It is now summer, with high temperatures and high humidity. Farmers who use chicken battery cages to raise chickens know that the suitable temperature environment for laying hens is between 13 °C and 27 °C, but the summer temperature is as high as 35 °C. Therefore, in the summer breeding of laying hens, the metabolism of the hens will undergo a large change, which will affect the feed intake, egg production performance, egg quality, resistance and so on. Therefore, in the summer high temperature season, farmers must take measures to reduce the heat stress of chickens. The authors will introduce several measures.
1. The summer weather is hot, the water loss in the laying hens is more serious, so the farmers are more consistently supplying sufficient water in the summer. You can choose cooler water, which can absorb some of the heat in the chicken body, thus cooling the body, so keep fresh and cool water in the sink.
2. Ensure that the air in the house is fresh: in the case of high temperature in the summer house, the laying hen mainly relies on breathing to help the body to dissipate heat. However, the air of many farmers’ houses will be poor, the manure will cause ammonia, and the humidity will be high. The house will appear moist and stuffy, which is very unfavorable to the laying hens. Therefore, the farmer should do the work of cleaning and ventilating the work, and if necessary, sprinkle some lime into the septic tank after daily cleaning. Reduce the effects of high humidity to ensure that the air inside the house is fresh and cool.
3. Adjust the feeding method: In summer, farmers can adjust the time of feeding the laying hens appropriately. You can choose to feed more in the morning and evening when you are cool, diligently feed, stimulate the appetite of the chicken, let it eat more, but pay attention to avoid the accumulation of wet material in the trough to avoid mold and deterioration.
4. Appropriate extension of lighting time: When the laying hens work in the summer, the farmers can extend the morning and evening light time appropriately. This can increase the feeding of the laying hens, but be careful not to increase the lighting time by more than 17 hours.
5. Adjust the nutritional level of the diet: high temperature will affect the feed intake of the laying hens, resulting in reduced feeding of the laying hens. If the reduction, the laying hens will be undernourished. The farmers should take measures to stimulate more feeding. Improve dietary nutrition levels to compensate for undernutrition.
6. Supplementing heat stress-resistant nutrients and electrolytes: The continuous high temperature in the house will cause heat stress in the laying hens. This farmer knows that high temperature will also cause sodium, potassium and carbonate ions in the chickens to be discharged. The electrolyte is unbalanced, so the farmer needs to supplement the sodium broth with sodium bicarbonate, potassium chloride and ammonium chloride in summer, and should also add zinc carbonate.
7. Use water curtain to cool down: The cooling of the chicken house is a work that farmers must pay attention to in summer. Most of the farmers nowadays are closed-type chicken houses, so when cooling down, they will choose water curtain equipment to cool down. Mechanized cooling, the temperature of the house can be well controlled, very popular among farmers.
The above seven measures are the authors telling the farmers that in the process of raising chickens in the layer chicken cages in the summer, the laying hens can safely measure several measures in summer. I hope that the above description will bring some help to the farmers, so that the laying hens can guarantee the normal production performance in the summer.