Chick Mortality Affected By Breeder Fowl
HERBERT C, JORDAN
Associate Professor
Poultry Science
Early death of young birds in
captivity can be alleviated, often
substantially, by improving the
health of the breeder fowl before
and during fertile egg production
time.
“Yesterday is today” in poultry
management. How breeders per
form, and how their embryos
develop, hatch and grow, depends
on care of young breeders from
one day of age.
Over years of opening
unhatched eggs to examine chick,
embryo, blastodisc or blastoderm,
I have seen infertility or early
dead range from 10 percent to
more than 40 percent of the eggs
set. Hatchability of fertile eggs
also has been found in the range of
40 percent to 90 percent.
Furthermore, poults or chicks
grown out from unhealthy breed
ers will result many times in
young that never perform well.
The goal, then, is to improve the
health of our breeder fowl to result
in healthy embryos that grow into
healthy, productive chicks and
adults.
Consider:
• What a female eats from one
week to 16 weeks of age may
affect the quality of fertile eggs
and chicks that she produces as an
adult. Effects of poor nutrition is
also true, although less evident, in
the male. Neglected breeders
often result in low quality chicks,
even though the breeders carry the
genes to perform well.
• Breathing voluntary or
involuntary - must be regular, not
labored, in order to effectively
supply oxygen to all necessary
cells of the breeder’s body, and
produce a healthy mom and chick.
Sufficient fresh air for brea
thing,' and adequate living space,
are two low-cost requirements for
breeder fowl. A breeder female
chicken may utilize 40-50 cubic
feet of air or more per day. At .072
pounds per cubic foot, the air con
sumed may weigh 3.6 pounds per
day, which is more pounds than
the feed she’ll consume in a day.
• Diarrhea or manure that is
watery, liquid or loose is a prob
lem itself and also may give rise to
additional problems. Maintaining
a normal gastrointestinal tract in
both breeder and young birds is
vital. A healthy GI tract is worth
100 hours a year of your time.
In birds with loose manure,
some of the feed has not had time
to be digested so that all essential
nutrients are not absorbed by the
intestine. Feed passing through
the body undigested is a lost
resource.
Wet litter or wet manure in a pit
may result in too much toxic gas
in the breeder pen, and may lead
to a reduction in mating. Fertility
declines, hatch is low or late, and
the chicks produced are weak.
Started chicks or poults from a
breeder flock kept under such con
ditions frequently die.
Abnormally wet manure (diar
rhea) can result from consumption
of moldy feed, dirty water or con
taminated litter. If birds eat such
litter illness can result. Wet man
ure may also result from excessive
protein, salt or other minerals in
the diet.
Formed manure produced in a
stool not only indicates a healthier
bird and offspring, but it will dry
faster and be higher quality fertil
izer without a repulsive odor. Dry
stooled manure produces fewer
flies.
• Obesity in a breeder bird of any
species is undesirable. Excess,
hard abdominal fat seems to
reduce the bird’s ability to pro
duce viable sperm or egg cells that
combine to yield high fertility and
hatchability.
Eggs produced by most fat
birds do not seem to have a vigor
ous, viable, embryo. According to
some scientists, mutation, meta
morphosis or functional change in
birds take place in egg cells before
or after fertilization. Not all muta
tions are valuable, as the egg cell
can change into a weak or crippled
chick. Some say evolution takes
place in the egg cell.
• Flabby muscles, rarely seen in
breeders and rarely seen in pheas
ants, nevertheless is possible. This
disorder results in birds given to
much sitting, a lower mating rate,
and when mating, production of
weak embryos. Breeders sus
pected of flabby muscle disorder
should be handled weekly to
determine softness of muscle,
especially in the legs, and lame
ness. All dead breeders with flab
by muscles should be necropsicd.
Diet and exercise can firm up
the muscles of living birds. Some
vitamins, amino acids and uniden
tified components in ingredients
such as fish meal can be generated
as a result of gut fermentation in a
well-fed breeder to help produce
more fertile eggs and healthy
embryos and chicks.
• Lightweight, abnormal or
low-density bone in breeders may
lead to their silling rather than
moving, which results in reduced
mating, and to inadequate egg or
sperm production.
The quality of sperm and eggs
produced by birds with low qual
ity bone marrow or bones is a
question to be examined in the
future. Bone and joint disorders
appear to be more common in
some poultry today than ever
Hea^h
before,
• As amino acid level in feed
reaches the optimum or excess,
feed intake is reduced, some sci
entists report. Limited feed intake
will produce a bird with character
istics difficult to measure.
To determine nutrient con
sumption in breeders, feed con
sumption should be measured dai
ly. Nutrient content of the litter, or
anything at which a bird pecks,
should be considered as well as
feed. Also, sources of other nutri
ents, such as vitamin-mineral
electrolyte (VME) solutions, and
carriers in other treatments such as
vaccines or medicines, should be
examined.
• Abnormal feathers in breeders
can be an indication of poor health
and a harbinger of illness and
weak chicks. Feather quality
should be a matter of daily obser
vation. Abnormal feathering may
result from too much competition
among birds, social incompatibili
ty, poor nutrition, toxic gas pollu
tion in the atmosphere, low water
consumption, wet litter, air- or
feed-borne pollutants, or inadequ
ate living space per bird.
Feather quality of breeders can
be improved by elimination of the
above problems, and by cool
room brooding of chicks at two to
six weeks of age that will be sub-
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