Every serious poultry farmer has three silent workers that never rest: the thermometer, the drinkers, and the feeders. Let’s start with the thermometer. It’s not just a fancy gadget — it’s your early warning system. Temperature swings stress your birds, slow growth, and cut production. A few degrees off can cost thousands in feed or lost eggs. Smart farmers don’t guess; they measure. Next are the drinkers. Clean water equals healthy birds. Simple. A good drinker keeps water fresh, prevents spills, and saves you from constant cleaning. Dirty or spilled water is the fastest road to disease, so your drinkers are basically your first line of defense. Finally, the feeders. They decide how efficiently your birds grow. The right feeder stops waste, keeps feed dry, and makes sure every bird eats enough. Feed is your biggest expense — protecting it protects your profit. These three tools might look ordinary, but together, they run your farm quietly in the background. Control your environment. C...

You don’t lose chicks because the “batch was bad.” You lose them because the first seven days are unforgiving, and the smallest mistake snowballs fast. That’s the real reason chicks die young. They don’t have the strength to survive sloppy hygiene, confused temperatures, or late feeding. Their bodies are racing to build organs, immune systems, and bones - all at the same time. Anything that stresses them in those first hours knocks the whole system off balance. Here’s what matters. Hygiene is the quiet killer in most farms. A brooder that looks clean to your eyes might still carry bacteria your chicks can’t fight. Wet litter, reused bags, dirty drinkers, dusty corners - everything adds up. A chick touches the floor, pecks the floor, drinks from the floor, and swallows whatever lives there. If your brooding area isn’t cleaner than your kitchen counter, you’re giving pathogens a head start. Then there’s temperature. Chicks aren’t born with a thermostat. They borrow yours. Too hot, and ...

Every farmer asks this, but the answer isn’t inside some miracle supplement. It’s hidden in the quiet partnership between protein and energy. When those two fall out of balance, your birds eat plenty but grow like they’re dragging their feet. When they line up perfectly, feed turns into muscle with almost no waste. That’s the sweet spot we’re chasing. Here’s what matters. Broilers grow on two currencies: protein for muscle and energy for everything else. If the feed has too much energy and not enough protein, the birds store fat instead of building meat. If it has plenty of protein but low energy, the birds burn the protein just to stay alive. Either way, you pay for feed that never becomes weight. A balanced diet solves that headache. You want enough energy to fuel the bird’s metabolism, and enough protein—especially digestible amino acids—to build breast, thighs, and drumsticks. When both match the bird’s growth stage, your feed conversion suddenly behaves like it should. Let me ex...

You can almost feel it when your birds aren’t performing the way they should. They’re eating, but something is missing. Growth feels slow. Immunity feels shaky. Stress creeps in quietly. And here’s the twist most farmers never see coming: the answer might already be in your kitchen. Herbs that many people ignore - cloves, garlic, ginger, cinnamon can flip the entire energy of a flock. Not superstition, not trial and error but real plant power with real results. Cloves Cloves act like tiny guardians in your birds’ gut. The eugenol inside them fights off harmful microbes and steadies digestion. Birds start converting feed better, and you can literally see the difference in their body weight. Use 0.5 to 1 gram per kilo of feed for chicks, up to 2 grams for older birds, or boil a clove or two per liter of water a few times a week. Garlic Garlic brings that bold hit of allicin—strong enough to lift immunity and help birds hold their ground during disease pressure. Crush one clove per lite...

Molasses is the thick dark brown syrup of a texture inbetween the real maple syrup and golden syrup. Molasses is a byproduct originated from crushed sugar cane, sugar beets or refined sugar making process.  It is the left over after boiling down the cane juice. People majorly use it as a sweetener in baking and cooking processes. Aside being a sweeter, molasses has been an important part of livestock feeds for long period of time. It can be used as binder for feed components and to increase palatability. Since molasses is sweet, it is added to water during cold weather to encourage drinking. Beyond taste and binding abilities, it also offers health benefits to the heart and enables the muscle building. Blackstrap molasses Blackstrap molasses happens to be the proper choice for chickens as it is high in iron, magnesium, potassium and calcium which are important to chicken's health. Though it can be replaced with other related types of molasses. Besides, molasses based feed...

Just like Broilers , turkeys are meant for commercial meat production but they are bigger than broiler; they therefore demand more space and feed requirement. Added advantage is that turkeys cannot only lay eggs but also hatch the eggs on their own. Farmer just need to move away the Poults from the turkey for Proper Brooding Of The Poults . Good feeding program helps rapid growth while accurate spacing prevents overcrowding which can cause pecking and cannibalism. In the presence of other factors like good Biosecurity, quality air flow and perfect turkey breed, proper feeding and spacing program enhance commercial turkey farming. Feed Requirement The types of feed required by turkey are just classified based on their protein content. The quantity of feed required depends on the breed and age. Small White do not consume much feed like Large White or Large Breasted Bronze. Based on feed protein content, a poult of day old to 8 weeks feed on turkey starter feed with 28% protein. 22...

Cockerels are the young roosters, the male counterparts of the layers (meant for egg production) which reach maturity within 5 to 6 months of age. Before the discovery of modern broiler, cockerels were the meat producers while the hen lays eggs for chicks or table purpose. Since hatcheries produced separate hybrids for meat and egg productions, the pullets (layers) are kept for egg production while the cockerels given out at a very cheap price. Thinking of commercial meat production, most farmers do not consider cockerel for some reasons. Some of the reasons for rejecting the cockerels on commercial quantity are: 1. Slow growth rate. 2. Low feed conversion rate. 3. Non tender meat at maturity. Even with the above reasons, there are still advantageous features of the Cockerels over Broilers. Good features of cockerels are as follow: 1. Cost of chicks is very low which enhances more profit. 2. Cockerels are strong and therefore easier to raise. 3. Meat from cockerels possess b...

Feed and space are important requirements that should be properly checked for profitable egg production. Some of the expectations of layer farmers are high efficiency of at least 75%, big and healthy eggs on daily basis. All these can be disrupted by inadequate feed and space per bird. Although there are other factors like Biosecurity, Medication and Vaccination Schedule contributing to optimum performance of layers, but space and feed requirements cannot be neglected. Feed Requirement There three types of feed for layers depending on their age and nature. These are Starter, Grower and Layer feeds. Starter feed is given for the first 8 weeks and a chick will need at least 1.2 kg of the feed at this stage. Grower Mash is given to the birds between 8 to 20 week of age or until when 5 to 10% of the birds started laying. They need at least 5.2 kg of feed at this level. A bird is expected to weigh at least 1.5 kg at this stage. Layers Mash is introduced to the birds when 5-1...

Intensive (contained) poultry housing system allow the farmer to have more control over Feed Maximization, disease control and protection of the birds against predators. There are several methods attached to this system ranging from deep litter to raised floor and makeshift caging system which can be used in a backyard or standard roof. This article may focus on small scope poultry business but its concepts can be applicable to large project. With the explanation, it shows that there are three types of intensive system and they are explained as follow: 1.) Deep - litter system A properly managed deep litter system provides good environment for the high quality breeds and a good source of manure. Litter has to be changed as at when due and kept dry always to prevent quick spread of diseases or infections. Advantages of deep litter system includes: * Previous studies showed that if all being equal, layers produce more eggs on deep litter than in cage system. * It allows the b...

Just like any other business, poultry farming needs certain requirements for optimum business operation. There are several ways of classifying amenities for poultry farming depending on the type of farming, nature/cost of requirement and farmer's point of view. It can be classified based on importance as BASIC and ADDITIONAL facility or based on cost as FIXED and VARIABLE cost. However it is being classified, certain inputs are more important than others. Classification Of Poultry Facility a) Based On Nature/Cost i.) Fixed cost: These are the inputs that once they are obtained, they can be used for a long period of time without replacement but only need to be maintained. Typical example of such requirements are land, poultry house, feeders, drinkers, cages, electrical wiring and gadgets etc.  ii.) Variable cost: They are the farm inputs that are recurrent i.e they cannot be used for very long period of time but need to be purchase at the beginning of every stocking op...

Noilers are basically raised for meat even though they also lay eggs. Their meat is tougher than that of broiler but not as that of local chicken. Noilers are multi coloured compared to broilers which are mainly white and the pullets that are mostly brown. As at now, Noilers can only be found (as Amo Noiler) at the Amo farm located in Awe area of Oyo in Oyo State. a) Feed Requirement Amo Noiler feed on the same feeds used for other birds but were limited to chickmash and grower mash. The birds eat more than other breeds but they are good converters of feeds because the weight is higher than that of cockerel at maturity. There are Male and Female lines of Amo Noiler. The females start laying from the 17th week which means, for optimum performance, they have to be separated from male line by 10th week (70 days). Hence, their feeding programs are slightly different. The feeding program is highlighted below based on the gender line: i) Males 0-28 days: Broiler starter 29-70 days: Gr...

Feed and space are essential factors that should be properly monitored for profitable commercial broiler production. Poor or inadequate feed can lead to poor growth, runts, diseases and infections. Space should be just enough for optimum broiler production as inadequate space promotes overcrowding, Heat Stress and high temperature-related infections. For a sensitive farmer, there are many methods of determining the required space and the quality, quantity of feed for broilers at different age. This is being based on the practical experience and in-depth research. Feed Requirement There are two major types of feed for broilers: the broiler starter and the broiler finisher. The difference between the two is in their protein content. Starter is more proteinous than finisher... Read More on types of feed. The broiler feed conversion ratio is 2 i.e your broiler can use 3 kg of feed to develop 1.5 kg of meat, if all thing being equal. It is simple to determine the quantity of feed requi...

This article mainly consider mineral and vitamins as the essential nutrients for poultry. In the context of nutrition, a mineral is a chemical element required as an essential nutrient by organisms to perform functions necessary for life. Minerals originate in the earth and cannot be made by living organisms while Wikipedia defines a vitamin as an organic molecule (or related set of molecules) which is an essential micronutrient. That is, a substance which an organism needs in small quantities for the proper functioning of its metabolism but cannot synthesize, either at all or in sufficient quantities, and therefore must obtain through its diet. One of the major problem related to domestic and commercial poultry farming is poor or inadequate feeding programme which results to vitamin and mineral deficiencies for the birds. This leads to deficiency diseases, especially when formulated feed are not used. Minerals Minerals are important to the growth, development and overall health of ...

Feed efficiency has to do with the utilization of digested feed and feed conversion ratio in broilers or other birds like cockerels, layers, pheasant, turkey and so on. Do not mistake feed wastage with feed efficiency. Improved feed efficiency also improve profitability, feed should have all necessary diets like digestible crude protein, amino acid and fibre contents. Below are some of the tips of improving the broiler feed efficiency. 1. Keeping The Birds Healthy Sick birds do not grow fast which shows that feed efficiency is not ideal. This is because sick birds don't eat much as healthy birds, they even use the little they eat to fight diseases. They can even consume muscle protein which will enhance reduction in body weight. Birds should be thoroughly medicated and vaccinated to stay healthy. Cleanliness of the poultry environment should also be attended to. 2. Avoiding Hot Spot In The Feed Silos Mold growth easily occur to the feed store in an uncleaned silos during w...

About 75% of the capital spent on poultry business is for feeding. Hence, one has to be highly careful in preventing birds from wasting the feed. There are several ways of avoiding feed wastage of which the major and most common ways are discussed below. 1. Using The Right Feeders The two types of feeders are Straight feeder and Round feeder. In both types, feed wastage can be prevented by using the feeder with lip,  ensuring the feeder not more than half or one-third filled, hanging the feeder at the level of the bird's back and the feeder should be at least 7cm deep. 2. Get Rid Of Rats A rat can eat about 12kg of feed and waste over 36kg of feed on yearly basis. Rats also promote spread of viral diseases through mouth contact with feed. Make sure the feed store is rat-proof, you can even use trap to catch those that have gained entrance to the feed store. 3. Debeaking Debeaking or Beak trimming is the cutting of the sharp points of the lower and upper beak. This should be ...

Just as human being need balanced diet that is made up of different classes of food, birds require different types of feed at different stages of growth. Below are the types of feed given to broilers, layers and cockerels. 1. Feed for Broilers A. Broiler Starter: This is high in protein, about 22-24% Digestible Crude Protein (DCP), and energy. It is given from day old until 4-6 weeks old. At this stage, a chick needs at least 2.65kg of feed.  B. Broiler Finisher: This is expected to contain about 18-20% DCP depending on the marketing target of the farmer. It has a lower protein and energy content than starter. It is given from about 4-6 weeks until targeted table weight is attained. Since broilers are meant for meat production, they require feed with a higher content of DCP. A bird will need within 2.5kg to 4kg at this stage of their life. Therefore, you will need the followings to make 70 kg of broiler starter. * Whole maize = 40 kg * Fish meal (Omena) = 12 kg * Soya beans ...