Farming & weekly Agricultural news and guide by pamoja tuboreshe ukulima interaction

 What should come first, the chicken or the egg?

The egg

As a farmer who aspires to become a big-time poultry keeper, buying eggs and incubating them is a cheaper farming method. However, for a first-time farmer, this process can seem costly and one that requires expertise. Those two phrases are quite contradictory but continue Reading, and you'll understand why;

●     Having an egg as a farmer requires you to invest in a good incubator fast. It automatically turns the eggs is much better done than the manual one.

●     The incubator process;

➢     Must ensure that all your incubation equipment is working properly. A good incubator has a setter that controls temperature humidity and turning for the first 19 days. Secondly, it should have a Hatcher who is designed to hold the newly hatched chicks. Thirdly, you should have a compressed air system that will blow dust and do all the dry-cleaning in the hatchery. Fourthly, ensure there's an emergency standby electric plant or generator.

➢     Make a checklist of all your egg handling equipment such as egg trays and egg candler. Egg candling is important because it will help users conclude that you're ugly sparing on in terms of germ development, bloody white cells, blood spots, and meat spots.

➢     The incubating process takes 21 days to complete. Handle the eggs to be incubated with care stop touching them. Avoid washing or wiping dirty eggs because it removes the protective coating on the eggshell and exposing it to the entry of diseases and other mechanisms such as distortion. Remember, eggshells have breathable pores.

The chick

Getting young chicken, it's more or less like getting a newborn baby. You have to be very careful about handling them, which includes having a plan before and after receiving those day-old chicks.

Pre-placement checklist

●     A source of heat with a backup jiko just in case of a blackout

●      ensure minimum ventilation to allow the escape of extra unwanted gases

●     Ensure to cover your brooder weather any paper such as old newspapers. The spread papers will be used as their feeding cover area for an approximate of 4 days

●      Disinfect your area and make a foot bath for anyone entering the brooder. If possible, avoid people visiting the brooder when the chicks are still young

●      On the day of the chicks' sealing, make sure you preheat the room to increase the floor temperature rather than the room temperature in general.

●     Add in the prettiest drinking water vitamins and glucose. Once the check arrived, let them drink this for the first hour or so.

●     Choose your words wisely by reading reviews of other farmers on different food processing brands.

●     Put in place a good lighting system such as an infrared bulb.

How to build your brooder

●     Building a brooder is simple, and you can use readily available materials to cash the cost of production. You can build up around brooder by joining boxes power cut plywood and form a circular shape. For the Flooring of the brooder, you can use grass or Wood shavings. Day-old chicks should not sleep on a cold hard floor.

●      Ensure a heat source is placed in a central place in the brooder to emit and even temperature. Choose a source of heat that will not only reduce sperm overheads but will increase productivity and flock uniformity. Adequate warmth is a key parameter to evaluate and target later while still in the early boarding phase. A quick tip: The average brooding cost per chick should be between ksh4.5 to ksh7.5 depending on the various aspects such as through the insulation weather pattern or season and overall farm management. Compared with charcoal, gas brooding is more efficient, cheaper, and easier to manage, But with gas, once the temperature is required, the rest is to maintain by setting the equipment. Another cheaper thought inefficient method is briquettes, which will cost between 7.5 to 10 per bird. Since charcoal and briquettes die out at a period of 4 hours, this may bring a  long-term disadvantage to the farmer due to the chicks' uniform growth. 

To answer the question earlier, I asked, which should come first, the chicken or the egg? There are so many things to consider and work towards religiously.

                                             pamoja tuboreshe ukulima