Family Backyard Poultry Project

In the barangays, nearly every household keep some native chickens. Usually being left alone to fend for themselves, a hen produces 30-50 eggs per year as compared to imported stocks which can lay some 286 eggs per year. UPLB (1985) found that native birds, when given the same improved feed and management, could reach (at the first 180 days of lay) 48 percent of the egg production (or 137 eggs per year) of the commercial leghorn hybrids.

The care of a small backyard poultry can help fill the family food requirements for eggs and meat. It can also be a source of additional income. A valuable by-product is the chicken manure which is a very excellent organic fertilizer for farm and home gardens.

Project scheme

1. Each participating family will start with two properly selected upgraded roosters and ten layers (inabin; five for egg production and five layers to produce chicks for meat production).

2. A poultry house should be constructed using local materials for minimum expense. The house should have perch racks, roosts, nests, feedhoppers and waterers. The house should at Ieast be 7 feet high, with a floor area of 10 fl x 12 fl. It can also be provided with a fenced area as run and a growing house for the chicks.

3. The family could buy or raise the feed supplements like co., sorghum, ipil-ipil and others.

4. Recommended management practices on feeding and watering, brooding and rearing young chicks, culling and selection, record keeping, etc., should be followed.

5. Regular immunization (1-2 times a year against poultry diseases like avian pest, CRD, fowl pox, etc.)

Feasibility study

1. Expenses

10 layers x P 40/layer = P400.00
2 roosters x P 50/rooster = 100.00
Housing and fence = 1,000.00
Vaccines/veterinary drugs = 25.00
Feed supplement = 500.00
Total = P 2,025.00

2. Egg Production Cycle

20 eggs/layer/month x 12 months = 240 eggs
240 eggs x 5 layers = 1,200 eggs/year
1,200 eggs/year x P 1.50/egg P 1,800.00

3. Meat Production Cycle

A. Growing period
Laying – 20 days
Incubation – 21 days
Brooding – 60 days
One production cycle = 101 days or 3 cycles per year

B. Production/Multiplication cycle

Survival rate of chicks/hen/cycle = 10 chicks
10 chicks x 3 cycles/year = 30 chicks
30 chicks x 5 hens = 150 chicks

Gross income from 5 hens/year
150 birds x P 30/bird P 4,500.00

4. Cost Analysis

Gross income from egg production = P1,800.00

Gross income from meat production = 4,500.00

Total income for 3 cycles (1 year) = P6,300.00

Less: Expenses = 2,025.00

Net income = P4,275.00

Note: The roosters remain. To prevent broodiness of native chickens after laying, it is advisable to dip the birds in water.

Home-made chicken feeds

4 cans yellow corn or broken rice (binlid)
1 1/2 cans rice bran (darak)
1 can dry fish meal or 2 parts fresh fish or ground snails
1 112 can copra oil meal
1/2 can copra oil meal
1/2 can ground mongo, sitao, patani or soy bean seeds
1/2 can dry ipil-ipil leaf meal
1 tablespoon salt 1 handful powdered shell/agricultural lime (apog)

Notes:

Use boiled gabi, ubi, cassava or camote as substitute for corn meal.
Double the recommended amounts if ingredients are not in dry form.
Use dried azolla or dried filter cake to replace part of the rice bran.

A. Other Low-cost Poultry Feeds

– bananas
– fly maggots
– fingerlings
– azolla
– snails
– filter cake (dried and good)
– termites
– earthworms

Filter cake is the dark brown-black sediment after clarification and filtration during the manufacture of sugar.

B. Anti-nutrients in Some Feeds.

C. Recommended Schedule of Vaccination (BAI).

Muscovy ducks (bibe), pigeons and geese are hardy and could be raised in the backyard under adverse conditions. They do not require elaborate housing and can subsist on inexpensive feeds.

Source: nzdl.org