In the process of raising chickens using poultry farm equipment, it is a must for the farmers to carry out heatstroke prevention and cooling of the chickens in the chicken houses. Scientific and effective cooling can ensure the healthy growth of the flock, as well as a comfortable growth and production environment, and reduce the stress caused by flocks in summer. However, many farmers have failed to master the cooling technology and blindly carry out the cooling work. The result is counterproductive. Here are some common mistakes for the farmers to tell about the cooling of chickens.

1. Only pay attention to the heatstroke prevention and cooling work of laying hens: Many farmers only pay attention to the cooling work of laying hens during the laying period, and do not pay attention to the broiler chickens in the breeding stage, and think that the impact is not great. In fact, as the age increases, the required ambient temperature should gradually decrease. If it is in the first week of the chick, because the required ambient temperature is 32 ~ 35 ° C, the impact is not significant. In the second week, and even later, the required ambient temperature drops 1 °C every 3 days until it drops to 21-18 °C. If it is summer brooding, the outside temperature is often above 30 °C. When the ambient temperature is too high, the feed intake of the chicks will also decrease due to the influence of high temperature, thus affecting the growth and development of the chicks. High temperatures lead to reduced feed intake and lighter weight of chickens, which can affect the production and sustained high yield of chickens.

2. Planting too many leafy trees: Many farmers will plant trees around them when they build the house. They think that they can shade and reduce the temperature of the house. Although the starting point is good, there are more trees and more trees. All kinds of birds, insects, mosquitoes, etc. will increase, and these insects are the source of the disease, which will lead to a major outbreak in the chicken farm. The best way is to use a shade net around the house. If a wet curtain is installed in the house, a sunshade net can be installed outside the wet curtain to prevent direct sunlight and weaken the cooling effect of the wet curtain.

3. The chicken feed is processed too fine: the high temperature in summer will cause the drinking water of the chicken to increase, so the farmer can see the granular feed when the feces are produced every day. The farmer thinks that the chicken is not digested and the feed is processed. Finer, it is good for digestion, but this is the wrong concept. The drinking water of chickens in the hot season is 4 times that of the low temperature season. Therefore, the feed intake in the hot season is reduced, the amount of drinking water is increased, and the granular feed in the feces is directly discharged. This is a normal phenomenon. Farmers do not have to worry too much because of drinking water. Many chickens do not have a special urination organ, so the water that is drunk will be quickly discharged with the cloaca, causing some feed to stay in the digestive tract for a shorter period of time and not completely digested. If the chicken feed is processed too fine, the palatability will be worse, resulting in a further reduction in the feed intake of the chicken and a greater impact.

4. Add too much sodium bicarbonate in the water: Many farmers want to help the chicken to cool down, add sodium bicarbonate in the drinking water, or add vitamin C at the same time. The addition of sodium bicarbonate can effectively regulate the acid-base balance in chickens and significantly improve the ability of chickens to resist heat stress. This is a misconception.

If the figure is convenient, adding sodium bicarbonate in water, because of the large amount of drinking water in summer chickens, means that the amount of sodium bicarbonate ingested is large, and excessive intake may cause poisoning, so it is best to add it to the feed. Vitamin C is easily destroyed in water and reduces the effect. It is recommended that farmers can add it to the feed. In addition, vitamin C sodium bicarbonate cannot be used at the same time, which will reduce the efficacy. Therefore, vitamin C is used in the early stage of the high temperature season and sodium hydrogencarbonate is preferred in the later stage.

5. Improper drinking water immunization: In order to prevent outbreaks of infectious diseases in chickens during the hot season, it is best to vaccinate through drinking water. However, when drinking water immunization, the farmers must carry out the above process reasonably, the selection of vaccines, the correct method of preparation and drinking water immunization, etc., must be mastered by the farmers, otherwise the phenomenon of drinking water immune failure is easy to occur.

The above five points are the authors summarized for the farmers, in the process of using chicken battery cages to raise chickens in the hot season, the farmers have some misconceptions and practices in the heatstroke prevention and cooling work. It is hoped that the farmers will avoid the mistakes in the future feeding process through the above understanding.