Water: The Most Overlooked Element on Chicken Farms
Chicken farms often overlook the importance of quality water for their birds. This is crazy since birds consume way more water than feed. Birds typically drink 1.6 to two times the equivalent weight of feed, and if water intake is limited, then feed intake declines. All digestive activity is dependent on water, and poor water quality can mean getting less than expected results from even the best quality feed.
Chicken farm's primary goals are to have the lowest litter mortality rate and highest weight per bird. Substandard water quality – water contaminated with microorganisms, algae, dust, and rust is relatively common and can impact poultry performance.
An optimal pH is vital to birds growth. pH stands for Presence of Hydrogen. It indicates how acidic or alkaline your water is. The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14, with 7 being neutral. To help visualize, 0 = battery acid, 14 = bleach. Birds have consistently shown to prefer water with a slightly acidic pH, ranging from 6.0 to 6.5. Acidic water tends to taste better (think lemon in your water). When you have better-tasting water, your birds drink more, which promotes better gut health, and untimely more weight on the bird
We had the pleasure of visiting and working with a chicken farm in Douglass, Texas. The owners had expressed their concerns about their water and had recently learned that better water for their chickens would create a better product for their farm. Their goal is to beef up each of their chickens by 1 pound and lower their litter mortality to under 20%. We worked with together to create the perfect system for their farm. We installed a Twin 13 x 54 GreenSand + Iron Removal System with a Chlorine Injection Storage Tank and Pump. This system will remove their iron, iron bacteria, and magnesium and allows us to manage its high demand for water usage effectively. It will also allow us to manage their pH level and keep it in an optimal range.
We are so excited to be on this journey with them.
