What is the best way to raise broilers in cages or on the floor?

Hybrid beef chickens - broilers are distinguished from ordinary young animals by their increased development energy and low feed costs per kg of gain. Raising such chickens is beneficial. Broiler meat is nutritious and delicious. Diet meals are prepared from it, which are recommended for children, the elderly and sick people.

Broilers are widely kept in the country, private farmsteads, and on an industrial scale. The cultivation of this type of chickens has its own specific characteristics. Separate the floor keeping of broilers and cage keeping.

Outdoor content

Floor keeping of broilers is inferior to cage raising in terms of cost efficiency, but it also has advantages.

Advantages and disadvantages

First, the bird grows in conditions close to natural. In these conditions, the legs of the bird do not suffer so much, the development of the musculoskeletal system is better. The bird finds additional pasture by walking in the fresh air. She has a more developed immune system, so she is more resistant to diseases and metabolic disorders.

Birds have unlimited movement, they can choose the best places for feeding and rest. Whereas in cages, if the keeping is violated, the birds die due to overheating, lack of air, food and drink.

It is known that keeping and feeding broiler chickens on the floor does not require any special costs from the farmer. If the livestock is less than a hundred, then broilers can be raised on private farms in an ordinary chicken coop, using manual distribution of feed and drink, and a fenced walk. It is effective during the warmer months.If broilers are not walked, then deep bedding is used in their maintenance.

Requirements for the premises

The poultry house is equipped with ventilation, heating and, if desired, equipped with a watering system (nipple or flow), a feed line. In such conditions, the bird is kept all year round. You can keep birds from thousands of individuals.

Brick, foam block and other heat-intensive materials are used to build a poultry house. The floors in the poultry house are adobe or concrete. Before the bedding is brought in, the concrete floors are heated, the doors are insulated. It is desirable to have glasses for light access, to provide for their opening for ventilation. Another type of ventilation is also provided - with the help of openings on the roof, which are closed at the right time.

In the room, they hang incandescent lamps or fluorescent lamps, use halogen lamps and energy-saving lamps. Illumination should correspond to 10 watts per square meter. meter of floor area. The poultry house is equipped with heating, special equipment for day old chicks, and fans.

Before populating the house with chickens, it is washed, disinfected, and then dried. This is done with inventory and equipment.

Walls, concrete floors, ceiling are treated with slaked lime.If there are adobe floors, then use slaked lime-fluff for sprinkling (0.5-1 kg per square meter).

Litter requirements

The litter is used loose, dry, moisture-absorbing. It is crushed, does not contain mold, large inclusions. To do this, use straw, sawdust, shavings, peat, sunflower husk, chaff. The straw is crushed to a size of 3-5 cm, sawdust can be sprinkled with chopped straw or peat. The litter is 7-10 cm thick in summer and 15-20 cm in winter.

There is a way how to keep broiler chickens using mesh floors. This system is cumbersome, but has the advantage that broilers do not come into contact with the droppings, as they end up in galvanized trays that are installed under the net.

The use of a mobile poultry house is the most affordable and simple way of keeping broilers.

Floor method in industrial farms

In industrial farms, the most common is the floor-standing method of maintenance, since it involves a minimum of equipment costs, and the result is good. For 35-40 days of feeding, a broiler chicken weighs 2.2-2.5 kg. From sq. square meter receive 50 kg of poultry meat.

The floors of such a poultry house are concrete, covered with straw or sawdust. In the poultry house there are up to 50-70 thousand individuals. The room is equipped with ventilation, heating by gas generators, sometimes water batteries are used. Feeding of birds is carried out using feeding lines, where feed is fed from a bunker located outside the premises. Nipple lines are used for drinking. All processes are automated, so 1-2 people are busy with the service.

Day-old chick care

The most difficult part of broiler raising is day-old chick care. Up to the age of 10 months, the maintenance of day-old broilers requires special conditions.

To do this, several zones must be fenced in the room, preferably a round one. These are the so-called brooders. A heating and light source (incandescent lamp, heater) is hung in the center of such a zone. Vacuum drinkers are placed inside, the water in them is changed every day. Drinking bowls, with a capacity of 1 liter, are enough for 30 chickens. When chickens are fed with compound feed, it is convenient to use special feeders - plastic "buckets in a plate". The food is poured there once within 2-3 days. If mash and wet food is used for feeding, then they use shallow trays of a narrow and long shape.

In such areas, broiler chickens are kept for 10-14 days, after which the partitions are removed.

The temperature of broilers is important, for day-old chicks it should be 32-33 degrees during the week, gradually reduced to 18-20 degrees.

Illumination when day-old chicks are placed is 40-50 Lx, which gradually decreases to 10-15 Lx. During the first day, daylight hours should be 23 hours, gradually the dark period is brought to 4-6 hours at night.

Moisture readings correspond to 55-70%. If the bird is kept crowded, then it is necessary to supply air to the room forcibly using the exhaust fans mounted in the walls. Air exchange rate 0.5-1 cubic meters meter per individual in winter and 5-7 cubic meters. meters in the summer.

What should you pay attention to?

Nothing replaces careful handling of chickens. When the chickens are huddled in heaps around the house, it means they are freezing. If they go astray in one direction, then there is a draft. If the chickens are hot, then they open their beaks, breathing is heavy, they spread their wings. With a lack of water in chickens, the crop becomes hard and enlarged. With a lack of feed, 20% of chicks have an empty crop.

If there is no forced ventilation, then 10-15 chickens should be placed per square meter. meter, with fans the stocking density rate is 20-25 chickens.

Keeping broilers in cages

It is more economical to keep broiler chickens in cages than on the floor.Due to the disadvantages of this content, most broilers grow on deep litter. But recently, modern cell batteries have emerged and the cell method has become more popular.

Method advantages

So the cage keeping of broilers has advantages: saving space, feed, increasing growth. The bird is limited in contacts, which prevents the spread of infectious diseases. The bird does not come into contact with the litter, does not eat manure, as it is removed from under it in time. Thus, keeping broilers in cages prevents the development of many diseases. With the cage content, the feeding time is reduced by 3-5 days. If necessary, it is not difficult to take broilers from the cage for early slaughter.

Cons of the method

When asked how to keep broilers in cages, it must be said that good preparation is required. Costs are needed for the production of cages or the purchase of ready-made sets of equipment, the creation of conditions for keeping broiler chickens, investments in the purchase of balanced feed mixtures. It is necessary to clean up the droppings every day, disinfection after the cells have been released. The disadvantages include the problem of broilers with legs when gaining weight.

Content rules

The domestic market offers different cages for growing broilers, depending on the number of heads and the level of mechanization. Many poultry houses make their own cages using a metal profile or timber to make the frame. They use grates for the walls, for the pallet they use galvanized sheets. When keeping broilers up to hundreds of heads, ordinary feeders and drinkers are used.

To know how to keep broilers in a cage, you need to study the standards of keeping. The requirements for the cages are as follows: in one section they contain from 10 to 25 birds, the cages are located in 3-4 tiers with batteries, made of galvanized mesh. They use trough feeders located outside the cage for manual feeding, and for mechanical feeding they use feeders with an "umbrella" inside the cage.

In the first week, manure can not be removed, in the future, cleaning is done once within 2-3 days. Before finishing feeding, this is done daily.

It is known that the content of broilers in cages up to 56 days of age, the weight of chickens is 1400 g, if their stocking density is 35 individuals, and in males - 1600 g at a stocking density of 30 heads per square meter. foot grate.

To get a kg of weight gain in poultry, you need to spend 2.3-2.5 kg of feed. During the first 3 weeks, constant illumination is required throughout the day, gradually reducing the illumination to 17 hours. The light regime should stimulate the bird to eat food.

Small chicks, broilers, need a high housing temperature, while large chicks that generate enough heat need to reduce it so that the birds are not exposed to heat stress. The humidity standard is 50-70%.

In the case of cellular maintenance, the method of "meat removal" is used. Males are slaughtered earlier, and chickens gain weight for another 5-7 days. Or 35-day-old birds in the amount of 20-25% are taken for slaughter, and the rest are raised for a week.

It is possible to keep broilers in cages on the street, if they are equipped with special wheels, then in good weather conditions the birds are taken out to fresh air. This can be done from the age of 4 weeks. Chickens must be protected from drafts. Some houses move chicks at 4 weeks of age into cages made of window frames. They protect from drafts, and if the sun is very hot, they open the window.

How to keep different breeds of chickens?

Sometimes the maintenance and feeding of colored broilers is combined with other breeds of broilers.

Ideally, different breeds should be kept separate so that each species feeds according to its own diet.

I wonder if it is possible to keep layers and broilers together, and what needs to be done so that they do not conflict.Young broilers need to be fed continuously and laying hens are fed 4 times a day.

Due to the different regime, when birds of different breeds are found together, it is necessary to take care of separate places for broilers: arrange their cages on the ground so that the layers do not disturb them.

To solve the issue of the location of perches, they resort to this solution: an entrance is made for each floor separately. When the meat breed is located on its floor, it is closed. In this way, a conflict between layers and broilers can be avoided.

Raising broilers is fundamentally different from breeding egg chicken breeds. The main goal is to get the highest possible gain in the shortest possible time.

An important factor in the efficiency of cultivation is the consumption of feed, which will increase with the extension of the cultivation period. Therefore, in the industrial poultry industry, they try to reduce the duration of broiler feeding as much as possible - usually it is 35-40 days, while the poultry reaches an average weight of 2-2.5 kg.

Broiler cages are much more economical than floor rearing. True, this method has its drawbacks. Therefore, most meat producers raise broilers on deep bedding, and only in the last decade, with the advent of modern cage batteries, the cage is gaining more and more popularity.

Let's talk about why it is profitable to grow a bird in a cage and how this method looks in practice.

Unconditional pluses

The benefits of growing broilers in a cage are clear.

Saving space, and, therefore, energy costs - lighting, heating, ventilation per head and one kg of weight gain.
Saving feed due to its target consumption - the bird does not pick in feed and bedding and does not scatter compound feed.
Increased body weight gain. The broiler is organic in movement, and, therefore, a significant part of the feed energy is directed to the growth of the bird and is not wasted.
Restricting bird contact with each other - the chick only comes into contact with the neighbors in the cage. This has a beneficial effect on the veterinary situation and prevents the spread of infections.
Manure is removed from the poultry daily. She does not comb in the litter, does not eat droppings, does not breathe ammonia. It also significantly reduces the risk of infectious and respiratory diseases. And if, nevertheless, an outbreak of the disease has occurred, it is easy to stop it, since the infection will spread slowly due to the limited contact of the birds with each other.
Optimization of the process of feeding and drinking, caring for poultry and inspection of livestock, reducing the cost of service personnel.
If necessary, it is easy to "thin out" the herd by taking part of the livestock from the cage for early slaughter.

Cellular content reduces the period of fattening by an average of 3-5 days, which in an industrial production gives a tremendous profit.

Minuses

What are the disadvantages of broiler cage raising? To get the desired effect, you will have to spend time and invest, namely:

the cost of producing a cage or buying a ready-made set of equipment;
creating favorable conditions for the chick in the house - temperature, humidity, ventilation and lighting;
costs for compound feed or other balanced feed mixtures;
the need to remove droppings daily;
with a large weight in broilers on a mesh floor, problems with legs begin, bumps on the chest are possible, which affects the quality of the carcass;
laborious process of disinfection after freeing the cage from the bird;
the taste of meat and eggs of free-range chickens (in an ordinary chicken coop) is much higher.

As you can see, cellular equipment needs a good preparatory period, but in the process of operation there are practically no minuses, only pluses.

Cell batteries

How are broilers grown industrially? Cage batteries for poultry are produced by many Russian and foreign manufacturers. The most famous are German Big Dutchman, Belgian Roxel, Dutch Systemat, domestic KBP-B, BKM-3B, 2B-3.

Cell batteries are mounted in 4-6 tiers. The poultry house can be 25x120 meters in size, one room contains up to 150 thousand broiler chickens. There is a feeding and drinking system in the cages, sometimes artificial lighting lamps are additionally mounted. The floor at the cage is retractable (this is needed for the catching technology), under the floor there is a manure removal tape.

Each battery is equipped with a feed and water supply system, manure removal lifts. The poultry house has an automatic heating and ventilation system designed for summer and winter. All technological processes are controlled manually and automatically through the shop computer.

Taken together, this creates a rather complex equipment system that requires constant attention and maintenance.

Backyard cage

In personal subsidiary plots, they often use small batteries in two or three tiers, manufactured industrially or by hand. There are many options for such cells.

Turnkey option with installed feeders and micro-bowl drinkers.

Today, there are enough offers in the sector of cages for growing broilers on the market of domestic producers. They are designed for different levels of mechanization of the process (manual or automatic feeding and manure removal) and for different numbers of birds.

How to make yourself

You can make a broiler cage with your own hands at home. To do this, you will need material for the frame - a wooden bar or metal profile, a grill for the floor and walls, galvanized sheets for the pallet under the floor.

In such a cage, you can put an ordinary feeder and drinker for chickens, but this is convenient only with a small number of birds - up to a hundred heads.

When keeping a significant number of broilers - 200, 500 and more heads, the cage must meet the following requirements:

the number of birds in one section - from 10 to 25 heads;
cages are arranged in batteries, in 3 or 4 tiers;
material - galvanized mesh (wood in this case is less wear-resistant);
hand feeding - trough feeders outside the cage;
mechanized feeding - feeders with an "umbrella" inside the cage;
nipple water supply system inside the cage.

Subject to planting norms (about them - below), young broilers feel great in the cage.

Manure removal is usually carried out manually - for this, there are galvanized pallets under the cage, which should be easily pulled out. At first, during 5-7 days, the droppings can not be removed, then, as the chickens grow, they are cleaned every two to three days, at the end of the fattening period - daily.

For large farms, it is advisable to equip a mechanized belt system for manure removal.

The mesh of the floor should be fine enough to prevent day old chicks from falling through their legs, but not too much for droppings to fall freely onto the pan. Some manufacturers produce cages with plastic floors, which are preferable in terms of reducing poultry injuries.

The side walls can be made of plywood or fine mesh, the front wall is made of a longitudinal grate to provide access for birds to the feeders.

For day-old chicks, additional galvanized trays are installed in the external feeders so that they can easily reach the feed.

Microclimate in the chicken coop

The house needs to be kept at the recommended temperature and humidity, which will require a heat source. Broilers also need artificial lighting.

If the poultry house contains a large number of chickens, then a forced ventilation system will be needed to ensure the flow of fresh air, and in the summer - to lower the temperature in the room.

Unlike laying hens, small broiler chickens need to maintain a high temperature, while large ones generate a lot of heat and, on the contrary, must be removed, otherwise the bird may get heat stress.

Zootechnical norms

When growing broilers in a cage, the following zootechnical standards are followed.

Stocking density - 20-25 heads per sq. m. polik area, but not more than 40 kg of live weight at the finish of cultivation.
Feeding front - 2-2.5 cm per head (flute) or 40-70 broilers per round feeder.
The drinking area is 10-12 heads per nipple. Vacuum drinkers (for the first days of chicks' life) - one per 50 heads, flute drinkers - 2 cm per head.
Indoor air temperature: when day-old chicks are planted at a level of 32-34 ° C, then it decreases by about 0.2 ° C every day, by the 7th week of rearing it reaches 16-18 ° C.
Humidity from 50 to 70%. The health of the bird's respiratory system and the temperature it perceives depends on the level of humidity. With high humidity in the hot season, the temperature is felt as higher, with low humidity, there is a large loss of fluid in the body.
Light mode. Day-old chicks are given 23 hours of daylight hours, then from day 7, its duration is reduced to 16-20 hours, depending on the growth rate and feed consumption. In general, it is impossible to save feed on broilers - the more the bird eats, the faster it will grow. Therefore, the light regime should be aimed at stimulating the consumption of the compound feed by the bird.

When growing broilers in a cage, they often use the “meat removal” method - the males are slaughtered earlier, and the chickens are kept for another 5-7 days to gain live weight. Or, at the age of about 35 days, 20-25% of large birds are taken, and the rest is grown for another week. In this way, they free up space in the cell and prevent aggravation of food competition.

In addition, a heavy bird often "sits down" on its feet, which is associated with poor development of the musculoskeletal system (bones, ligaments) due to lack of movement. We wrote more about this here.

conclusions

Summing up, we can say that cage growing of broilers is beneficial both in industrial poultry farming and in subsidiary farming. The farmer determines the degree of mechanization of production based on the amount of labor, the total number of poultry raised for meat, and the year-round production.

When grown in the summer for their own needs (50-100 heads of poultry), you can get by with 2-4 simple homemade cages. And if it is planned to produce meat for sale (1000 heads of a one-time planting or more) and receive serious profits, then factory-made structures with a nipple water supply system, mechanized feed distribution and manure removal are selected.

Growing and keeping broilers in cages at home has its advantages and disadvantages, and this is due to the fulfillment of a number of requirements in order to preserve the livestock and ensure its growth and development.

Keeping broilers in cages at home

Features of broilers for breeding

The cage content of broilers in a household is related to their characteristics, since, in contrast to the breeding rate of conventional chicken breeds, the main task in growing broiler lines is to gain weight as quickly as possible.

Of no small importance when deciding whether to grow them in a confined space is that these hybrid breed lines are capable of intensively gaining body weight, for which they were bred in order to get more chicken meat in a short time period.

Besides the fact that broilers are a source of meat products, many broiler breeds have established themselves as good producers of young stock, demonstrating high egg production rates.

Among the distinctive features of broiler poultry that require a special approach to keeping:

large size and large (on average about 5 kg) weight of birds, which limits the number of individuals for one cage,
intensive increase in body weight,
obesity of the trunk, located horizontally.

Selection of broiler chicks

To select young animals for the purpose of keeping them in cages, the decision is made depending on the purpose of breeding: for meat or for obtaining eggs. Particular attention should be paid not only to the quality of the breed, but also to the behavior of the selected chickens, their activity, reaction to noise, the condition of the eyes and plumage.

It is possible to buy healthy broilers, which would subsequently provide a good economically beneficial result, only at a poultry farm or from professional poultry houses who are responsible for observing all standards for breeding and raising chicks.

Due to the fact that mortality rates among newborn chickens are high, poultry houses recommend purchasing young animals that are at least 10 days old and have a standard size.

You can grow and keep broilers in cages at home using one of 2 available methods:

extensive, when chickens are purchased in the spring and raised until mid-summer, after which they are slaughtered and sold, the re-recruitment of chickens is not performed until the next season,
intensive, in which a new generation is acquired every quarter, and individuals that have reached 2.5 months of age go to slaughter.

The most optimal age for slaughter of broiler breeds is 70 days. After this period, the birds begin to suspend their growth and gain in weight, and the amount of feed consumed increases. Such keeping of broilers becomes economically unreasonable.

Advantages and disadvantages of cell cultivation

Raising and keeping broiler chickens in cages is considered to be a more economical method than floor standing. The cell method has become more popular with the advent of modern technologies that allow you to organize your own cell batteries. Among the benefits of breeding broilers in cages, poultry houses note:

saving space in the room and reducing the associated costs of electricity, heating and ventilation,
reducing the amount of required feed as a result of being in a limited area,
an increase in the growth rate due to a decrease in bird activity,
limiting contact and, as a result, preventing the spread of various infectious and other diseases,
the absence of contact of birds with the litter and the inability for birds to eat excrement,
optimized possibilities of feeding and watering birds, caring for them, veterinary examination, thinning the number of individuals.

In addition, reviews of poultry houses who prefer to grow and keep broiler breeds of chickens in cages note a reduction in the period for feeding chickens by an average of 3-5 days.

The disadvantages of keeping broilers, many include:

rather large initial financial and labor costs for arranging cages or purchasing ready-made equipped complexes,
obligatory daily cleaning of the cages, disinfection measures after the cage is free of the bird.

In addition, the cellular content of domestic broilers has an impact on their health. So, birds grown in a cage begin to suffer from problems with paws due to limited activity and a sharp large gain in weight. Affects the condition of chicken legs and the mesh floor of the cage.

We create conditions for cell cultivation

Before deciding on cages and keeping broilers at home, it is necessary to decide on the main issues regarding the conditions for breeding birds in a confined space.

Premises and equipment

For self-erection of structures or the installation of ready-made sets of equipment for planting chickens, an ordinary wooden shed can be chosen as a suitable room. In the summertime, chicken cages are placed directly on the street.

The list of equipment required for the purchase includes:

lamps for light illumination,
heating elements to create heat,
ventilation systems,
feeders and drinkers.

Microclimate

For forcing broiler chicks indoors, the necessary conditions must be created and maintained:

the temperature for day-old chicks is about 32 ° С with a gradual decrease by 0.2 indicators daily until reaching 16-18 ° С by one week of age,
humidity from 50 to 70%,
daylight hours - at least 23 hours for chickens, reduced from a week of age to 16-20 hours.

Food

When breeding chickens by the cage method, it is recommended to ensure the constant presence of feed in the cells. The diet of small broilers includes boiled eggs, wheat grains, greens. Starting from five days of age, chickens are soldered with vitamin solutions, adding shell rock and bone meal to the diet. In the last weeks of growth until the moment of slaughter, the feed of the chickens is diversified with roughage.

Growing broilers in cages at home DIY broiler cages - zolotyeruki

Growing broilers in cages at home, part 1

DIY broiler cages

Bird cage requirements

Today, for the cultivation of meat broilers on an industrial scale and in household conditions, cell batteries are being created to ensure compliance with the stocking density of chickens. They are mounted in a tier of 4-6 cell rows and allow keeping up to 150,000 individuals in a poultry house. You can see how it looks in the video. The block system is equipped with the possibility of feeding and watering birds, and allows you to install additional light sources, if necessary. The floor of these cages is extended, which allows the house to easily catch the bird. A special tape is placed under the floor to remove droppings.

Modern technologies make it possible to automate such keeping of chickens using built-in heating and ventilation systems, controlled both in manual and automatic modes.

For home keeping of chickens in a small backyard farm, lightweight versions of cage batteries of 2-3 tiers are possible, no more, subject to the planting density, which can be made with your own hands if you follow the video instructions.

Among the basic requirements for self-assembled cage content are:

norms of maximum stocking density - up to 25 chicken heads per 1 sq. m of floor, but not more than 40 kg of mass by the final stage of cultivation,
section material - galvanized mesh, wooden cages are less wear-resistant,
the presence of grooves outside sections for manual feeding and feeders inside for mechanized,
the presence of files and a drinking water supply system,
availability of galvanized pallets for droppings,
a small cell at the mesh covering the floor.

The presence of wheels in the equipment of the cage batteries creates advantages for the movement of the cages when the heat enters the street.

Pros and cons of cellular content

Fattening birds can be kept in cages, nests or outdoors. Bird cages are small multi-tiered rooms with an area of 0.5 to 1.5 square meters. m, made of steel mesh. The main advantages of growing broiler breeds in cages include:

Saving space;
Energy saving;
Convenience of service;
Saving feed;
Protection from the external environment;
The best conditions for fast weight gain.

One square meter of the cage can be placed up to 25 broilers, and taking into account the installation of such cages in several tiers, the farmer gets the opportunity to place a significant number of chickens in a small area. The cost of lighting and heating a room is usually proportional to its area, so by saving space, additional savings on electricity are achieved.

The multi-tier cages are equipped with automatic drinkers with a central water supply and external removable feed trays, which allows servicing such trays without disturbing the bird. Cleaning the litter trays is easier than changing the litter.

Birds can neither scatter nor trample the compound feed in the external feeder, due to which the savings in feed with a cage content are 15-20% higher than with other methods of placing birds. With a large herd, this savings in feed is significant.

When kept in open enclosures or for walking, birds are exposed to many hazards:

Attack of predators;
Infection with diseases from wild birds;
Adverse weather effects.

The cage content does not imply walking outside, so the probability of picking up part of the livestock by predators or infection tends to zero.

In addition, limitation of mobility allows broilers to gain the weight necessary for slaughter in a short time, and walking chickens leads to overconsumption of feed and a decrease in carcass weight.

It is important to remember that cellular content has a number of significant disadvantages. These include:

Increased risk of infectious epidemics due to crowding;
The need to carefully monitor temperature and humidity indicators;
Poor quality meat taste.

Despite the relative infectious safety of birds due to isolation from the external environment, infection of even one individual in conditions of dense broiler stocking can lead to a massive pest of the entire livestock, therefore, the poultry farmer must regularly monitor the well-being of birds by external signs and resettle individuals at the first suspicion of infection. Increased indoor humidity can increase the risk of sickness in birds.

Despite the high rate of weight gain in caged broilers, free range chicken tastes better than caged broilers.

Arrangement of premises

The health of broilers and their performance indicators largely depend on the correct organization of the space of the chicken coop with cages. The room with cages should be equipped with:

Ventilation system;
Heating;
Lighting;
Humidity and temperature control devices.

The placement of the cage blocks should be planned in such a way as not to obstruct access to the feeders and drinkers for maintenance and disinfection of the cages.

Cell selection

Cages for beef breeds are made of a steel lattice with a rod thickness of at least 2 mm. Frames for installing cages can be of two types:

Wooden;
Metallic.

For large livestock, it is preferable to choose frames made of metal, since they are easier to disinfect and they do not accumulate moisture. The wooden frame is suitable for homemade production, as it saves metal, in small farms.

The stocking density of broilers in cages is usually 12 to 25 birds per square meter of cage floor, depending on the breed and age of the bird. One cell section can contain from 4 to 14 individuals.

Cells vary in size:

Up to 50 cm wide - for 3-4 chickens;
Up to 70 cm wide - for 6-8 chickens;
Up to 1.2 m wide - for 10-12 chickens.

The depth and height of the cage does not change much depending on the number of birds being placed.

Large cages are designed for industrial production and are inconvenient for home use. The best option is to use a cage 65-70 cm wide, 30 cm deep and 25 cm high. This cage is designed to accommodate up to 8 broiler chickens.

It is important to know that the cage floor grating should be made of strong steel and have a rod thickness of at least 3 mm, as a less strong floor will bend under the weight of broilers, especially with a large cage width.

If the room for the cages is large, and it is planned to install tiers near the walls and in the center of the chicken coop, then wheels are attached to the central blocks to move the cages during harvesting.

Drinking bowls for cages should be installed of the vacuum type, as they minimize the risks of splashing, and automatic filling will make it easier to maintain the cages.

Heating, lighting and humidity

For a chicken coop with cages, it is important to maintain a constant temperature, since its increase above normal (24 degrees) will inevitably lead to diseases due to the inability of chickens to change location.

To control the temperature, it is recommended to use special thermostats to automate the maintenance of heat at the desired level. To heat a chicken coop with cages, you can use:

Gas heaters;
Infrared emitters;
Electric heaters.

The installation of gas heating gives significant savings to the poultry farmer, but requires careful adherence to fire safety rules. Gas heating can only be carried out by organizations with a special license, so this method is suitable for large farms.

Electric heaters consume a lot of electricity in comparison with infrared emitters, which do not heat the air, but the objects themselves, from which the air is subsequently heated, therefore, the use of infrared emitters is most preferable.

Depending on the age of the bird in the cages, the following temperature regime is established:

From 1 to 5 days - 34 degrees;
From 6 to 11 days - 30 degrees;
From 12 days - 18-24 degrees.

The transition from one temperature regime to another should be smooth and take 2-3 days.

Daylight hours in broilers should last from 15 to 18 hours, since light provokes birds to frequent feed intake and weight gain, so electric lighting in a chicken coop with cages is necessary even in summer. It is best to use configurable timers to maintain the desired light mode. For broiler chickens up to 7 days, daylight hours should be around the clock, upon reaching a week of age, it is reduced to 18 hours.

4 square meters of the chicken coop should have at least 100 watts of incandescent light or 12 watts of LED lamps. It is not recommended to use fluorescent ("energy-saving") lamps, as birds get sick and lose weight due to their flickering.

Indoor humidity should be maintained at 55-65%, higher humidity can cause mold and bacteria to grow, and lower humidity can lead to brittle feathers and impaired water exchange in broilers.

Cell litter

Using sawdust or hay bedding keeps you warm and reduces the likelihood of colds and leg arthritis. The thickness of the litter should be between 5 and 10 cm.

It is important to remember that pathogenic bacteria can accumulate in the litter, in addition, the litter excludes the automatic collection of excrement on the subcellular tray, which will require an increase in the time for cleaning the premises.

The use of bedding in the cages instead of a slatted floor above the pallet is only permissible for a small number of chickens. The bedding in the cages must be changed every two days at the same time as the cage is completely disinfected. It is recommended to use dry sawdust as a material.

Using

fine water filter

the cartridge or membrane must be replaced regularly, otherwise the device may become unusable.

Using a brood hen to hatch chicks is an easy method that is great for beginners. Read more about this here.

How to store eggs for food and incubation? We talked about this in detail in our article.

Feeding rules

Feeding broilers can be started from the first week of keeping, but it is important to follow the rules of the first feeding. Since newborn chickens have a poorly developed digestive system.

For the first feeding, you can use:

Grated white of boiled eggs;
Finely crushed grain;
Low-fat cottage cheese;
Sour milk.

To feed the young, a special groove is inserted into the external feeders so that the chicks can get food. Feeders themselves should have hooks to adjust their height above the cage floor for broilers of different ages and sizes.

It must be remembered that young animals should be given a mushy feed (mash) once a day, which is prepared by diluting a dry mixture of crushed grain, corn husks and sunflower oil cake with warm water or low-fat milk, mixed in a 4: 2: 1 ratio.

Dry compound feed (home or factory) is used for feeding grown broilers. In a factory-made compound feed, all nutrients, vitamins and minerals are mixed in the right proportions, and the farmer only has to pour the feed into the feeders, but the cost of the purchased feed is much higher than the home-made one.

In compound feeds made by ourselves, the following components must be present:

Crushed grain;
Whole grain;
Cellulose;
Fats;
Calcium;
Vitamins.

As vitamins you can use special premixessold in agricultural markets, or chopped green weeds.

Whole grains should be mixed with crushed grains in equal proportions; for broiler feeding, wheat or corn is usually used due to the high carbohydrate content. The total content of grains should be up to 65% of the mass of the compound feed.

Fiber is necessary for broilers for normal digestion, it is found in sunflower meal, corn meal and seed husks. The fiber content in the feed should be at least 15%.

Sunflower meal also contains the fats that birds need for healthy plumage and well-being. If there is a lack of fat, you can add sunflower oil to dry food (one teaspoon per kilogram of dry mixture).

Boiled vegetables (up to 30% of the feed mass) will be a good addition to the broiler ration for self-production of compound feed:

Potato;
Carrot;
Beet.

When adding food waste to a farmer's compound feed, remember that the amount of added waste should not exceed 15% of the feed mass. Waste (especially containing hard vegetables) must be boiled and chopped before adding to the feed, otherwise the chickens may choke on hard pieces of food.

Fresh water in the drinkers is an important factor in broiler health. You should know that the water for broilers should be at room temperature (not lower than +25 degrees), since chickens quickly develop colds from cold water.

So, keeping broilers in cages promotes rapid weight gain in birds due to limited mobility. A large number of broilers can be accommodated in a small area, but crowding of birds requires careful disinfection and proper ventilation of the room.Compliance with the rules of keeping and feeding broilers in cages will ensure rapid weight gain and low mortality in broiler chicken breeds.

Date of publication:Growing