Under natural conditions, laying hens will moult and stop laying after about 1 year of laying. The natural moulting rest period of about 4 months is long, not only requires a lot of feeding costs, but also the chickens are very irregular in moulting, the egg production rate is low, and the eggshell quality is also inconsistent, which greatly restricts the breeding. The economic benefits of the chicken industry. Artificial forced moulting has the advantages of short moulting time, prolonging the production and utilization period of chickens, ordering eggs after moulting, increasing egg weight, improving egg quality, and reducing egg breaking rate.
1. Drug method Add zinc oxide or zinc sulfate to the feed so that the amount of zinc is 2% to 2.5% of the feed. Feed the chickens freely for 7 days, start feeding the normal laying hen feed on the 8th day, and stop production on the 10th day, and start laying again after 3 weeks.
2. The hunger law is a traditional method of forced moulting. The feed stop time should be about 30% reduction in chicken body weight. Generally after 9 to 13 days, the light will be shortened to 2 hours in the first 2 weeks, and only drinking water will be provided, and 1 hour will be added every day for the chickens to eat and drink. Until 14 hours of light. The diet contains 16% protein and 1.1% calcium. After the egg production starts to rise, the calcium is increased to 3.6%. The hens stop production within 6-8 days. Moulting begins on the 10th day, most of which is 15 to 20 days, and the moulting process ends in 35 to 45 days. Resuming egg production in 30-35 days, 65-70 days to reach a production rate of more than 50%, 80-85 days into the peak of egg production.
3. Drugs-hunger law. First, stop water and feed for hens for 2 and a half days, and stop lighting. Then the water supply was restored, and 2.5% zinc sulfate or 2% zinc oxide was added to the combined feed to allow the chickens to eat freely for about 6 and a half days. Normal feeding and light will be restored from the 10th day, hair removal and moulting will begin after 3 to 5 days, and production can be completely stopped after 13 to 14 days, and egg production will start again after 19 to 20 days, and the egg production peak will be reached in 6 weeks. The egg production rate can reach more than 70% to 75%.
Forced moulting by hunger method
1. Control food and water
Empty the feed in the trough, stop feeding for 7-10 days (the specific stop time can be adjusted according to the health status of the flock, the mortality rate of the chicken, and the weight change, and the average weight of the flock is reduced by 25%-30%. The mortality rate should not exceed 3%.). Laying hens may lay eggs during the feeding period. In order to maintain the quality of the eggshell, shell fragments can be fed. During the fasting period, the amount of 20g per chicken can be added. Stop the water for 2 days and then drink freely.
2. Control the light
Light control was performed 21 days before the forced moulting, and the light was suddenly reduced to 8 hours. After resuming feeding, the light was gradually increased for 1-2 hours per week until the light reached 15-16 hours per day.
3. After the end of feeding, each chicken is fed 18g of 18% crude protein egg-laying diet on average for the first day, and then increase by 18g every day until it reaches free intake.
Pay attention to the following issues in manual moulting
Compared with natural moulting, artificial forced moulting has the adv0antages of short moulting time, neater egg laying after moulting, increased egg weight, improved egg quality, and reduced egg broken rate. However, the following issues need to be paid attention to:
1. Chicken flock selection: the implementation of forced moulting should be a flock with a high annual egg production rate.
2. The health of the chicken: Only healthy chickens can be selected for forced moulting, because only healthy chickens can withstand the strong stress of water and feed, and only healthy chickens can expect high yield after moulting. Weak chickens will die quickly during the period of water and feed, and should be eliminated as soon as possible.
3. Moulting season and time: We must take into account economic factors, flock conditions and climatic conditions. Forced moulting in hot and cold seasons will affect the moulting effect. Generally, it is best to perform forced moulting when chickens start to moult naturally in autumn.
4. The length of hunger time: generally 9 to 13 days, and the specifics should be flexibly controlled according to the season and the fatness and mortality of the chicken. In the season of air temperature, when the mortality of chickens with good fatness or weight is low, the starvation period can be prolonged. On the contrary, the starvation period should be shortened. If the time is too short, the purpose of moulting and stopping production will not be achieved. If the time is too long, the mortality rate will increase, and the chicken body will be damaged. The general mortality rate is controlled at about 3%.
5. Light: When implementing artificial forced moulting, the light should be reduced at the same time.
6. Feeding management during the moulting period: at the beginning of the mandatory moulting, chickens will not stop production immediately, there are often soft-shelled or broken-shelled eggs, shell powder should be added to the trough, 2 kg per 100 chickens; flat-raised chickens Hunger must prevent pecking at bedding, sand, feathers, etc.; there must be enough noodles to ensure that all chickens can eat at the same time.
