9 Easy Ways to Improve Poultry House Air Quality

The air quality in your poultry houses ties in so closely to your bird’s health and your profitability. Maintaining optimal air quality is easy though with these 9 tips.

  1. Shut house up tightly as soon as the last flock catches to retain floor heat and release ammonia.  Ventilate only enough to prevent condensation within the house and while workers are present.
  2. De-cake the house as soon after bird catch as possible removing only the caked litter and not disturbing the deep litter.  Shut house back up after de-caking.
  3. At least 48 hours prior to bird placement, turn on brooders to a set temperature of 90+ degrees to begin litter curing.  Only ventilate enough to prevent the house from sweating.  Drop temperature sensors onto the litter and pull them away from tube and quad heaters if possible.
  4. Once the ammonia purge from litter curing/pre-heating is complete, prepare to apply PLT® litter acidifier, 2-24 hours prior to chick placement.  Chose the rate of application that is appropriate for your litter age and bird size.
  5. Fifteen minutes before PLT® application, turn off brooders.  Open inlets and end doors fully and turn on fans to remove the ammonia from the house released by the pre-heating.  Don’t worry as you will not lose floor temperature.  Omitting this step will waste the PLT® on the ammonia already released, shortening its life by 3-4 days once the birds are placed.
  6. Apply the PLT® evenly over the litter to be treated.  Consider treating the off-chamber also if birds are to be released before 10 days of age.
  7. Shut the house back up and turn brooders back on.  Begin minimum ventilation about two hours prior to chick placement.  Beginning with 30 seconds out of 5 minutes is usually sufficient.
  8. Monitor relative humidity at bird level every morning during brooding.  If the relative humidity is at 70% or higher then increase fan time by 15 seconds.  If Relative humidity is below 70% then maintain ventilation rate for that day.
  9. For extended air quality and improved bird performance, a mid-flock application of PLT® can be done with birds in the house around 14-21 days of age.