What you need to know about chicken rearing

Chickens are birds reared or hunted for a useful purpose under man's care. Chickens are reared mainly for food, either for egg or for meat. The eggs produced are eaten in large quantities and are used for vaccines and cosmetics, while the feathers are used for making ornaments and pillows.

There are two types of chickens, local and exotic(imported). The feathers and eggs vary in color in a local breed, while there is uniformity in color in the exotic breed. The young of both male and female chickens are called chicks, the young male is a cockerel, and the young female is a pullet; the adult female is called hen, and the adult male is called a rooster or cock.

The goal of a business is profit making, and so, chicken rearing is a profitable business if it is well managed. It is as well as loss incurring if managed under unfavourable conditions. Thus, rushing to climb the wall without knowing what is on the other side and starting without following guiding principles often result to the closure of a chicken rearing business. You should learn before setting out:

Capital

The factor of production that determines the size and success of the chicken rearing business. A farmer on a small scale budget starts with 400-500 day-old chicks at $1 or $2 per chick. The farmer has to raise them for a period of 4-5 months before they can start laying eggs. Initial capital also includes cost of equipments like feeders, drinking throughs,nest boxes,crates, and inputs like cost of labour and feed.

The hens lay egg for about 74 weeks, and so, the sales made on those eggs can be reinvested into the business in terms of cost of feeding and maintainance, after the initial capital has been raised. After the hens are due, they can be sold. Total revenue generated is calculated, then you can know your profit and how the revenue can be used to increase production.

Housing

There are two basic methods of housing: the battery cage system and the deep litter system:

Under battery cage system, the chickens are housed in individual cages, each accommodating a limited number of chickens. It is specially constructed to cater for their welfae, with provision of feeding and drinking troughs. The litter droppings fall in another platform under the cage. Thus the system avoids feed wastage, it is labour saving, but expensive to set up.

Under the deep litter system, the chickens are kept on a bare floor on which wood shavings or sawdust had been spread. The sawdust is able to able moisture from their droppings. Thus the deep litter system is used for rearing a very large flock and it maximizes the use of land. Usually there is wastage of feeds in this system.

However the housing environment should be well spaced for different chicken's categories, well ventilated, and having minimal contact with their droppings.

Feeding

The feeds should be properly compounded to ensure adequate production of eggs and meat. They should be fed with appropriate feed such as: chick marsh, growers marsh, layers marsh. A marsh is a feed formulated for a particular category of chicken based on their ages and purpose of production. The marsh must be rich in nutrients like carbohydrate,protein,minerals,vitamins and fats, to be healthy and produce optimally.

Another aspect of feeding is regular and adequate supply of fresh cool water, clean and free of contamination.

Health and Consultancy Services

A chicken farmer should know how to prevent, detect, control and treat diseases. An integral part here is hygiene which goes a long way in preventing certain diseases.The source of the stock must be checked to ensure the necessary drugs are not poorly administered. Drugs may occasionally be mixed with the drinking water to prevent diseases such as chichen cholera, coccidiosis and pollurum.

A beginner must seek expert advice where necessary. Vaccines should be administered when chicks are hatched to avoid danger in the future. It is best to engage the services of a qualified veterinary doctor to ge the best result.

Security

The land or farm used for chicken rearing must be well secured from predators such as snakes, rats, ants,birds like hawks. There should be routine checks on farm workers to forestall stealing of chickens and eggs.

Visitors must be well covered, or be restricted from going into the fam to avoid diseases that could lead to epidemics. In some cases, a foot bath that contains germ killing chemicals is put at the entrance before a visitor can be allowed to enter.

Marketing

All parts of the chicken is marketable. For whom to sell to is a quesion that you must have answer for, finding out where and how to sell too. The eggs,meats, feathers, even droppings which is a source of farm crop manure are sold.

It is advisable not to produce if there is no market for your products to avoid huge losses.