Ben South BVetMed BSc MRCVS
The last few months of weather have not been kind to rearing farms and keepers across the country. I don’t know of a site that is ahead of preparations for this season’s rear. The wet, water logged ground has delayed many sites on their cleaning and disinfecting regimes to prepare for the early batches of chicks. Let’s hope for a brighter May.
Despite the delays it is crucial corners are not cut to get the job done, this will inevitably lead to problems further down the line with bird health.
We’ve discussed in previous articles the importance of getting management and the environment right for early brooding. The naive chicks rely on you to provide them with the perfect start in life. I will re-iterate some management points that I believe to be crucial to brooding:
- Ensure gas heaters are at the correct height. Often they are too low, leading to intense areas of high heat in the middle of the hut and large perimeters of cold.
- Try to aim for 36-38°C directly under heater moving to 29-31 around sides.
- The house should be pre-heated at least 12 hours prior to chick arrival.
- Huts should ideally be lined to prevent ground contamination.
- Use new, clean shavings and protect corners by rounding them off with cardboard or excess bedding.
- Ventilation should be enough to replace stale air, but not compromise heat.
- Avoid cold drafts at all costs.
- Water supply must be easily accessible and clean, free from contaminates.
- Clean open drinkers regularly (4 times a day) as bacterial levels will elevate quickly as contamination increases.
- Provide probiotic support for the first week of life.
Once the birds are through the first week or two of life we must be preparing for the next challenges ahead. If we have used the appropriate probiotics we have successfully established a beneficial microbiome in the birds gut that is helping to out-compete potential harmful environmental bacteria and improve metabolism and nutrient conversion. The challenge now is to maintain it.
During this time, the birds have grown almost twice the size and pecking behaviour is more common as birds are investigating their surroundings.
Chicks will be pecking at bacteria and pathogens from their environment as well as each other. By acidifying the water lines we can help control the pH of the birds gastrointestinal tracts and help develop an environment that favours the more beneficial bacteria that we seeded there in the first week. Ultimate Acid can be used continuously from now until release to facilitate this process.
Controlling the amount of light in the sheds can directly influence the aggressive pecking behaviour. Pheasants tend to be worse than partridges and I have seen many techniques to create dappled light in the house without compromising ventilation and airflow. Using external angled baffles on the window and door vents stops penetrating light beams into the house and allows air to continue moving. Red light has a calming affect on birds and can be created with coloured plastic or red light bulbs. Once the birds are old enough we can, of course, use biting methods.
The period over which the birds are having bits placed is the first of several highly stressful events that occur through their life. Pheasants are generally bitted around 3 weeks old. Over the years, we have seen many explosions of disease at this time, especially as many sites will allowing the birds to roam into the night shelters at this time too. The stress of being handled combined with the new environmental challenges of being out leads to bacterial changes in the gut and a misbalance in the balanced microbiome. I suggest over this time pheasants are supported with both Coccilin Plus and Ultimate Acid products to control the imbalances of the gut flora. We have seen great success in previous seasons with this and it has helped us reduce the quantity of Coccidial drugs being used.
With the early rearing of birds the time that they are let out into the night shelters and the flight pens is crucial. Weather plays a huge part and should influence your decision. Provide adequate drinkers and feeding space as well as ensuring the ‘pop-holes’ are large enough to allow more than one bird through at a time.
Veterinary advice should always be sort if you have concerns over bird health and/or welfare. Post mortem examinations can be performed on site or at your nearest regional office and can tell you a lot about the health of the birds.
