The extent of ammonia younger chicks will probably be uncovered to throughout the first week of their lives is set to a big extent by what was executed to the litter between the flocks.
Michael Czarick, Extension Engineer; Dr. Connie Mou, UGA Poultry Science (PhD 2020)
In the direction of the top of a flock the birds are including hundreds of gallons of water to a home every day. Throughout chilly climate, decreased air flow charges, in try and maintain heating prices to a minimal, may end up in a big proportion the moisture remaining within the litter. Essentially the most prevalent location for moisture build-up in litter is close to a home’s drinker strains. If truth, it’s not unusual on the finish of the flock for the moisture content material of the litter inside a few toes of every drinker line to be 40% or larger.
Since water is likely one of the key constructing blocks for ammonia, the elevated moisture content material results in elevated ammonia manufacturing from the litter close to the drinker strains. In reality, analysis has proven that the ammonia manufacturing of the litter within the neighborhood of the drinker strains will be 4 instances or greater than that in different areas of the home the place the litter is drier.
After a flock leaves a home throughout chilly climate, the temperature of the air in a home rapidly drops. Although this truth could seem trivial, it may well trigger issues for the chicks that will probably be displaying up in a few weeks. It is because each the evaporation of water and era of ammonia from the litter are temperature-dependent. The colder the home turns into, the decrease the quantity of ammonia generated, and the decrease the quantity of moisture faraway from the litter. In a way, the colder a home turns into, the deeper the litter tends to enter a state of hibernation. If warmth is added to a home per week or so later, it may well seem to be the birds simply left. The ammonia era course of begins again up and the ammonia ranges quickly improve. Because of this, one of many keys to preserving ammonia ranges to a minimal in the beginning of a flock is to take away as a lot of the ammonia-producing cake from a home as potential after which work on drying the litter that continues to be. The earlier the cake is eliminated, the extra time it’s a must to dry the remaining litter and the simpler it will likely be to regulate the ammonia in the beginning of the subsequent flock.
Delaying the elimination of cake from a home for a couple of days after the birds go away successfully reduces a home’s downtime a couple of days as a result of little drying of the cake and the litter beneath the cake will happen. Determine 1 reveals the common litter moisture taken from a number of places close to the drinker strains from three broiler homes on the identical farm. The day after the birds left the litter moisture was 45%. Over the subsequent seven days there was no vital lower within the moisture stage of the caked litter close to the drinker strains. 
Although the moisture content material of the litter underneath the cake was not measured, it might be extremely uncertain if there would have been any change due the truth that the moisture content material of the caked litter above it didn’t change. On this case, for the reason that homes weren’t decaked for roughly seven days after the top of the flock, from a litter-drying standpoint the 21-day downtime grew to become a 14-day downtime.
Although acid-based ammonia management merchandise can be utilized to successfully decrease ammonia previous to chick placement, how lengthy an ammonia management product will final relies upon upon the ammonia-generation fee of the litter when it’s utilized. There’s a exact quantity of ammonia that every pound/gallon of litter remedy will eradicate. The upper the ammonia-generation fee, the quicker any litter management product will probably be used up and ammonia ranges will begin to rise. If previous to chick placement caked litter has not been eliminated and the litter hasn’t not been dried sufficiently, the ammonia-generation fee will be so excessive that the ammonia binding functionality of a litter remedy will be overwhelmed.
To assist guarantee chicks is not going to be uncovered to extreme ammonia throughout brooding, caked litter needs to be eliminated quickly after the earlier flock’s departure, then home needs to be closed up and ventilated in a way much like that if there have been birds current. Minimal air flow followers needs to be managed by a timer.
Ideally, the common home relative humidity could be stored beneath 70%. If daytime temperatures are average (+50 °F) minimal air flow followers needs to be operated repeatedly. If extra litter moisture shouldn’t be faraway from the home then little moisture will probably be faraway from the litter and the ammonia era fee in the beginning of the subsequent flock is extra prone to overwhelm any ammonia-control product utilized. As well as, if a home shouldn’t be ventilated correctly between flocks, extreme humidity/condensation and excessive ammonia ranges can find yourself damaging a poultry home’s construction and gear.
Ultimately the aim fairly easy: don’t let the moisture and the cake from a earlier flock adversely have an effect on the present flock’s efficiency and well being.
This text was initially printed in Poultry Housing Ideas, Quantity 34, Quantity 2, 2022. College of Georgia, School of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Cooperative Extension
From the Proceedings of the Midwest Poultry Federation Conference 2022
