A Beginner’s Guide to Local Chicken Farming + eBook

Many farmers have overlooked the potentials in local/village chickens. Starting a local or village chicken farming is a good, cheap means to boost egg and chick production. This guide will help you with starting a local chicken farm, either for meat, eggs or chick production.

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Introduction to Poultry Production

Poultry contributes to improved human nutrition and food security by being a leading source of high quality protein in form of eggs and meat. It acts as a key supplement to revenue from crops and other livestock enterprises, thus avoiding over dependency on traditional commodities with inconsistent prices. It has a high potential to generate foreign exchange earnings through export of poultry products to neighboring countries. Poultry is highly prized in many social-cultural functions such as dowry and festivities.

The poultry industry is rapidly growing. The industry is characterized by widely diverse methods of production which include the following: village flocks, small-scale commercial flocks and large-scale commercial farms.

Constraints in Poultry Production

These include:

• Production related constraints
  • inadequate access to improved breed
  • Access and affordability of feed
  • Disease control
• Lack of knowledge and skills
• Inadequate capital at all levels and marketing.

Systems of Management in Poultry Production

• Free range
• Semi-intensive
• Intensive

Housing: essential features

• Building a large poultry house ideal for chicken
• Be rainproof
• Be secure from windy rains
• Have smooth surface walls to stop mites and other pests from hiding
• Periodically spraying the poultry unit with insecticide and disinfectants
• Periodically removing the dropping/cleaning the poultry house regularly
• Have good ventilation and in hotter areas at least 2 sides should be partly chicken wire mesh
• Preferably have cemented floor for ease of cleaning and disinfecting
• Be rat-proof
• Using plenty of litter after cleaning the poultry house
• Keeping the right number of birds in poultry houses
• Separating chicks from old birds

Management of Chicks

• Before chicks arrive at home; make sure that;
  • A brooder is in place
  • Paraffin lamps/electric bulbs/charcoal stove is available
  • Litter for the floor is available
  • 1m² will accommodate 20 chicks up to 4 weeks old.
• Temperature control: 35C for day-old chicks, 24-27C for 1 week. Reduce heat as they grow especially at night.

Feeding Exotic Chickens

• Broilers: 1 to 3 weeks feed with chick mash 3 to 6 weeks feed with broiler starter, thereafter with broiler finisher.
• Layers: 1 to 8 weeks feed on chick mash, after 8 weeks introduce growers mash gradually, then with layers mash after the drop of the first egg.

Management of Layers

• Allow for good air circulation in laying house
• Layer needs on average 120 gm of food per day
• Distribute food troughs and water troughs evenly (one basin/50 birds)
• Provide grit at 20 weeks
• Laying nests must be kept in dark places, collect eggs 3 times a day, allow a nest/5 hens
• Provide soft clean litter
• Store eggs with the small end down
• Clean dirty eggs with steel wool/coarse leaves (never wash them)
• Add greens to the diet and whenever possible vitamins to water
• Debeaking at the onset of lay
• Culling when egg production drops below 40%

Physical features of a good layer chicken

• Bright red comb and wattles
• Alert eyes
• Width between pelvic bones should measure at least 2 fingers
• The beak and claws should look bleached
• The cloaca should be moist

Advantages in choosing local chickens for farming

• They are self-sustaining i.e. can raise their own replacement stock
• They are hardy birds that can survive hard conditions
• Management requirements are not critical as those of commercial exotic breeds
• They are immune to some diseases and parasites
• Their products fetch more money than those from exotic birds

Limitations in choosing local chickens for farming

• They have a low growth rate
• They produce fewer small-sized eggs and comparatively little meat
• People keep them without commercial purposes
• They have been neglected by breeders/scientists despite their potential

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How to Improve the Production of Local Chickens

Control of parasites and diseases

• External parasites that affect local chicken include: poultry body louse, stick tight flea, poultry lice, ticks, feather mites and leg mites.
• Control can be done using commercial/synthetic or herbal insecticide.
• Herbal preparations are cheaper for local chicken but a lot of research is still needed in this area to establish proper dosage.
• Internal parasites include worms and coccidia.
• Worms can be eliminated using a potent dewormer preferably given as a tablet because these chickens have low water consumption.
• Deworming should be done at least every month.
• Commercial coccidiostats can be used alternately with herbal preparation. These must be given to birds on 8th, 9th, and 10th days of age. Repeat as directed by veterinarian.
• In early days, vitamins-mineral mixtures should be given to chicks to minimize losses.
• Vaccination of birds especially against New Castle Disease. Target first vaccination at the beginning of the dry seasons, repeat after one month and every four months thereafter.

Feeding Local Chickens

• Farmers can mix their own feeds using the abundant carbohydrate and protein feed available in their area.
• Feeding should be accompanied by green feeds and fruits such as pawpaw.
• Only palatable green feeds should be given to birds. Avoid poisonous feeds

Good green feeds to local chickens

• Bidens pilosa (Black jack)
• Asystasia schimperi
• Vermonia amygydalina (Bitter leaf)
• Edible Amaranthus
• Pawpaw leaves
• Ascalepias simulunata
• Marmodica fortida
• Talinum fruticosum (Water leaf)

Poisonous/unpalatable green feeds

• Datura stromonium
• Ferns
• Fresh cassava leaves
• Fresh sweet potato leaves
• Tobacco leaves
• Nicotina rustica (Ssetaaba)
• Castor oil leaves (Ricinus communis)
• Siyesbeckaia orientalis
• Sunflower leaves
• Irish potato leaves
• Tomato leaves
• Dichrocephata latifolia
• Tagetes munital
• Pumpkin leaves

The following should be done in rearing local chickens:

• Vaccination against Newcastle disease
• De-worming
• Remove mites and lice manually or better still using medicated powder
• Provide water as much as possible
• May supplement free range with other feeds e.g. maize bran and concentrates
• Avoid buying chicken in dry seasons because diseases, especially Newcastle, are more rampant in dry seasons
• Avoid buying birds when there is a disease outbreak
• Buy birds of almost the same age i.e. 2-3 months are more ideal. Avoid buying old birds
• Plan for synchronised mating and therefore synchronized reproduction and production to ease management

How to programme/synchronise egg laying and incubation in local chickens

• Assume a farmer has 14 local hens and 2 indigenous cocks
• Give each bird own nest when they start to lay. Place dry grass on top.
• Boil one egg from each bird and put it in nest as a landmark for each hen. Mark the egg.
• Remove the eggs that were laid on the day they are laid. Write dates on them using pencil and store them together on trays with broad end facing up.
• Leave boiled egg in nest.

Precautions to take during egg storage

• Do not store eggs in a kitchen where it is hot. Heat may partially incubate the egg and kill the embryos in them
• Do not store them on top of a cupboard because heat from roof may incubate them.
• Keep eggs in a cool secure place.

Incubation by mother hens

• Usually one hen starts incubating by staying overnight on the boiled egg
• Leave this hen on the boiled egg for 10 days while it is waiting for other birds
• After the 10 days, give all the birds that would have started incubating (within the 10 days) 17 selected but recently laid eggs
• Leave the birds that refuse to incubate alone
• If you want to eat or sell, eat/sell those which were laid first (old ones).
• Avoid giving these eggs to birds for incubation: very small, round eggs, very dirty, cracked eggs, extremely pointed eggs, very big eggs, very old eggs.
• When done this way, all birds will hatch on the same day. An egg takes 21 days, 6 hrs to hatch.

Eggs can also be collected and taken to a hatchery instead of incubation by mother hens.

Economics of Production

• Usually 80% of hens are programmable

Example:

Let’s use 13 hens in this case.

80% of 13 hens= 10 hens

If each of the 10 hens is given 18 selected fertile eggs (10×18 =180 eggs)

Hatchability is usually 90%.

90% of 18 fertile eggs = 16 eggs is expected to hatch after 21 days

So with 10 hens, 160 chicks is expected

• 3 to 5 hatchings are possible per bird.

With 13 hens, a poultry farmer may hatch (3 x 160) =180 chicks to (5 x 160) = 800 chicks

General Disease Control Practices

The following can only be used as guidelines for disease control, for proper disease diagnosis and treatment, consult the veterinarian.

• Don’t overcrowd brooders
• Adequate ventilation
• Feed must be of good quality
• Give clean water ad-lib
• Don’t mix young and older birds
• Clean poultry house
• Dispose of dead birds quickly and isolate sick ones
• Provide disinfectant at entrance to house

Antibiotics should never be used to replace good management and should be used on prescription by a veterinarian.

Signs of Ill Health

• Dullness
• Reduced feed intake
• Reduced water intake
• Low egg production
• Reduced growth rate
• Rough coat

Record keeping

Records to keep include:

• Production data such as number of eggs produced, number of egg hatched
• Quantity of feed eaten
• Health interventions e.g. treatment
• Deaths
• Sales and purchases

If you want a more detailed guide on how to start a local chicken farming, click on the link below to download it.

Download The Ebook On Local Poultry Chickens Farming