Poultry rearing is being given considerable importance in Bangladesh as a way to meet the shortage of protein. The government is encouraging young people to take up poultry farming with short-term training and loans.

Without special care in winter, broiler weight gain and the number of eggs on layer farms can fall, and the risk of death can rise. Supplying the right temperature to chicks in winter is therefore a major problem.

To control the temperature, farmers hang polythene or thick cloth curtains in the poultry house. This cuts the supply of fresh air, especially oxygen, and ammonia gas builds up, causing breathing difficulty, swollen faces and other symptoms, so chicks die every day. To overcome this, the following points must be followed:

• Hang sacking or jute curtains in the house.
• To control the temperature, stitch the jute curtains double before hanging them. In very cold weather, jute curtains can be hung around and over the chick guard like a mosquito net.
• Control the brooding temperature with a 200-watt bulb in the brooder box. Some extra bulbs with reflectors can also be hung low in the brooding house and switched on as needed.
• During power cuts and severe cold, keep the brooding temperature up by lighting kerosene stoves around the chick guard as needed. Use stoves that give a bluish flame, the kind used in hotels and restaurants.
• If the brooding temperature is low, chicks huddle together, especially at night, and many die from suffocation under the pile. Keep the house temperature under control and stir the chicks from time to time so they do not stay huddled for long.

Always remember that using a gas brooder is more scientific than supplying heat with an electric brooder, because with an electric brooder the lighting programme in the poultry house cannot be followed properly. Using a gas brooder alongside the electric one, especially in winter, allows the lighting programme to be followed and the brooding temperature to be set as needed.

The brooding temperature should be 95 degrees Fahrenheit in the first week, 90 in the second, 85 in the third, 80 in the fourth and 80 in the fifth, when the chick guard should be removed. During brooding, giving 1 gram of electrolyte per litre of water once a day for the first 10 to 15 days gives good results.

Source: Staff Correspondent. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.