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• The chapter provides insight on poultry farming, including different types of poultry, housing, feeding, disease control, treatment, farm record keeping, and routine management.
• Poultry farming is both a science and an art form, using a scientific approach to optimize production with creative analysis and decision-making.
• The 2 main areas of poultry production are meat and egg production.
• The poultry sub-sector provides meat, eggs, employment, and contributes to a country's revenue.
• Common poultry in Nigeria includes chickens, ducks, guinea fowls, turkeys, peagoens, and ostriches, with chickens being the predominant choice.
• The projected profit per broiler is N300.

DOC (Day Old Chick) Production

• Fertilized eggs are hatched after 21 + 1 days using an incubator at 37.5°c to 39.5°c.
• Candling is a process used to check if an egg is fertilized by shining a light through it to see if it has an embryo.
• There are 2 methods of egg fertilization: natural mating and artificial insemination.
• Natural mating involves a cock with high genetic value mating with a hen.
• Artificial insemination involves collecting semen from a cock and inseminating the hen after semen evaluation.

Brooding Room

• This room has a controlled temperature to keep DOC for a maximum of 4 weeks.
• Turkey should be brooded alongside boilers to learn how to feed and drink.
• The brooding room should be disinfected with germicide before the arrival of DOCs.
• An active footbath, washed feeders/drinkers, and a heat source like an electric bob or charcoal needs to be in the brooding room.
• Wood shavings or newspaper are required at the floor, and a good lighting system should be available.
• Upon arrival, DOCs require water containing glucose to ease transportation stress and starter mash for feed.
• The heating system must be well controlled.
• Birds clustering together indicates the heat is too low.
• Birds isolating themselves from the heat source indicates the heat is too high.
• Birds evenly distributed around the brooding house indicate the heat is sufficient.
• Antibiotics are administered on the second day via drinking water, with antibacterial options such as doxygen, tylodox extral, and keprocyril effective in young chick treatment within 3-5 days.

Vaccination Schedule

• Day 7-10: Administer IBD vaccine with skimmed milk to stabilize the chlorine content, withholding water from young chicks for an hour before administration to increase drinking appetite, followed by an hour before fresh water.
• Week 2: Administer anticoccidia drugs for 3-5 days to treat and prevent coccidiosis (drugs include coccifor, centre dicox, coccicare, amprolum, pantacox), adjusting dosage according to the early stage, repeating every 2 weeks.
• 10-17 days: Administer the second vaccine against Newcastle disease (ND) and re-administer IBD alongside ND at a week interval to avoid vaccine failure.
• Week 4: Prevent or treat Chronic Respiratory Disease (CRD) for 3-5 days using antibiotics, such as tylosin, tetracycline, or erytromycine, and give vitamin supplements post-treatment.
• Week 7: Administer anti-hermis drugs for endo and ecto parasite prevention, with endo parasite treatment done within 24 hours (wormazine, leaverdex, zodex) and ecto parasite treatment repeated bi-weekly.
• Week 8-12: Carry out NDVK vaccine, fowl pox vaccine and debeaking for layers and breeders.
  • NDVK vaccine is administered intramuscularly at 0.5ml per bird using normal saline.
  • Fowl pox vaccine is administered with its delient.
• Week 16: Administer a triple vaccine, combining ND (Newcastle disease), IB (infectious bursal), and EDS (egg drop syndrome), through intramuscular injection at 0.5ml per bird. Signs of coccidiosis include loss of appetite, ruffle feather, white dropping, blood stain on dropping, and high motility. Signs of CRD include standing with eyes closed, difficulty in breathing, mucus in the respiratory tract, and loss of appetite.

Layer and Boiler Feeding

• Layers:
  • Week 1-8: chick mash
  • Week 8-18: grower mash
  • Week 18 and above: layer mash
• Broilers:
  • Week 1-2: super starter mash
  • Week 2-6: starter mash
  • Week 6-8: finisher mash
• Birds should attain a body weight of 1.4 for egg production.
• Proper feeding can achieve the desired weight by 16 weeks. Layer mash can be used once egg production starts.
• Larger flocks should have 10-20% production before using layer mash.
• Broilers should reach table size by 8 weeks with proper feeding.

Housing

• There are 2 methods of housing birds: battery cage system and deep litter system.
• Battery cage system is preferred for layers.
• Deep litter systems are preferred for broilers.

Routine Management

• Changing the entrance footbath with disinfectant.
• Checking mortality and the condition of the birds.
• Monitoring temperature and flock behavior.
• Ensuring uniform feed distribution.
• Washing/flushing water troughs with/without disinfectant.
• Providing water with/without medication.
• Spraying the flock with a bio-security product.
• Sweeping the floor.
• Maintaining fecal dryness.
• Dusting nets, roofs, and cages.
• Checking nipple water availability.
• Rubbing feed for increased consumption.
• Preventing visitors and weed growth.
• Grading birds to sort runts.

Record Keeping

• Maintaining daily records is vital for a successful poultry business, starting on day one.
• The record card should include breed, source, date, and the number of chicks.
  • Average Daily feed consumption/bird = (Total quantity of feed in kg / Daily Total population) x 1000 = ANS in g/bird
  • Mortality = (Cumulative total number of mortality / Total No of chicks stocked in the poutry) X 100
  • Livability = 100% - mortality
  • Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) = Total Feed Consumed over a period / Weight gain over same period
• Poultry farming yields profits under proper management.
• Farmers need to follow the vaccination and medication process.
• Veterinary services should be consulted when there is an outbreak.
• Inadequate profit distribution affects the poultry industry.