Small scale poultry farmers are intensifying the rearing of local chicken because of the good profit margins. Local poultry rearing is quite simple and does not require sophisticated structures. Experience in poultry disease control is very important.
Uganda is estimated to have between 40 and 50 million of which at least 30 million are local and the rest are local hybrids. Local chicken are mainly kept on a free-range system, where they look for food for themselves.
Key regions for local chicken
Lango
Teso regions have the highest number of local chicken.
Facts about indigenous chickens
Meat and eggs are tastier and preferred by most consumers to those obtained from
Commercial breeds.
- Little initial investment.
- More tolerant of harsh conditions including diseases than commercial breeds.
- Can be fed on cheap locally available feeds.
- When allowed to range freely, they need little feeding or other care.
- Women and youth often get income from chickens.
- Local markets are readily available for both eggs and chickens
- Droppings are rich in nutrients can be used for compost making, pond fertilizing and as feed for livestock.
Rearing chicks
- Provide clean water at all times in shallow and clean troughs.
- Provide soft feeds like flour from cereals or tubers.
- Allow chicks to roam freely when they reach 3 or 4 weeks of age.
- Vaccinate chicks against Newcastle disease at 4 days of age.
Selection of the breeding stock
- Select a hen that is broody and does not abandon her eggs during hatching and looks after her chicks well.
- Select a healthy and strong cock.
Hatching
- Use only eggs that were laid in the last 14 days.
- Hatch eggs using the mother hen, another broody hen or an incubator.
Factors limiting the production of local chicken
- The only challenge is that local chicken has a low laying capacity of below 60 per cent and they normally tend to go broody very quickly compared to the crossed or purely exotic breeds whose capacity goes up to 80 per cent.
- Local chicken under exotic or modern rearing becomes costly and the returns may not be the best but once a farmer makes better planning for the project before actual start, the losses can be mitigated.
- New castle disease causes many birds to die
- Fowl Pox(pimple head) caused by local disease outbreak failure to vaccinate
- Fleas, ticks and lice caused by poor hygiene.
- Worms caused by infection picked up from other birds
- Blood in dropping caused by coccidiosis fowl typhoid or fowl cholera
- Chicks grow slowly stay small and are weak and unhealthy working caused by in breeding from closely related birds
- Poor hatchability caused by storing unclean eggs(dirty or bloody) using eggs older than 14 days breeding from poor quality hens and cocks disease in the flock