What effect will the humidity in the brooding room have on chicks?
[Keywords:] temperature and humidity chicks feeding management
The brooding period refers to the period when chicks are 0-4 weeks old (fast-growing broilers), 0-5 weeks old (high-quality broilers) and 0-6 weeks old (laying hens), and it is the period when chicks are raised in artificially controlled temperature environment. Browning is the most critical stage of raising chickens, and the quality of feeding management during brooding period will determine its growth and development throughout its life. Temperature is the first level of success or failure in brooding. Whether the temperature is suitable directly affects the activity, food intake, drinking water and nutrient absorption of chicks, which is related to their health and development. However, the body temperature of newborn chicks is lower than that of adult chicks, with thin and short villi, poor heat preservation and cold resistance, and imperfect body temperature regulation function. Therefore, it is necessary to artificially give suitable environmental temperature for brooding in order to maintain normal life activities and healthy growth of chicks. Therefore, environmental temperature is the primary condition and key link of brooding, which must be strictly and correctly mastered. Humidity is the most important link in the process of brooding. Humidity directly affects the health and growth of chicks. When the humidity is too low, the newly hatched chicks enter the dry brooding room, and the water in the chicks is distributed in large quantities with breathing, so the remaining yolk in the abdomen is not well absorbed. Drinking too much water is easy to have loose bowels, chicken fluff is crisp, loss of appetite, indigestion and slow feather growth. Chickens are prone to respiratory diseases, and in severe cases, dehydration makes it difficult to raise chickens. Therefore, whether the temperature and humidity are appropriate seriously affects the growth and development of chicks, and directly affects the normal development and egg production level of chickens throughout the growth period.
(1) At different brooding temperatures, with the decrease of temperature, the weight and feed conversion rate of chicks decreased gradually, while the mortality and morbidity increased gradually, with significant differences. This is mainly due to the decrease of temperature during the brooding period, which reduces the weight and feed conversion rate of chicks, hinders the growth and development of chicks, and the weight of chicks is not up to the standard, and the growth and development are uneven and the uniformity is poor, which affects the quality of newly bred hens, and the future production performance is improved and the resistance is obviously reduced, resulting in an increase in mortality.
(2) The survival rate and mortality rate of chicks are obviously different under different humidity, because the room temperature during the brooding period is higher. Increasing the relative humidity can prevent the normal growth and development of chicks from being affected by high temperature dehydration. Increasing the relative humidity can reduce the environmental dryness caused by the high temperature in the henhouse and prevent the occurrence of respiratory diseases in chicks. Increasing relative humidity can promote the absorption of yolk sac in chicks, which is beneficial to the growth and development of chicks. It can be seen that proper humidity can promote the growth and development of chicks, improve disease resistance, reduce diseases and improve the survival rate of chicks.
3 discussion
(1) Through the comparison of experiments, it is shown that when the temperature is suitable, chicks are lively and active, have a strong appetite, drink moderate water, sleep quietly, sleep comfortably, evacuate chickens and even lie prone. When the temperature is too high, the mortality rate of chicks will increase, chicks will open their mouths and gasp, be lazy when they are far away from the heat source, spread their wings to dissipate heat, move against the wall, reduce the feed intake, reduce the feed conversion rate by 0.45%, increase the water consumption, easily lead to diarrhea and increase the mortality rate. When the temperature is too low, Xiang Yu, a chicken, feels tense all over, can't sleep at night, and often makes a "Ji Ji" cry. Chickens gather near the heat source, squeeze each other and pile up layer by layer, which leads to poor growth and even suffocation and death. Chickens are prone to catch a cold because of cold diarrhea; Digestion and absorption disorders, malabsorption of egg yolk, inability to rest well, weakness and even death. The sudden drop of brooding temperature will cause serious vascular reaction, circulatory failure and suffocation death of chicks. When the temperature is low or high and low, the physiological metabolism of chicks is unbalanced, which seriously affects the antibody level and resistance of chicks, and Marek's disease is prone to occur after laparotomy. If the temperature is too low, the infection rate and incidence of pullorum disease will be greatly improved. Chickens have weak adaptability to low temperature. Under the influence of low temperature and high humidity of 10℃ ~ 13℃, 7-8-day-old chickens will die in a few hours. Even 30-day-old chicks will die in large numbers when they meet the low temperature below 15℃.
(2) The comparative experiment of two weeks showed that increasing the relative humidity during the brooding period had a certain influence on the brooding survival rate. Increasing relative humidity can promote the absorption of chick oocysts, which is beneficial to the growth and development of chicks. Because the room temperature is high during the brooding period, increasing the relative humidity can prevent chicks from dehydration due to high temperature. However, if the humidity is too high, harmful gases will increase, which is beneficial to the survival of pathogenic microorganisms and the development of parasitic eggs, and will induce coccidiosis and aspergillosis, making chicks susceptible to various diseases.
(3) Low humidity directly affects the health and growth of chicks. When the humidity is too low, the newly hatched chicks enter the dry brooding room, and the water in the chicks is distributed in large quantities with breathing, so the remaining egg yolk in the abdomen is poorly absorbed, and excessive drinking water is easy to cause diarrhea, and the chicks' villi are fragile, loss of appetite, indigestion and slow feather growth. Chickens are prone to colds, respiratory diseases and feather dysplasia.
(4) Pay great attention to the temperature of brooding, which not only affects the temperature regulation, digestion, absorption and water consumption of chicks, but also affects the resistance of chicks. Temperature is the first condition for brooding. As long as the proper temperature can be maintained, it is easy to raise young. Therefore, we should attach great importance to the brooding temperature and actively take measures to ensure the appropriate brooding temperature. Strengthening the design of thermal insulation performance and carefully constructing the thermal insulation performance of brooding house will not only affect the maintenance and stability of brooding temperature, but also affect the fuel cost. In production, some brooding houses are too simple, and a lot of heat radiates outside the house, so it is difficult to reach and maintain the brooding temperature. Roofs and walls are the easiest places to dissipate heat. To achieve a certain thickness, we should choose thermal insulation materials and have a reasonable structure. It is best to set a ceiling on the roof. The ceiling can be made of plastic cloth, striped cloth and other materials with good thermal insulation performance, which is cheap and convenient. The brooding house should avoid narrow valleys or tuyere areas in winter, because these places are windy in winter and the temperature is unstable.
(5) In order to reduce the pressure from the incubator to the henhouse, the ideal condition is that the relative humidity in the henhouse should reach about 70% in the first 7 days. If the relative humidity is lower than 50% within 1 week, chicks will begin to dehydrate, and their physiological development will be negatively affected. You can put a kettle on the stove in the henhouse and spray hot water in the henhouse to increase the humidity. After 8 ~ 20 days, the relative humidity will drop to about 65%. After 20 days of age, the feed intake, water consumption and excretion of chicks increase, and the brood house is easy to be wet. Therefore, it is advisable to strengthen ventilation, replace wet padding, clean up feces, and ensure the relative humidity in the house is 50% ~ 60%.