Grading and Sexing Of Chicks Presented By Michael

Grading and Sexing Of Chicks Presented By; Michael Heshmat poultry Diploma student 2017 No. 8 1

MEANING OF DIFFERENT WORDS Chick: Means poultry under one month old. Grade: means the classification of poultry or poultry products according to the prescribed standards and grading have corresponding meaning. Standard: means those rules, tests, measures or specifications by which the quality or grade of a poultry product is determined. Baby chicks: means chicks and poults that have never been fed. 2

CHICK GRADING There are different types of grading of chicks which are as follows; • Grading at hatchery • Grading at farm 3

GRADING AT HATCHERY There are different types of grading which is done at hatchery. It is done by pasgar scoring method. Grading by sex Grading by quality 4

GRADING BY SEX Sexing is separation of males and females of day old chicks. Japanese/vent sexing Feather sexing 5

PARAMETERS USED TO ASSESS CHICK QUALITY Activity Down and appearance Retracted yolk Eyes Legs Naval 6

Remaining membrane Remaining yolk Beak Abdomen Weight 7

ACTIVITY Chick was placed on its back and observed to see how quickly it returns to its feet. An immediate return to its feet was considered strong, while delay (more than 3 s) return or remaining on its back was considered weak. Quality Scores Good 1 Week 0 8

Beak clean or dirty and crossed is checked. Quality Clean Dirty and crossed Score 1 0 9

Abdomen is checked either hard or soft. Quality Soft Hard Score 1 0 10

Wt. Of Chick We select A Grade , Starter and B Grade Chicks. A Grade Chick Wt. 38 -45 g Free from any abnormality Ideal wt. 42 g Starter chick Wt. below 38 g Free from any abnormality 11

B Grade Chicks Wt. Below 38 g Some abnormality (Less activity) These are also saleable chicks C Grade Chicks Below 34 g Any apparent abnormality 12

Abnormalities in Chicks Button formation in vent High humidity High temperature Unhealed navel High temp. High humidity Crippled chicks Due to temp. variations 13

Crossed beaked Missing eyes Twisted neck Spraddle legs Swollen head 14

DOWN AND APPEARANCE Chick should dry and clean( free from adhering dried yolk, shell and membranes. Quality Scores Clean and dry 1 Dirty and wet 0 15

RETRACTED YOLK Chick was placed on its back on hand palm. The height of its abdomen is estimated. The consistency of its abdomen to touch was then estimated. Chicks that had bodies with large yolks and hard to touch was considered of poor quality. Quality Scores Normal 1 Large yolk hard touch 0 16

EYES Open, alert and bright were considered of good quality. Open but not bright were fair and closed were of poor quality. Quality Scores Open and bright 1 Open but not bright 0 17

LEGS Chick was put on its feet and whether it could stand easily were observed. Toe conformation was assessed as was hock color. Quality Scores Normal legs & toes 1 One infected leg ½ Two infected legs 0 18

NAVAL Naval closure and coloration of the skin around the naval was observed. Skin color different from the chick skin color was considered poor quality. Quality Scores Completely closed and clean 1 Not closed & not discolored ½ Not closed and discolored 0 19

REMAINING MEMBRANE Remaining membrane was categorized as very large, large and small. Quality Scores No membrane 1 Small membrane ½ Large membrane ¼ Very large membrane 0 20

REMAINING YOLK Remaining yolk adhered to the skin and down were categorized as very large, large and small. Quality Scores No yolk 1 Small yolk ½ Large yolk ¼ Very large yolk 0 21

GRADING AT FARM At farm separate low weight birds and feed them separately and provide a bit large amount of ration the heavy weight chicks. The feed of heavy weight chicks is maintained so as to get a uniform body weight among all the chicks. 22

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ADVANTAGES OF CHICK GRADING Achievement of purpose of providing quality chicks to the customers. There is good reputation of the hatchery Uniformity among the flock is maintained. Removal of birds which will not show better performance in the future. Better profit is obtained. 24

Sexing Of Chicks Several methods are used to determine the sex of a day-old chicks. Some are effective only with certain breeds or crosses, while others are universal. The two chief methods of sexing chicks are feather sexing vent sexing. 25

Vent sexing, also known simply as venting Involves squeezing the feces out of the chick, which opens up the chick's anal vent (called a cloaca) slightly, allowing the chicken sexer to see if the chick has a small "bump", which would indicate that the chick is a male. Some females also have bumps, though they are rarely as large as those of male chicks 26

Feather sexing The sex-linked slow-feathering gene can be used for crosses where the sex of the chicks can be determined at hatching time by the length of the wing feathers. Female chicks have primary wing feathers that are significantly longer than the coverts. The male chicks have primary wing feathers that are shorter, about the same length as the coverts. 27

PACKING OF CHICKS The chicks are packed in chick boxes of standard size. They are soft at the time of packing so leave them for 4 -5 hours to become hard. Attach label of sex, breed, date of hatch, and grade of chicks on the chick box. 28

RECORD THE DATA The following data should be recorded. Breed Number of eggs set Number of quality chicks hatched % age of total hatchability Number of “grade outs” % age of extra chicks given to customer. 29