CAGE SYSTEM CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

CAGE SYSTEM CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

1. Ammonia smell.

This originates from droppings that are some times collected for long time without removing them from the poultry house.Too much ammonia  in the house leads to an outbreak of collibacilosis and other respiratory infections! So we need to watch out. Always remove the droppings atleast every 3 to 6 days, other farmers have sprayed IMO on the droppings and it has successfully worked on in reducing the smell, constructing an open sided roofed kind of table outside the house where the droppings are put after removing them has also been seen to be of help. Cages should be put in a well ventilated poultry house.In many farms, installing more than 3 lines of the cages leads to suffering of the middle lines since all the ammonia smell ends up in the middle lines. Watch your birds! At times when the ammonia is getting worse, the combs may turn purplish…..so you must act so fast.

2. blockages of nipples.

Apart from quality and source of your nipples, they can always fail to function due to the dirt, slurry, and that green stuff that collects  in the water pipes. These are results of vitamins and antibiotics that aren’t highly soluble! So the expicients of drugs and supplements get stuck in the pipes and cause blockage. If not noticed, a cage can take more than 3 days without getting water supply! You should always pass through the cages as you touch the nipples to see if there’s steady water supply. Birds that do not have water will be constipated ( small droppings), empty cages without eggs, some times greenish diarrhea below the cage, pale comb with a lot of dandruff on it On a monthly basis, these pipelines should be flushed with good flushing agents and pressurized water to clean out all the dirt and slurry. Slurry is a breeding ground for lots of bacteria which can cause disease. After flushing, test the nipples again.

3. Recurrent vaccinated diseases.

In this case, there are more outbreaks of Newcastle even if it had been vaccinated. The pipes keep a minimum quantity of water even if the birds had been starved. The water that stays in the pipes will then dilute the vaccine given dia drinking water if the pipes are not opened and drained first before applying the vaccine. Presence of slurry in the pipes ( a combination of dirt and traces of antibiotics) reduces vaccine efficacy. A farmer must flush first before applying the vaccine. Water stabilizer ( VACC SHIELD) Should be applied in the water before adding the vaccine to improve vaccine efficacy.

4. paralysed legs and broken eggs.

This happens because birds accumulate a lot of fats that render the liver non functional . The liver plays a major role in calcium metabolism by facilitating availability of vitamin D3. Presence of fats in the liver leads to absence of vitamin D3. And this automatically means there won’t be proper cal ium metabolism. Addition of liquid calcium is a mistake if the liver is not helped first. For such cases of more damaged eggs, paralysis etc you need sangromix active D in feed at a ratio of 300g per tonne of feed.

6. Birds getting wet in cages.

When the birds are drinking, water pours on some of the birds and they get wet in their backs. This can be caused by poor nipple quality, or unregulated pressure of water. This can be controlled with installation of pressure regulators and use of good nipple quality.

7. Waste management. For the past three years, one of the farms that I visit has been using a trench dug below the cages. Its deep enough to keep litter for more than a year.  Farmer keeps on spraying the droppings in the trench with IMO solution to digest the litter and control smell. And once you control smell, you won’t have flies.

8. Rats.  At night, rats run into the poultry house and scare the birds. So you find some birds entangled by cage wires in the morning  and they are dead. As you plan to build the house, plan for the rats too.

9. Feed spilage.

These caged birds eat as they scoop feed out of the feeders! So you may find that a lot of feed is poured in the litter at the end of the day. After serving, the workers are supposed to pass their hands through the feed to make sure the feed is properly distributed in the feed to avoid feed pouring.

1o. Poor performance from the 4th tier of the cage.

How tall is your worker? Do they put enough concentration on the upper tier? Is the feed well distributed in the fourth tier? How far is the 4th tier from the roof (heat stress) Many eggs customers complained that the eggs were very soft….but ever since farmers started adding SANGROMIX ACTIVE D in feed ( 300g in a tonne), the eggs are now stronger, reduced damages, stronger bones, healthy liver. Always use sangrovit to improve production, improve egg size, fight stress ( vaccination, transport, change of weather, deworming,counting,etc) and to keep your birds healthy with reduced dependence on antibiotics

• [cf7ic]