Broiler Breeder Management Is No Easy Task

Dear Bawindsomede,

Sorry for the delay. When the males and the females are mixed together in the house, the COMBS of the males are not yet fully developed, so, the males will pass their heads into the female feeders and consume the feed. The farmer has no choice than putting a wire to reduce the size of the feeders but not to penalize the females. This is a difficult part in the management. It can last for 2 to 3 weeks or more. It is not advisable to either reduce the Male ration or to increase the Female ration. It is for the farmer to manage the feeding system of the birds.

In the early days of raising broiler breeders we always had a problem with female uniformity. It was only when we were told by the Veterinarians at Arbor Acres that within every flock of broiler breeders there are small, medium and large birds. Once we realized that, proper rearing, body weights and uniformity became a lot easier. Each house was divided into 4 sections and based on bird weights. At time of weighting, the females were separated into small, medium or large birds. Males were reared separately as they were being fed a male ration. Males were introduced at night about two weeks prior to photo-stimulation to allow them to get accustomed to their new surroundings and their female friends. Because I was raising these birds under tropical conditions, we used a male to female ratio of 1:8, and kept replacement males available at all times in the same house. Males were also fed separately and the feeder adjusted to the height of the males so females could not get at the feed. This worked very well, uniformity was in excess of 90%, and egg production high. Fertility and hatchability was also very high. We also kept very good records from day one, so any potential problems were relatively easily detected.

Thanks, valuable information. What wt eggs we can set as hatching? Is there any correlation between egg weight and hatchability?