The range: area, fencing, shade, rotation, predators, parasites
In the coloured chicken track, you learned that a range is possible from 4 to 5 weeks if the farm is fenced and protected. This specialisation goes further: how many square metres per chicken, what kind of fence, how much shade, how to rotate the plots so that the soil does not become a reservoir of worms and coccidia, and how to read the traces left by a predator. Everything is calculated on a flock of 1,000 Hubbard Premium coloured chickens from NEXTEKCI in Agnibilékrou, housed in an 8 m wide open-sided house.
14 min read · 5-question quiz at the end
By Abdul Hussein ChoumanFounder of NEXTEKCI · Agnibilékrou hatchery since 2006This lesson is part of Free-range poultry and festive markets specialisation. It opens to every registered student, from free registration. Levels 1 to 5 and the tracks remain readable by everyone.
In the coloured chicken track, you learned that a range is possible from 4 to 5 weeks if the farm is fenced and protected. This specialisation goes further: how many square metres per chicken, what kind of fence, how much shade, how to rotate the plots so that the soil does not become a reservoir of worms and coccidia, and how to read the traces left by a predator. Everything is calculated on a flock of 1,000 Hubbard Premium coloured chickens from NEXTEKCI in Agnibilékrou, housed in an 8 m wide open-sided house.
- ✓Size a range: area per chicken, number of plots, length of fencing, number of pop-holes
- ✓Install shade and water in the right place and in sufficient quantity for a hot climate
- ✓Organise the rotation of plots and the resting of the soil between two flocks
- ✓Recognise the signs of a predator or a parasite and apply the right preventive action
- What we call a range, and what it really brings
- The area: how many square metres per chicken
- The fence and the pop-holes
- Shade and water on the range
- Rotation: letting the soil rest
- Predators and parasites: reading the signs
- Going further
- •Range: 2 m² per chicken minimum, 4 m² for comfort; for 1,000 chickens, two plots of 1,000 m² on either side of an 8 m by 25 m house.
- •House: manufacturers indicate 6 to 8 coloured chickens per m²; NEXTEKCI advises 5 to 6 per m² in the hot season.
- •Fence 1.8 to 2 m, fine mesh on the bottom 50 cm, foot buried 20 to 30 cm; one 1 m pop-hole for every 100 to 150 chickens.
- •Shade: 1 m² for every 8 chickens, far from the pop-holes; water: one 10 L drinker for every 80 to 100 chickens, in the shade.
- •Rotation every two weeks, three weeks' rest per plot, six weeks for the whole range between two flocks; bring in, count, close every evening.