DR DHIRENDRA KUMAR
Poultry Consultant
Molting Process
It is a process where many steps are followed in a scientific manners so as to stop egg production for short duration and logic behind it is to provide reproduction rest to commercial layer birds.
Many methods are followed but feed withdrawal is the most common and simple one.
Advantage is that egg shell becomes good and production increases back to 82-86% depending upon age , environmental conditions , molting process management and feed nutritional management .
Usually molting should be done in mid August to mid Sept month (for North India ) If farmer needs to keep flock till next 6 – 8 months and has no time to replace the flock or if the flock is already 525 – 550 day age and economically not viable or if farmer needs to keep this age flock for full winter season.
My process has been used very successively since year 1997 in Punjab and Haryana
Steps to be followed are as below
Give 10 days before start of molting give Vesminth Forte @ 500 gm per ton in feed for 2 days along with Ostramycin powder @ 1 kg per ton for 7 days
Then give double dose Lasota vaccine in water , now birds are ready for molting any time.
1st day stop all artificial light and birds are only on natural day light.
2nd day give only 50% of daily feed supply and water supply should always be ad lib ( as much birds need)
3rd day Zero feed is to be given ( birds are only on water and there is visible amount of chips in feeder )
Follow this till sample birds body weight is average 1150 gm ( below 1100 gm body weight birds will have high mortality and above 1250 gm birds production will still be going on)
7th day on-words morning give Vesflox forte or Spacin liquid @ 10 ml per 100 birds for 5 days and in evening Toxol liquid @ 20 ml per 100 birds + Neocalcium @ 50 ml per 100 birds for 5 days
When sample body weight is 1150 gm plus minus 30 – 40 gm start giving Molting feed @ 50 gm per bird in morning for 4 – 5 days then daily increase feed @ 10 – 15 gm per birds daily. Maximum feed may be 110 gm – 115 gm per bird per day in divided dose.
When flock reaches 40 % production give morning light and at 60 % production full layer type light .
Marble chips @ 5 gm per bird per day is always given extra as birds will take Marble chips according to its need.
Note – Molting feed will have initially 16.4 – 16.5 % protein and energy 2450 K cal , also its good idea to use RC- Ves granules @ 500 gm per ton for 10 – 15 days in feed when you start re-feeding molted birds. Add RC-Ves granules directly in mixer to avoid breaking of granules.
Once birds reach 40 % production it is good idea to give ND Killed Vaccine 0.5 ml per bird injection in leg muscle and give Cmi plus or Immolyte liquid @ 10 ml per 100 birds in morning water for 5 days
For molting formulations depending on available ingredients Kindly do contact
Chat with Dr Dhirendra Kumar on WhatsApp