Key points of management of free-range chicken flocks under the influence of external environment

Compared with the traditional cage mode, the chicken flock is greatly affected by the external environment, so it is also very different from the traditional cage mode in terms of breed, enclosure, breeding technology and so on.

Free-range chicken flock

1. Breed selection: in the free-range mode, chickens spend more time outdoors and are required to adapt to external changes, including temperature differences, rain and snow weather, changes in external conditions and other conditions that may bring stress to chickens. In addition, the free-range mode is easier to form high-quality egg and meat products, and the production cost is high, such as selecting those high-yield eggs or high-yield meat varieties, due to the genetic factors of the variety itself, the meat and egg quality is poor, so it is not conducive to the improvement of the product grade. It is not easy to achieve high investment and high return.

Therefore, the editor suggests that those varieties with strong adaptability, rough feeding tolerance, easy feeding and good quality should be selected as far as possible. Many local breeds are the best choice, such as Beijing Fatty Chicken, Hainan Wenchang Chicken, Shandong Laiwu Black Chicken, Green Shell layer, Guangxi Sanhuang Chicken and so on.

2. Enclosure requirements: modern free breeding, which is different from the early courtyard free breeding, needs to provide chicken coops for chickens.

The chicken house should have good heat preservation, heat insulation, ventilation and lighting conditions. The nursery has good heat preservation performance and is equipped with heating devices, such as air stove, coal stove or floor heating. The area of breeding house and laying henhouse is controlled below 500,600 square meters. There are no more than 5000 hens per house, no more than 10 hens per square meter, no more than 3000 hens per house and no more than 6 hens per square meter. The laying henhouse should be equipped with an automatic light controller to facilitate the control of light.

The chicken house should be large enough for free entry and exit of chickens, and the exit of the chicken house should be at least 4 meters long for every 100 square meters. The outside of the chicken house is a free-range breeding ground, which should be large enough, about 4 square meters per chicken. The site can plant fruit trees, trees, summer sunshade, can also plant forage grass, etc., for chickens to peck. Fences are set around to avoid attacks by wild animals.

The entrance and exit of the farm shall set up a disinfection pool, sprinkle limestone or 2% fire alkali, and disinfect personnel and vehicles in and out. The door of each chicken house also needs to put a disinfection basin, in and out of the personnel to carry out disinfection.

3. Feeding and management: it is divided into breeding period, breeding period and laying period for management.

Rearing period: the resistance of chicks is poor and sensitive to external temperature changes, so temperature is the first and key condition for brooding. If it is spring and summer, when the external temperature is above 18 ℃, it can be gradually transferred to outdoor stocking after 5 weeks; if it is autumn and winter, it will be gradually transferred to outdoor stocking after 7-8 weeks. Free-range chickens live outside the house during the day and rest at night. In case of bad and extreme weather, such as strong wind, rain and snow, no outdoor activities will be carried out.

Breeding period: stocking density will affect the survival rate, growth rate and so on. Male and female are raised in groups, and the feed is gradually transferred from chick feed to young chicken feed. In the lush season of grass, the amount of supplementary feed can be reduced appropriately. Observe the situation of the flock and supplement the weak chickens and low-weight chickens separately.

Laying period: the calcium requirement of laying hens is 3-4 times higher than that of young hens. Before the start of production, it is necessary to increase the content of calcium in feed, gradually transition to egg feed, and provide shells, calcium carbonate particles and other free feeding for chickens. During the laying period, the light was controlled at 16 hours, and the light intensity was 1 square meter and 2 watts. The laying box in the house is set up to train laying hens to lay eggs in the house, which is helpful to reduce the proportion of eggs outside the nest, dirty eggs and broken eggs. Pick up eggs once every morning and afternoon, which can increase the number of eggs in summer.

4. Disease prevention and control: in free-range mode, because chickens are in direct contact with the ground, they are more exposed to pathogenic microorganisms. If the daily management is improper, diseases are more likely to occur.

First of all, daily disinfection must be done well. The disinfectants available are fire alkali, aldehydes, hypochlorite and so on. Outside the henhouse, insist on disinfection once a week, at least two kinds of disinfectant are used alternately.

Secondly, immunization prevention must be done well. According to the breeding varieties and the epidemic characteristics of the disease, vaccination should be done carefully.

In addition, breeders should observe the mental state of chickens at any time, observe feeding and drinking water, and immediately take corresponding measures for timely treatment if there are any abnormalities.