The three hallmarks of a good chick paper

The first few days of a chick’s life are crucial for getting a crop off to a good start. A warm environment and a good food and water intake are essential to this. Every broiler farmer has their own preference when it comes to chick paper. Even so, we probably forget that it’s a product that was specially developed for its purpose – it’s not just any old roll of paper! A good chick paper should be attractive to the chick and provide a layer of warmth for those first days in the shed. It should also degrade just in time.

 

Continue reading to discover the three main hallmarks of a good chick paper:

Makes a rustling noise that attracts the chick

When chicks are very young, they often struggle to gain access to the pans. For chicks to flourish, they need to start eating and drinking as soon as possible when they arrive in the shed and getting every chick onto the chick paper is integral to this. Chicks eating even a few hours after the rest of the flock can be set back considerably, and by the time this becomes apparent, it will be too late for them to catch up.

Hearing is a highly developed sense in birds. A paper that makes a nice rustling sound (like the noise of a mother hen) when walked on will ensure that chicks are attracted to the paper. This ensures that food and water are as accessible as possible for every chick, maximising the chances of an evenly developed crop, which is much easier to manage and keep happy.

Degrades before it ‘caps’

Most chick paper is designed to degrade but timing is essential. It needs to last long enough for all or most of the feed to be eaten so that no feed is wasted, but not so long that it starts to ‘cap’ the litter or crust. Capping can result in trapped food and droppings hanging around at a critical stage of development, possibly leading to dermatitic foot problems and other health issues.

A good chick paper will be absorbent enough to soak up bird droppings quickly but degrade within 3-5 days so that it doesn’t have to be physically removed from the shed and disposed of accordingly. This cuts on costs and labour time and helps to eliminate stress placed on young birds due to disruption in the shed.

Colour difference makes it stand out from the litter

Poultry have excellent colour vision, even from when they first hatch. As well as possessing the three basic colour cones that humans do (red, yellow and blue), they also have an ultra-violet light cone. This means they see far more colours and shades than we can. In a shed environment, there are many shades of brown: yellow lights, yellow shavings, yellow feeder pans, brown feed and yellow chicks!

As chick paper suppliers, we sell a range of chick papers, including blue and white paper, because we believe the feed stands out amongst the sea of yellow/brown in the shed.

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The first seven days of a chick’s life are so crucial, that it makes sense to make marginal gains wherever possible to increase the chick’s ability to thrive. One might argue that at this stage, the chick has few needs, but those needs must be met quickly and consistently – chick paper ticks several boxes by providing the ideal conditions for a chick to flourish.