4 measures to raise chickens in cold weather

Livestock and poultry experts pointed out that when the ambient temperature changes suddenly, it will have the greatest impact on chickens raised on the ground. Chickens may have a temperature stress response, and the nervous system, endocrine system, digestive system, and immune system will experience physiological disorders, and their resistance will decline. It is easy to cause disease and growth is hindered if it is conquered.

Due to the need for heat preservation, the ventilation of the chicken house is reduced, which can easily lead to over-humidity and moldy litter, outbreaks of coccidia infection, mycotoxin poisoning, and respiratory diseases.

 Mainly the following 4 aspects：

1. Enhance the airtightness of the chicken house and take measures to keep the chicken house warm.
2. Clean the coop and keep it dry
3. Pay attention to the hygiene of the chicken coop and disinfect it regularly
4. Adjust the nutritional level of the diet to enhance the resistance of the chicken body

In detail, how to do these 4 aspects?

 1. Enhance the airtightness of the chicken house and take measures to keep the chicken house warm.

•  It is necessary to carefully check whether the water pipes in the poultry house are leaking, whether there is a place where the wind can enter, ensure that the walls, doors and windows are sealed, and reduce air leakage. Conditional chicken houses can use insulation and heating facilities.
•  Because the doors and windows of the chicken house are tightly closed and the ventilation volume is reduced, the waste gas emitted by the chicken and the ammonia, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and other harmful gases produced by the fermentation of chicken manure will accumulate in the chicken house, which can easily induce respiratory diseases in the chicken. Therefore, to ensure the necessary ventilation of the chicken house, the fan should be set to the lowest ventilation mode on the premise of fresh air.
•  When the weather is good at noon, you can properly open the window to ventilate, so that the air in the chicken house is fresh and the oxygen is sufficient to prevent problems before they happen. 

2. Clean the coop and keep it dry.

•  Due to the small ventilation in the chicken farm, the hot air in the house will condense a large amount of water droplets, resulting in excessive humidity in the chicken coop, creating conditions for the proliferation of bacteria and parasites.
• Therefore, we must strengthen management, pay attention to keeping the chicken house clean and dry, clean up the poultry manure in time, thicken the litter appropriately, and the litter must be fully dried to prevent mildew.

3. Pay attention to the hygiene of the chicken coop and disinfect it regularly.

• Due to the cold weather, the resistance of chickens is generally weakened. If disinfection is neglected, it will easily lead to outbreaks of diseases and cause heavy losses. Therefore, it is necessary to do a good job of disinfection, and disinfect the chickens at least once a week.
• During disinfection, drugs to prevent intestinal and respiratory diseases can be added to the drinking water to eliminate stress sources as much as possible, reasonably arrange the time for feeding, beak trimming, immunization, etc., and eliminate and clean up sick chickens in time.

4. Adjust the nutritional level of the diet to enhance the resistance of the chicken body.

• When the weather is cold, the maintenance energy of the chicken needs to increase. When the temperature fluctuation range is small, it is enough to increase the feeding amount; when the temperature drops significantly, the proportion of corn and oil in the feed should be appropriately increased, and the crude protein should be adjusted to a reasonable concentration. for higher feed conversion efficiency.
• When formulating feed, pay attention to the quality of feed raw materials, ensure a certain proportion of protein, and remove moldy components, or add effective detoxification additives to the feed to meet the physiological and production needs of chickens;
• Appropriately increase the content of vitamins and trace elements in the feed, enhance the physique of the chicken, improve the disease resistance and production capacity of the chicken, and improve the breeding efficiency.