The Importance of Day-Old Chick Hydration for Improved Chick Performance

Maximizing chicks’ wellbeing through proper handling and transportation routines benefits poultry producers and chicks alike, ensuring healthier, more viable animals. Adequate nourishment and medical care are crucial for healthy stock; as is consistent, reliable hydration. This is especially true for younger, more delicate animals like day-old chicks.

Paying proper attention to the health and wellbeing of your chicks during their first day helps address ethical concerns related to the chicks’ quality of life while enabling poultry producers to maintain compliance with laws and regulations. It also introduces financial benefits by safeguarding product integrity, minimizing mortalities, maximizing yields, and protecting meat quality.

We know hydration is essential for the welfare of your chicks in general, but there are specific scenarios and situations in which you should consider using additional supplementation. Missed delivery times and the possibilities of delays, as well as temperature variability during transit, are some examples of when hydration supplementation should be considered.

Delayed Delivery

It is always best to minimize transit times between hatchery and farm to give chicks the best possible chance at a good start. Even though day-old poultry are hatched with a residual yolk sac that provides built-in nourishment and hydration, early introduction to food and water stimulates beneficial gut development and overall growth, making for healthier chicks.

In a perfect world, transit times from the time of hatching should not be longer than 24 hours and never exceed 72 hours. Although day-old chicks have lower hydration requirements during trips of 24 hours or less, delays while in transit can quickly complicate things. The Poultry Service Association says, “Gel packs or alternative sources of hydration should be provided if the time between hatch and placement will exceed 24 hours”.²

Hubbard Breeders in Pikeville, Tennessee uses gel-based hydration supplements to ensure chicks have a strong livability performance upon arrival, even after short transits. If there are expected delays in delivery, or the chicks look like they are even slightly dehydrated, HydroGel™ 95 is provided to ensure chicks have the best chance of survival.³

Enduring long-distance transits can be difficult for chicks, especially via international airline flights and extended delivery truck travel with times ranging from 40 to 72 hours. According to ThePoultrySite.com, Hubbards Breeders delivers grandparent and parent stock chicks hatched in Tennessee to airports in Miami, Chicago, Memphis, and New York, then on to locations in Europe, Asia, and South America. Adding ClearH₂O’s HydroGel™ 95 to the chick boxes during delivery offers an excellent source of supplemental hydration that day-old chicks can consume quickly and easily.³

Temperature Issues

Born with a residual yolk, day-old chicks come somewhat well-prepared for transport right from the start. Cobb-Vantress points out that as long as their temperature range is kept between 32 - 35°C (90-95°F), the chick’s metabolism will be held at maintenance levels resulting in minimal heat production and less risk of dehydration.⁴

That said, any variances in temperature can cause stress and discomfort to chicks, which can introduce dehydration. When temperatures rise above 41°C (106°F), a chick will begin using energy from its yolk sac at an increased rate to facilitate a panting behavior to self-regulate its body temperature. This panting results in weight loss through increased effort, water loss through evaporation, a much higher risk of dehydration, and increased chick mortality during the first week of the grow-out period.⁴

Hydration supplementation means increased survivability for day-old chicks in all transit situations. Even on short duration trips, there is always the risk of transit delays or temperature variation that can introduce unexpected sources of stress to the animals.

Day-old chicks are especially prone to suffer the effects of stress and need consistent, reliable hydration during their first 24 hours.

Advancements in gel technology provide a consistent, palatable source of hydration and nutrition to animals. Gels offer a ready-to-use, non-wetting hydration supplement for day-old chicks that allows bedding to stay dry during transit, lowers chicks’ stress levels, and promotes improved survivability and health. It is a novel approach to hydration that takes the guesswork out of water supplementation and provides a cleaner, drier, easy-to-use solution for keeping chicks hydrated.

90% of poultry genetics companies worldwide use ClearH₂O products to optimize target ingredient delivery and consumption. Our products are designed to improve the health and performance of your chicks while maximizing your production outcomes in an easy-to-use, convenient, and cost-effective format. ClearH₂O's products are water-based, barrier-packed, and gamma-irradiated. They provide a non-wetting means of not only watering chicks, but helping provide consistent nourishment and medication delivery options, as well.

When there are worries a shipment might be delayed, or when there are unexpected variations in temperatures along the route, ClearH₂O’s gel-based hydration and nutrition products are an excellent safety net that provides a cost-effective, humane solution to caring for your animals.

Do you work with day-old chicks in poultry agriculture? Are you looking for new ways to provide improved care to your chicks? Do you need a more efficient form of hydration that is both cost-effective and easy-to-administer?

Gel technology from ClearH₂O provides chicks with a consistent, palatable source of hydration. The product line features barrier-packed, gamma-irradiated, non-wetting gel which contains pure water. Our products provide a consistent amount of hydration during transport and act as an excellent supplement for day-old chicks when needed.

Discover firsthand how gel technology can improve your processes while prioritizing animal welfare. Request a sample and see how ClearH₂O’s gel technology products can improve your business outcomes and enrich animals’ lives.

References

1. Xin H, Rieger S R. Physical Conditions and Mortalities Associated with International Air Transport of Young Chicks. 1995; Journal Paper No. J-16201 of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, Iowa State University, Project No. 3311. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1179&context=abe_eng_pubs
2. Poultry Service Association. Poultry Handling and Transportation Manual. 2017. http://www.poultryserviceassociation.com/uploads/2/7/9/6/27967763/2017_poultry_handling_and_transportation_manual.pdf
3. Mikesell S. Hydration Supplementation Is Standard Practice for Shipping Chicks at Hubbard Breeders. The Poultry Site. August 8, 2017. http://www.thepoultrysite.com/poultrynews/38976/hydration-supplementation-is-standard-practice-for-shipping-chicks-at-hubbard-breeders/
4. Fernandez O. Vital role of chick transport in overall flock performance. Cobb-Vantress, Inc. April 4, 2015. http://www.cobb-vantress.com