Running a backyard poultry farm can be a rewarding and lucrative business, making it a profitable home based business idea for beginners. Once established, a poultry farm can become a well-oiled machine in no time, running steadily and consistently every day. Among the several things to watch out for are the high chances of virus and disease outbreaks in poultry farms. Don’t let that overwhelm you! Here are some ways to save your backyard chicken coop from virus outbreaks.
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Pick The Right Cleaning Agents
Let’s face it:
Chickens are messy animals. Expect droppings all over your backyard both inside and outside the coop. Leaving their droppings unattended can cause health problems for both humans and chickens. The backyard must be cleaned every day with the right cleaning agents and disinfectants to ensure chickens have a safe and clean environment to explore and thrive in. Diluted chlorine, baking soda and vinegar, arsenic compounds, fumigation and dry cleaning are some of the common methods of cleaning and disinfecting coops. These natural cleaning agents do not harm chickens and humans around, making them an ideal everyday cleaning agent for chickens.
Heaters & Coolers
Chickens require moderate temperatures to thrive. As the moderate climate isn’t available all through the year, backyard chicken coops must have a heating and cooling facility to ensure chickens are in optimal health. Extremely cold weather and snow can affect the productivity and fertility of chickens. Extreme heat can lead to dehydration and various health problems in chickens.
High levels of humidity can be a breeding ground for germs and infections, making illnesses spread rapidly from one chicken to another on your farm. For this reason, it is important to ensure a moderate temperature in the backyard chicken coop. Coolers are also an important investment to get through harsh summers and extremely humid climates. Ensure you invest in this HVAC equipment and clean off dust and debris regularly to provide chickens with fresh and clean air to breathe.
Proper Ventilation
Wire mesh is a safety mechanism in backyard chicken coops. It prevents chickens from escaping the coop and also blocks out predators such as wild dogs and foxes. What it also does is provide ample scope for ventilation. Chickens need plenty of fresh air to thrive and be healthy. A damp, suffocating environment can cause and spread outbreaks of various poultry diseases such as fowl cholera, fowl pox, avian influenza and more. Choose a chicken coop that offers plenty of space for chickens to roam around while also ensuring proper ventilation through mesh walls. Opt for a chicken coop that is made with an insulated asphalt roof and a fir wood structure that promises durability, stability and a sturdy structure to safeguard the chickens. Find the perfect chicken coop for your backyard poultry farming business at www.mychickencoop.com.au.
Suitable Topography
A chicken coop needs to be placed on solid, level ground that is free of pits, burrows, and uneven topography. Water stagnation brought on by uneven ground is a common source of flies, mosquitoes, and other insects. Moreover, the presence of mice, rats, and dangerous insects may be indicated by any burrows. A quick epidemic of sickness in your chicken coop can be brought on by exposure to their animals or their droppings. The chickens’ general health may suffer as a result of this. In order to get rid of standing water, it is best to find a property with a natural slope or terrain that is fully level. For chicken predators like foxes, dangerous nibbles, and wild dogs to gain entry to the coop from the ground up, soft mud and lowlands make the ideal nesting grounds. The moist sand is a haven for many parasites. The best Topography for a chicken coop is clear, hard ground with a small patch of grass.
High Fencing
It must be possible for chickens to roam freely. It’s not a bad idea to leave the coop door open and let the hens walk free during the day. For this, a tall fence must be erected to secure the site. This protects the chicken from being harmed by predators. When dogs, wild cats, pigs, or foxes attack chickens, bacteria or viruses are transferred from one animal to another, which can result in a widespread outbreak of poultry diseases.
Video Surveillance
Poultry Farming requires constant supervision for feeding, cleaning, nesting, egg collection and more. What’s more, surveillance is also needed to quickly identify and address situations of distress and chickens showing signs of illnesses such as dull/tired behaviour, skin issues, and drop in appetite or becoming unconscious. It can be extremely overbearing for humans to constantly stand around chicken coops and keep vigilance in the hot sun or cold weather. For this reason, video surveillance technology is increasingly replacing human supervision requirements. It reduces the stress on manpower in poultry farming, which is traditionally a labour-intensive business. Video surveillance enables farmers to remotely check the activities in the chicken coop. any signs of distress or illness can be promptly identified and attended to by pulling the one chicken away from the rest of the farm, thereby preventing a quick spread and a mass outbreak of illnesses.
Wrap Up
Follow the above ideas and consult with a reputable poultry farm expert to ensure your coop is in prime health.
