The importance of quality nutrition and management on the breeder farm

摘要

The quality of the day-old chicks is crucial for the success of a layer hatchery. Different approaches to judge chick quality have been proposed in literature and implemented in practise. Today there is no universal procedure available to judge chickquality and the assessments are often difficult to quantify, to interpret and to compare.There are different chick quality criteria which can be measured in the hatchery: for example chick weight, chick length, chick yield, residual yolk weight; visual parameters like chick activity, navel quality, general appearance, belly size, and in therearing farm: chick weight at housing, chick weight after the first week and first week mortality.