How I make my kienyeji chicken to grow and mature faster - FARMERCIST 254

FARMERCIST 254

This site discusses farming issues in relation to Kenya with particular emphasis on poultry farming.

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Saturday 3 March 2018

How I make my kienyeji chicken to grow and mature faster

Before getting introduced to improved kienyeji chicken breeds I used to keep the indigenous Kenyan breed popularly known as kienyeji. The chicks used to take very long with their mothers and even longer before crowing or even laying.

If you ask any farmer who keeps the indigenous breed how long it takes for a chick to mature almost everyone will tell you that it takes 9 to 11 months. My own chicken used to take the same period, but not any more. I have pure kienyeji hens that were hatched on 28th of August 2017 but which have been laying for some days already.

After starting to keep improved kienyeji breeds I realised that they matured faster than the local ones. Curiosity led me to hatching rainbowrooster and kienyeji chicks together. I then kept them under the same conditions with the same feeds. After some time I realized that the rainbowroosters were growing faster. When I monitored them keenly I realised that while the rainbowroosters spent most of their time eating, the kienyeji counterparts spent most of their time lazying around.

I wanted my kienyeji to mature as fast. Therefore, I kept in trying to make my kienyeji chicks to eat most of the time...thay are generally poor feeders. I have since done an experiment sinceAugust 28th 2017 and my hens started laying after six months. Instead of concentrating on commercial feeds, I decided to feed them ion a little of the commercial feeds in the morning then supplementing this with a number of home-prepared feeds for the rest of the way.

Apart from unprocessed fish meal...ochong'a...for proteins, I mostly feed them on spinach, kales, capsicum, garlic and margots. Feeding them on these...in small portions at various intervals during the day encourages them to not only eat more but also have a more balanced diet. Morever, I prepare matoke for them at least thrice a week. Plus I pick a lot of broken tomatoes from the market on Fridays...these I get for free, disinfect them then offer them to my birds. This change in diet has seen my improved kienyeji birds to start laying even slightly before four months, and the kienyeji ones at 6 months instead of 9 to 11 months. I can now confidently keep both breeds knowing very well that am going to reap big from both.

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