sodeeqsulaimon88:
kudos to you@Nativechicken and Farouq
like you said that a matured rooster to 10 chicken if i may ask,Genetically will the offspring be more of a Noiler rooster or otherwise
if a Rooster mates with an Isa brown layer and lays egg how do we hatch the chick without using an Incubator
Can we rear these offspring in a caged area as in not letting them go on free range??

If you don’t want to use an incubator to hatch for a start, you can get a couple of local chickens, once they lay and start to go broody, take away their eggs and put the eggs you want them to hatch. Most people hatch guinea fowls using local chickens. And Yes, its actually best to rear the chicks in a cage for at least 6-8 weeks, before you finally let them out to free-range. Just make sure they are getting enough heat for the first 10-14 days. That way they full strong and less susceptible to predators, diseases etc...

I like your questions.

So once you start cross-breeding, the offsprings you’ll have will definitely have mixed results. If you’re crossing Isa brown with a noiler, some chicks will be more like noilers, some will be more like the isa brown.

This is where selective breeding comes in. You choose the ones you want out of the chicks, the ones with the best traits, and continue breeding them till you’re satisfied with the result.

For example, the chick below is a cross between a noiler cock and my brahma cross (75% local chicken). At week one you can see how thick the legs are and how big it is, at week two it was weighing 147grams (which is big for a local chicken), and see how the feathers have quickly formed. Now the other chicks that hatched were not all like this, there were small ones that looked like pure local chicks, despite being crosses with a noiler.

The goal is to select the best performers like this chick and continue breeding them, while disposing the ones with low performance.

NativeChicken:


Noilers are definitely superior, but the FUNAAB Alpha is way superior to our local breeds.
They didnt say, but i suspect that the Fulani Ecotype was used in developing the FUNAAB

It is very likely. Do you have them in your farm? I haven’t seen/heard about anyone who’s actually reared them.

NativeChicken:


I wouldnt say its impossible.
But u need to understand that the process of genetic improvement thru crosses takes many years. Can even b up to 20years depending on what qlty of animals and the traits u want to either remove or improve.
I know a Professor at FUUNAB has developed chicken strains for the commercial market. Maybe u have heard of the FUNAAB Alpha?

I have read about the Funaab Alpha chicken one time, I likened them to Noilers and based on the information they provided, noilers were superior.

TAYO124:
Is it possible to breed local variety of layers from Nigerian local birds?

I don’t think so.

Local chickens have that instinct to brood their eggs and raise their young, so they lay eggs in small clutches. So unless you remove that instinct they’ll never be prolific layers.

Layers like ISA Brown are hybrid chickens that have been bred SOLELY to lay eggs.

sodeeqsulaimon88:
If a cockerel mates with an Isa brown layers and they lay fertile eggs will the offspring lay eggs
how do we know if an egg is fertile

Yes they will lay eggs once they mature (at around 5-6 months). If you have a matured cock and he mates with the hen, then their eggs should be fertile. In some cases where where you have a lot of chickens free-ranging (like I do on the farm), even with more than enough roosters I get a few infertile eggs.

The best way to find out if an egg is infertile is to candle them at Day 7 when the hen is finally brooding. At Day 7, blood vessels will be visibly clear in eggs and you’ll be able to see a tiny embryo forming. I have posted a picture of that on the thread, check.

If the egg is infertile, you will not see any blood vessels, it will be very clear, as if it was laid today (only with a larger air pocket).

I think I’ll make a comprehensive post about egg fertility, the forming of embryos, embryo death...when I get fresh eggs from the farm, I’ll candle them and show the progress.

sodeeqsulaimon88:
Thank you so much
can we crossbreed broilers

Yes you can if you get a matured broiler.

NativeChicken:


This is an interesting concept which if well adapted can make one plenty of money from poultry farming.
Though am still adapting mine, but am begining to see a very wonderful end to it.
1. I have so far created to wire fenced pens as extensions to my poultry house. This is to rotate my birds on pasture.
2. I plant on one while the chickens have access to the other until i harvest my crops (maize, beans, g/nut, potato,green, okra).
3. After harvesting, i open up that range to the chickens and then plant on the one the chickens had access to. This ensures i have croos all year without using fertilizer, reduce disease risk, and the chickens get a lot of food by scratching/scavenging there. The fence protects them from predators and thieves.
4. The set-up also includes 4 compost piles in each range/yard. I get a lot of compost which sells for 1k a bag here in Abuja.
5. I intend getting a vehicle for collecting restaurant waste, fruits & vegerable waste from markets which i dump in the compost pile( Dem dey chop d things wella)
6. Feed cost will become nearly zero by the time am done with my set-up

Yes the potential to make money is there, but its a lot of work setting up an artificial self-sustaining system/environment in place where chickens can basically fend for themselves, so a lot of people shy away from it. I can tell you’re already doing great.

Karl Hammer of Vermont Compost (google him) raises over 500 chickens without grains. He lets them free-range on his compost piles and they get all their feed from there. And he’s been doing it for ages, so the compost idea is a proven concept. The value of the compost will most likely offset the cost of transport and setting up the whole operation so its possible for you have very low cost of feeding.

Keep us updated please.

Cattle Kraal System of Raising Chickens

Part of the reason why the fulani chickens are the biggest breed of local chickens in Nigeria is because of the large SFRB available to them and their access to maggots and termites present in cattle dung.

So there is a symbiotic relationship between chickens and other livestock.

The Fulani pastoralists are known for moving from moving from places and so every time, these chickens have access to a new area to scavenge on. Most of the fulanis do not give supplemental feed to their chickens, the ones that do give their chickens a handful of millet or sorghum.

The SFRB is a concept that can be replicated in the farm setting. If implemented correctly, it can immensely reduce the high cost of feeding. Look around your environment and see what you can capitalize on. SFRB is dependent on environment and season.

During the dry season, the SFRB around my farm is very poor because everywhere is dry and hot, but my chickens still go out to scanvenge for termites and leftover paddy rice in nearby fields. My location is notoriously known for wood-eating termites, and the chickens love them.

I have been trying to find cheap alternatives to protein, and for a long time I have been studying the black soldier fly. The fact that the fly is not known to my locality means more resources and care is needed, which will make the whole endeavor more costly, and not worth it.

Fortunately enough, I have just recently stumbled on a paper that showed how a local farmer utilizes a clay pot and some wood to create the perfect home for these wood-eating termites, and after a while he will harvest them and feed them to his chickens.

I’ll be replicating something like that and see the outcome. If it produces satisfactory results, it will go a long way towards reducing my feed bill.

The pictures below show a typical fulani settlement, and you can see the chickens free ranging around the environment.

Cattle Kraal

sodeeqsulaimon88:
@ farouq if i want to cross breed how do i go about it??
how do i know a matured noiler that will mate with a local chicken??
can i raise noilers first then after maturity pair them with a local cock and chicken??
I'll be happy if you can teach us from start
pardon my manners you and jidestroud are really a rare gem.... wish I can be close to you guys to learn this things practically...thumbs up guys

@Nativechicken has pretty much given you the basics. If you’re raising noilers, choose the biggest noiler rooster with the best physical traits. After 6 months thr cock will be ready to start mating, then get like 5 local chickens (maximum of 10) and keep them together.

Remember somethings you can only learn by doing. You can get one noiler and 2 local chicken to start and learn as you go. If you have any questions you can always ask here, there are a lot of people willing to help.

Scavenging Feed Resource Base (SFRB)

Because of the long time to maturity and the comparatively low prices of local chickens, it is of immense economic benefit to allow these chickens to free-range for their feed. To achieve maximum efficiency, supplemental feeding should be done in the morning, before they are allowed to free-range and later in the afternoon.

SFRB is basically the total amount food resources available in the environment that the chickens can use as feed.

Local chickens are very intelligent scavengers, they scavenge for insects to bulk up on protein, grits to help in digestion, grasses for vitamins, weed/grain seeds for fibre/energy and so on.

If you’re looking to raise chickens domestically, look at the volume of kitchen waste (in the form of leftover food) you produce, the expanse of the area in your backyard. How many chickens can they support?

If you’re raising chickens at farm level, look at your surroundings. Are there a lot of trees/shrubs/grasses in the area? Remember the presence of trees has a ripple effect on the environment. Leaves fall and decay, the soil becomes rich and a breeding ground for biota, which chickens feed on. Compost is another way to feed chickens. Chickens are excellent ‘composters’, they turn the pile and eat what they can.

Diseases and Prevention

Prevention is always better than cure. This cannot be overemphasized. Biosecurity is very important, especially when dealing with poultry. Make sure your feed is good, stored in a clean environment. Clean water, proper ventilation and a clean environment. Do not allow birds to continuously sleep in their litter. Always clean their cages regularly and wash their feeders/drinkers.

In the event that a disease outbreak occurs, nature has given us more than enough remedies to tackle them, depending on your location and availability. I have cured newcastle disease with just moringa leaf extract and aloe gel. The chicken couldn’t stand or feed, I didn’t take it will survive. I think most of us here have access to Neem and Aloe vera. These two are powerhouse that can be used to cure almost all most common poultry diseases.

Neem leaves and Aloe Vera are antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal, and also boost immunity of birds.

Preparation.
To make one litre of neem leaf extract, boil 1 litre of hot water, add to a container with 100gram of fresh neem leaves and leave for 24 hours. Strain and keep aside to cool.

Dose should be between 20ml-30ml per litre, and then you add 15ml per litre of Aloe Vera gel. Don’t add the aloe gel to the neem extract when its hot. For chicks you can administer for 3 days straight, serve clean water after they have finished it. And then be giving them maybe one or twice a month. Don’t overuse it.

Always store your natural medication in a cool place, and do not make large batches. To be on the safest side just make what you need to use for that week.

jidestroud:


In setting up the incubator using the smaller box, I made use of a 40watts bulb as my source of heat. All I did was make sure I got the temp right to range 37°C (with little variations though, fairly within range) with the help of a thermometer. After two days monitoring and seeing that is was constant, I introduced the fertilized eggs.

On humidity, I just made sure there was water in the little plastic placed inside at all times.


Note:
I'm still trying to get the temperature right in the bigger carton I built to hatch the 30 eggs. i.e the 60 watts bulb. Also, going to incorporate a thermostat if i do get one soon.

Okay thanks. I’d love to see how the new incubator turns out.

HornyTave:
I would love to try this, it will cut cost on personal feeding and could use it to substitute some expenses.

How much can I get a male and female matured Fulani Chicken, A male and female matured Noiler chickens?

I'm in Edo. Benin City to be precise

Maybe you can contact @jidestroud if he can sell some of his stock to you?

QTCL:
In my own opinion,i realised the noiler males are very prolific,we are hatching our first generation of crosses and full noilers on the farm.my male noilers took about 6 to 7months to become a giant but for table size it will be 5 to 6 months.
In regards the feeding,in my area its mostly cassava peels,brewery waste will be expensive due to transport.a friend was suggesting i do maize,millet,groundnut cake and etc but the cost of this materials seem to be on the high side as well, this breeders project wont make us any profit until we achieve a reasonable population and in my opinion it might take about 2 years.so keeping the cost of feed on the low is paramount.can anyone suggest cheap feed formulation,we are open to suggestions..

Yes feeding costs is one of the biggest (if not the only) impediment in rearing local chickens, because of their poor feed conversion ratio. I see that @NativeChicken has given vital advice. Look at your environment and find the cheapest feed resources, and that might be your competitive advantage.

There is something called the Scavenging Feed Resource Base (SFRB) and the way the Fulani’s raise their chickens at almost negligible costs. I will write on that soon.

NativeChicken:
Nice thread!!
Its nice to know i have people of like minds. I recently changed my farm business model due to the high price of day old chicks, feed cost, vaccine/antibiotic failure and high death rate.
What i do now is a cross of Fulani Male x Noiler female. I use my local hens to incubate and hatch eggs. I just got 20 chicks this week and the average chick weighed b/w 35g - 42g. Which in my opinion is very ok.
Its a very fulfilling experience so far. I have 6 hens incibating 70 eggs at the moment. I noticed that the Noiler hens are taking a cue from d local and going broody...

42g is not “very ok”, its excellent. Thats almost the average of a broiler chick at day old. I guess its because you use a noiler hen. The highest so far I’ve had with my crosses is 28g. Local chickens usually weigh from 19-23g at day old.

Keep an eye on those noiler hens brooding. Some might abandon their nests half-way through brooding. And even if they hatch, they might be terrible mothers. I’ve had a hen that flew away from her two days old chick and they all died but two. Some hens are terrible mothers.

wisdomline:


It is welcoming to read all the insights shared on this thread on Native fowls.

Diseases in local/native are not quickly noticeable because they (native chickens) are highly resistant to most poultry diseases. The beauty about them is they find a way of getting/eating the right weeds/grasses to help them fight off the diseases. Please, watch out: whenever you notice your local chickens eating any grass or weed, just know it is good for them, and as such, such weeds/grasses are medicinal and should retained around them, at least in little quantity.

It must be said, however, that most common issues with them are lices and pox. One simple way to eliminate lices is to clear the last brooding place. This can be done by burning the wood-shavings or the absorbent used as soon as the hens are done hatching. If brooding was done on bare floor or sand or soil, apply generous quantity o kereosene at the site. One should also regularly (at least once monthly) spray their coop/pen with kerosene or anti-lice. You could also apply anti-lice on the top and bottom winged-feathers of each fowl. (Please, do not allow the anti-lice touch their skin)

Similarly, for the rest of the diseases, as mentioned by @GafarOlatunji, bitterleaf and scent-leaf extracts will do magic. As antibiotic, one could also extract juice from Aloe-vera and Tagiri and add to their drinking water. You could also simply dice the aloe-vera and Tagiri into their water. You can do that for 5 consecutive days every single month.


For pox; it highly contagious. Neem Leaves have antibacterial property and could remedy an outbreak of pox infection. Cut and allow neem leaves ferment in a bowl of water for about 4 days. Fermentation is done by covering the bowl (preferably paint bucket) with a cloth or perforated nylon. Add, a tablespoonful into their drinking water for 5 consecutive days. Another method is to get what is known to the Yorubas as GELU, and apply to spot where the pox is. The pox will dry up in a couple of days.

Interesting. You pointed out something and I have highlighted it. Its been bugging me and I’d like to know your thoughts about it. Do you think there is a point where these local chickens lose their disease resistance, especially when we crossbreed them too much? I have chicks that hatched, one with a noiler cross (my brahma cross and a noiler rooster) and the other with full local chicken and my brahma cross. The agility of that chick from the local cross is very evident, its always scavenging even in their cage and turning the litter upside down. The other one from the brahma cross, whilst very healthy and heavier, is very docile. So that made me wonder if overtime I’ll lose the characteristics of the local chickens if I keep on crossbreeding them. What do you think?

I never actually had serious lice issues until now. We introduced poultry litter in prep for the rainy season farming and kept it near the surrounding and almost all my chickens had lice. We had to individually spray them with Cypermethrin weekly before we noticed any change. A good alternative to using kerosene around their brooding/sleeping area is wood ash. Spray ash around and also in their bathing area. That will kill the lice.

jidestroud:
Price of local chickens over here goes for N600 for full grown hens, and N800 - N1000 Max for a grown rooster when buying directly from the rural owners.

@Farouq94
It's the direct opposite here, the rains brings along with it diseases that kills off the local hens. Their population seems to explode only during the dry season. Most rural farmers tends to buy and raise their chickens during that season cause it possess less diseases that kills them.

Moreover, what we have here are the yoruba ecotype chicken. Chai, those chickens no b am at all. There's no difference between them and well fed pigeons when killed. . If not for their eggs, I wouldn't want one around (their eggs sweeeeeeet dieeeeee ). Well, looking at the bright side, those chickens are so hardy that they will survive any disease thrown at them.

N600 for a full grown chicken? The last time I bought a chicken for that price was around 2010. But I guess the size/market differ.

@well fed pigeons �

GafarOlatunji:
@ Farouq94 Thank you so much for bringing this type of thread to life , this is more than a thread is more of school, because me personally am learning a lot from here, and this is also giving courage to push more on my project.

Yes your previous answer to my question answered exactly what I want to know.

Thanks for sharing the process of your incubator and the egg, am eager to hear more. And want to to more about incubator and hatching of egg, other people that know more about this should kindly share.

Medication is another important aspect in poultry management, yes local birds are resistance to diseases but yet they sick sometimes. As for me I had notice blood stain in my chick poo , i think it’s sign of cocidioses , another thing that has happened to me swelling of eyes and raches around the eye.

For the blood stain poo , I treated with saint leave, bitter leave extract, pepper, ginger and garlic, I pounded pepper, garlic and ginger together and mix with the extracted leaves and it work, for the swelling eyes, I clean the surface with spirit and apply injection powder, and also give the above mixture as antibiotics, the swelling eyes treatment is still in progress but seems is working. Please, I personally needs more light on possible diseases and treat to save investment.

I didn’t think this thread will garner a lot of interests at all. I just started it to journal my new adventure.

Thank you all for coming to make it very lively and educative for all of us. I have been busy with land prep for rice as the rain is finally here, but I see @wisdomline has done justice to the diseases treatment. I will elaborate a bit more later on the dosage, some simple combos and key points to note when you’re dealing with organic ingredients.

I will also share more about my incubation process. This is my first time and I’m learning as I go. @jidestroud has fabricated his own mini incubator, you can check out his thread to learn more as well.

QTCL:
This is one of the best thread so far on agric section here.
Lets talk a bit about the prices one can sell matured locals hen and cock,local cross noiler hen and cocks...kindly indicate your states and prices...at least it will help farmers like us,who are in the production of locals and local cross noiler...

Thats a good idea. In the North here prices vary with season. During harmattan, there is a scarcity of local chickens because of diseases, a lot of these rural farmers don’t know how to control that. Then during festive seasons prices shoot up as well.

In any case you can get a local chicken from N900-N1500 depending on size in village markets. Average price being N1000. The most I have bought a local chicken was N1800, three of them, they are HUGE fulani hens and their eggs always stand out in the farm.

Noilers you can get for N3000-N4500 depending on the above factors as well. Though they don’t have much market here. You only make money when you sell them young to these suya people as “local chickens” or when you keep and breed them, and then sell chicks or fertilised eggs.

I would love to hear from other people.

Yesterday was Day 8 of the eggs I started incubating, I candled them to see the progress and remove any unfertilized/bad egg and I was very amazed by the process, I could see the embryos moving, and the blood vessels pumping as well. It is a very miraculous process.

samhwande67:
Pls what is the difference between noiler and cockerel?

Noilers are a cross between broilers and cockerels.

Cockerels are mainly crosses between American ‘local chickens’. The way we have our domestic/indigenous chickens, other countries have them too. Like the black cockerel is a cross between the Rhode Island and the Plymouth Rock. So you can basically call them American local chickens.

wisdomline:



You got that absolutely on point.
However, I ensure about 99.5 of my eggs are hatched. By collecting the dry hatched chicks as soon as hatched, you keep the hen sitting on the rest eggs and the brooding continues, by extension, all eggs are hatched. If there is any left and the hen is out, I will put the unhatched eggs under another brooding hen, which continues the hatching.

I do that as well. This is something that only experience will teach you. You don’t see that written online. Some hens actually leave the nest too early, and one can assume the rest of the eggs cannot hatch when in reality they only need a day or two more.

Thanks for pointing this vital point out.

jidestroud:
Great News

My DIY incubator I made proved to be worth it after all. Six (6) fertilized eggs were used for the experiment. Today marks the 23rd day of the incubation. 4 eggs out the six eggs hatched so far. I will wait just one more day to see if the two remaining eggs will hatch.

I will be starting another thread on the incubation process for my kuroiler birds. This time around, I will be using 30 fertilized eggs.

Would love to know more about how you control the incubator. It seems you had very good hatch rate. How did you control the temperature and humidity?

jidestroud:
What a night!!!

Been up by 1:37am to the noise coming from my chicken coop. On assessing the cause, it turned out to be a pouch rats attack. Tried killing it, but it got away. Lost few birds to it. (All matured birds, legs all broken )

I never knew pouch rats could kill full grown roosters oooo.

Sorry for your loss. You might need to get cats again.

coputa:
does the brahma's birds serves only as pet,if so,can you sell the product from cross breeding it with our locals as meat.secondly,

Its termed a “pet” mainly because of the way it looks and the expensive price. I’ve not kept them for over a year now so I don’t know their current price. But now it can be up 50k for a pair, so obviously people will not buy a 50k chicken and do suya with it. You get?

ideepaul:
Unless I keep them for some weeks extra to mature and the drug withdrawal period to elapse, I won't eat them.

It was when I started to keep broilers that I realized the way some farmers abuse antibiotics. That thing is very alarming. Now I avoid eating broilers, and when I do, I make sure I buy from reputable farms.

QTCL:
Our pros in the house how do we do synchronise hatching, can we look into this...

Basically, synchronised hatching is when you get your chickens to hatch on the same day, despite the fact that they did not start laying on the same day.

Say for instance you have 3 hens, each started laying on a different day of the week. So you leave one egg in their nest which will encourage them to keep laying ( that egg should be a golf ball, or a marked boiled egg). You store the eggs you pick in a clean COOL environment and turn them at least twice a day. Don’t keep the eggs for more than 10 days, as that can reduce its hatchability. I personally don’t leave them beyond 7 days.

So even if one of the hens start to brood, it will be on that ‘dummy egg’ whilst you’re waiting for the next hen to go broody as well. As soon you have two going broody, you bring those eggs you’ve been saving, remove the ‘dummy egg’ and share the fresh eggs between them.

So they start brooding on the same day, and your chicks will hatch the same day. This will help you manage the brooding of the chicks when you take them away from their mothers, that is if you’re brooding them yourself.

I sometimes choose the biggest chicken and give her all the chicks to save from the stress of brooding.

wisdomline:



Quite true! Expectedly, virtually all day-old land mammals would require some form of heat either from their parents or as provided by the breeder because their skins are almost bare.

For native DoCs, there are two cheap strategies to keep them warm in the first two weeks:

(1) You could allow the DoCs stay with the mother hen within the first two-three weeks before weaning-off.
(2) You could collect them as soon as hatched and keep in a warm place.

I agree with you because I failed to add that I use both strategies, but prefer the latter. I usually collect almost all my native DoCs as soon as hatched. I use my laundry/Store room as brooding place. I keep them in cartons as mentioned earlier in the Store room whilst ensuring the window is closed. I stated earlier that you close the carton lids, but not completely - leaving them ajar. Corroborating your point, it's best to use a thermometer anyways.

I have raised more than 50 native chicks this way. In fact, I did synchronised hatching, and raised 36 chicks, lost one. The rest 35 are doing great. I will try share the pictures later.

Okay. Thank you for clearing that out.

Are you rearing your cross-breeds on a commercial scale now?

Munzy14:
@farouq94, nice project I must say.

Native fowl business is cool, when work on numbers.


From farms av been to, who rear them, they usually have some good quality males, either from cockerel, hacko or noilers, even some broiler males to cross the local females. This gives them improved breeds with quick growth and moderate weight.


I also noticed ones their hen hatch it's eggs, immediately they will take them away to the brood pen, and take care of them for a 4weeks, before releasing to the growing pen.. After another 2weeks, they can start to range freely on their own.. This helps the hens, to return to laying in shorter time, rather than spending long time raising their young ones.

These are some very useful tips you’ve shared. Yes taking away the chicks early encourages the hen to start laying early. Keeping them in growing pen for 4 weeks is actually be better than 2 weeks.

GafarOlatunji:
@ Faroe, thanks for the encouragement.... Yes I will work on your advice, I will stop getting more for now and see how it goes with the one I already have, I do not think your way before, each of the nest are big enough to accommodate like 3 mature hen so I thought it’s possible they share the nest , I never think of possibility of them laying at same time, this is a good advice, thanks for sharing .

Pls, How do you feed your chick ? , as for me I feed them formulated feeds, stater for now, because the older ones in the picture are six weeks plus, while the remaining are 3&1 weeks,I give them little in the morning and also in the evening, I use my hand for measurement so I give two in the morning and allow them to free range and search for the remaining on there own, and one in the evening before they go back to rest in their nest. I Think this is important in poultry management to achieve good productivity.

I got my chicks from my mother in-law, she is rearing chicken so since I show interest, whenever her hen hatch she will call me to come and pick them up.

If I may ask, how do you get your local incubator, this is a good technology, I will love to have one too when it’s necessary. Do you get someone build it for you or you bought it ? How much dose it cost? , what are your experience so far with it ?.

Thanks and have a nice time, looking forward to read from you soon.

For my grown chickens, I feed them a mixture of layer mash, wheat bran and rice bran. I sometimes add maize bran to it as well. And I allow them to scavenge for insects to boost up their protein level.

One of the things I’d like to find out is the optimal level of crude protein for local chickens. I find a lot of conflicting information online in published articles. Some say that a crude protein of 16% is optimal for local chicks. The starter you’re giving them will be around 21% crude protein, so if that is the case, then you’re giving them way more protein that they can utilise. I usually mix wheat bran with my starter to add to the volume, and that is a way to reduce cost too. Though you mention that you give them a little quantity, so I guess that extra protein helps to sustain them.

When you feed them pure starter, you end up spending too much. Local chickens have a point where they reach their limit of performance. So even if you’re giving them the best most expensive feed out there, they simply cannot utilize it because of their genetic limits. This is one aspect I’ll be experimenting on, their protein requirement and feed intake, and I hope to share as soon as I start having hatches from my incubator.

I purchased the incubator from the National Incubation Centre in Kano. I think they have branches in all states. They make several sizes, automatic or semi-automatic (like mine). From a hundred egg capacity to thousands of eggs. Mine is a 300eggs semi-automatic incubator, and I got it made for 75k. I can’t attest to its hatching rate as I just started using it. But so far so good. Though my only concern with it is controlling the temperature. Unlike the automatic incubator that turns off heating source when its get hot, with this one you have to have someone checking the thermometer regularly to ensure it doesn’t get above the optimal temperature.

I hope this answers your question.

jidestroud:


The pleasure is all mine.

You'll be amazed how profit-yielding goat rearing is. No stress at all.

And of cos, I've been exploring this angle. I have been improving my locals with the help of Male Kuroilers and Male Broilers (Ross 308). It's been a wonderful experience with the outcomes I have been getting. Honestly, controlling the breeding using your stock brings out the best of your animals even in chickens.

I think you have an advantage with your goats as well. You get feed at very cheap prices. My red sokotos are voracious eaters, but I have found a way to reduce costs by including rice bran in their diet, which I get from a nearby rice mill very cheaply. I’m also planting some legume forage for them during this rainy season that I will sustain throughout the dry season.

That interesting, cross-breeding with the Ross308 strain. I’m interested to know the outcome, do the chicks maintain the same instincts like the local chicken? Like the scavenging ability, disease-resistance, that kind of thing?