Factors to Consider When Transitioning Broilers From Half House to Full House

When brooding broilers, growers can utilize either the partial house or full house brooding method.Partial house brooding uses half of the house square footage and can utilize either half house or centerhouse areas. With half house brooding, a single brood curtain suspended from the ceiling and located atthe center of the house is lowered and chicks are placed in the end of the house that includes the tunnelinlet. Center house brooding uses two curtains that allow broilers to be brooded in the c...enter of thehouse. Both methods of partial house brooding reduce heating requirements by utilizing half of thehouse capacity. Chicks are kept in the brood area for the first 7-14 days. The time that birds are kept inthe brood area depends on bird size, environmental temperatures and litter conditions. Birds should be turned out to maintain proper bird density requirements based on guidelines provided bythe integrator or primary breeder companies. In many cases, litter conditions dictate when birds shouldbe given access to the full house. Sometime between 10 and 14 days, the curtains are raised and half ofthe birds are allowed to move to the non-brood area. Getting the birds to move to the non-brood end canbe challenging at times. One important component in successful flock management is to make sure thatthe birds are evenly distributed with half the birds in the front of the house and half in the rear. There area number of factors that can affect how well and easily birds move into the non-brood area. In simplestterms, a uniform environment should be provided throughout the house.