If you want to raise any breed of chicken, it’s cost-wise to choose day-old chicks.
Whether you want to raise chicken for egg production or meat, buying expensive birds can have a great effect on your productivity.
However, caring for day-old chicks is not for the faint-hearted.
It is also not advisable to buy day-old chicks if you’re a beginner, don’t try it.
Let’s weigh the advantages and disadvantages of raising chickens from a day old.
Advantages of Raising Day Old Chicks
There are different types of day-old chicks and getting to know poor quality day-old chicks is very difficult.
However, experienced poultry farmers capitalize on quality breeders and partner with breeders who’ve offered them quality birds in the past.
Raising chickens from day old means less building and equipment will be required in the early stage of production.
This is because none of these chicks would be tied down to the brooding and rearing of birds.
Getting quality day-old chicks will help to cut down on risks and disease outbreaks.
Quality day-old chicks are chicks that have been immunized before they are sold.
Another good characteristic of quality day-old chicks is that they’re produced by quality parent chickens.
Day-old chicks are cheaper since some chick growers are specialists and may bear the cost of all pulls and mortality, and yet produce these chicks cheaply enough.
Returns on investment come in faster since the waiting period is reduced or eliminated.
Since you will buy them cheaply, you can buy more than you want to rear, and you can destroy weak birds and raise high-quality chickens only.
You will be able to raise your desired breed since you can select the breed you want if you’re buying a hatchery directly.
You also get them to socialize with you and their environment easily if you buy them when they’re a day old.
It gives a sense of responsibility and caring for chicks can impact your life in one way or the other.
Disadvantages of Raising Day Old Chicks
Day-old chicks management can be stressful, this is not to scare you.
Even people who’ve successfully raised day-old chicks can lose so many birds in their next attempt.
Day-old chicks are packaged in a carton and you may not be able to purchase your preferred type of chicks
Another disadvantage is that, if chicks are unhealthy, the intending producer may run the risk of introducing disease into his or her farm
Day-old chicks may come with some productive disorders and you’ll not be able to detect and return them.
If the chicks have been subjected to a series of disturbances during their growing period, they may develop some negative behavior.
Chicks may not have been vaccinated against all the relevant diseases and such birds may come down with all these diseases on your farm
However, If one purchases birds that are reared from another far, care must be taken to ensure that such birds are healthy.
To raise day-old chicks, you need to keep them indoors and if you don’t have a suitable brooding house, you’ll not be able to raise them or you’ll have to keep them in your living space, which can make it smelly, dusty, dirty and uncomfortable for you.
Some chicks may be dead in the carton by the time they’re delivered.
Most hatcheries have a minimum number of chicks you can purchase, so you may need to buy more than you need, and that’s more costly.
Another disadvantage of raising chicks from a day old is that you’ll need to spend more on equipment – plastic tub, heat lamp, bedding, drinker, etc.
Conclusion
There are pros and cons of raising day-old chicks but the fact that they’re cheap, it’s easy to start your poultry business with little capital.
Once they’re over three weeks, the management practices will not be intense like when they’re a day old.
As a poultry farmer, you should get your day-old chicks from a reputable hatchery.
To those producing day-old birds for others to buy, they should make it a point of duty to produce healthy birds for their customers.
The hatchery should ensure their day-old chicks are vaccinated before they’re packed into their cartons.
