MVSc

A study on morphological, reproductive and behavioural characteristics of native chicken, the management practices followed by poultry farmers, as well as the egg quality, egg production, carcass characteristics, haematological parameters of native chicken and economics of poultry rearing were carried out in remote villages of Kozhikode and Kannur districts which is the native tract of Tellichery breed of chicken, covering 64 households and 342 birds, which included 200 adult chicken in which the morphological study was also conducted.
The birds were reared by Thiya community and others with the women taking the responsibility and 89 per cent of the households had more than five years of experience in poultry rearing. The birds were produced by their own or procured from neighbourhood or nearby districts and almost all the birds were having broodiness character. The birds also had a mean flight height, flight distance and territory radius of 4m, 13.29m and 121.51m respectively. The farmers provide coops for providing night shelter and during day time the birds are let free for scavenging. Only 45.32 per cent households provided supplementary feeding and rice was the major feed with an average of 13.81g per bird per day. The majority of coops were made of wood with tiled roofs and the average floor area given per bird by the farmers was found to be 0.87 sq. ft. The average cost per coop was Rs. 485.85. Majority of the households (76.66 per cent) provided nest boxes for incubation with sand as the main nest material and an average of number of eggs incubated per setting was 10.41.
The most common diseases encountered by the farmers were respiratory ailments (25 per cent), Ranikhet disease (23.44 per cent) and fowl pox (12.50 per cent) and the disease occurrence was more in summer season. No disease control measures were being practiced. The mortality per cent in chick, grower and adult up to one year was 28.63, 21.60 and 45.28 respectively and the death due to predators in these stages was 92.31, 80.00 and 47.83 per cent respectively. A high mortality per cent of 52.17 was due to diseases in adult stage.
The most prevalent plumage colour in case of males was red (47.22 per cent) and that of females was black (40.85 per cent). In case of primary plumage pattern, in males the most common one was wild type (61.11 per cent) and in female it was wheaten (32.93 per cent) and solid black (24.39 per cent). Among specific secondary plumage patterns in females, 17.07 per cent showed stippling and 10.98 per cent showed single lacing. Among the qualitative characters, the most prevalent skin colour was white (61.5 per cent), shank colour was yellow (51.5 per cent), ear lobe colour was reddish yellow (51 per cent), comb colour was red (87 per cent), wattle colour was red (90 per cent) and beak colour was yellow (38.5 per cent). The most common comb type was single (97.5 per cent) and comb position was erect (59.5 per cent). The morphometric characters measured were shank, beak and spur lengths and body weight and the overall average values were 82.14mm, 30.38mm, 1.03mm and 1445.7g.
The average age at first egg from survey was 177.60 days and from actual egg recording study it was 199.26 days. The average length of broodiness (days) measured indirectly by survey method revealed value of 27.9 days and that recorded directly from egg recording study was 22.38. Survey on clutch size showed a mean value of 7.67 eggs and the mean number of clutches in a laying cycle was 3.48, the respective values in direct egg recording study were 7.27 eggs and 2.13 clutches. The mean egg production in a laying cycle from survey study was found to be 15.5 while that from field egg recording study was 14.32 eggs. The total egg production up to 40 weeks of age on hen day and hen housed basis were 34.59 and 33.06 eggs and up to 60 weeks of age, the values were 86.12 and 70.33 eggs respectively. The egg shell colour was light brown in 73.4 per cent of eggs.
The egg quality parameters evaluated were egg weight (g), egg length (mm), egg breadth (mm), shape index, albumen weight (g), albumen percent, albumen index, yolk weight (g), yolk percent, yolk index, shell thickness (mm), shell weight (g), shell percent, Haugh unit score and yolk cholesterol (mg per g), the mean values being 41.81, 51.90, 37.95, 73.37, 24.35, 58.23, 4.67, 13.21, 31.72, 31.89, 0.38, 4.18, 10.01, 64.41 and 14.67 respectively.
The processing yields and losses were estimated in terms of live weight (g), percentages of blood, feather, dressed carcass and eviscerated carcass, R-to-C weight (g) and percentages of R-to-C, giblet, gizzard, heart, liver, neck, back, breast, wing, leg, drumstick and thigh, the overall mean being 1585.21, 4.39, 6.48, 89.13, 69.09, 1172.61, 73.50, 6.03, 2.36, 0.77, 2.90, 8.00, 21.51, 21.35, 12.03, 30.36, 14.44 and 15.93 respectively.
The overall haematological parameters for erythrocyte count, haemoglobin (g per cent), packed cell volume ( per cent), lymphocytes per cent, heterophils per cent, monocytes per cent, eosinophils per cent and basophils per cent were 3.11, 11.31, 36.88, 66.69, 23.44, 5.06, 2.94 and 1.94 respectively.
On analysis of the economics of native chicken rearing it was found that the poultry farmers got a return of Rs. 561.02 per adult hen when reared up to 72 weeks of age.