How to Keep Local Chicken
Local Chicken rearing is becoming common nowadays as majority of people are opting for local chickens over the hybrid. This article will give in detail on how you can keep local chicken.
How to Keep Local Chicken
The following are the steps which you should follow to keep your local chickens.
1. Site selection to build chicken house
The first step to keep local chicken is to find a good place to house your local chickens and the site needs to be free from predators and not prone to other environmental factors, which could interfere local chicken farming.
2. Housing
The second step to keep local chicken is to construct a chicken house, having chosen the best site, which is predator free. The chicken house needs to be easy to clean and should have good air flow.
The length and width of the chicken house will depend on the number of chickens, which you will keep.
3. Setting equipments and feed ready
The third step to keep your local chickens is to make sure chicken feed is available in enough quantity if you will be Keeping your local chickens under intensive system, whereby you will be providing all basic requirements to your local chickens.
Similarly, you need to make sure chicken drinkers, brooders e.t.c are all set and ready to receive day old chicks.
4. Buy day old chicks
The fourth step required to keep your local chicken, is to buy the chicks which will be used to start your local chickens farming.
Make sure you buy the day old chicks from reputable individuals or companies. You could also buy fertilized eggs and incubate them at lower cost.
Once you have bought, make sure you put them in a brooding house in their early days and that feeds and water are available in large quantities.
After a few weeks, you could start raising them on the semi- intensive system, if your wish is to lower the cost, and you have to have enough backyard for your chickens to wander.
5. Feeding
Feeding is very crucial as the type of feeding local chickens take, relate to their growth and body mass, which mean for your local chickens to grow fast, you need to give them feeds which is nutritious.
The table below has a feeding schedule for your local chickens.
Table 1: Local Chicken Feeding Program
6. Vaccination
Chickens are prone to different diseases, which among others include; Coccidiosis, Gumboro, Newcastle. Make sure you follow the vaccination schedule below to protect your chickens from these disease attacks.
Table 2: Local Chicken Vaccination Program
7. Egg collection and hatching
After around 20 weeks, your local chicken hen, will start laying eggs, at this time make sure a ratio of 1 to 8-10 cock to hens ratio is maintained, so that the eggs should be fertilized ones.
Once laid, you need either to incubate them and start the whole process all over again. Similarly, you could also sell them for cash, as nowadays demand for local chicken fertilized eggs is becoming so high.
In conclusion, this article has uncovered 7 steps required for you to keep local chickens. Among others, the article has uncovered that, site selection, buying chicks, vaccination, are some of the steps required for you to keep local chicken.