As summer approaches, breeders are faced with the challenge of how to operate house ventilation to protect birds in extreme conditions. This article will answer some common questions that are key to managing a tunnel-ventilated house during the summer.
First of all, about the description of the environmental controller, it can help the breeder to better manage the chicken house, but many breeders may not fully understand the role of the environmental controller.
One of the key points is that house ventilation cannot be achieved with one set of environmental controller parameters all year round. That is to say, we must set different environmental control parameters to meet the needs of chicken growth in different seasons and stages.
We recommend at least four program settings for the environmental controller to cover the winter brooding and growing phase, and the summer brooding and growing phase. However, even in the summer growth phase, we need to adjust the parameters to different degrees for 3-week-old and 6- and 7-week-old birds.
There are two main risks for the summer growing season: either entering the tunnel too early will overventilate the chicks, or entering the tunnel too late will underventilate the larger chickens.
When should the pads be used and all fans should be turned on before using the pads?
1) When the outdoor relative humidity is 80% or higher, the effect of the wet curtain is not great.
2) When the relative humidity is 80% or lower, the outdoor air temperature must be above 27℃ before using the wet curtain.
3) Frequent opening of the wet curtain before 10:00 am or after 9:00 pm will not yield much benefit.
4) The wet pad needs a period of time to dry every day.
Assuming a target temperature of 21°C at 5 weeks of age, it is acceptable to enter tunnel ventilation after 25°C and use a wet pad at 28°C.
Do you close the pad if the humidity is too high?
Assuming that it is a hot day during the day, under normal circumstances, a chicken house with a good wind speed will not have the relative humidity rise to close the wet curtain.
Note that good wind speed is essential, high humidity will greatly reduce the effect of the bird, relying on the speed of the air to remove most of the heat from the bird. With wind speed around 3m/s, we can keep adult chickens comfortable even in high humidity.
Most commercial humidity sensors are not very accurate at high relative humidity. You might want to close the pad at 85% relative humidity, but it might actually close at 78% humidity, causing unnecessarily high temperatures.
