When talking about raising broiler bird right from day old to maturity. It takes a lot of different factors you have to go through as a farmer before they reach market.
During broiler chicks early stage of life, they are very delicate and have low immune system at that moment and that's they need total attention and care.
The first two or three weeks, newly hatched chicks depend only on external heat sources to keep them warm because they really need adequate warmth to survive and without the external heat sources, it can leads to poor growth, weak immunity and even high mortality rates if care is not taken.
For example, if you happen to find yourself in situation like me in which the weather is very cold late at night and early morning hours here in Nigeria and most especially in my area. It is very hard at that moment to not provide the chicks with external heat like charcoal heaters or bulbs which I used for my chicks to keep them warm in this cold weather while some used gas brooders depending on how financial bouyant you're.
A well proper heated pen help chicks to stay active and leads to proper and evenly growth. Most times if the weather is too cold, chicks tend to gather and pile on one another which may leads to suffocating each other and can even lead to death among them since their immunity is not strong yet. There seems to sometimes be a change in weather which lead to cold stressed among chicks but with good source of heat in the pen, it helps to maintain consistent environment and reduce stress.
And most importantly, the most critical period to heat the pen is the rainy seasons because cold and wet conditions can lead to respiratory infections and other complications among the chicks. Therefore, the best chance at survival for the chicks is by keeping them in a warm and dry environment so as to make them grow faster and stay healthy.
In conclusion, providing chicks with external heat helps chick to stay healthy, reduce mortality rates, and give them the comfort to easily survive and propelled the business going smoothly as well.
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