i. Source/book your day old chicks from a reputable hatchery/farm/dealer:
Most of the health problems faced by birds are as a result of a poor genetic background. Some egg hatcheries are not reputable as they raise poor parent stocks to produce fertile eggs.
There are hatcheries who don’t administer all the necessary vaccines such as Marek’s Disease Vaccine, Infectious Bronchitis vaccine (IBV) before distributing chicks to customers, thus exposing the future of those chicks to danger.
ii. Strictly follow Vaccination and medication schedule:
You need to get the right vaccination and medication schedule of the poultry species you are raising. This helps in immunizing your birds against some poultry killer diseases like Newcastle Diseases (ND), Fowl Pox, Fowl Typhoid, Gumboro Disease, Avian encephalomyelitis (AE or Epidemic Tremor), Marek’s Disease, etc. Medication such as dewormer and antibiotics are very important to the health of your chickens and other poultry species.
iii. Regular cleaning of drinkers:
Make sure you wash the drinkers or drinking trough of your birds every morning and replace the water with clean and cool one. Avoid chlorinated water. Remember to always rinse off the drinkers to avoid re-contaminating the fresh water.
NB: Please don’t ever discard leftover water around the pens. If you do, you are encouraging the buildup of disease iiictors.
iv. Serve water before feeds
Birds are different from humans or other animals. You must always serve them water before you serve them feeds, especially if you’re on a deep-litter system. This is to avoid stampeding as the chickens struggle for feeds at the same point.
v. Provide sufficient feed to your birds
It has not been heard anywhere that underfed animals grow well and produce excellently. Underfed birds are closer to their graves because they will always have low body weights and poor immune responses, and such birds will die sooner. So ensure you give enough feed and avoid overfeeding, which could lead to another problem.
vi. Avoid serving moldy feeds
It is dangerous and risky to serve moldy feeds to your birds as It is just like giving them poison. Moldy feeds can make your birds to become sick or have disease(s).
vii. Prevent ammonia build up
Always remove wet or caked litters from pens and replace with new litters as soon as possible to avoid birds’ mortality due to ammonia choking them as well as other respiratory problems.
viii. Build a predator-proof poultry:
The pen houses of your chickens should not be accessible to predators like foxes, hyenas, wild cats, rats and mice, snakes, hawks, etc. Make sure you install strong iron mesh nets round the pens and apply predator repellents.
ix. Maintain proper hygiene and sanitation
Take biosecurity serious as this is one thing most livestock farmers don’t take seriously.
x. Protect flock from extreme cold/hot weather
Try every means to avoid exposing the birds to extreme cold or heat. It kills faster like time poison.
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