Why do chickens need to be artificially moulted?

The purpose of forced moulting is to make the whole flock stop production, moult, restore physical fitness in a short period of time, and then resume egg production, improve the quality of eggs, and prolong the economic utilization period of chickens.

The management points during forced moulting are as follows:

1. Strict selection

For forced moulting, sick, disabled, weak and low-yielding chickens are first eliminated, and sick chickens with no obvious symptoms often cannot bear the stress of moulting and will die. Therefore, some breeding companies often use the forced moulting of breeders as a measure to purify the flock of leukemia, pullorum, and mycoplasma.

2. Determine the moulting time

Take into account climatic conditions, flock conditions, and especially economic factors. Generally, forced molting is selected in spring and autumn when chickens begin to molt naturally, and the effect is the best. Forced moulting in hot and cold seasons will affect the moulting effect.

At the beginning of the artificial forced moult, the chickens will not stop laying eggs immediately, and there will be a certain amount of soft-shell eggs or broken-shell eggs. It is recommended to add shell powder to the diet, and add 2 kg per 100 chickens per week; There must be enough feeding surface to ensure that all chickens can eat feed at the same time; when the chickens are hungry, they should prevent pecking at bed grass, sand, feathers, etc.

3. Weigh your body regularly

Weigh flocks in the run-up period regularly to understand their weight loss rates and then determine when the implementation period ends. Usually after the start of the forced moulting, the flocks are weighed once a week; then the frequency of weighing is increased, that is, once every 2 days; in the first few days before the end of the scheduled implementation period, it is best to weigh the chickens once a day , to determine the optimal implementation period end date.

4. Closely observe the flock.

Pay attention to the death of chickens during the moulting period. Generally speaking, the mortality rate should not exceed 1% in the first week, 1.5% in the first 10 days, 2.5% in the first 5 weeks, and 3% in the 8th week. If necessary, adjust the plan or even suspend the plan.

5. Cannot moult continuously and moult roosters

Before forced moulting, pick out chickens that have been moulted or are moulting, and raise them separately to avoid death. Moulting is not suitable for males, because the moulting of males will affect the quality of semen. It is recommended to replace young males to improve the fertilization rate.

6. Do immunization and deworming in advance

One month before moulting, the chickens should be immunized for Newcastle disease, infectious bronchitis and avian influenza once, and 1 to 2 courses of deworming drugs should be administered centrally.

7. Reasonable lighting

When the forced molting is started, the light time must be reduced at the same time, and the light time should be controlled at 8 h/d. During the recovery period, the light time should be gradually increased, usually after 1 month of forced moulting, the weekly light should be increased by 1-2 hours until it is constant at about 16 hours per day. The closed house can be increased by 2 hours per week until it is constant after 16 hours per day.

Manual forced moult method:

1. Chemical method

By adding zinc oxide or zinc sulfate to the diet, the amount of zinc used accounts for 2% to 2.5% of the diet. For breeder flocks over 400 days old, the chickens were fed continuously for 7 days, and the chickens were allowed to eat freely. From the 8th day, they were fed the general laying hen diet. The whole group could basically stop laying eggs around the 10th day, and the whole group could stop laying eggs on the 20th day. Egg laying starts again after that.

For the 160-280-day-old flocks that have not started production for a long time, they can be fed high-zinc feed for 5 days, and the 6th day is the normal breeding period feed. After seeing the eggs, gradually change to the peak period feed. Feeding a high zinc diet forced moulting, the chickens generally stopped production 5 to 7 days after taking measures, and resumed egg production in about 1 month, and the egg production rate returned to 50% in the fifth week.

After moulting, the body weight of the chickens was reduced by more than 25%, and there was basically no death or very low mortality.

2. Hunger Law

For chickens over 400 days old, the feed stop time should be about 25% to 30% of the chicken body weight. Generally, after 9 to 16 days, for 160 to 280-day-old flocks with a short production start time, the feeding time is appropriately shortened. The continuous fasting method (quick moulting) is widely used, which can make the chickens stop production quickly, lose weight quickly, shed feathers quickly and safely, restore egg production quickly, and have high egg production performance; strong stress and high mortality .

Reference source: Baidu Encyclopedia - artificial forced moulting