Techno Guide

Sasso chickens are native chickens of France and now becoming popular among big and small raisers. Resembling our own native chickens,the Sasso chicken grow faster, with delicious and tender meat and strong disease resistance. Sasso Chickens are free-range, affordable, easy to raise which proves to be a profitable livelihood venture. They graze around the field, or backyard running around, and eating grass, corn, leaves and other natural ingredients. Because they are being naturally grown free-range style, you are assured of a clean chicken meat with less cholesterol and fat. Sasso chickens can be raised as broiler and are good layers too when they reach six months of age. Sasso hens lay naturally brown, tasty, nutritious and with less cholesterol eggs.

How to raise SASSO CHICKEN

1. Start with 21-day old Sasso chicks which are already hardy and with lower mortality.
2. De-stress the chicks if delivered to your farm by giving them water to drink. Add brown sugar to the water at the rate of one percent (about two tablespoons per gallon of water). The sugared water will rehydrate the chicks faster. Sugared water can be altered with water with electrolytes and should be given within two hours from discharge into their brooding pens.
3. After two hours from arrival, the chicks should have eaten and drunk.
4. The brooding area should have been disinfected. Rice hull, wood shavings, or straw make a good litter. It should be level to avoid excessive stress on the chicks.
5. The heaters or brooders have to be lighted at least two hours before the chicks arrive.
6. Monitor the temperatures of the room/building before the arrival of the chicks.
7. In the first two weeks, protect the chicks from extreme hot/cold condition. Brood them under the right temperature(38oC) at the edge of the brooder and above 28oC in the living area during the first three days.
8. Thermometers in different parts of the building should be used to control the temperature before the animals arrive.

Feeding and Water Requirement

1. When raising 1,000 birds, the drinkers required by the growing birds will be 40-50 basins distributed in the house.
2. They will also need 40-50 feeders. The house should be lighted 16 hours a day to encourage them to eat more.
3. GIve the birds adequate feed according to their daily requirements.
4. To condition the birds to easily find their feeds on the first day, use egg trays, newspapers, or flat feeding trays. By the second day, it will be easy to introduce the chick feeders for the birds.
5. Put feeds into the feeders 3-4 times daily to eat and minimize wastage. Never throw stale or rancid feeds into the litter for this will cause more problems for the birds.
6. Give quality feeds to avoid nutritional problem.
7. Try not to incorporate antibiotics and other artificial growth promotants so as not to affect its taste.
8. A formulation of 60-70% ground yellow corn and 30-40% soybean meal then add 1-2% vitamin-mineral premixes.
9. One-part molasses and three parts water as wetting agent for the feeds makes the bird eat more and grow faster. The wetting agent is very small-- just about 1% of the ration.

Water Requirement

	Starting	Growing
Area		10 birds/m2
Brooders	2
Drinkers	1-7 days 10 galloners 8-21 days 30 galloners	40-50 basins
Feeders	1-7 days 10 feeders 8-21 days 30 feeders	40-50 feeders
Litter	4 inches	6-12 inches
Lighting	24 hours-16 hours	16 hours

Feeding Formula

To get the best performances, it is necessary to feed them with high levels of proteins and energy

To get the best quality meat, decrease the growth with a lower protein and energy level feed. Below are three types of formulas and slaughter is done at 11-12 weeks.

Housing

1 While brooding, the chicks are confined under a roof and protected from draft. The litter should be at least 4 inches deep.

2 After 21 days, they may be allowed to go out in the range. The house should be roofed with GI sheet or native roofing should provide at least one sq. ft. per bird.

3 A litter of rice hull that is 6-12 inches deep is recommended. The chickens should also be provided with at least one sq. m. per bird in the range.

4 The range could include grasses like napier, leguminous vines and other vegetation like big trees, bananas and grasses in between.

5. Enclosed the house and the range with nylon nets (those used in fish cages) about 1.5 meters high. This prevents the entry of predators such as snakes, pythons and “bayawak”.

_____________________________________

Produced for the CBRMP by the REGIONAL AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES INFORMATION DIVISION
Department of Agriculture-5
San Agustin, Pili, Camarines Sur
Tel. No. (054) 4777802
Fax No. (054) 3611858
e-mail: darafid5@yahoo.com