- ✓Know what a daily record sheet must contain, and what you get out of it
- ✓Set up the weekly check: feed stocks, consistency of the figures
- ✓Make the record sheet a tool of trust, not of mistrust
What the record sheet contains
One sheet per house and per flock, one line per day. The columns that count:
- Date and age of the flock (day 1, day 2…).
- Temperature at bird height, morning and evening (and at night during brooding).
- Water consumed (litres, or number of drinkers filled, or meter reading).
- Feed given out (bags or kilos) and remaining stock in bags.
- Deaths and culls for the day, with a word on what was seen; cumulative total.
- Observations: behaviour, droppings, litter, curtains, breakdowns, visitors.
- Treatments and vaccines: product, dose, time, prescribed by whom, withdrawal period.
- Every week: average weight, uniformity, number weighed.
A school exercise book with these columns drawn with a ruler is enough. NEXTEKCI also offers a flock notebook (broilers) and a laying notebook ready to print: ask for them on WhatsApp at +225 05 44 83 27 79.
What the record sheet reveals
Everything you have learnt in this level can be read on the record sheet: water consumption that should rise, feed compared with weight, the day’s mortality compared with the threshold, the night-time temperature. A well-kept record sheet lets you go back in time: “the curve broke in week 4; that week, we changed bags and there were two nights when the gas ran out”. Without a record sheet, you blame the chicks, the feed or luck.
It is also the document asked for by the veterinarian (to understand), the serious buyer (for treatments and withdrawal periods) and the banker (to lend: three documented flocks are worth more than a speech).
The two pairs of eyes
The technician fills it in every day, before leaving the house. The entrepreneur (or a second trusted person) checks it every week:
- The bags: bags received since the start − bags given out according to the record sheet = bags that should be in the store. You count them. A discrepancy is a writing error or a leak: either way, you want to know.
- Consistency: water consumption compared with feed (1.6 to 2), feed compared with weight, mortality compared with the observations.
- The birds: a walk round the house with the record sheet in hand. What you see must match what is written.
The check is not a sign of mistrust: it is the same principle as the double signature at the bank. A serious technician asks to be checked, because the checked record sheet is their best protection on the day something goes wrong.
Keeping the record sheet alive
- The record sheet stays in the house (or the feed store), protected in a sleeve, with a pen attached.
- Every week, a photo of the record sheet sent on WhatsApp to the entrepreneur, even when away.
- At the end of the flock, a one-page summary: chicks received, sold, dead (%), total feed (bags, kg), average selling weight, feed conversion ratio, selling price, remarks. This summary is the basis of the “margin per flock” lesson in level 4.
- Keep the record sheets for at least two years: they are your history, and sometimes an obligation.
For the entrepreneur
- ›Introduce the weekly check of the bags and the record sheet, on a fixed day, yourself or through a trusted person.
- ›Ask for the photo of the record sheet every week; a record sheet left empty for a week is a warning sign, not a detail.
- ›Do the one-page summary at the end of every flock and keep it: three summaries are worth a training course.
For the technician
- ›Record sheet filled in every day before leaving the house, even when everything is going well.
- ›Stock of bags written down every day; ready to be counted at any time.
- ›Every treatment, vaccine or product written down with dose, date, prescriber and withdrawal period.
The 3 questions to ask your technician this week
- Show me yesterday’s record sheet: are temperature, water, feed and deaths all filled in?
- How many bags should there be in the store according to the record sheet, and how many are there really?
- What treatments appear on the record sheet since the start of the flock?
Key points
- •One line per day: temperature, water, feed and stock, deaths and culls, observations, treatments; weight every week.
- •The record sheet lets you go back in time and is used by the veterinarian, the buyer and the banker.
- •Two pairs of eyes: the technician fills it in, the entrepreneur checks it every week (bags counted, consistency, walk round the house).
- •Weekly photo on WhatsApp; one-page summary at the end of the flock; record sheets kept for two years.
- •The NEXTEKCI flock and laying notebooks are offered on request.