“Poultry Production: A Guide to Raising Chickens”
The term poultry includes a number of avian species such as chicken, ducks, turkeys, geese, guinea-fowls and peafowls which have been domesticated but is very often used as synonymous to chicken. Most of these species thrive well under a variety of agroclimatic conditions and can be raised successfully almost anywhere provided certain minimum management and nutritional requirements are met with. They are also efficient converters of feed into animal protein compared to other livestock species. While chicken, ducks and quails are used for commercial production of eggs and meat, turkeys, guinea fowls, peafowls etc. are used only for meat production. Keeping poultry for eggs, raising broilers, fryers, roasters, etc. for meat, basic breeding farms for development of elite strains of layers and broilers, and commercial hatcheries for production and sale of day-old commercial chicks are the most common poultry enterprises. Other allied professions include processing of eggs and meat, marketing of poultry and poultry products, compounding and sale of poultry feed, poultry equipments, poultry biologicals, pharmaceuticals, feed additives etc.
The chicken alone account for about 90% of the total poultry. We have a fairly good knowledge and understanding with regards to its breeding and husbandry practices. In this chapter information available on fowl production has been presented as a standard. A brief description has been provided on the breeding of ducks, turkeys, quails and guinea-fowls at the end.
Modern domestic breeds of chicken are considered to be the descendants of jungle fowl, found in India and its neighbouring countries Sri Lanka, Burma and China. Most of the development of poultry breeds, however, has taken place in the West and not in the home tract. Our apathy towards poultry improvement was primarily due to their poor productivity, low prices for eggs and meat, and inadequate knowledge of control and prevention of contagious poultry diseases. Inadequate knowledge about scientific methods of feeding and management, lack of appreciation for the nutritive value of eggs and meat and above all the prejudices of a large section of Indian society against rearing of chicken and consumption of their eggs and meat, were the other factors. Most of these factors are not important any more.
Poultry farming has now become very popular. It is recognized as an organized and scientifically based industry with tremendous employment potential. Many of the present-day farms have several thousand layers or broilers with comparable levels of performance of those in the most advanced countries in the world. Age-old methods of hatching and rearing of chicken using broody hens have become a thing of the past. Desi birds have given way to improved commercial layers and broilers. Many farms with small number of birds unable to survive competition have closed down doors in favour of large commercial establishments. A network of franchise hatcheries have been set up all over the country to supply quality chicks for commercial egg and meat production. Most of these hatchery men receive grandparent or parent stocks from reputed foundation breeders in USA, Canada, UK or Germany, However recently a few breeding companies have been set up within the country for basic breeding work consistent with the government’s policy of self-sufficiency in the availability of pure-line egg and meat-type stocks. Most of these private breeding companies have the typical characteristics of large business firms with trained personnel in charge of various departments such as basic breeding, commercial chick production, sales and sales promotion, and personnel management. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research as well as the central and state governments have also initiated massive breeding programmes for the development of pure-line layer and broiler germplasms. Some of the factors which have favoured the growth of poultry farming in the country are: small initial investment; availability of quality chicks; short generation interval; quick, assured and better returns compared to other livestock species; availability of trained manpower; better understanding and knowledge of the improved and scientific methods of feeding, management and health control; and poultry’s social role as a tool to overcome poverty and malnutrition.
The per caput consumption of eggs was 5-3 in 1961, 9-8 in 1971, 13-7 in 1975 and 19 eggs in 1980. Although this represents about a four-fold increase it is rather very small and insignificant compared to per caput consumption of 400 eggs in Denmark, about 340 in the United States of America and over 250 in the United Kingdom. For a balanced diet, a person should eat at least half an egg per day. The per capita consumption of poultry meat is less than 200 g compared to more than 20 kg in some of the developed countries.
The poultry population in 1972 was about 138 million with an egg production of 5,340 million. The total value of poultry production was estimated at 1,755 million rupees. Poultry farming however has galloped through the seventies at an incredible pace. The value of poultry production has been up by 400 per cent (to Rs 6,500 million), egg production by 270 per cent (to Rs 14,000 million) and broiler production by 1,000 per cent (to Rs 50 million).
The growth and development of the Indian poultry industry during the last decade is unparalleled in the history of animal agriculture and has been described as a textbook example of modernization and industrialization. India today ranks eighth in the world in egg production behind China, the USA, the USSR, Japan, England, France and Spain. In broiler production, however, we are far behind.
The application of improved methods of breeding, feeding, management and disease control are very much essential to increase the efficiency of poultry production.