- ✓Prepare the house, water and feed before the chicks arrive
- ✓Place the chicks and read their behaviour in the first hours
- ✓Manage the first 10 days and measure how successful brooding has been
Why the first days matter so much
The first 14 days decide the success of the flock. Up to 5 days, the chick cannot regulate its temperature; it only does so fully at 14 days. During this time, you are the one who gives it the right heat.
At brooding, the coloured chick needs exactly the same care as a white broiler chick (lesson 4 of this track). This lesson goes through those first days in detail: the day before, the day of arrival, then day by day up to day 10.
A chick that has been cold, has not found water or has gone short of feed eats less, grows less and gives a less even flock. Over a long flock, this delay weighs until the day of the sale.
The day before: everything ready 24 hours ahead
- House cleaned, disinfected and dry; litter in place: rice hulls at least 5 cm deep, or softwood shavings at least 2.5 cm deep.
- Heating switched on at least 48 hours before arrival: floor, air and humidity must be stable 24 hours before.
- Floor at 32 °C at least in the brooding area, and about 40 °C just under the brooders.
- Min-max thermometer at chick height, in the centre of the brooding area: the variation over 24 hours must not exceed 2 °C.
- 14 to 16 drinkers per 1,000 chicks, including chick drinkers, filled with clean water at room temperature.
- 1 tray or paper per 50 chicks, with about 50 to 65 g of crumbled starter feed per chick. The paper covers at least half of the brooding area, close to the drinkers.
- Nothing under the heat source, neither water nor feed; no draught at floor level.
Source: Cobb.
NEXTEKCI coloured chicks are not vaccinated at the hatchery. Contact your area’s veterinarian before the chicks arrive: their protocol, applied on the farm, starts in the very first days.
The day of arrival
- Place the chicks without delay: waiting dehydrates them, which increases mortality and slows growth.
- Lower the light during placement to calm them, set them down gently on the paper, close to water and feed, spread evenly over the whole area.
- Weigh about 5% of the boxes: this gives you the starting weight of the flock.
- Once all the chicks are placed, bring the light back to full: on day 1, light 24 hours a day, bright (about 25 lux), so that they find water and feed.
- After 1 to 2 hours, check all the equipment: heating, water, feed, curtains.
2 hours after arrival, look at your chicks: their position tells you whether the heat is right.
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Chicks spread everywhere, active, cheeping normally | The heat is right | Nothing to change, keep watching |
| Chicks huddled under the heat source, noisy | Too cold | Increase the heating, check the floor temperature |
| Chicks drowsy, spread along the edges, away from the heat | Too hot | Lower the heating, ventilate from the top |
| Chicks grouped on one side, noisy | A draught (or noise, or light too bright on one side) | Close off the air passage at chick level |
Source: Cobb.
The two checks of the first day
4 to 6 hours after arrival: take about a hundred chicks and place their feet against your neck or cheek. They should be warm. Cold feet mean a floor that is too cold: the chick is cold inside, it huddles, eats and drinks less. Review the pre-heating.
24 hours after arrival: feel the crop of 100 chicks. At least 95% of crops full and soft: the chicks have found water and feed.
| The crop is… | This means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Full and soft | The chick has found water and feed | This is the right result |
| Full and hard | It has eaten but not drunk enough | Check the water at once |
| Swollen and soft, full of water | It drinks but does not find enough feed | Add paper or trays, check the feed |
| Empty | It has not found anything yet | Check the heat, and that water and feed are within reach |
Source: Cobb.
From day 2 to day 10
- Light: from the 2nd night, a single dark period per 24 hours, always at the same time. If you use lamps above the heat source to attract the chicks, keep them for the first 5 days, then gradually increase the lighting of the whole house to normal lighting by day 10.
- Feed: paper or trays always supplied, topped up 3 times a day, for 7 to 10 days. The bottom must never be visible. Towards the end of the first week, the chicks eat from the main feeders.
- Water: drinkers cleaned every day. In a bell drinker, the water is 0.5 cm from the lip on the first day, then gradually lowered to 1.25 cm (the depth of a thumbnail) after 7 days. Nipples are at eye level for the first 2 to 3 hours, then just above the head.
- Height: raise feeders and drinkers as the birds grow, lip at the height of the birds’ backs.
- Temperature: 32 to 33 °C on day 1, 29 to 30 °C at 7 days, 27 to 28 °C at 14 days.
- Air: no draught on the chicks until 14 days. Air at 0.5 m/s is already enough to chill a day-old chick. Air is renewed by opening the curtains from the top.
Source: Cobb.
If you brood in part of the house, enlarge the area as soon as you can keep the right temperature there:
| Age | Area used (example) |
|---|---|
| Up to 7 days | Half of the house |
| 8 to 10 days | From half to three quarters |
| 11 to 14 days | From three quarters to the whole house |
Source: Cobb. Heat and ventilate the new part 24 hours before releasing the chicks into it.
An ammonia smell that barely bothers a 7-week-old chicken can reduce the growth of a 7-day-old chick by 20%. Dry litter and air renewed from the top, from the very first days.
Measuring brooding success
The 7-day weight is the best indicator of how good brooding has been. Weigh your chicks at 7 days, record the result and compare it from one flock to the next: you will soon see what worked.
Then compare your weighings with the targets for the right type of chicken:
| Chicken | 14 days | 21 days | 28 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red broiler (Redbro) | 319 g | 605 g | 935 g |
| Barred grey, naked-neck red broiler | 309 g | 586 g | 905 g |
| Hybrids | 216 g | 409 g | 633 g |
Indicative Hubbard Premium performance. In an open-sided house, in strong heat, often expect 10 to 25% less.
Record every day on the flock sheet: deaths, feed given, water drunk, minimum and maximum temperature. A drop in water drunk is often the first sign of a problem.
For the entrepreneur
- ›Check the day before that the heating has been running for 48 hours and that the floor is at 32 °C: it is the best investment of the flock.
- ›Provide enough brooding equipment: 14 to 16 drinkers and 20 trays or papers per 1,000 chicks.
- ›Ask for the 7-day weight of each flock and compare it with previous flocks.
For the technician
- ›Place the chicks without delay, on the paper, close to water and feed.
- ›Look at their position 2 hours later, check the feet at 4 to 6 hours and the crops at 24 hours.
- ›Top up paper and trays 3 times a day and raise feeders and drinkers as the days go by.
The 3 questions to ask your technician this week
- What was the floor temperature when the chicks arrived?
- What share of crops was full and soft at 24 hours, and what did you correct?
- What is the average weight at 7 days, compared with our previous flock?
Key points
- •Heating on 48 hours before, floor at 32 °C at least, stable conditions 24 hours before arrival.
- •2 hours after arrival, the position of the chicks tells you whether the heat is right.
- •Warm feet at 4 to 6 hours, 95% of crops full and soft at 24 hours.
- •Feed on paper or trays for 7 to 10 days, topped up 3 times a day; no draught before 14 days.
- •The 7-day weight is the best indicator of brooding.