Ensure Healthy Chicks
You may not even realize the need for a brooder or a breeder, especially since healthy chicks are born in nature all the time. If a mother hen can keep her chicks healthy without the help of modern conveniences and technology, then it stands to reason that you should be able to, also. What you might not take into account is the fact that mother hens do know how to keep their chicks healthy and warm during the first few weeks of life, and that’s not something you would have the instincts for. There is also the consideration that many chicks in nature do not make it past the first few weeks of life, and you wouldn’t be aware of this fact if you weren’t watching them closely for business reasons.
The truth of the matter is that you can’t expect all of your chicks to live within weeks of their hatching without the proper equipment. When you are working with such large numbers of animals as you would with a small scale hatchery, there is no way to expect mother hens to care for all chicks during the first weeks of life. There are just too many eggs to consider, and that means you will need help with the babies. For your hatchery to keep growing, it is important to keep the chicks healthy enough through the first weeks of life so that they can grow into productive birds for your business.
With a brooder, you can keep your chicks in a safe and disease-free place to encourage growth. These brooders, like the GQF box brooder or the GQF 0701 breeding pen, have plenty of room for all of your chicks. Every baby will get the food and water needed to ensure healthy growth. This doesn’t happen in nature, where the stronger chicks overpower the weaker ones for the available food. All of your chicks get the same warmth and care they need in a brooder, and that means that a larger number of them will survive the first few weeks of life to grow into healthy birds.
You need healthy birds to perpetuate your hatchery business, so it’s important to consider the need for a brooder and a growing pen. You will see an immediate difference in the number of birds that survive the hardest few weeks of growth, and that will translate into more money for your poultry farm or hatchery business.
