Clean Out
After every flock depletion the farmer has to remove all the litter and
prepare the building for the next flock and it is important that all the
poultry buildings are cleaned down at the same time to keep any disease risk to
a minimum.
The litter has a high nitrogen value and is used on the land as fertilizer.
Some farmers recycle their litter to power stations where it goes to make
electricity. More information can be found at
www.fibrowatt.com
The litter is often removed
by skid steer loader. These very agile machines can get into corners and around
posts quickly. .
Wash down & sanitization
Hygiene is of the utmost importance to the farmer when he
prepares the rearing house for the new chicks.
Much time and care goes into preparing a chicken house. If the
cleaning process is not done properly, then the new flock is exposed to a higher
disease risk.
After the removal of all the litter, the outside of the
building is washed, then all the equipment inside must be thoroughly cleaned.
Modern poultry buildings have all the internal equipment suspended from the
roof, as you can see in this photograph and it is lowered to the ground after
the bedding has been laid. The ability to wash the equipment "in place", saves
much time in the cleaning stage.
All the large production units in the UK are sanitized like
hospitals. Where large numbers of birds are reared, it is necessary to sanitize
as much as possible, to protect the new chicks against diseases to which they
have no inbuilt immunity.
The floors and walls are not only covered with disinfectants,
but also insect inhibitors. The eradication of all insect and especially beetle
eggs is very important to stop the carry over of diseases.
After that fogging machines fill the air with a disinfectant
mist ensuring a through coverage of all the nooks and crannies.
Before the bedding can be laid, the floors must be allowed to
dry out. In winter or in short turn round periods it is
difficult to dry the floors in time for the fresh bedding and hot air has to be
introduced to speed up the drying out process.
Finally, after all the pre-flock preparation is complete, the
air is fogged again with disinfectants.
Fact:-
In September 1981 a British farmer was paid
23.5p.p.lb (51.8p per Kilo) for his chicken. In February 2005 that same farmer
is paid 22p.p.lb (49p per Kilo).
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