How to Raise Broiler Chickens for a Faster Harvest

Broiler chickens, also called meat chickens, are a type of poultry in strong demand. Many people need them, because most people like chicken, from toddlers to the elderly. Raising a broiler to market size takes only about 4-5 weeks. The thing to watch when raising meat chickens is the birds' health. Several factors affect it, including the environment, sanitation, the coop and the weather. If the environment is good and the birds are fed well, they are not easily struck by disease.

How to raise broiler chickens for a faster harvest

There are steps to follow when raising broilers. They include choosing the chicks, setting ideal technical conditions and caring for the birds. Here is more detail.

Choosing broiler chicks

For healthy, good-quality broilers later on, choose good chicks with signs of health, such as being active, with sharp eyes, plump, with a clean nose, clean feathers and a clean vent. Check each of these carefully.

Ideal technical conditions

The technical conditions also relate to the coop. An ideal broiler coop should be far from residential areas, easy to reach by road, and have easy access to water. The coop should also have good air exchange. It should be easy for you to get supplies and facilities too. In addition, you must watch the ideal coop temperature, which follows these ranges:

Age 1-7 days: the temperature should be 34-32⁰C
Age 8-14 days: the coop temperature should be 29-27⁰C
Age 15-21 days: the coop temperature should be 26-25⁰C
Age 21-28 days: the coop temperature should be 24-23⁰C
Age 29-35 days: the temperature should be 23-21⁰ C

Caring for broiler chickens

Once you know the technical conditions, if you want your broilers ready for harvest quickly, also pay attention to how you care for them. Care covers the birds' development and their feed. Here is the explanation.

Bird development

Bird development is closely tied to the type of coop. You can choose between two types when raising chickens: the raised (stilt) coop and the litter coop (no raised floor). A raised coop usually keeps the environment cleaner because droppings fall straight through, so maintenance is more efficient. At the start of rearing, you need plastic coop curtains. The purpose is to keep the coop warm so the energy in the feed goes effectively into the birds' growth. Stocking density also needs attention. In tropical areas it should be 8 – 10 birds per m².

Chicken feed

Next is broiler feed. Chickens need enough good nutrition to grow. The feed must contain complete nutrition: carbohydrates, minerals, protein, vitamins and fat. For feeding, you can use an ad libitum system. That means feed is always available and not restricted. If you use factory-made feed, match it to the growth stage, which runs in three phases;

Stage 1 (Pre Starter), age 0-7 days. Here the feed's protein content should be at least 22%.
Stage 2 (Starter), age 7-21 days. Here the feed's protein content should be at least 20%.
Stage 3 (Finisher), age over 21 days. The protein content is 19%.

Those are the key points on raising chickens, broilers in particular, for a faster harvest. If you handle the points above well, you could well turn a profit quickly.