temperature and reduce diseases. Ventailation need pay attention to some points:
- Wind velocity control: make sure the wind speed on the back of the chickens is appropriate. If the wind speed is too low, it will cause the body temperature of the chickens to rise. If the wind speed is too high, it may lead to cold stress. Generally, it is recommended to control the wind speed between 2 and 3 meters per second.
- Humidity control: too high humidity could influence ventilation effect, resulting in difficulties in cooling down. The coop humidity should control between 60% and 70% in summer, prevent too high humidity influence the body temperature of the chicken.
- Equipment maintenance: regularly inspect and maintain the fans, wet curtains, and other equipment ensure them its normal operation. We should replace the aging and damaged equipment and maintain the efficiency of the ventilation system.
- Temperature control: the temperature of the coop may impose an adverse influence for broiler chicken in hot summer. We should adopt measures such as ventilation and cooling, planting tall trees, and setting up shade shelters to reduce the coop temperature. This ensure the temperature of the chicken coop is not exceed 30℃.
- Drinking control: the drinking content of the broiler chicken could increase in hot summer, need to ensure water is clean and enough. Regularly check if the water line is leaking, replace and clean the water line in time to ensure that the broiler chickens can obtain sufficient water.
- Prevention and cure of diseases: high temperature and high humidity is easy to cause various disease in summer, such as heatstroke, ascites, chronic respiratory diseases, etc. We should strengthen ventilation management, regularly disinfection to prevent the occurrence of diseases.
Point 2 chicken management
Reduce breeding density
The chicken breeding density could change according to environment temperature, humidity and chicken cage types. If the broiler chicken breeding density is too high, could be detrimental to the dissipation of heat within the chicken coop, the drinking and feeding of the chickens, also influence the broiler chicken growth and easy to occur hot stress.
In hot summer, we should reduce the chicken density as possible as. Suitable the chicken density should be approximately 10% lower than the normal density. When the chicks are brought into the house, the density is 30 birds per square meter. As the chickens grow, the density should be gradually adjusted to 12 birds per square meter. The number of chickens should be approximately 300. And we should remove the sick, disabled and weak chickens in a timely manner to ensure the entire chicken healthy.
Adjust feeding structure
The poor performance of summer broilers might be due to the reduction in feed intake. For dealing with hot stress and successfully breeding the broiler chicken, we should adjust feeding structure and change feeding manner to ensure the daily nutritional intake of the broiler chickens.
- Boost energy: in the hot stress, the food consumption of broiler chicken could reduce. We could increase the content of oil to boost energy. Because the heat generated during the digestion and metabolism of fats is less than that of carbohydrates, thus helps to reduce the heat generated by the chicken.
- Adjust protein formula: in the high temperature season, the protein content in the diet should be reduced. Because heat generated of the protein is the most. So we should increase 5%-10% the content of protein, thus forming suitable the structure of protein.
- Supplement vitamins and minerals: we should increase vitamin C to help to reduce host stress and contrubute to the normal secretion of adrenal cortical hormones. In addition, supplementing with vitamin E and vitamin C can alleviate the effects of heat stress. Additionally, adding 0.1% fumaric acid to the feed can alleviate heat stress and improve feed conversion rate.
- Adjust feeding time: we should avoid feeding in high temperature. Instead, carry out the feeding in the early morning and in the late evening.
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