Poultry Health and Management

How disease spreads1) Germs can pass to a chicken from another bird, through touching their feces or through the air2) Other animals can bring germs to a chicken after having contact with a sick bird3) Germs can stick on the outside eggs, then be passed to a chicken who touches it4) Vehicles that have been to a farm with sick birds can take germs to your farm on the tires5) Dead bird remains still have germs on it! If not disposed of, they can pass germs to healthy birds.6) Humans in contact with sick birds can pass germs to healthy birds. Wash your hands regularly when handling birds, eggs, chicken food, and chicken manure, and after cleaning chicken houses.

A HEALTHY BIRD

Eats and drinks wellCrows (rooster)

Strong legs

Straight neck

Clean vent

Raised head

Moves easily,energetic

Clean, smooth feathers

Bright eyes

A SICK BIRD

Stops crowing (rooster)Eats and drinks lessProduces fewer eggs (hen)

Drooping head

Ruffled, dirty feathersDirt

y vent

Closed or dull eyes

Not moving and weak

Bent legs

Ways germs can reach chickens

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Better income and better health from village chickens

Poultry Health and Management

Provide a good house for shelter and keep it clean.

Remove sick birds and burn or bury them if they die!

After a bird has died, the germs that caused the disease still lives in the body.

Keep your chickens separate from other birds, such as ducks, pigeons, turkey and guinea fowl.

These birds can carry sicknesses that will make your chickens sick.

Wash your hands before and after handling birds, eggs, nests and houses

Sick birds

Isolate and confine sick birds

Bury dead birds deeply so dogs don’t dig up & eat

them.

Why can’t I eat a dead bird?

Healthy birds

Clean houses have no poop on the floors!

Do NOT house pigeons on the roof of your chicken house. Pigeon poop will fall into your chicken house, and it can easily make your chickens sick!

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Preventing Disease

Poultry Health and Management

Capturing Termites:•Use a large clay pot with a small opening•Fill the pot with animal stool and straw, sprinkle water•Set the pot upside down on sandy soil•Wait 1 day and 1 night•The pot should be filled with termites

Capturing Maggots:•Use a large clay pot•Fill with blood, animal organs, and animal stool: mix•Fill 1/3 of pot with water•Cover the top at night and leave open during the day •After 7 days, there will be maggots in the pot•Gently pour water into pot so maggots float to surface•Wash maggots with water before feeding to poultry

Chickens need many different types of food in order to grow big and strong.

Chickens need protein, energy, vitamins and minerals JUST LIKE YOU DO!

For good egg production, you may have to also feed your birds!

Protein is found in Termites, Maggots, Corn, Rice and Beans

Chickens need fresh water every day.

You don’t need a fancy dish, just one which can be kept clean.

Clean the water dish every day using soapy water and rinse well.

Chickens need FRESH WATER

Much of what chickens need they can find on their own in your village area:

•Chickens eat cockroaches and other pests

•Chickens find seeds in grass and weeds

•Chickens can eat scraps from dirty pans

DON’T FEED:

•Raw potato peels

•Uncooked dry beans

•Avocado waste

Other things you can feed

to your chickens

Tops from carrots

Crushed egg shells

Bugs!! Peels and seeds from Paw-Paw and Mango 3

Chicken Feeding and Nutrition

Poultry Health and Management

Preventing Newcastle’s Disease (Chipumphu)Chipumphu is a very common, often fatal disease.

The disease can spread through the air, food, water, feces, or environment.

Signs include many dead birds, open mouth breathing, twisted head or neck, greenish diarrhea, ruffled feathers and/or swollen heads, wattles or combs

This disease can look very different in individual birds!

Vaccinate against Newcastle Disease (Chipumphu)!The dose is the same for all

birds, even chicks as young as 1 day old: One drop in one eye.

Vaccinate ALL your birds, except those that are already sick.

Jan Feb March April

May June July Aug

Sept Oct Nov Dec

Chickens need to be REVACCINATED every 4 months!

The vaccine is safe, but birds may still die if they get infected before they are vaccinated. Selling ONE EGG will pay for 4 doses of vaccine, so it is well worth the money at k250/dose. 4

Chipumphu Reduction

Poultry Health and Management

Managing Your Flock Size

Take a bright torch into a dark room. Wrap a dark cloth or piece of paper around the end of the torch. Then hold the egg up to the other end of the paper.

It takes a hen AND a rooster to make fertile eggs

Not all eggs will hatch. You can look inside them to see if there’s a chick inside. If not, remove from nest. The hen will then lay more.

Normal Egg 10-day Infertile Egg

How to examine an egg

Chick embryo

Never take all the eggs out of the nest. Always leave a few eggs in the nest. Otherwise, the hen might abandon the nest and even stop laying.

How Can I Decide Whether to Sell or Eat Chickens?

When you have many, soon you’ll have more than you can feed and egg production will slow down. It’s time to sell or eat the chickens and/or sell or eat more eggs.

Select eggs for hatching from only the best chickens, those that grow well, hatch most of their eggs, have a good body, and are good mothers so that most of their chicks grow into big chickens.

You only need a few males – extra males take too much feed from the females. Kill and cook males before females!

Eggs hatch in 21 days

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Cool egg storage

Poultry Health and Management

Storing your eggs

Eggs kept in the sun at outdoor temperatures will spoil within a few

days.

One way to keep eggs cool is to bury a clay pot in the shade, surrounded by moist soil. Cover the pot with a damp cloth or damp straw mat, so that when air gets cools as it passes through. This will allow you to keep eggs for longer so that you can sell them.

If you want to store eggs for even longer, you can first coat them lightly with mineral oil or cooking oil, then place them in the pot.

Remember, water lets germs into eggs, so don’t wash your eggs before storing them or they will go bad!

How can you tell an egg is fresh for eating?

Fresher eggs are heavier, and float lower in the water, as the one on the left. As eggs get older, they get lighter. The egg on the right floats very high in the water and is too old for eating.

You should ONLY use this method right before cooking an egg. Getting eggs wet allows germs to go through the shell and cause the egg to spoil.

“Eggceptional” Value!!

One egg contains:

• 315 kj of energy• High quality protein • Vitamins including Vit. A, B12, K • Minerals

Eggs are:• Sterile inside• Easy to store• Easy & quick to cook

The yolk of afresh egg rises up tall. Eggs which are flat are probably spoiled. Don’t eat!

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Supported by the Royal Norwegian Embassy, Rotary Club, Kyeema Foundation, and Cornell University.Created by Sarah Dumas & Julia Hoag, DVM