The document provides information on brooding management for poultry farms. It discusses natural and artificial brooding and the equipment used, including brooders, reflectors, and guards. Proper brooding management before and after chicks arrive is critical and includes preparing heating, food, water and litter. Temperature must be monitored and adjusted as chicks grow. Disease prevention includes coccidiosis control and proper water, litter and lighting management.

1. General management in
poultry farms

2. Brooding
The period immediately after hatch -special care & attention to ensure their health and survival.
Brooding is the art and science of rearing baby chicks.
A newly hatched chick does not develop the thermoregulatory mechanism fully
Natural brooding – By broody hens after hatching, up to 3 to 4 weeks of age.
Artificial Brooding-
In artificial brooding large number of baby chicks are reared in the absence of broody hen. Equipments
used for brooding are called brooders. Brooder comprises of three elements:
1. Heating source
2.Reflectors
3. Brooder guard
• Heating source may be electrical, gases like natural gas, LPG and methane, liquid fuel like kerosene, solid
fuel like coal, wood can be used as a heating material.
•

3. Brooding managment
• Starts egg laying-18Weeks- Small eggs and unmarketable
Commercial laying stage-21weeks
Brooding Management - critical task, (before and after arrival in the broader house)
If farmers fail to provide appropriate conditions before landing chicks in the brooder
house, the business would lose at the endpoint

4. Brooders

5. kerosene stoves
to provide supplementary heat to chicks.
• These stoves are covered with plate / pans to dissipate the heat
Gas Brooder
• Natural gas, LPG or methane is connected to heating element
• hanged 3 to 5 feet above the chick to provide heat
Electrical Brooder
•Thermostatically controlled heating system - spread required amount of
heat uniformly above large area,
• avoid crowding of chicks under brooder directly. One electrical brooder can
be used for 300 to 400 chicks.

6. Infra red Brooder
a self reflecting bulb
• One 250 watts IR bulb can provide brooding for about 150 to 250 chicks
Reflectors
•Reflectors are called Hovers. Flat type hover – Provided with heating
element, heating mechanism and pilot lamp, thermometer-To record the
temperature.
•Canopy type hover – Concave shape, consist of ordinary electrical bulb,
thermostat mechanism and thermometer.
Brooder Guard
• to prevent chicks from staying too far away from heat supply until they learn the
source of heat
• brooder guard diameter-5 feet, height of the brooder nmt 1.5 feet.
• materials like cardboard sheet, GI sheet, wire mesh, and mat etc. depending upon the
season of brooding. During winter season, brooding is done for 5-6 days. In summer
season it is 2-3 weeks.

7. Chicks-
In separate house from laying chickens
Need to protect from predators, disease,
Stage in A. brooding-8 weeks
1st 4 weeks- in brooding box
2nd 4 Weeks in brooding houses
Need to properly manage the growers-
reproductive organs develop-Affect egg
production capacity
Grower stage- 8-20weeks-in brooders house

8. • Brooding management tasks -2 categories,
(before and after arrival of the CHICKS)
•
• First 24 hours, the following activities should be done carefully
• Item To Be Placed
• All necessary items such as litter, paper, chick guard, water, hover, food container - in the proper
place in advance.
• Hover Management- A hover -umbrella like device that “hovers” above the chicks, heating them
with either an electric or gas heating device.
• Turn on hover lights 2-3hrs in advance, check the thermometer readings an hour later.
• Normally, set the lights according to the weather. 1watt/chicks - hot season and 2-3 watt/ chicks
for the winter season.

9. Brooding management
• Paper settlement
• The brooder floor should be lined with absorbent paper for the first 2
weeks to prevent leg injuries to the newly hatched chicks. Half an hour
before the baby arrives, lightly placed the paper around and inside the
brooder with a probiotic.
• Litter management- Poultry litter or broiler litter is a mixture of poultry
excreta, spilled feed, feathers, and material used as bedding in poultry
operations.
• Place selection The baby should be placed in the proper place for 5
minutes before the baby arrives. Try to place the broader area in the
middle of the shed.
• Day-old chicks care: After the baby arrives, put the baby on the farm
before placing the hoover with the box for about 5 minutes.

10. Brooding Management
• Chick weight Measurement-
Weigh each box with the baby
Record with the box number
Removal of the empty box weight
weight of the baby one day.
• Chicks transfer to the brooder
Release the baby in each brooder
Monitor the baby’s condition (vaccinate in eye)

11. • Quarantine Separate weak baby
• Feed the glucose into the water and monitor
• Supplying water - Distilled white water to strong baby in first 2 hours.
• Supplying Feed- After the baby arrives for 5 minutes, sprinkle on paper
• serve food in the tray.
• Checks brooding temperature- Examine 1% of the baby’s crop after one hour
• check for mild soft foods and water mounds.
• Check the baby’s foot- hot, brooding is going well.
•
After two hours- give glucose water, white water will continue
• Continue for the next 22 hours.

12. • Continue monitoring
• Monitored for 3 hours continuously, heat is too high.
• water is finished- give water.
• Paper gets wet- change
• Remove paper
• After 24 hours, remove the paper completely.
• Supply the dried husk or other poultry litter materials.
• open the curtain and let outgas.
• Change paper - chicks catch the coccidiosis.

13. Water Management
• Water - important factor for chicken.
• For faster growth in short time, water requirement for Broiler chicken is crucial.
• The general function of water -to transport Oxygen, nutrients, drugs vaccines, and
other physiologic activities to maintain proper health conditions.
• Water must be free from infectious pathogens (such as virus, bacteria, fungus,
protozoa, etc),
• heavy metals ( Na, K, iron, P, CA, etc), soil, urine, fecal material, etc.
• water deprivation lead to coccidiosis.

14. Water quality management
• Washing drinkers
• Wash and disinfect chick drinkers daily.
• Use a reliable water sanitizer like chlorine to control disease-causing organisms in the water.
• Ensure the drinkers are filled with fresh water after washing and never allow the drinkers to go dry.
• Water distribution
• Distribute drinkers evenly, alternating with the feeders - easily accessible to all birds.
• The furthest distance to the next waterer or drinker should be 1.5 meters.
• Provide one chick fount for 75 chicks during the first week
• Gradually replace them with the regular drinkers.
• Always adjust the drinkers and feeders levels as the birds grow to ensure that the equipment is always slightly
above the level of the birds’ to minimize spillage.

15. Litter Management
• Litter material - Sawdust and paddy husk -should spread to 5cm length
• Too dry and dusty Litter-indicate not drinking enough water
• Too much dusty material may lead to respiratory problems
• Moldy material should not be used.
• The litter should be stirred at frequent intervals to prevent caking.
• Wet litters should be removed immediately and replaced by dry new litter to
prevent ammoniacal odor.

16. Coccidiosis prevention and control
• Coccidiosis : protozoan disease, caused by Eimeria spp in poultry.
• a parasite : host for completing the life cycle & survived into poultry.
• It is prevented by the proper use of coccidiostat in feed and control by the water
medication.
• The common feed coccidiostat are maduramycin, semduramycin, monensin,
lasalocid, clpidole, etc
• During outbreak, water medication by the various types of anticoccidial drugs.
exampleToltrazuril, diclazuril, sulfar drugs etc.

17. Feeding management
• Proper feeder line height - should corresponding to the height of the birds
• helps to reduce feed wastage and mixing feed with litter, and ensures that all birds have access to
feed.
• Feeding Programs of Poultry
• Feed from day-old until marketing –specific feeding programme.
• Every chicken/Commercial species -limited feeding programs & schedule at a definite time.
• Feeding programs of differents species and measures
• How Much Chicken Feed Per Day on a particular breed.
• Feeding programs for Broilers
• Broiler chicks – fed ad libitum for 42 to 56 d to an average weight of 4 to 5 lb.
• Feed represents 60 to 75% of the total production cost. Fed conversion – about 1.5-2.0
• Use a 3-stage feeding program (starter, grower, and finisher)
• The starter for the first 2 to 3 wk, the grower for about 2 wk, and the finisher for the remainder.

18. • Feeding system
• Chicken fed their feed in the rearing system. Commonly used material’s called feeder.
• Types of feeder:
• For open shed broiler that rearing in litter system, it’s mainly three type
• 1. MANUAL feeder
• 2. TUBE feeder
• 3. Large FEEDER

19. • Laying Hens
• Higher concentrations of vitamins (A, D, E, B2, B5, B3, and B12)
• Mn & Zn would be required if eggs are to be used for hatching.
• White Leghorn – 18 g of protein/bird/day to support optimum egg production, thus with a 15%
CP diet, must consume ≈ 25 to 26 lb of feed/100 birds/day
• Met –The first limiting amino acid and economical to use synthetic Met & its analogs
• Ca requirement –Varies with the age, ambient temperature, rate of lay, and egg size, but a
general recommendation is 3.4 g Ca/d & 3.8 g Ca/d after 40 wk of age.

20. Lighting Management
• Lights installed in the poultry house has important role in efficiency.
• The distance between bulbs- 1½ times the distance from the bulb to the bird’s level.
• The distance from the bulbs to the outer edges- ½ the distance between bulbs.
• In a cage system- the bulbs should be placed in such a way that their rays fall on the feed and on the
birds.
• Clean reflectors increase the light intensity at bird level by 50%, compared with no reflector.
• Avoid cone shape reflectors- confine the light rays to a limited area.
• Better to use a flat-type reflector with a rounded edge.
• In the case of a deep litter system -the bulb is to be placed at 7-8’ height whereas in a cage house, keep
it in an aisle.
• Avoid hanging bulbs by a cord in open houses
• Very dirty bulbs emit about 1/3 less light than clean bulbs.
• Light bulbs should be cleaned once in two weeks.

21. Classification of lighting programs for laying hens
• According to photoperiod, the classification of lighting for laying hens programs
for the optimum layer production all year round is classified into two major classes-
• 1.) Hemeral lighting programs
• The Hemeral lighting programs consist of 24-h periods divided into light phases
(photoperiod or photophase) and dark phases (scotoperiod or scotophase).
Hemeral programs are used in open-sided houses, which take advantage of natural
light (Campos, 2000).
• 2. Ahemeral Lighting Programs
• When the total photoperiod or light period is not equal to 24 hours, then it is called
Ahemeral Lighting Programs. they are various types of ahemeral lighting cycling
worldwide. It is mainly in two forms- a Longer day (14 hr light + 14 hr dark) and a
shorter day (11 hr light + 11 hr dark).
• the lighting exact schedule for pullet layer chicken in an open house system
• Individual breed management guide.

22. • Floor space Management
• Floor space -0.05M2, increased by 0·05 m2 after every 4 weeks until the pullets are about 20
weeks of age.
• For broilers, at least 0·1 m2 of floor space for female chicks and 0·15 m2 for male chicks till 8
weeks of age. Raising broiler pullets and cockerel chicks in separate pens may be beneficial.
• Environmental management
• General environmental management- temperature, relative humidity, ventilation and lighting.
• The components work both separately and together-to guide management practices.
• Disease Management
• Diseases -common causes- genetic, mechanical, toxic, and nutritional.
• Infectious diseases - by viruses, bacteria, and fungi.
• Parasitic diseases - by protozoa, worms, external parasites such as mites and lice.
• Bacterial diseases
• The common bacterial diseases are salmonellosis, E.coli infection, Infectious coryza, Necrotic
enteritis, fowl cholera, gall bacterium infection, Mycoplasma infection,Avian listeriosis,
Botulism, Ulcerative enteritis, Pseudomonas infection, etc
• Diseases are easily prevented and controlled by antibiotics

23. Steps in brooding
• After culling the previous adult birds, clean and disinfect the poultry house.
• 3 to 4 weeks interval may be provided between 2 batches as down time.
• Form a circle of about 5 feet diameter with brooder guard. The 5 feet
diameter brooder can hold about 200 to 250 chicks.
• At the centre of brooder guard, provide any one of heat source like IR bulb,
ordinary incandescent bulb or gas brooders.
• Spread litter material about 2” height in a circle and then spread old
newspaper over the litter material.
• Arrange feeders and waterers alternatively like cart-wheel fashion.
• Check the brooder for proper temperature 24 hours prior to arrival of chicks.
• Switch on the brooder heating source several hours before the arrival of the
chicks in order to maintain required brooding temperature.

24. • Spread ground maize or rava or fine mash / crumble feed on the old newspaper for 1 or 2
days
• Provide electrolyte, glucose and vitamins in the drinking water for first 2 to 3 days to
overcome stress. After arrival of chicks, moist the beak and leave the chicks under
heating source.
• Maintain a brooder temperature (90 to 950F) in 1st week and then reduce 50F every week
until it reaches the room temperature.
• Moniotor the behaviour of chicks -temperature provided is correct or less or more.
• Too much temperature,-Reduce the heat by reducing the power of the bulb
• Too low temperature, supplement more heating source -further down the heating
element.
• In case of chill weather or chill breeze, provide curtains towards the wind direction.
• Remove the old newspaper after 3 days and destroy it by burning.
• Remove brooder guard after 7 to 10 days depending upon the season
• The corners of the sheds- rounded, to avoid mortality due to huddling.
• Change the feeders and waterers according to age and requirement.
• 24 hours lighting programme may be adopted during 0-8 weeks of age. One hour
darkness may be provided to train the chicks in case of any power failure.
• Medication programme: First and Second day – Electrolytes and vitamins.
• 3rd to 7th day – Antibiotics. (Other medications as and when required).

25. • THANKS