Breeds of Chickens and their Characteristics
Poultry generally refers to domesticated birds that are used mainly as food to man. These include domestic fowl, ducks, turkeys, guinea fowl, pheasant, quails, ostrich, pigeons, doves, etc.
Advantages of keeping poultry include-their small body size, low cost of production, high quality protein, feed efficiency, not associated with taboos, useful by-products, short generation interval, and help to improve protein intake.
Problems associated with poultry keeping includes, feed competition with man, housing, diseases, parasites, and lack of adequate knowledge in their nutrition.
To improve poultry production we need to improve birds diet, sound management practices, vaccination programs e.t.c.
All breeds and varieties of chicken are due to natural selection. Many are commercially exploited. These include:
Egg type
These are breeds raise for egg production. They have small body size and slow growth rate. Examples are Harco, Ancona, Rhode Island Red, black leghorn white leghorn.
Meat type
They are breeds raised for meat production. They have a large body size, they are also heavy breed, and they have a faster growth rate. Examples are light Sussex, white Sussex, white Wyandotte, Plymouth Rock, and Anak.
Dual purpose
These are birds that are raised for both meat and egg production. Examples are Light Sussex, Rhode Island Red, and Plymouth Rock, New Hampshire etc.
In today’s economic reality, in developed countries dual-purpose breeds are regarded as inefficient, producing neither meat nor eggs very efficiently.
For example, the cocks are used for meat production and the hens for the production of both eggs and meat.
Both are considerably older when slaughtered than are broilers and therefore, have more flavor.
Read Also: Facilities Required for Brooding and Rearing of Poultry Chickens
Different Breeds of Chickens
1. Rhode Island Red
The Rhode Island red originate from America the feather is red with some black feather in part of the wing. It has yellow skin and lays large brown eggs.
2. Leghorn
The white leghorn has white feather and is use mainly for egg production. It is small in size and lays over 300 white shell eggs in a year.
The brown leghorn produces brown shells and eggs and is not as productive as the white leghorn.
3. Light Sussex
It is an important English breed which grows rapidly. It is large with the good fleshing property. It is good as a broiler but poor as a layer. Some exotic breeds of chicken are shown below.
4. Barred Plymouth Rock
The feather color is grayish black with white underneath, while the sides are black with prominent streaks of white spots. They are heavy breeds and are used for dual purpose. They lay brown eggs.
5. Harco
Harco is a heavy American breed and has been commonly used to develop the present day breeders. It is a good egg-laying bird.
Other breeds like the Ancona, Andalusian and Spanish white are all of the Mediterranean origin and are early maturing between 150-160 days, producing 240-250 white shell eggs per year.
a) Local breeds
These are breeds peculiar in the west African sub-region they are generally small with tough flesh. They are poor layers but good brooders. Their feather varies in color from white to black including multi-colour mixtures.
b) Hybrids
They are commonly seen and use in commercial farms. They are generally high yielding in both meat and egg production. They are fast replacing most standard birds.
In conclusion, there are many advantages of keeping poultry, and the few problems associated with their keeping can be corrected by following some few guidelines. Several breeds of chickens are available and can be commercially exploited.
In conclusion, poultry has proved to be a particularly versatile domestic bird that is adapted to almost all environments and system of production.
Poultry production makes it an open choice for the farmer to decide which system of production he is interested based on his capital, skills, and needs.
In a tropical environment, the design and construction of poultry houses must take into consideration the climatic and weather conditions of the environment.
The guiding principle is to keep poultry productive throughout their producing life. This involves the provision of optimum conditions of temperature, humidity, ventilation, and light.
Another important principle relates to cost and durability. Poultry house should be structurally strong, durable, and cheap.
It is very important that food troughs should not be overfilled and neither should the tube feeders be too widely opened. The construction of the food trough is also important and there exist types that reduce spillage and so reduce food wastage by up to 20 percent.
Food wastage can turn a profitable enterprise into one making a considerable loss.
Read Also: Important Considerations in Rearing Poultry Chickens
