Some of the chicken reared by Naftal Mocha, a rabbit and poultry farmer in Mwiki, Nairobi. [David Njaaga, Standard]

Keeping birds in an open-sided housing system in a hot environment is not always easy. Farmers keeping exotic commercial breeds like layers and broilers find it difficult to achieve maximum performance from these elite birds of high genetic potential. For broiler farmers in hotter environment, they struggle to achieve 50g, the average daily body weight gain target that their counterparts in cooler environment easily achieve. The feed conversion ratio, that is kilogrammes of feed required to produce one kilo of live weight is more than 1.7kg (the lower the better) increasingly become unattainable during hot climates. Mortality rates also tend to increase, especially towards cropping due to sudden death caused by heart failure as birds struggle to keep cool. For layers in such hot areas, they tend to delay in coming into lay, produce small egg size and peak egg production persistency is short. Optimal temperatures stimulate activity and increase appetite of the birds, however over temperatures will result into lethargy, birds avoid feeding, drink excessive water which results into wet litter and loss of essential minerals from the body and hence dehydration. So, the main issues are two-fold, 1) difficulty in increasing feed intake and 2) high body temperature. Let’s look at ways that farmers can device to keep these bird’s performances just as good.

Most poultry houses are rectangular in shape, that is the best, avoid square units as much as possible. The house should be constructed on an east-west orientation to minimise direct sunlight getting into the units in the morning and afternoon.

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Most people use iron sheet, however if you can, in hot locations, use of materials that have good insulation capabilities like grass or straw, makuti and sisal etc. They can even be put on top of the iron sheet.

If you already used the popular iron sheet material for roofing, a good white paint on the outside can help reflect direct sunlight and keep the house cool.

These should be elongated to prevent direct sunlight hitting the birds on the open sides.

Create narrow outlets on the tip of the roof ridge to allow escape of hot air from the floor. Please avoid flat roof if you can, they tend to hold warm humid air around the birds and difficult to evacuate.

High roof of 8-9 feet above the ground is most ideal as it minimizes temperature at the level of the chicks.

In extremely hot environment, use vertical fans mounted in the middle of the unit, they create horizontal air movement that has some chilling effects on the chicks. In environmentally controlled units, these fans are placed on the far end of the units to create tunnel ventilation that helps cool the unit.

In worse cases, use of fogger with narrow nozzles can spray a mist of clean water over the chickens. Please ensure that this is done without necessarily wetting the litter or feed.

Plant trees and bushes around the units to provide most needed shade to reduce direct sunlight. Be careful to remove any wild nests that can invade such trees and become a biosecurity threat to your precious birds.

Most ideal situation is to maximise utility of your unit, however during hot weather, it is only prudent that we reduce the stocking density of the birds. This will help create more feeding and drinking space and allow quick dispensation of heat generated from adjacent birds

Use of slow growing birds like Kenbro in such environments is advisable. There are also commercial naked neck breeds that are now able to cope up in such environments.

[The writer is the Head Vet at Kenchic,  [email protected]] 

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