Location of a Poultry House
A poultry house should be located on well drained land and should also be protected from high winds.
As a way of reflecting on what you have just learnt, complete the following activity.
You have come to the end of this section on poultry house sizing and location. In the next section we shall discuss poultry management systems.
Section 2.3: Common Poultry Production Systems
1. Extensive or Free Range System
This is the simplest and oldest method of rearing chicken. Birds are allowed to move freely in a fenced ground which has a simple house to provide shelter at night, see figure 2.4. The Laying nests are located inside the house while the feed and water troughs are placed outside under a simple shelter to protect them from rain.
Figure 2.4: Free or extensive range system
Activity 2.2
Sizing a Poultry House (Time: 10mins)
The floor space of a poultry house should allow 3-4sq feet per bird. If you want to keep 1000 birds, how much floor space would you allow in your design?
_______________________________________________________________
Compare your answer with the one given at the end of this unit.
Poultry Keeping & Management
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What are the requirements of the extensive system?
1. Land: the land must be large, well-drained with trees for shade.
An external fence is required to restrict chicken from straying. 100 birds require 0.4 of hectare.
2. Runs (partitioned areas): the land should be partitioned to allow rotation. This reduces diseases and parasites.
3. House: the house is constructed to provide shelter and an area for laying nests. It should be easy to move form one run to another.
Advantages
These include:
Cannibalism and egg eating are reduced because the birds are not crowded and are free within the run.
No need to provide grit as birds picks it from the soil.
Less feed is used as birds pick insect and grass.
Manure is evenly spread to the runs, this helps vegetation to regenerate.
Birds are of good body size and stamina.
Disadvantages
These include:
A lot of land is needed which may not be available if you intend to keep a large number of birds;
Birds can be stolen or eaten by predators;
Eggs get lost in the runs;
Eggs get dirty.
2. Intensive Systems
In this system, the flocks are kept inside the house entirely with no access to the land outside. There are two types of intensive systems: the deep litter and battery system.
A. Deep Litter Systems
In this system, birds are kept in large pens and on floors covered with litters like straws or saw dust up to a depth of 8-12 inches. This system is suitable for producing fertile eggs when cocks and hens are kept together and for raising chicks and broilers, see Figure 2.4 below.
Figure 2.4: A deep litter housing system.
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Requirements for deep litter systems
1. Site: the site should be located in a well drained area;
2. House: the roof should be leak proof, made of aluminium sheets, corrugated iron sheets or asbestos. A grass-thatched roof is not good as it harbours pest and require frequent replacement.
3. Ventilation: the wall on the leeward side should be open from 60-90cm above the ground and covered with wire mesh. Good ventilation is important so as to reduce heat, humidity and harmful gases.
4. Floor: the floor is covered with litter, such as, saw dust, wood shaving, crushed maize cobs, and coffee and rice husks, chopped dry grass, etc. The litter should be turned regularly and more added as it becomes contaminated with droppings. Turning or stirring the litter encourages the multiplication of micro-organisms. These breaks down the hen’s dropping and eventually convert the litter into a mass of fine, dry, friable material which is normally odourless and comparatively hygienic. Turning is done either with the help of a fold, or by throwing grains regularly on the litter. As the chicken scratch for the grains, they turn the litter. When introducing new litter mix with a little of the old so as to introduce bacteria which help the litter to decompose. The depth of the litter should be kept between 15-30cm.
5. Feeders and waterers: these should be clean and well distributed to avoid overcrowding of birds and contamination of the feed and water.
6. Roosts: you should provide timber frames on which the bird perch for rest. You should allow 22.5cm – 30cm per bird and 1-1.2m high. The roosts should be moveable in order to avoid dampness caused by the accumulation of droppings in one spot.
7. Nests: are laying boxes: these should be large enough to make the birds comfortable. They should be built in a dark place in order to discourage egg eating and cannibalism. The floor of the nest should be covered with soft dry grass or wood shavings in order to prevent egg breakages.
There are two types of nests: the individual nests and the communal nests:
The individual nest accommodates one bird at a time. It measures 25-30cm wide, 30-35cm high & 30-36cm deep
The communal nest accommodates many birds at a time. Its door is 20x20cm.
Advantages of Deep Litter System
Many birds can be kept in a small area (high stocking rates);
Labour requirement is low as one person can care for many birds;
The system can be used to rear breeding stock;
Birds are safe from predators and thieves;
There is fast accumulation of manure;
Less loss of eggs as in free range;
Ammonia produced by decomposing organic matter in the
TAFADHALI SHARE HABARI HII KWA RAFIKI ZAKO HAPO CHINI ILI IWAFIKIE NA WENGINE PIA
Pig industry sustains livelihoods of many families in Kenya. Pig rearing has been one of wellestablishedindustry
in Kenya following growing export markets and increasing number of health
conscious consumers. Pig production if efficiently managed has great potentials for increasing
protein supply in Kenya. Smallholder pig farms in Tharaka-Nithi County have been facing
varying and dismal profits. The main objective of this study will be to establish which
institutional arrangements and management factors affect the profit efficiency of small-holder
pig farmers in Tharaka-Nithi County. A multi-stage purposive sampling technique will be
adopted to collect cross sectional data of eighty (80) smallholder pig farmers in Maara
Constituency by the use of semi-structured interview schedules. The work will employ Data
Envelopment Analysis to come up with profit efficiency rankings among the farmers and
stochastic frontier profit function will be used to analyze the factors that affect profit efficiency.
The data will be processed using STATA and DEA Frontier packages. The findings could be
useful to the stakeholders of the pig industry sub sector to formulate policies pertaining to pig
enterprise inputs, marketing issues and financial products and also can establish benchmarks
which can be used as a package for enhancing and stabilizing profit efficiencies of smallholder
pig farmers which in turn could help improve the Kenya economy.
An Overview of Livestock Sub-sector in Kenya Perspectives, Opportunities and Innovations for Market Access for Market Access for Pastoral Producers Recent statistics point that the livestock sub-sector in Kenya accounts for approximately 10% of the National Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is 30% of the agricultural GDP. It employs about 50% of the national agricultural workforce and about 90% of the ASAL workforce. 95% of ASAL household income comes from this sub-sector. This is despite the fact that the sector receives only 1 % of the total annual budget allocation. The livestock resource base is estimated at 60 million units comprising of 29 million indigenous and exotic chicken, 10 million beef cattle, 3 million dairy and dairy crosses, 9 million goats, 7 million sheep, 0.8 mi camels, 0.52 mi donkeys and 0.3 million pigs. (Strategy for Revitalizing Agriculture (SRA) 2003) Kenya is broadly self-sufficient in most livestock products but is a net importer of red meat mostly inform of on-the-hoof animals trekked across the porous boundaries of neighbouring countries- Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania. Livestock supply in Kenya results from a complex set of interactions between Kenya and its neighbours and the traditional Middle East market and their respective livestock populations, demand and market prices. Kenya is part of a regional market where livestock flow according to markets and price differentials in a liberalized system throughout the region as a whole and where Nairobi represents a focus of demand for the region Supply of red-meat from domestic cattle, shoats and camels falls short of demand, and is almost permanently augmented by a traditional livestock trade drawn in from neighbouring countries, especially Somalia, Tanzania, Sudan and Ethiopia in varying quantities according to demand, which maintains a supply/demand
[1.6MB]SIJAAMINI WEMA SEPETU ANACHOKIFAYA HAPO KWENYE HII VIDEO BOFYA UONE
