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Lpg Gas Gives Chicks a Warm Start

Gamekeepers and farmers have been using lp gas for many years to ensure that young hatchlings get a good start for the following season.

In the poultry and game bird rearing industry, spring sees brooder heaters being dusted off and brooder houses and pens built in quiet, remote locations on farms and country estates all over the UK.

Gasolec UK has many years’ experience in the game rearing industry. The company was established in The Netherlands in 1956 and pioneered an lp gas-fired infrared heater system more than 40 years ago. Today, Gasolec’s infrared heating systems and monochrome light and lpg gas brooders are still used extensively in the animal confinement industry.

The company’s clients include game and poultry rearing businesses all over the UK, and its lpg brooders have been used to raise the chicks of all types of birds, from rare pheasant to partridge and duck, and even the world’s heaviest flying bird the great bustard.

The great bustard was hunted to extinction in the UK. The country is obliged under EU legislation to reintroduce species where feasible, and great bustard chicks are brought over from Russia by the Great Bustard Group to be released on Salisbury Plain.

Early in the project, very young chicks were brought over and lp gas heaters were needed to keep the chicks warm during the quarantine period. Gasolec donated lpg brooders to the project fitted with Clesse regulators.

Les Gallop of Gasolec UK said: “Our customers are paying for our experience in choosing the most reliable equipment. One lp gas brooder can be the difference between the life and death of a brood, and their businesses depend on our products being reliable.

“One or two degrees in temperature variation will make juvenile birds huddle together with disastrous consequences through suffocation, so a good combination of heater and lpg gas regulator is essential. All our brooders are fitted with Clesse regulators, as we find them to be the most dependable.”

Happily, in 2009, the first great bustard chicks for 177 years were hatched in the wild in the UK.

Gasolec lpg gas brooders are also used by Guyzance Game Farm in Northumberland. The farm raises over 100,000 pheasant and partridge chicks each year for sale to country estates for the shooting season.

The eggs are incubated and hatched over a 12-week period from April to July. The chicks are then raised in sheds containing up to 1,000 chicks and kept warm by lpg brooders.

Lindsay Crisp at Guyzance Game Farm said: “We raise mainly pheasants and red leg partridges, and I also raise ornamental pheasants as a hobby. We mainly use Gasolec lpg gas brooders to keep the chicks warm as they are fairly priced and robustly made. They’re of a simple design, so there’s little that can go wrong with them and they’re easy to use.”

Clesse (UK) Ltd has been supplying Gasolec UK with regulators for lpg brooders for the gaming industry for many years.

Kaz Dziamarski, managing director at Clesse, said: “We’ve been developing specific products to suit specialist needs and requirements in this market sector, ensuring livestock rearers can rely on good lp gas regulation to keep the heat on the game. Gasolec recognises the need for reliability and, along with one of its lpg gas brooders, Clesse’s regulator system is required to supply the heat for up to 1,000 chicks, from one day to five weeks old.

“Reliability is not just important, it is vital, and crucial to the survival of the brood – all of which requires pressure regulators to ensure that enough lp gas is reliably delivered to the lpg heater for this season’s chicks.”

Contact Clesse (UK) Ltd on 01902 383233 www.clesse.co.uk

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