made using canva
Hivers,how did your day go....mine was fun and exciting because i spent 5 hours attending to broiler birds(chicks actually) .....not only me,my teammates and one other team where shcheduled beforehand to be present Saturday morning from 7:00am-1:00pm.
We were there on Wednesday and we've already being briefed on what to do and how we would be grouped so when we arrived in the freezing cold in the morning, the teams scheduled for the night shift left and we started our work.
We started by getting the watering troughs of the chicks out of their pens,washed the troughs,mixed required amount of multivitamins with their drinking water and placed it in the pens. (to boost their immunity and reduce stress)
If you were wondering about cleaning the bedding materials,the night shift already did that before we got there....after tending to their watering troughs,we cleaned their feeder and poured sufficient amount of starter feed into them.
Now the chicks would require brooding which is the provision of sufficient amount of heat(not too much and not too little) to keep the birds warm,so we use these;
1.An incandescent light bulb:Apart from the fact that it provides light to the chicks and makes them eat all night,it also produces an extra amount of heat to keep the birds warm.
2.A coal pot:The coal pot is placed in the pen filled with burning charcoal,so all we had to do when we came was refill the charcoal in coal pot which had burned out after the previous teams had filled it.
The one advantage of the coal pot over the iron one is that the coal pot retains more heat and loses heat slowly than the iron/metal.
3.The nets of the pen are covered with polythene bags/leather to ensure that the heat provided is not easily emitted/lost from the pen.
After making sure they are warm,it is also important to ensure the safety of the birds so we had to cover the coal pots so that the birds would not injure themselves by unknowingly jumping into it.
We covered the coal pots not entirely but just enough to prevent the chicks from jumping into it,after that we were instructed to examine the birds to seen if they were injured or needed any kind of attention......Turns out they are all hale and hearty.
There was supposed to be 10 of us but only 6 came,it was fun,we gisted played games but always kept an eye on the birds.After they exhausted the feed we gave them,we were instructed to give them more(meaning we did it twice)
Although this would not be my first time of taking care of chicks but it is definitely where i learnt to do every thing right because every little thing matters.
When i was much younger,i tried to rear 10 chickens with my mom, myself being the CEO(lol)....and the first batch that was supervised by my mom survived,they grew really big and healthy.
The second batch i lost more than 3 birds and now that I'm in a professional poultry,i know why..... it's because of the little things i didn't think mattered then like being available for the birds 24-7,complete hygiene, disinfection and sanitation of the pen after every batch etc
Our team is still scheduled for night shift on Sunday,so see you guys later.
Thank you for visiting,hope you learnt a few things or probably laughed at something....anyway you're here and i appreciate you.
***All pictures were taken on Tecno Camon 16 unless stated otherwise
Who is VheekthorJay
VheekthorJay is a Christian,Drummer,Writer,Farmer,lover of hive,striving to become a better version of himself.
He learns on a daily basis and looks at every disappointment as a blessing.
He is kind, loving and a good person
Thank you for always supporting him!!!!