Establishment of Cost Effective Brooding Method for Chicken

Abstract

This study was conducted to compare the effect of different brooding techniques on production performance of broilers. Eighty four numbers of day-old broiler chicks (Cobb 500) were purchased from a local hatchery and were randomly divided into 4 experimental units (with three replicates) of 21 chicks each. Brooding in treatment T1, T2, T3 & T4 were conducted by using Electric heating, Gas, Charcoal and Rice husk; respectively as fuel sources in four separate areas of same specifications. All the experimental birds were provided standard husbandry conditions like light, space, ventilation and relative humidity. The data regarding body weight, feed consumption, feed conversion ratio, and mortality was recorded. At the end of experiment, two birds from each replicate were randomly picked up and slaughtered for determining dressing percentage and necropsy study. Result showed that there was no significant difference (P>0.05) in case of initial body weight, average feed intake, mortality and dressing percentage among different treatment groups. Significantly poorest body weight gain and FCR was observed in rice husk brooding method (P<0.05). Economic study showed that significantly higher performance was observed in electric and gas brooding system with high cost of brooding installation (Tk. 24.42 and 21.26; respectively) as compared to charcoal and rice husk brooding method (Tk. 17.56 and Tk.13.89; respectively) (P<0.05). Based on the productive performance, brooding installation and economic analysis, it can be concluded that charcoal brooder may be a cost effective brooding method which can be applied in chicken farm especially in remote areas where no electricity access or power failure is common.