Preparation mistakes

1. Ordering before the poultry house is ready. The delivery date adapts to the poultry house, never the other way round. Safeguard: the day-before checklist, signed, before confirming.

2. Overstocking the poultry house. You calculate with day-old chicks instead of chickens at selling age, and you put 5,000 birds where 3,000 fit. Safeguard: usable floor area × stocking density at sale, written down in black and white.

3. Relying on luck for heat and water. No spare gas cylinder, no two-day water reserve, no plan if the power goes off. Safeguard: a back-up solution for heat and for water, tested before arrival.

Mistakes in the first days

4. Nobody there at night. The heating failure at 2 in the morning kills them in piles. Safeguard: someone present at night for the first three nights, checks recorded.

5. Ice-cold water, or no water ready. The chicks do not drink, get chilled, start late. Safeguard: drinkers filled two hours beforehand, water at room temperature, crop check at 8 h and 24 h.

6. Treating at random. An antibiotic “as a precaution”, products mixed into the water without advice, a vaccine given without respecting the cold chain. Safeguard: a local veterinarian identified before arrival, and nothing in the water without their advice or that of the supervisor.

Management mistakes

7. Leaving damp litter. Around leaking drinkers, a damp patch becomes a coccidiosis patch within a few days. Safeguard: remove and replace wet areas every day, set the drinkers at back height.

8. Visitors and equipment moving about. The neighbouring farmer who comes to have a look, shoes from town, bags put down on the ground. Safeguard: a single entrance, a filled footbath, dedicated boots, and the rule “you do not visit a poultry farm”.

9. No figures. Without a daily record sheet, you know neither how many bags have been eaten, nor how many birds have died, nor what weight they are. You can neither calculate nor learn. Safeguard: the record sheet filled in every day, read every week by the entrepreneur.

The mistake at the end

10. Selling late, or without a buyer. With white broilers, every day beyond selling weight eats into the margin. With any production, finding out at the end that you have no buyer forces you to sell at whatever price the first comer offers. Safeguard: the buyer is found before the order, the selling date is written on the record sheet from the first day, and you remind the buyer of it a week beforehand.

These ten mistakes have one thing in common: they are corrected before they happen, through a list, a rule or a designated person. That is exactly what an entrepreneur does: they do not watch over the chickens, they put in place the system that watches over them.

Before the level 1 exam

The exam covers the eight lessons of this level: twenty questions, 80% correct answers to pass, three attempts per day. Reread the Key points boxes of each lesson; they contain the essentials. Your level 1 certificate will be issued automatically if you pass.

For the entrepreneur

›Print this list and put it up in the feed store: ten lines, ten safeguards.
›Appoint someone responsible for each safeguard (night, water, record sheet, visitors): a safeguard with nobody responsible does not exist.
›Find the buyer before the order, and write the selling date on the record sheet from the first day.

For the technician

›Damp litter removed every day; drinkers adjusted and not leaking.
›Footbath filled and renewed; nobody comes in without dedicated boots.
›The daily record sheet is filled in before leaving the poultry house, every day, even when all is well.

The 3 questions to ask your technician this week

Which of these ten mistakes threatens us most today, and what are we doing to avoid it?
Who is responsible for the night, the water, the record sheet and the footbath, and do they know it?
What is the selling date written on the record sheet, and has the buyer confirmed it?

Key points

•The ten mistakes: poultry house not ready, overstocking, no back-up for heat/water, nobody at night, ice-cold or no water, treating at random, damp litter, visitors, no figures, selling late or without a buyer.
•Every mistake has a simple safeguard: a list, a rule, a designated person.
•The entrepreneur does not watch over the chickens: they put in place the system that watches over them.
•The buyer is found before the order; the selling date is written down from the first day.

The 10 mistakes of a first flock, and how to avoid them