2. 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.
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3. There are different types of grading of chicks
which are as follows;
•Grading at hatchery
•Grading at farm
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4. 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
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5. GRADING BY SEX
Sexing is separation of males and females of day old
chicks.
Japanese/vent sexing
Feather sexing
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6. PARAMETERS USED TO ASSESS CHICK
QUALITY
Activity
Down and appearance
Retracted yolk
Eyes
Legs
Naval
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8. 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
3s) return or remaining on its back was considered
weak.
Quality Scores
Good 1
Week 0
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9. Beak
Beak clean or dirty and crossed is checked.
Quality Score
Clean 1
Dirty and crossed 0
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11. Wt. Of Chick
We select A Grade ,Starter and B Grade Chicks.
A Grade Chick
Wt.38-45g
Free from any abnormality
Ideal wt.42g
Starter chick
Wt. below 38g
Free from any abnormality
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12. B Grade Chicks
Wt. Below 38 g
Some abnormality (Less activity)
These are also saleable chicks
C Grade Chicks
Below 34g
Any apparent abnormality
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13. Abnormalities in Chicks
Button formation in vent
High humidity
High temperature
Unhealed navel
High temp.
High humidity
Crippled chicks
Due to temp. variations
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15. 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
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16. 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
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17. 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
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18. 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
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19. 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
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20. 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
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21. 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
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22. GRADING AT FARM
At farm separate low weight birds and feed them
separately and provide a bit large amount of ration
then the heavy weight chicks.
The feed of heavy weight chicks is maintained so as
to get a uniform body weight among all the chicks.
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24. 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.
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25. 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.
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26. Vent sexing
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
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27. 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.
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28. 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.
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29. 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 “grade outs”
% age of extra chicks given to customer.
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