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Dinah Nicholson. Regional Technical Manager - Europe, Aviagen

The brooding period, defined by the length of time a young chick needs supplementary
heat, now takes anything up to 30% of a broiler flock's life. During this period, the broiler
chick has to face and overcome a series of transitional challenges that mark its
movement from embryo to growing broiler.

A broiler flock which has coped well with all of these changes will have a much better
final weight at slaughter than a flock which has encountered problems at any point. An
extra 10g of bodyweight at 7 days can increase 40 day kill weight by 50-70g. Aviagen's
Regional Technical Manager for Europe, Dinah Nicholson suggests tools to manage the
flock through these transitions that can be applied to specific farm and feed set-ups.

Critical Stages

A chick experiences a series of critical transitions in the first 7-10 days of its life, all of
which affect how and from where it receives its nutrients. This is why the management in
the first week is so essential for optimum flock performance.

In the final stages of incubation, and as a very new hatchling, the chick receives all of its
nutrients from the egg yolk. Once on the farm, the chick is offered starter feed in a crumb
form in pans and paper on the house floor. As soon as feed enters the gut, the residual
yolk within the chick is mobilised, and provided the chick is fed promptly after hatch, it
will receive a useful boost to growth from these nutrients.

Having found feed at floor level in the first days of its life, the chick has then to find it
again in the automated feeding system, whether pan or track, between 4 and 6 days of
age. Once that change has been mastered, it then has to cope with a further change
from crumbled feed to a pelleted feed, commonly between 9-12 days.

If the entire flock has coped well with all of these transitions, presuming that no
environmental or nutritional factors are impeding growth, then the 7 day weight should
be 4.5 to 5 times greater than the day-old chick weight. Through the life of a breeder
flock egg size, and so chick size, will increase steadily with flock age. However, even
chicks from young PS flocks are capable of achieving acceptable (>150g) 7 day
weights.

AVIAGEN TRIAL WORK

It is generally accepted that egg weight and chick weight have an impact on slaughter
weight, and estimates would suggest that each gramme of chick liveweight is worth 10g
at 40 days. However, if smaller chicks are given some help, as they are in small pen
trials, then they can be expected to perform very similarly to larger chicks. Indications
over many such Aviagen broiler trials show that day old chick liveweight, over a range
from 32g to 48g, had surprisingly little effect on 35 day liveweight, as detailed in the
graph below where it can be seen that there is no measurable increase in 35 day
weights when the chick size increased.

However in these same trials, 7 day weight had far more impact on 35 day weight, again
shown in the graph below. In this case, there was a clear slope demonstrating that
chicks which were heavier at 7 days were also heavier at 35 days.

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In all of these trials, the major factor affecting 7 day weight was feed consumption in the
first 7 days as shown below, where as 7 day feed intake rises, so does 7 day weight.

Given this strong correlation between early feed intake and final weight, it follows that
management practices should be strongly focused on developing early appetite,
harnessing potential growth in the first 7 days.

CHICK START ASSESSMENT

Measuring 7 day body weight and comparing it to the target weight of 4.5 to 5 times
chick weight is a useful guide to whether the flock performed well in the brooding
period. However, if it is discovered that the chicks are underweight at 7 days, this
absolute weight does not give very much help in establishing what went wrong. Aviagen
have developed some simple management tools to help evaluate chick start and
understand what might is actually happening during that first week.

The first of these is to measure the percentage of birds which have a good crop fill after
the first 24 hours of placement. In the period immediately after the chicks are introduced
to feed for the first time, they are very hungry, which means that they will eat well and fill
their crops. Checking a sample of birds 8 hours and 24 hours after arrival on the farm to
make sure that all the chicks have found both feed and water is extremely worthwhile.
To do this, small samples of 30-40 chicks should be collected at three or four different
places in the house to establish whether chicks are finding food and water throughout
the house.

Each chick should be handled, and the crop area felt gently. In chicks that have found
both food and water, the crop will be rounded, and the contents will feel similar to the
texture of very thick vegetable soup. If the crop is full, but the original texture of the
crumb is still apparent, the bird has not yet consumed enough water. After 8 hours in
the house at least 80% of the chicks should have found both feed and water and after 24
hours, all the chicks should have full, soft, rounded crops, showing that they have all had
a good meal with both feed and water consumed. Although the residual egg yolk
provides the chick with a protective store of nutrients which will keep the chick alive for
up to 3 days, until the chick begins to eat, growth will be minimal. A flock in which some
of the chicks have not started to eat for 1, or 2 or even 3 days will be very uneven, and
the average flock weight at slaughter will be significantly reduced.

If the rates of crop fill which are measured do not meet the targets, then it will be
necessary to identify the reasons why birds have not found feed and water. It is at this

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point that the lay-out of the house needs to be evaluated. Before the chicks arrive, 60%
of the floor area has been covered with paper, with about 70g of feed per chick placed
on the paper just before the chicks arrive.

For the flock to have a good start, every chick must be able to find feed and water
immediately upon arrival, and the environment needs to be set up to encourage the
chicks to continue feeding. It is recommended that the area of paper should cover not
less than 25% of floor space and sufficient feed on the paper should be placed to last for
the first three days of life. This ensures that the chicks on the paper do not have to
travel more than one metre to reach water focusing activity on paper in the brooding
area.

Upon arrival the chicks should be placed directly on to the feed, so that they do not have
to search for it. They will also need easy access to plentiful water. In a 360 degree
nipple system, supplementary drinkers are not required, however, the lines should be
primed just before the chicks arrive, to ensure that there is a drop of water on each
nipple which sparkles and attracts the chicks' attention.

If rates of crop fill at 8 and 24 hours are satisfactory, but 7 day weights are below the
target of 4.5 to 5 times the day old chick weight, then the chicks are failing to meet the
challenge of one of the later transitions. The way to find out why they are failing is to
weigh a small sample of birds every day for the first week. This is easily done using
electronic kitchen scales, which are graduated down to 1g. As with any sample
weighing, the chicks to be weighed should be caught and held in a catching frame
before weighing and the whole sample should then be weighed individually. Individual
weights are most useful as they allow a CV% to be calculated. Often uniformity will start
to deteriorate before the average weight does. With good management the CV% at 7
days should be no higher than the CV% at hatch.

The graph below shows actual average weights relative to target in the first week. The
flock was from a middle-aged breeder flock, and started reasonably well. However,
there was not enough feed on the floor at placement to last until the chicks found the
automated feeding system. The birds then had difficulty transferring to the pans
because these had not been flooded with feed, which is essential if the chicks are to
make a smooth transition from floor to automated feeding. The final problem was that
the birds made a poor transition onto pelleted feed. Unsurprisingly, 37-day weights were
poor.

In summary, good flock performance is heavily dependant on careful management in the

first week to 10 days of flock life. If the feeding management meets the needs of the
chick, and the challenges of all the different transitions are met, then a 7 day weight
which is 4.5-5 times the initial chick weight is easily achievable. If early management
does not meet these needs, then with the brooding period taking up to a third of the flock
life, there is very little time left to get out of trouble!

Courtesy of Zootecnica, July/August 2004

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