Poultry Raising
BROODER WITH CORRAL FOR 200 CHICKS
This chick brooder (see Figure 1) is hinged for easy access
to corral and brooder.
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The brooder has been used successfully in Ecuador and
elsewhere to raise broilers
for a cash crop.
The brooder is heated by a regular electric light bulb,
placed under the brooder
floor. Depending on the temperature rise required, the
wattage of the light bulb
will have to be chosen by experimentation. The metal floor
and roof prevent
predators such as rats from entering the brooder. If
electric power is not
available, an excavation can be made for a lantern. Be sure
the lantern has
adequate ventilation.
Tools and Materials
Small carpentry tools
Hardware cloth 1.2 x 2m (4' x 6' 6 3/4"), 2 pieces this
size needed.
Aluminum roofing:
1 piece: 1.2m x
1.6m (4' x 5'3")
1 piece: 1.2m x
1.7m (4' x 5'7")
Wood, approximately 30cm x 2cm x 20m (1' x 3/4" x
65'8")
Steel rod 1cm (3/8") diameter x 3.2m (10' 6")
4 hinges about 8cm (3 1/8") long
Woodscrews for hinges
2 buckets clean dry sand
Nails, tacks, staples
Source:
Kreps, George. Article in Rural Missions, #122, Agricultural
Missions, Inc.
KEROSENE LAMP BROODER FOR 75 TO 100 CHICKS
This brooder has been used by more than 300 farmers in
eastern Nigeria.
Nail legs to side (see Figure 2). If
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desired, make the height of the
brooder adjustable by drilling a row
of holes in each leg and bolting
the legs to the sides.
Assemble and nail top support rails 1cm (3/8") below
the upper edge of the sides
(see Figure 3).
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Make the top of plywood, sheet metal, or wooden boards so
that the top fits
inside the frame and rests on the support rails (see Figure
4). The hole in the
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center of the top is for ventilation. A swinging metal cover
regulates the size of
the opening.
A bush or hurricane lamp is placed inside wire mesh or a
perforated tin can to
protect the chicks and to help radiate the heat (see Figure
5).
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The dimensions given in the illustrations can be altered
slightly to use available
materials.
The wicks of the lanterns should be cleaned daily to cut
down on soot.
Source:
W. H. McCluskey, Poultry Science Department, Oregon State
University, Corvallis.
BROODER FOR 300 CHICKS
This brooder (see Figure 6) is similar to the other two
brooders. It can be used
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with either lanterns or electric light bulbs. If lanterns
are used, their wicks
should be cleaned daily. Construction details are given in
Figure 7.
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Source:
Stopper, W.W. "Brooder for 300 Chicks". New Delhi:
U.S. Technical Cooperation
Mission to India. (Mimeographed).
BAMBOO POULTRY HOUSE
This bamboo poultry house has a thatch roof and slat walls
to provide good
ventilation. The elevated slat floor keeps chickens clean
and healthy while the
egg catch and feed troughs simplify maintenance. It has been
used successfully in
the Philippines and Liberia.
Tools and Materials
Bamboo
Nails
Thatching materials
Small tools
House
The house is built on a frame of small poles, with floor
poles raised about 1m (3')
from the ground. (See section on construction with bamboo,
p. 302.) The floor
poles are covered with large bamboo stalks, split into
strips 38mm (1 1/2") wide,
spaced 38mm (1 1/2") apart. Floors so constructed have
several advantages: better
ventilation, no problem of wet moldy litter during rainy
reason or dry dusty litter
during dry season; droppings fall between split reeds to
ground away from
chickens. This eliminates parasites and diseases normally
passed from hen to hen
through droppings remaining warm and moist in litter.
However, it has been
suggested that wide spacing of floor and wall slats might
invite marauders such as
weasels and snakes.
Metal shields on all the support poles will keep rats and
other pests from
climbing (see Figure 1a). Be sure you don't inadvertently
leave a hoe or other
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tool leaning against the house, or the rats will climb that.
(Note: A VITA grain
storage project in Central African Republic has had good
results protecting
granaries-not poultry houses-with
a flat band of metal
[Figure 1b] that is simply
wrapped around each granary
support. This kind of guard is
cheaper and easier to install
and maintain than the flared
collar. Make the guard about
25cm wide and about 20 cm
from the ground. You may
have to experiment a bit to
match the size and placement
of the guard to the size and
climbing ability of the rats in
your neighborhood.)
Walls are made from vertical strips of bamboo 38mm (1
1/2") wide, spaced 6cm to
8cm (2 1/2" to 3") apart. This also allows ample
ventilation, needed to furnish
oxygen to the chickens and to allow evaporation of excess
moisture produced in
the droppings. In the tropics the problem is to keep
chickens cool, not warm.
Using a dosed or tight-walled poultry house with a solid
floor would keep them
too warm and result in lowered production and increased
respiratory problems.
Shade over and around these houses is very important. If the
ground around the
houses is not shaded, heat will bounce into the houses.
Roof
The roof must protect the chickens from the weather. In
Liberia thatch roofing
keeps the birds cool, but it must be replaced more often
than most other
materials. Since it is cheap and readily available to the
small farmer or rural
family, it is most likely to be used. Aluminum, which
reflects the heat of the sun,
and asbestos, an efficient insulator, are desirable roofing
materials in the tropics.
Zinc, which is commonly used to roof houses in Liberia, is
undesirable for chicken
houses because it is an efficient conductor of heat.
Whatever the roofing material the roof must have an overhang
of 1m (3') on all
sides to prevent rain from blowing inside the house. It may
be desirable to slope
the overhang toward the ground.
Feeders
Feeders and waterers are made from 10cm to 12.5cm (4"
to 5") diameter bamboo
of the desired length (see Figure 2). A node or joint must
be left intact in each
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end of the bamboo section to keep the feed or water in. A
section 7.5cm to 10cm
(3" to 4") wide around half the
circumference of the bamboo,
except for 7.5cm (3") sections on
the ends, is removed to make a
kind of trough. All nodes between
the ends are removed. These
feeders must be fastened at the
base, to keep them from rolling.
The feeders are fastened to the
outside of the walls about 15cm
(6") above floor level. The hens
place their heads through the
bamboo strips to feed or drink,
thus conserving floor space for
additional chickens.
Nests
The demonstration nests are 38cm (15") long, 30cm
(12") wide, and 35.5cm (14")
high (see Figure 3). The strips used on the floor of the
nest are about 13mm
(1/2") wide, spaced 13mm (1/2") apart, and must be
very smooth. The floor slopes
13mm (1/2") from front to back, so that when the eggs
are laid they will roll to
the back of the nest. An opening 5cm (2") high at the
back of the nest allows
the eggs to roll out of the nest into an egg catch (see
Figure 1). This type of
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nest results in cleaner eggs and fewer broken eggs. It also
yields better quality
eggs because they begin to cool as soon as they roll out of
the nest. In addition,
the eggs are outside the nest where egg eating hens cannot
reach them. Placing
the egg catch so it protrudes outside the wall of the house
allows the eggs to be
gathered from outside. Placing the nests 1 meter (3') above
the floor conserves
floor space and permits more laying hens to be placed in the
laying house. One
nest is put in for every five hens.
In laying houses, nests are also constructed of split bamboo
for unobstructed
ventilation. Conventional lumber nests are hotter; this may
cause hens to lay eggs
on the floor instead of in the nests. This means more dirty
eggs, more broken
eggs, and more likelihood of the hens eating the broken
eggs. The only way to
cure a hen of eating eggs once the habit is formed is to
kill her. In addition, as
the hens enter the nests they sit on eggs laid previously by
other hens, keeping
them warm. The quality of eggs deteriorates very fast under
these conditions.
Source:
USAID, Monrovia, Liberia, described in OTS Information Kit,
vol. 1, No. 5, May
1961.
POULTRY FEED FORMULAS
Ingredients--Ceylon
Percentage required for Layers
Sorghum
42.0
Rice bran
19.5
Fish meal
8.5
Coconut meal
18.5
Gingelly (sesamus indicum) cake
2.0
Cowpeas
3.0
Shell grit
6.5
Salt
0.5
TOTAL
100.5
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Added per 100.5 kg:
Potassium Iodide (g)
0.145
Choline Chloride (21.7%)(g)
540
Ingredients--Congo
Percentage required for Layers
Maize ground
20.0
Millet, ground
18.0
Rice, husk, ground
10.0
Fish meal
4.0
Meat meal
5.0
Groundnut cake meal
25.0
Lucerne meal
12.0
Dicalcium phosphate
2.0
Oyster shells
3.0
Salt
1.0
TOTAL
100.0
Ingredients--Uruguay
Percentage required for Layers
Ground maize
40.0
Ground wheat
5.0
Sorghum
3.0
Ground barley
20.0
Bran
10.0
Meat meal
7.0
Ground sunflower cake
10.0
Oyster shells
4.0
Salt
1.0
TOTAL
100.0
Compiled by Harlan Attfield, from Poultry Feeding in
Tropical and Subtropical
Countries, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations, Rome.
