Photo credit was by his wife. He is my kids' uncle, the late's cousin And I happened to meet them at a spa. When you are that IT loyal gal

MAAJABU YA MTANDAONI,BOFYA HAPO CHINI HUTAAMINI MACHO YAKO

same way as broilers. They grow slowly and may need brooding until 4-6 weeks old. They are then given more space than broiler chickens. If there is an out doors fenced area, they can go there during the day.

They should be given 500 g of broiler starter feed for the first 4-6 weeks. When this feed is used up it is replaced with a lower-quality pullet-rearing diet until 17 weeks of age. They are then given a layer diet which is high in calcium (3%) and phosphorous (0.5%). This is needed so that they can lay eggs with hard shells. Pullets will now be transferred to their layer house as they will shortly come into lay.

9.4 Battery cages

 can hold 1-5 hens per cage (50 x 40 cm x 45 cm high for each hen)

 are expensive but can be made from local material

 hens may peck one another and may need to have their beaks trimmed (a specialized job)

 can scratch one another if claws are long with loss of feathers from the back

 must be given a high-quality layer diet

 will lay more eggs and eat less feed than hens in any other housed system

 may be in future welfare issues as birds have little space. This worries the public

9.4.1 Small scale semi-commercial cage unit

This is designed for a household wanting to keep only a few hens and have eggs for their family and to sell

 a single cage unit of 3 compartments holding 12 layers. See trainer’s manual (10.3.1)

 cage on legs or on a stand or legs constructed cheaply from bamboo

 can be moved easily out of rain and bad weather to a safe place

 thatched roof or without a roof if kept under cover

 bamboo feeders and home-made drinkers (see illustrations 4.1, 4.2)

 hens must receive high-quality feed to lay 9 - 10 eggs /day

 system sustainable if 5 eggs sold and 4 - 5 eggs consumed by the household

 money from egg sales is used to buy more feed

 hens sold after 12 months for eating or force moulted (see section 9.7 )

 money from egg and hen sales used to buy replacement birds or layer chicks and grown to pullets but starting these 20 weeks before selling old hens

9.5 Barn hens

 hens kept indoors and on the floor with adequate floor space

 house must be well constructed and safe from thieves

 feeders, drinkers, perches and nest boxes must be provided

 floor litter is necessary and later used for fertilizer or compost on gardens

 some eggs will be laid on the floor and some of these will get dirty(should be cleaned)

 green feed (grass, cassava, sweet potato tops) can be given to hens

9.6 Free range

 similar to the barn system except allowed outside

 need a docile (quiet) breed who will not fly over the surrounding fence

 hens are allowed to scavenge in a secure outdoor enclosure during the day

 allowed to go indoors at any time. Floor space 7 - 8 hens per square metre

 locked up at night

 house similar to that for barn hens with nest boxes, drinkers and feeders

Drinkers are also provided in the outside enclosed area. Space per bird in the house is a little less than for barn hens

Advantage: free range system is that hens can scavenge for some of their feed and pick up some essential nutrients. Hens need green feed and there should be two separate outdoor pens which can be rotated. One will be rested to allow the grass to grow back. Sunlight provides birds with vitamin D.

Disadvantage: hens will eat a little more feed and lay fewer eggs than a battery (caged) hen. They are more likely to pick up a disease (parasites) outside. The hens will not get much nourishment from the pasture and if raining will stay indoors

EXERCISE

Do you understand the different systems of housing poultry? If not write down what you do not understand about them and what you do understand about them

9.7 Force moulting

This is to stop old hens from laying for about 4 weeks.

Reasons:

 replacement pullets are expensive

 egg production drops when hens get old (i.e. production is less than 1 egg/2days (uneconomical)

 egg shells will get thin and break when birds get old

 may be economical to put hens through a second laying cycle

 hens are put out of lay by feeding a poor-quality diet for 3 - 4 weeks when about 60-70 weeks old but must always have water

 very few hens will be now be laying. They are then put back on a layer diet and will come into lay 2-3 weeks later

 eggs will now have sound, hard shells

 hens will lay more eggs than before and for at least the next 20 weeks

 will lay large eggs

Disadvantage: hens are out of lay for about 3 - 4 weeks during moulting and come into full lay over the next 3 - 4 weeks so there will be loss of income

9.8 EGG QUALITY

9.8.1 Internal

 eggs get stale quickly in hot weather

 store eggs in a cool place

 when the egg yolk spreads into the white the egg is stale

 a stale egg may not taste different from a fresh egg

 some people like eggs with a deep orange-yellow yolk

 others like the yolk a pale yellow colour

 colour can be measured with a yolk colour fan

 there are sometimes blood spots in the egg yolk but we are not sure why

9.8.2 External quality

 eggs can be misshapen, soft-shelled, with pimples and rough surfaces

 egg breakage occurs easily especially if the hens are old

 these eggs are classified as seconds and fetch a much lower price in the market

 dirty eggs, blood stained eggs and fly marks on the shell make the eggs unattractive to the customer should be cleaned before selling or eating

 consumers prefer eggs that are either white or brown shelled but both have the same nutritional value

[END OF UNIT V]

UNIT VI

10. RECORD KEEPING

It is essential that you keep good records of feed consumed, eggs produced, bird deaths and removal of sick hens and non layers. A sample record sheet is given so that you can know accurately how your flock is performing.

[Example of a layer record sheet at the end of this manual]

11. CONCLUSION

Keeping poultry is not easy. It is a learning process. You should start slowly and expand as you gain experience. You may have set backs but you must persevere and seek advice when you have problems and need help. If you are kind to your birds and treat them well they will respond.

12. FEASIBILITY STUDY

Before you decide that you want to become a poultry farmer you must undertake a feasibility study that is researched thoroughly into all aspects of meat production or egg production to determine if you are going to make a profit. Otherwise you may be wasting time and money. When you have done your research you can then make a business plan. Your business plan will allow you a better chance of borrowing money from the bank to get your enterprise started. The most important question is, do you have a market for your produce?

Some of the questions you need to ask are given b

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