Sources::Jamii Forums and Mwananchi.
chicken droppings as pig feed
The best way is to feed the droppings on the floor so that the pigs can adjust the intake themselves.
Depending on live-weight, a quantity between 100 g and 1 kg can be taken up per pig per day.
Chicken droppings can be fed to pigs fresh or dried. A chicken house can be put near a pig pen and
the pig pen near (or partly over) a fish pond.
In balanced pig rations 5-10% dry droppings can be used.
It should be mentioned here that dead fresh poultry, properly boiled, is an excellent protein source for
adult pigs; so mortality in chickens is not a complete loss in this case.
The quality of pig manure is improved by feeding chicken droppings and the pig manure is an excellent
fertilizer for soils and fish ponds.
chicken droppings as feed for ruminants
Ruminants can make the best use of chicken droppings.
Dry droppings can supply 50% of the proteins and all the minerals and give production results quite
comparable with commercial concentrate feeds. As a nitrogen source, droppings are far superior to
urea.
In balanced rations 20-40% droppings are quite in order, the highest percentage for the lower gifts
(high yielding dairy cows 20% preferable).
Ruminants appreciate chicken droppings as a palatable feed when it is freshly dried. It can be fed free
choice, at a level of 0.5-1% of the bodyweight. Also for calves older than three months dry droppings
are a good feed.
As with all feeds, ruminants have to learn to eat chicken droppings; the learning period will last 1 to
3 weeks.
In ruminants fed with roughage only, the droppings will stimulate the roughage intake and raise the
production level.
With sheep some caution is necessary because of a possible high copper content of the droppings.
animal manure as fish pond fertilizer
Any type of manure is good for fertilizing fish ponds e.g. ruminants, pigs, chickens and ducks.
Feeding chicken droppings to ruminants or pigs generally increases the value of their manure for fish
ponds.
Manure in fish ponds results in plankton production and some direct consumption by fish.
Recommendations:
? use fresh manure, it has the highest value
? fertilize the pond daily
? use no lumps; the best is to disperse the manure with water
? spread the manure evenly over the pond
? daily up to 1 kg manure DM per 100 m2 pond surface area
? DM of fresh manure: cattle about 15%, pigs 20% and chickens 20%
? too much manure can cause oxygen shortage in the water
The daily manure gift can also be expressed as 5% manure DM of the actual biomass of the fish. The
recommendation is based on a fish yield of 75 kg fish per year per 100 m2.
The feed conversion rate will be 3 to 4 kg manure DM per kg of fish biomass.
N.B.: see the AGROMISA guides FISH FARMING IN PONDS and INTEGRATED FISH
FARMING on this subject.
Conclusion
The most efficient use of chicken droppings is:
first step: feed to ruminants or pigs
second step: use manure as pond fertilizer
third step: use the pond water for the irrigation of agricultural crops or use the dry bottom of the
fish pond for plant production
10.2 Control of flies
The favourable conditions in poultry houses with abundant manure quantities encourage the rapid
expansion of house fly populations. The insects develop fast in moist places and especially under
warm conditions. So drying of manure in the poultry house may partly prevent fly development, but,
as they carry many pathogenic germs you should try to get them more definitely under control. That
is not easy. House flies have a live span of 2-4 weeks, but in this short time they can multiply rapidly.
Eggs become larvae in 1 day. The larvae become pupae in 4-10 days and 3-6 days later they mature
and new adult flies appear, which again start to lay eggs within 1-2 days. From egg to egg a complete
life cycle can occur in less than 2 weeks, even in 10 days in a humid warm environment.
For an effective fly control hygiene is a first requirement. The house fly is a product of filth and poor
sanitation. Moisture levels should be kept low. Leaking nipples, for example, may give masses of
larvae. Manure removal and proper disposal are the most important steps to start with in an effective
control programme. If possible the manure should be removed daily, whereas the manure pits should
be regularly disinfected. Keeping the surroundings free of dead birds, rotting feed and broken eggs,
all being favourable spots for flies to lay their eggs, is important, but accumulating manure is usually
the major source of the problem. Therefore the best approach is to break the breeding cycle in the
larval phase in the manure.
The flies breed in many different places. Consequently the first step in control is to survey the area in
order to learn where the flies are breeding and to see where they are abundantly present.
Where the infestation is severe it is increasingly becoming clear that the conventional insecticides are
not effective any more, either because the flies are so numerous that killed insects are easily replaced
by new adults, or that they have become resistant to the insecticides being used. Even spraying of an
effective larvicide at the breeding sites may fail due to the development of resistance.
