Raising and Keeping Chickens – Part 1 of 3

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Raising and Keeping Chickens – Part 1 of 3

By pinoyfarmer | July 10, 2007

Source: Better Farming Series 13 – Keeping Chickens (FAO – INADES, 1977, 48 p.)

Small livestock farming in the villages

1. Small livestock farming is common in villages all over the world. Everywhere you see around the houses numbers of sheep, ducks, pigs, and above all chickens.

2. The villagers raise all these animals in order to have meat on feast days – for the arrival and departure of visitors, for sacrifices, marriages, births and funerals. And certain families have even got Into the habit of eating meat fairly often and, for instance, giving eggs to their children.

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3. Very often, too, villagers sell animals when they need money: to pay taxes, to pay the expenses of children going to school, to buy medicines, salt, cement, sheet iron, tobacco, paraffin.

Small livestock farming is a way to build up reserves of food and money.

Little work but yields little

4. Not much trouble is taken about feeding these animals. The animals find their food by scavenging among the houses of the village.

They get what is left over from the harvest and from people’s food.

5. Not much trouble is taken about watering these animals.

Very often they do not get enough to drink, or they get dirty water that gives them diseases.

6. Not much trouble is taken about housing these animals.

They are not put in an enclosure or under a shelter to protect them against wind and rain, and to guard them against thieves.

Animals that are not kept in an enclosure go into the houses and into the fields and damage everything.

BUT YIELDS LITTLE

7. Many animals are small

Animals that are not of a good breed and are poorly fed do not grow well.

They do not yield much meat.

You cannot sell them at a good price.

8. Many animals are sick
Animals that run about everywhere catch diseases.

When a hen has a contagious disease all the hens in the village get it.

A sick animal does not grow well, and it often dies.

9. Many animals die very young

Diseases, predators, and lack of care and food kill many chicks.

10. Very often out of 15 chicks that are hatched there remains at the end of a year only one sound chicken. The others – 14 out of 15 – are either dead or sick or too small.

11. They yield little meat for the villagers …

Very often the animals, even those more than two years old, remain small and yield very little meat. So that on feast days and at funerals, for instance, a lot of animals have to be killed to get enough meat.

12…. or for the country

The country has to buy abroad good meat to feed the people in the towns.

So it loves a lot of money.

The money used to buy meat abroad cannot be used to make roads, build schools, or pay for nurses and medicines.

Enough good meat must be produced so that the country does not have to buy it abroad.

13. They yield little money

The hens and chickens are too small to be sold at a good price.

All the chickens that are dead or sick have been fed for nothing.

All the remains of food or of the harvest eaten by these animals have brought the farmer nothing.

The farmer has spent very little, but he has not earned all the money that he might get with his livestock.

Chicken farming must be improved

14. Hens can be much better fed and much better looked after without the farmer spending much money.

15. As it is, in many villages you see hens of a good breed, that are well- fleshed, resist diseases well, yield a lot of meat and many big eggs.

16. Near the towns, there are even large poultry farms that produce eggs and chickens to be sold to the people in these towns.

These are industrial farms.

In this booklet we are speaking especially about raising poultry at home.

When raising poultry at home:

· the farmer and his family themselves look after the birds;
· the greater part of the birds’ food is not bought;
· most of the meat and eggs are used by the family; only the surplus meat and eggs are sold.

The animal husbandry services help

17. These services are trying to find out:

· what are the breeds that yield more, that are more resistant to heat, dampness and diseases;
· what food to give these good breeds;
· what vaccinations protect poultry from diseases.

They also sell cocks, hens and chicks of good breeds.

18. They teach farmers how 10:

· house poultry;
· feed them better;
· protect poultry from diseases;
· organize livestock farming.

The work of the animal husbandry centres and animal husbandry services is very important.

19. Assistants of these centres and services should:

· have a good knowledge of traditional livestock farming; and observe carefully what farmers are doing, so as to advise them better;

· win the confidence of farmers so that the advice is listened to and followed;

· have a good knowledge of the modern way of livestock farming so as to produce more.

The work of the assistants Is also very Important.

20. A male is called a cock

A mother bird is called a hen. Their little ones are called chicks.

When the chicks have grown big enough to be sold, they are called chickens. All the birds in the poultry house (cocks, hens, chicks and chickens) are called poultry.

To succeed in keeping poultry, you must:

· choose hens of a good breed;
· teed them well;
· house them well;
· protect them well against diseases.

How to choose poultry

Traditional types of poultry

21. They do not ask much In the way of looking after.

Often they are quite resistant to dampness, heat, and even to certain diseases: they are called hardy.

But:

22. They are small.

They do not weigh much. They do not yield much meat.

23. They do not grow quickly.

You have to wait at least six months before you can eat or sell them.

24. They do not produce many eggs.

Their eggs are often small.

They produce only 30 to 50 small eggs a year.

So the traditional types of poultry must be improved.

To improve poultry

Good cocks must be selected

25. In several areas animal husbandry centres and services are carrying out what is called cock distribution. The village cocks are taken away and replaced by cocks of good breeds.
As you know, the qualities of an animal’s father and mother are passed on to their young.

The qualities of a cock of good breed and the quality oat a hen of local breed are passed on to their chicks.

Thus the chicks born of a cock of good breed and a hen of local breed are Improved poultry.

The male chickens must be sold or eaten.

Then another cock has to be bought next year and mated again to hens of the first cross.

After that the new breed can reproduce itself without further introduction of cocks.

26. Cock distribution is a quick way to get a better product for eating and selling.

It costs the farmer little – the price of the male, the cost of the vaccination and some improvement in the poultry shed, better feeders and drinkers, which he can make from scrap material.

Good hens must be selected

27. The hens of Improved breeds

Those that come from foreign countries make better use of their feed than the local hens do.

They grow quickly, become fat, yield a lot of meat and produce many big eggs.

28. If a farmer decides to feed his local hens well he will not earn much money and will not get much meat.

A local hen grows fat very slowly, uses a lot of feed and uses it badly.

On the other hand, a chicken of improved breed needs only 3 to 5 kilogrammes of feed from its birth to the day when it can be sold or eaten.

29. You get more meat and you earn more money by feeding well a hen of Improved breed than a local breed of hen.

30. The animal husbandry centres and services have selected the improved breeds of hen with good resistance to diseases, and well adapted to the climate.

It is best to buy these hens from the animal husbandry centres and services.

Good chicks must be selected

31. You can buy either day- old chicks, or three- month- old pullets.

Day- old chicks Cost less than three- month- old pullets. But you have to know how to raise them. You have to be able to house them well, for they are very delicate and can die easily.

Three- month- old pullets Cost much more. But they require less looking after. They have been vaccinated and they are more resistant to diseases.

32. When you begin modern poultry keeping it is better to buy three- month- old pullets.

They are easier to raise than the day- old chicks. They need less looking after. They do not die so easily. They are vaccinated.

33. It Is no use selecting cocks, hens and chicks of a modem breed – unless you feed them well

The cocks, hens and chicks bought from the animal husbandry centres have been well fed.

You must go on feeding them well. If you do not, they will not get fat. They will catch diseases and they may die. In a well- run poultry farm with 100 laying birds, not more than 5 or 10 birds should die in the course of one year.

· unless they are vaccinated

All poultry should be vaccinated.

If the birds have not been vaccinated at the animal husbandry centre, you must vaccinate them at once.

· unless you look after them well

If you buy cocks and hens and then do not take good care of them, of their food, their housing and their health, you are wasting all your money.

Traditional poultry raising means little work, costs nothing, but yields little.

Modem poultry raising means work, costs a little money, but can yield a lot.

Improved breeds

34. At the animal husbandry centres you can get Improved breeds of poultry.

For example, here are some of the more successful crosses. In naming the crossed breeds, the breed of the male is always given first.

Rhode Island- Sussex cross

The hen is a light mahogany colour; the cock is white speckled with black.

The hen is a good layer.

In 10 months, that is about 300 days of laying, it will lay 165 to 180 eggs.

Sussex- Rhode Island cross

This cross gives birds that are white speckled with silvery black.

The hen is quite a good layer.

A three- month- old pullet will weigh from 1.5 to 1.7 kilogrammes.

Rhode Island- Wyandotte cross, also called P- 60, is a bird of dark mahogany colour.

Often the hens have a flat curly comb. The hen is a good layer.

But it dislikes damp.
The adult hen weighs between 1.7 and 2 kilogrammes.

New Hampahire- Leghorn and Rhode Island- Leghorn crosses.

These crosses often produce white birds and sometimes birds with mahogany feathers.

They produce white eggs.
There are the Gold- Hen and Harco crosses.

Other new breeds are being introduced which carry trade names.

The animal husbandry centre can tell you which of them are suitable for your particular conditions.

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