Top 10 Tips for Beginners in Chicken Farm Management

When first starting a poultry farm, it is not only about buying enough chicken cages and a complete set of poultry farm equipment but also needs comprehensive knowledge to manage the poultry farm. We have summarized 10 top tips for beginners in chicken farm management, let’s dive into it.

1. Clarify your goals and breeding types

Clarifying your goals is the first step toward success. Firstly, consider the type of chicken you want to breed. Layer chickens or broilers? They are quite different in management, feed requirements, breeding cycle, and market sale strategy. Though layer chicken is a choice for steady profit, we recommend broiler for beginners due to its short management cycle and quick returns. Below are some breeds for your reference.

2. Make a reasonable site plan and chicken shed layout

The location and layout of the chicken farm directly affect the health, growing speed, and productivity. New starters of the chicken farm should pay attention to the functionality, safety, and high efficiency to scientifically design the system structure. 

Site selection suggestions

• Choose a high and dry place to prevent water accumulation during the rainy season from causing dampness, stress in the chicken flock, and the breeding of diseases. 
• Stay away from residential areas, factories, and breeding farms: Reduce noise and odor disturbances to residents and at the same time lower the risk of cross-infection.
• Convenient transportation: It is convenient for feed purchase and product transportation, and improves operational efficiency.
• Sufficient and clean water: It ensures the hygiene of drinking water for the chicken floc. Substandard water quality will directly affect health and output.

Chicken house layout suggestions

Reasonable zoning：The living area, chicken housing area, and waste treatment area should be separated.

Orientation of the chicken house：South or southeast is recommended because it is conducive to lighting and ventilation. It is recommended to use thermal insulation materials for the roof to reduce the stress caused by high temperatures in summer.

Ventilation system：Natural ventilation chicken house should be equipped with convection windows. Large-scale houses can be equipped with exhaust fans and cooling pads to ensure cooling in summer and keep warm in winter. 

Lighting arrangement：When raising laying hens, it is necessary to control the duration of light exposure, maintaining 12 to 16 hours of light per day. Timed lamps can be installed or a light control system can be used.

Chicken flock density and spatial setting：For broilers, it is advisable to have no more than 8 to 10 per square meter, and for laying hens, 2 to 3 per cage is recommended. If it is too dense, it is prone to fighting, accumulating feces, and spreading diseases; if it is too sparse, it wastes resources.

Common layout misunderstandings:

• All the chicken houses are connected together without isolation measures → once sick, it spreads throughout the entire area.
• The drinking water system is too close to the circuit → potential leakage safety risk.
• The manure area is close to the chicken coop → it has a strong smell and many mosquitoes and flies, which can easily cause respiratory diseases.

3. Build suitable chicken house facilities

Even if you are starting from a small-scale chicken farm, necessary equipment is needed to guarantee the survival rate, productivity, and health conditions of chickens. Here is a list of necessary equipment.

4. Formulate a scientific feeding and management plan

Many novice farmers often feed their chickens at will and manage them in a disorderly manner, resulting in uneven development of the chickens, high disease rates, and poor economic benefits. A standardized feeding plan should start from multiple aspects such as daily management, feed nutrition, drinking water, and lighting.

Scientific feeding and management is not as simple as “feeding chickens on time”, but rather a comprehensive manifestation of planning, regularity, and observational skills. Novice farmers should establish a good daily operation process, continuously observe the status of the chicken, and adjust the plan on time to achieve stable and efficient breeding results.

5. Establish a complete health and disease prevention and control system

The greatest risk in the process of poultry farming comes from the outbreak of disease. Once the hygiene management of the chicken house is not in place, viruses and bacteria can spread very easily, causing a large number of chickens to die and resulting in heavy economic losses. Therefore, from the very beginning, the concept of “prevention first and combination of prevention and control” should be established, and a complete set of standardized and executable epidemic prevention systems should be set up.

Key points of daily hygiene management

Regularly clean and disinfect

clean chicken house manure, a deep litter every day, and disinfect the chicken house at least once a week. Use highly effective and broad-spectrum disinfectants (such as peracetic acid, povidone-iodine, etc.). Pay attention to dead corners such as water sinks, feeding troughs, ventilation outlets, etc.

Keep the house dry and good ventilation: Control humidity and reduce the concentration of harmful gasses such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. Dy ground can effectively prevent coccidiosis and fungal infections.

Establish an entry and exit management system: Disinfection pools or disinfection MATS should be set up at the entrance of the venue. Disinfection is required for personnel and vehicles entering and leaving. Outsiders entering the chicken house need to wear protective clothing and shoe covers.

Vaccination and pandemic prevention procedures

Early identification and isolation treatment of diseases

Abnormal behavior identification: loss of appetite, listlessness, loose feathers, abnormal feces, etc. Rapid isolation: Keep the suspected sick chickens in separate enclosures to prevent the infection from spreading to other chicken flocks. Please have a veterinarian make a confirmed diagnosis: Avoid blind medication, and prevent drug resistance and the spread of the disease.

High-risk operations should be avoided

Walking directly from one group of chickens to another without washing hands → the virus is easy to carry and spread.  
Randomly pilling up chicken manure → causes flies and insects to breed and pollutes the air.  
Leftover feed that is not cleaned up is prone to mold and deterioration, which can induce intestinal diseases.

6. Record growth and output data

In poultry farming, data is the basis of management. The system records data such as the growth, feeding, egg production, death, and vaccination of the chicken flock is important. It not only helps you judge the breeding effect but also enables you to promptly identify problems, optimize operation strategies, and gradually improve breeding efficiency.

Key data contents that should be recorded

A breeding farm is not about “raising and seeing the results”, but rather a data-driven “micro-factory”. Persisting in data recording and analysis will help you achieve controllable costs, predictable risks, solid evidence for epidemic prevention, and predictable returns, truly entering the threshold of modern breeding.

7. Master the reasonable management of chicken flock division and transfer

At different growth stages of chickens, physiological needs, feed nutrition, and environmental conditions will all change. In order to better meet the growth needs of the chicken flock, and at the same time facilitate management and improve efficiency, it is necessary to carry out group division and group transfer operations for the chickens at the appropriate time.

Group division: Divide the chicken flock into several groups according to weight, health condition, gender, days, etc.  
Group transfer: Transfer chicken flocks from one house (cage) to another more suitable environment.

Benefits:

Prevent significant disparity in strength and bullying by the strong. Convenient for target management. Improve overall uniformity. Convenient to eliminate poor-quality chickens.

8. Control the appropriate stocking density and environmental conditions

Many beginners tend to fall into a misunderstanding when pursuing production volume, believing that the more chickens they raise, the better. As a result, it leads to excessive density, overcrowding of chickens, and deterioration of the environment, thereby causing serious stress and disease problems. Scientifically controlling the stocking density and environmental parameters can not only enhance the breeding efficiency but also ensure the healthy growth of the chicken flock.

9. Select the appropriate equipment and automation tools

With the modernization development of the poultry farming industry, the traditional manual management methods have made it difficult to meet the demands of large-scale and refined breeding. Choosing the right equipment and automated tools can help you achieve scientific management, improve production efficiency, and ensure the health of the chicken flock at the same time.

10. keep learning and accumulating breeding experience

Raising chickens is not only a technical job but also a practical science. Factors such as the environment, species, market, and diseases are constantly changing. Only by continuously learning and accumulating experience can we cope with various challenges and achieve stable and efficient breeding.