By Umar Nsubuga
Rehema Nakazzi, a resident of Kalagi in Mukono district recently received exotic cocks to crossbreed with her local hens.
She wants to be advised on how best to manage them.
Ali Kakooza, a poultry farmer who deals in poultry feeds in Wakiso says that was an encouraging move for Nakazzi, but to benefit from it, she has to realise that exotic and cross-breeds have higher feeding and health demands than the local ones.
Kakooza gives her tips.
- The first thing she has to do is to make sure the birds are healthy.
- Vaccinate them, at least against Newcastle disease. This is a rampant disease that kills in large numbers and has no cure, but fortunately, it can be prevented by vaccination.
- Because the birds scavenge, you can be sure that they are picking up worms almost wherever they feed. Therefore, she needs to deworm them monthly.
Various poultry medicines can kill worms. Some are single-dose tablets while others are powders that you can mix with water for the birds to drink.
- Whereas indigenous poultry can get enough feeds by scavenging, the crossbreeds will always need extra feeds because their feeding demands are higher. From scavenging they may get enough vitamins and minerals, but you need to give them additional protein and energy foods, cereal grains like maize, millet and sorghum are good sources of energy and so is cassava.
Soya, sunflower, mukene and ground nuts are some of the common protein sources.
- Nakazzi should also provide the birds with water all the time so that they can drink as they please.
- Then she needs to guard them against inbreeding, within four months, the cock’s offspring will reach breeding age.
If she does not control them, the cocks will mate with their daughters. Though inbreeding is applied under certain circumstances, it is not good for routine farm management.
One way to prevent, inbreeding is to lock up the cocks in a cage and only take in hens for breeding. The other way is to exchange cocks with another farmer every four months.
- There is no strict rule on what kind of house the birds should sleep in, but it has to be a clean, and dry comfortable resting area. Keep fresh air circulating in the house.
- And now that Nakazzi is going to get fast-growing chicks, she has to plan the markets.
Never take marketing for granted, by the time the chicks hatch, she should have an estimate on when they will be ready for marketing then she plans in advance. Do not wait for them to mature before you market them.
