Field exercise: keep the record of the first 30 days of a flock

This lesson is part of The day-old chick: the first 30 days specialisation. It opens to every registered student, from free registration. Levels 1 to 5 and the tracks remain readable by everyone.

Everything you have learned in the previous eight lessons fits on a single sheet: the flock record. Every day it says whether the heat was right, whether water went up, whether the feed was eaten, how many chicks died and why. Without it, you tell the story of the flock from memory and you get it wrong; with it, you read the flock in two minutes and you act the same day. This exercise has you keep, on your own flock or on the example flock of 2,000 chicks, the complete record of the first 30 days, and above all teaches you to read it.

• ✓Build the record of the first 30 days: header, daily table, weekly weighings, summary
• ✓Record the six columns every day at the moment of the action, with the right equipment
• ✓Read the record with the five readings and decide, with worked examples
• ✓Write the brooding summary on day 30: liveability, weight, feed, and what to change for the next flock

1. What the exercise teaches you, and the equipment it needs
2. Step 1: the header, filled in before arrival and completed on day 1
3. Step 2: the daily table, from day 1 to day 30
4. Step 3: the weekly weighings
5. Reading the record: the five readings and two worked examples
6. The brooding summary on day 30
7. Going further

• •The record of the first 30 days has three parts: the header with the zero point (received, dead on opening, arrival weight), the six-column daily table, the weekly weighings; it is filled in at the moment of the action.
• •The five readings every evening: is water going up, is mortality within the curve (≈ 1 % on D7, 2 to 3 % on D30), is weight on target (4 times the arrival weight on D7), is the water-to-feed ratio stable, did every observation get its action.
• •Percentages are always calculated on the number received: 21 deaths out of 2,000 = 1.05 %; liveability = (received − dead and culled) ÷ received × 100.
• •The signal of the day calls the same day: water falling, deaths rising or abnormal droppings → check within the hour, veterinarian of the area, photos to +225 05 44 83 27 79.
• •The day 30 summary fits in six lines and ends with what you change for the next flock.