Breeding chickens is a popular activity among farmers. It is one of the most profitable and productive. Chickens are bred for meat, eggs, fluff and feathers. The costs are relatively low. The main part of the funds is spent on arranging the poultry house, purchasing equipment, and purchasing young animals.

Chicken care requires the greatest attention. They can be hatched independently or grown purchased at a poultry farm. But in any case, the chicks need special conditions of detention. Many poultry houses wonder why chickens die. The rules for caring for chickens and the timely identification of symptoms will help to understand this.

Chicks, broilers and chickens home care rules

In the early days of life

In day old chicks up to 4 weeks of age, thermoregulation is very weak. Therefore, they need additional heating. In the first week, you need to provide a temperature almost like in an incubator (35-36 degrees). Then, every week, the temperature is gradually lowered by several degrees, and so on up to 20-21. The temperature is raised using additional lighting or a gas heater. A thermometer will help control the temperature.

After a month, the chicks are transferred to a more spacious house. For weekly chickens, improvised means are suitable as drinkers and feeders: feed can be poured into lids from boxes, water into lids from glass jars. But for menstruation, full-fledged drinkers and feeders are already needed.

Drinking chickens with antibiotics

On a note! Chopped boiled egg, corn grits will be suitable food for newborn chicks.

Weekly birds add cottage cheese, crushed wheat, chopped greens to the diet. Until 4-5 weeks of age, it is better to refrain from barley and oats, they will be poorly digested.

Broiler care

Broiler chicks differ from ordinary chicks in that they gain weight very quickly. Therefore, they need to be provided in larger quantities with compound feed. It must contain proteins, vitamins and trace elements necessary for intensive development. The feed must be freely accessible and the trough must always be full. With a balanced diet, all problems in broiler care will be minimized.

As with conventional chicks, care must be taken to provide adequate lighting for small broilers. Make sure that there are no drafts in the house. To prevent the appearance of parasites and diseases in chicks, it is imperative to maintain order and hygiene in the chicken coop. The most important conditions for maintaining good hygiene:

  • daily cleaning in the place of detention;
  • periodic disinfection of the entire poultry yard, equipment;
  • feeders and drinkers must be clean;
  • regular replacement of the litter (to keep it dry longer, you need to use absorbents - straw, wood shavings);
  • sufficient space for young animals - so that the birds can fully move and develop;

Why do chickens die?

Chickens are susceptible to infectious and non-infectious diseases that need to be identified in a timely manner. Due to these diseases, livestock can die at a very early age. It often happens that chickens and broilers sleep and die, treatment does not help them. Possible reasons:

  • Hypothermia (hypothermia). Thermoregulation does not work for chicks up to a month. If you do not create additional heating, they will have hypothermia. Young animals become sluggish, diarrhea may begin, and respiratory diseases develop.Since the one-week-old chick has not yet matured, the immune system does not work well, hypothermia can lead to death.
  • Pullorosis... This disease is transmitted to the chick during incubation, when it is in the egg. The chick is born already infected, two or three days - and he dies. Sick individuals can infect healthy birds. Therefore, it is necessary to timely identify the signs of the disease and place the patients in quarantine. With pullorosis, chickens will lower their wings, constantly squeak and vilify. Their chair is white or green.
  • Coccidiosis... The infection is dangerous for chicks that are several days or weeks old. The infection gets along with the food. Diarrhea begins, in which you can find foam, mucus, blotches of blood. The bird is losing weight dramatically. The grown chick does not die from this E. coli, however, the body of a week-old chicken cannot cope with it. Death comes.
  • Blockage stomach... In the first week of life, chicks may grab inedible things, for example, sawdust. In this case, the chick cannot be saved, the stomach is blocked, he dies.
  • Mycoplasmosis... The cause of the disease is weakening the immunity of birds. This happens under unfavorable conditions of keeping and feeding. Mostly young animals are susceptible to mycoplasmosis, the age of which is 1-2 weeks. Symptoms: decreased appetite, cough, wheezing in the trachea, mucous discharge from the beak. Mortality from mycoplasmosis reaches 15-30%.

Chickens are easily susceptible to infections

Causes of death at the age of one month

  • Hyperthermia (overheat). Heat is even more dangerous for chicks than cold. Due to overheating, weekly, monthly and adult birds can die. Overheating is especially dangerous for broilers. Overheating broilers begin to wheeze, pull in their necks. The combination of overheating with a lack of drinking is especially dangerous. The broiler comb will turn blue, wrinkle, and intoxication will begin. They will begin to lower their wings. This is accompanied by loss of appetite, intestinal upset.
    Due to hyperthermia, a massive mortality of birds may begin. To prevent hyperthermia, the yard for walking should be equipped with awnings. Be sure to water the chickens with fresh cool water, provide ventilation.
  • Ornithosis... Monthly chicks are most often infected. Their appetite disappears, their thirst increases. The scallop descends, acquires a brownish blue tint. The wing is tousled. Mucus is flowing from the beak. The chicken is quickly depleted, losing weight. Convulsions and paralysis may occur. It is impossible to treat birds for psittacosis, since therapy for this disease has not yet been developed. To prevent the spread of infection, the infected bird is slaughtered.
  • Drafts andraw air in the chicken coop. Both day and month old chicks are sensitive to them. These conditions also adversely affect adult birds. But little chicks usually cannot stand it and die.
  • Pseudo-plague (Newcastle disease). The disease causes damage to the nervous system and respiratory organs of chickens. Chickens at any age can get sick with it, but for chickens it is most dangerous. That is why infected individuals must be quarantined, otherwise the chickens become infected from them and die.
    Pseudo-plague symptoms: sneezing, fever, ruffled feathers, shortness of breath, greenish-yellow stool. Birds will also have difficulty seeing as the cornea of ​​the eyes becomes cloudy.

Causes of death at the age of two months or more

  • Rickets. Occurs due to hypovitaminosis. To prevent rickets, you need to provide good quality food. Chickens and adult chickens begin to fall on their paws. They cannot fly. Coordination of movements is impaired. In case of complications, an adult bird can still survive, but a two-month-old chick dies.
  • Poisonous plants... When the birds grow up, they are allowed to walk. There they can peck on poisonous plants. Strong poisons lead to instant death, weak ones cause poisoning. Poisoning symptoms: diarrhea, convulsions, vomiting, weakness, lack of reaction, fever.
  • Improper nutrition. The consumption of low-quality feed leads to a lack of micro- and macroelements, proteins, vitamins. Rotten food causes poisoning, bacteria and fungus entering the body.

Rickets chicks

The type of feed should be appropriate for the age of the birds. Both lack of feed and overfeeding can lead to death.

Broilers will die: what to do, treatment

  • Pullorosis treatment. For prevention and treatment, furazolidone is most often used. If the house is large, 2 g of the preparation is mixed with flour, added to the mash at the rate of 1000 chicks. In other cases, the dose is 2 g per chick. The course is 8 to 10 days.
  • Treatment of coccidiosis. The most popular drug is coccidiovitis. 1/25 gr. added to a kilogram of feed. The course of treatment is a week. However, the mixture needs to be prepared every day a new one, it is no longer possible to accept yesterday's preparation.
  • Treatment of mycoplasmosis. Since therapy for mycoplasmosis has not yet been developed, preventive measures need to be taken. Laying hens with adequate feeding are more resistant to disease. Regular disinfection of the house is mandatory. Sick individuals are killed for meat.
  • Methods for dealing with Newcastle disease. Since the treatment has not yet been developed, sick individuals are slaughtered. Healthy people are vaccinated with La-Sota and Bor-74 vaccines. The poultry house must be disinfected along with the equipment.

Important.How to drink broilers so that they do not die. You can save the bird at the initial stage of poisoning. She is given activated carbon mixed with soda, diluted in a weak solution of potassium permanganate. This mixture is warmed up and pipetted into the beak every 3-4 hours.

Poultry farmers often notice that their chicks are wet. This is a problem, since without eliminating the causes of wetting, they can die. There may be several reasons:

  • The chicks tip the drinker over (it must be well set and age appropriate).
  • Diarrhea. It can occur due to infections, poisoning, malnutrition.
  • Dampness and drafts in the house.

Having figured out why broiler chickens die, you should carefully monitor the livestock. Timely detection of diseases and their treatment in chickens will help preserve the brood. Their conditions of detention must comply with the described standards.