As a Bizfarmer (combination of business & farming), I'm thinking about the impact of spent-layer disposals (during the salah) on the price of eggs. Do you think it would really matter?

Eggcelent:
segun1976. Akure - #3490. Owo - #3560.

Seems it's marginally cheaper in Lagos. Maybe cost of transportation is responsible.

davies427:

@ segun hw did u flush ur water line. Did u use a pressure machine or just manually flushing.

It was a manual flushing (just opening the end of the line and allowing water flow through while the overhed was full)

Happy Sunday,
Farmers, please what is the price of layer concentrate in your location?
Animal care cost N3,450 in Ikorodu, Lagos state.

davidzfarm18:
tunezvic; How far with ur birds? @segun1976:-Hope you are smiling to the bank already.
Great wkend house

Thanks to everyone on thiss forum.
God helped us to weather the storm. However production dropped from about 65% to 55%, this iss because we crashed d feed from 100g/bird/day to less than 70g to manage excess fat which we thought was responsible for the mortalities we were experiencing.
Other measure we took include reducing the maize in our feed formulation and adding 1% limestone. The water lines were flushed and litter packing was daily and rescheduled to the evenings.
With all this and a mild treatment of CRD, mortality reduced to an average of 1bird/day.
Egg size reduced but production has started to clim gradually. This batch is about 2c wks and now at 61% production.
We lost 3% of the birds to the crisis but we thank God for His mercies.
We should start smilling to tha bank soonest.

Eggcelent:
omotititi. Thanks. Much appreciated. segun1976. What time of the day do you record the mortality?Have the birds been debeaked? What has been happening to the dead birds? (Is it not possible that your staff intentionally kill them to fill their pots?). Sorry about your loss. Meanwhile, I don't agree that you must lose some birds when they are just coming into lay.

The timing is usually overnite.
We hve a policy of not giving ded birds to Staff, so that should not be. Motivation. We keep praying!

davidzfarm18:
@Segun1976,
have you started giving them Laxota. You also need to give routine antibiotics at this stage like Nemovit or Neoceryl plus.

@davidzfarm18, thanks for the advice.
We gave lasota @16wks and next dose is due next week. The sensitivity analysis showed lasota immunity still ok. We have also given antibiotics and vitamins. Also treated lice and flused our water system.

Started experiencing daily mortality with our laying birds since last week, lost about 52birds. Carried out lab test including sensitivity analyis. These test showed that all is well.
Our consultant & mentor said its normal to experience some mortlities as the flock come into lay.
Some farmers around suggests its due to excess fat (trying to get a scale to verify that). This batch was bought @ POL and now @ 27wks. Production was slow but recently being improving and now @ 55%.
I'm getting worried and needs to seek urgent help!
It's our first time and we are absentee farmer o!

omotititi:
Hello House.....my new batch of birds dropped their first egg today at age 20weeks. Help me thank God cos I need the golden eggs badly.Am grateful to God alone.

Congrats o! We thank God on your behalf. Hope demand& price for pullet eggs are good at your location

afosoft:


@segun1976, we started selling pullet size 350, 400, 450 depending on the size now we are selling 500, and 650. size determine the price.

For us the first set of eggs were sold @ N400 (about 3 wks ago) and now we @ N470. Not sorting to sizes yet since. Lot of the birds are srill joining the game daily
Our location is Ikorodu-Lagos.

jamp:


congrats bro. your birds are doing great. from 12% at 24wks to 35% at 26wks. well-done bro

Thanks for the continuous words of encouragement.
@Jamp, I'm impressed you really following our progress. God bless.
@Afosoft, would increase the feed ASAP. Was just worried because the Vet said they have excess fat and we only recently changed to layer mash. Like how much do you sell these "new eggs" ( I know it's location-dependent)?

I'm eager for the birds to ttain daily break-even (start feeding themselves).

afosoft:
My birds are 22weeks yesterday and they have reached 50% production. I got this giant egg from one of them. Baba of Egg i call it (Esumare Egg) lol

@Afosoft, so happy for you. I guess your birds are not doing badly.
Our birds are 26wks tomorrow and doing 35%. Its our first time and we got them as 16wks POL. The batch is 3,264 but we have 3,240 left.
We refused to be discouraged and believe everything would be okay.

Eggcelent:
aralgreen. Please, clarify what you mean by "TEMPORARY"? segun1976. It is expected that the birds do not finish their increased feeds initially. They would get to do that within days IF they have well-developed crops. The photo stimulation/midnight lighting will also help in that regard as the birds can eat at night. In the meantime, encourage your staff to "refresh" the feeds as a way of stimulating the birds to eat more. Success.

Hello House,
My birds have improved a bit and we are now @ 30% @ 25wks. Feed consumptin has gradually reached 100g/hen/day.
I just believe & pray production will catch up as expected. Feeding 3,260 birds from pocket is not palatable o.
Based on the result of the lab tests we have just finished administering drugs and commenced treatment for lice.
We refuse to be discouraged.

@Afosoft, thanks I agree with your opinion.
Congrats on your birds.

jamp:
my second batch started laying at 21wks 5days. they are 23wks today and we have 5% production.

my biggest challenge is how to reduce cost of feeding. i use topfeed, the cost is very high. i spend almost 2,500 for one bag of feed(plus transportation). should i change to a cheaper feed or mill my own feed(source/quality of ingredient is another wahala)

please house i need suggestion on how to tackle this inorder to maximize profit.

@ Jamp milling your own feed may be a way out.

I have 3,260 birds and at 24wks are at about 12%. My pocket is crying!

Taken some advice from the house and praying things improve in the coming days.

omotititi:
Hello house,

we have been off the forum for a while now cos we were working on our second pen of 160 by 30. we have just finished d roofing and it has been really cash-intensive. But we give God all the glory .

see pix

Congrats Omotititi.
This is definitely a big one. May the Lord sustain you.

Eggcelent:
segun1976. The obvious thing wrong with your management practices is the quantity of feed being fed the birds. Birds require significant increase in their daily consumption the moment the first egg is laid. At this stage, each bird should be eating about 110g/day. Are you still on Growers mash? If yes, given the age of the birds, I'll say you switch to layers. My pullets are also 24 weeks 2 days & we are doing over 50%. Significantly increase their daily feeds intake, photostimulate & give vitamins. Success.

@Eggcellent, thx for the prompt feedback.
The isu is that the pen wasn't wired for bulbs, so photostimulation is notpossible immediately. 2wks ago weattempted increasing the feed but the feeding troughs were not emptied by the birds.
A check on 2 other farmers who also collected POLs from the same btch as ours shows one is @ 15% & the other less than 10%.
We have taken blood samples for some tests & should get the results tomorrow.
Would administer vitamins ASAP.
Advice from senior farmers that have similar experiences in the past is still highly welcome.

davidzfarm18:
@Segun1976 Congrats.
as stated, nothing unusual in d production. I know of a farm that picked just 2 eggs every day for the 1st 2 wks of lay but they are getting more than 50% now less than four weeks of lay.


House. Smone shd pls help me out with what can be used to keep SNAKE away from my farm

Apologies to the house that i have not updated on my project so far.


Just to report our progress so far.
Thank God, the birds are looking healthy, mortality has been only 4. The little challenge we have now is that production has not increased as rapid (as expected) as i read in literatures. At the moment the birds are at 24 wks and production is at 10%. Feed consumption is about 90g/bird/day.

We have treated for lice, de-wormed and planning lasota for next week.

Being a first-time farmer, one need to ask if we are doing well @ this juncture.

jamp:


congrats bro. You are on the right track. Am yet to see egg from my batch(19wks). You can stimulate them to sexual maturity by adding light. I intend to add light when they are 20wks.

cheers bro

We appreciate everyone for their words of encouragement and importantly thank God for His goodness.
We considered photo-stimulation but I'm actually an absentee farmer (visits only once a week) and coupled with the state of power failure & fuel scarcity in town. The literaturei read emphasized on consistency once you adopt photo-stimulation.
The only source of concern for me is that the feed consumption is low (about 85g/hen/day). Please advise.

Hello House,
Happy to announce that our birds dropped first egg last week @ 19wk 4days.however since then we have gotten atotal of only 24eggs from the 3,263 birds.
From all I have learnt from the seniorsin this forum I believe that there is nothing abnormal about this.
We continue to keep a close watch and take adequate steps towards good pullet management practices.
Your invaluable advice is always welcome.

Eggcelent:
Annabechick. Your pen won't do for the number you are looking at. You need to increase the width to at least 26 feet. segun1976. 85g/day for 18 weeks old pullets in cages is OK (according to ISA Brown Management Guide). However, I'll suggest you pick several of them at random (especially, the smaller ones), weigh them to see if they are up to 1.5kg. If yes, stick with the 85g/bird/day for the week; if no, increase it to the 95g suggested. Success.

Thanks forthe enlightenment.

Please how do i weigh the birds I mean the type of suitable scale, etc)

Haryobame:
naa deep litter ooh

Wonderful performance! What is the age of the birds?

Annabechick:
Hello house please am constructing a poultry house for 2000 birds but am not around to supervise the construction. Please this is the picture for the house its 20ft by 90 ft. I want to knw if it will house 2000 birds to maturity? pls i need ur opinion

What type of roof did you use? Are u planning for cage or deep litter system?

This would affect the number you can raise in any given space.

Hello good people,
Please I need guidance on what quantity of feed I should be feeding my pullet.
They are currently 18wks 1day, ISA brown. A guide I saw on the website says 85g but the breeder who sold to me says about 95g.

From your experience, what do you suggest?

Haryobame:
..yeaah i knw dat...but i think its changed nw..booking dos take long...just dat dey wont give you actually what u want...nd dey have different day of hatchery for different birds...current i got 150pullet frm them. Started laying at 18weeks ...nd nw 1months of laying i get 141..birds laying..nd one of d feaature of their egg is that d big ones as two yorks............

Do you mean you get 141 eggs a day? Or u have 141 birds alive?

eghejenny:

hello @segun1976
please can you send me the cage maker details, my email address is eghe21@yahoo.com.
thanks

Sent you the info by mail.

davidzfarm18:

Happy Workers Day.
However, a farmer has no public holiday.
for compounded feed
Grower will cost between N1500-N1700 depending on your location. the formulae and the source of the ingredient/materials.
Layers mash will be between N1700-N1850 .
You may wish to consider using concentrates. (less stressful but only slight reduction in price. but looking at the now of your birds N50 -N200 savings per bag goes as long way.

we started ordering feeds from a mill nearby. withthe formula we use (animal care concentrate, maize etc) the cost of grower mash is N76/Kg. i believe the layer mash would cost a little bit more.
with 3,264 birds we need to think about managing cost.

segun1976:


@ Everyone

We finall received our 3,264 POL birds. We had to move them over 2 days, Thursday & Friday. We didnt get enough movement crates and to do several trips to complete the transfer.

The birds were administered anti-stress/vitamins since arrival. No mortality recorded and they look very fine. Monitoring their feed consumption as an indicator of their stability.

Please how much (on the average) does your compounded layer feed come to? I know it depends on specific formula and location but need it as a guide.

Would try to continually update the house.

Our birds are 18 weeks old (1 week after arrival) today. Feed consumption is about 80g/bidrd/day, The birds are very healthy also.

The bird were vacinated with 3-in-1 on Tuesday.

i earlier asked how much an average compounded feed/Kg cost, but got no response yet.

Happy workers day

Scanfrost:


Am impressed Segun...kudos mate!!! Ur cages where locally made.... Or u bought them. The cost of buying 85k has been advertised by farmergiant n d rest for 120 bird capacity.

Am trying to save cost of buying the cages. How much did it cost you to construct this 3,000 capacity cage for your bird.

Thanks for your words of encouragement.

The price of locally fabricated cages would largely depend on type of material and locality. The type we used cost us about 45k in Lagos and this includes the plumbing connections and 3 mini water tanks per row.

You also have to consider that the useful life of the type offered by farmergiant may be more than the locally-fabricated.

segun1976:


Hello House, just to provide update on our expected 3,000 layers.
Again we couldn't get it done today. The challenge has been the availability of moving crates. Now we have scured some crates on rent and should effect the movements latest by Friday morning.
My concern really is that the birds should be moved before they are 17weeks old. Some literature I read states that it's not good for layers to be moved after they are 17weeks. This is because this is a critical period when the birds attain sexual maturity and stree could interfere with this natural process.

@ Everyone

We finall received our 3,264 POL birds. We had to move them over 2 days, Thursday & Friday. We didnt get enough movement crates and to do several trips to complete the transfer.

The birds were administered anti-stress/vitamins since arrival. No mortality recorded and they look very fine. Monitoring their feed consumption as an indicator of their stability.

Please how much (on the average) does your compounded layer feed come to? I know it depends on specific formula and location but need it as a guide.

Would try to continually update the house.

obstead200:


A very big congrats to u. Please I also need the number of the person who designed ur cages. kindly send me a mail at obstead2003@yahoo.com or 08036269893

Also, please how many feet wide is your pen? I notice u want to place two rows of cages.

I am also building a poultry in the south east and am aiming to do eggs too. My pen is 23ft wide. I think it will be about 6ft high at the lowest points. I hope it is ok?
I will make out time to take Pictures of my ongoing construction project and post it here for accessment.
I am yet to roof the building sha and I think I am glad to learn that asbestors or aluminum is better cos I was planning to use zinc. what is the price per sheet of asbestors please? will aluminum be ok as an alternative?

you see, I really dont know my left from my right in this poultry biz. I just observe what I can see in other farms and then replicate it in my own site. I however intend to undergo training before starting.

pls do send me the contact details of the cage provider.

You can reach the cage man on 08029562263 or 08063101354.

Our pen is 120ft by 30ft to accomodate 17units of double row (making a total of 34 units) housing 3,264 birds.

Because you must allow space in between rows and between the cage row and pen wall, not sure your width wont be too tight to take two rows.

There are two sizes of the abestors, we used the large and its N1,800/unit, 194 units was used.