Thursday, March 28, 2024
Poultry

The Best Times to Raise each Type of Bird in Nigeria

Birds like Broilers and Cockerels should be better targeted towards festive periods like: Ramadan, Christmas, Easter and New Year Celebrations because this is the time the demand for poultry is highest.

Meanwhile Pullets (Layers) can be raised at any time of the year because of the continuous demand of eggs.

As you can see that the different breeds of birds are important depending on the purpose to which you want them to serve for your need as explained above.

As a poultry farmer, there are certain periods you may wish to raise broilers for instance during the festive periods because of the fact that you want to sell them during the festive seasons and get that quick cash at that period.

You can also decide to raise more than one breed of birds as their purposes are entirely different from eachother. For instance, you can be raising your layers for egg production as well as raising your broilers for meat production and while raising the layers as a long term egg production plan, you are also raising your broilers as short term slaughetr meat purposes.

Let us look at the the different breeds of birds we have below

Egg Productive Poultry Breeds (Layers)

The chickens raised for egg production are known as layer chickens. Almost all types of commercial layer poultry breed start laying eggs within their five to six month of age. They continuously lay about 275 to 300 eggs per year. Some strain lay about 330 eggs per year. Some highly egg productive breeds are leghorn, minorca, ancona, fayoumi, isa brown, babcock, star cross, lohmann etc.

Their features include the following:

  • Comparatively weights less than other poultry breeds.
  • Gain sexual maturity earlier.
  • Less egg incubating trend.
  • Start laying eggs within their five to six month of age.
  • Converting efficiency of food to egg is very high.
  • Contain less fat in their body.
  • Egg producing power is very high.
  • Lay big sized eggs.

Meat Productive Poultry Bird Breeds (Broilers)

This type of poultry birds are used for only meat production purpose. Their meat become very soft and tasty. They weights about 2 to 2.5 kg within their 7 to 8 weeks of age, consuming about 4 kg food.

They become suitable for marketing within 8 weeks. The world’s most popular breeds of broiler poultry are starbro, plymouth rock, cornish, sussex, brahma, hy-line, rose broiler, asil, cochin etc.
broiler chicken, broiler poultry, broiler chicken picture, broiler poultry picture

  • Comparatively weights much than other poultry breeds.
  • Don’t incubate their eggs.
  • Food to meat converting efficiency is very high.
  • Grow very fast.
  • Contain much fat in their body.
  • Egg producing power is very low.
  • They become very big sized.

Read Also: IMPORTANCE OF RECORDS MAINTENANCE IN THE POULTRY FARM

Dual-Purpose Poultry Bird Breeds

Popular dual-purpose breeds for both meat and egg production are new hampshire, australorp, rhode island red, plymouth etc. Characteristics of this types of poultry birds are described below.
bird

  • This types of poultry breeds are of medium sized.
  • Weight high.
  • They may have trend for hatching eggs.
  • Lay less eggs than egg productive breeds.
  • They contain proper ratio of fat in their body.
  • Grows very well.
  • Gain maturity very fast.

Therefore the choice of which type of poultry bird you wish to raise largely depends on the purpose you want them to serve either as meat, for egg production or dual purpose. Also the quantity of birds you should stock will also depend on the amount of available fund under your possession.

Meanwhile there is no harm with starting little as a beginner and grow gradually into the level of your dream poultry farm and it will also help you improve your understanding in the poultry business to enable you become more successful as you learn practically on the job.

Related: Female Fish and their Reproductive Strategies

Agric4Profits

Benadine Nonye is an agricultural consultant and a writer with over 12 years of professional experience in the agriculture industry. - National Diploma in Agricultural Technology - Bachelor's Degree in Agricultural Science - Master's Degree in Science Education... Visit My Websites On: 1. Agric4Profits.com - Your Comprehensive Practical Agricultural Knowledge and Farmer’s Guide Website! 2. WealthinWastes.com - For Effective Environmental Management through Proper Waste Management and Recycling Practices! Join Me On: Twitter: @benadinenonye - Instagram: benadinenonye - LinkedIn: benadinenonye - YouTube: Agric4Profits TV and WealthInWastes TV - Pinterest: BenadineNonye4u - Facebook: BenadineNonye

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