A Beginner’s Guide to Poultry Farming in Your Backyard: Raising Chickens for Eggs and Food – eBook

Description

A Beginners Guide to Poultry Farming in Your BackyardRaising Chickens for Eggs and FoodTable of ContentsIntroductionIt Is Just Chicken FeedSustainable Poultry FeedCrop bound ChickensBest Natural Food for ChickensHatching ChickensHow to Make an IncubatorFresh Water SupplyNesting boxesFree Ranging BirdsDust baths and Shed Floor CoveringBumble FootBuilding Your Own Chicken CoopEgg ProductionRaising Broilers for the MarketWell Ventilated CoopsProtecting chickens from PredatorsConclusionThe Truth about Growth Promoting FeedAuthor BioIntroductionEver since man found out that it was extremely easy to have domesticated sources of food, reared right in his yard, millenniums ago, is it a wonder that poultry especially chicken farming is one of the best methods to get easy access to a good source of food for your family?There is absolutely no country in the world, except perhaps the Arctic regions, where man has not reared ducks, chickens and other poultry for table purposes down the centuries.Apart from these being an easy source of eggs to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, you also knew that you would have a tough old rooster for dinner, when a large number of family members popped in unexpectedly, demanding sustenance.We are going to be concentrating on chicken farming, for domestic purposes in this book. You have this dream of raising chickens in your backyard. You are interested in a continuous supply of eggs, and the occasional chicken for your pot of a Sunday. Layers are those chickens, which are normally raised for egg production. The chickens which are going to go straight into the pot are called broilers.Since ancient times, human beings have been raising poultry for domestic purposes and also for marketing purposes.Poultry farming has been a part of rural life in the east down the centuries. All the kitchen waste was fed to the hens. These hens came under the 21st century poultry farming term free ranging. That meant they were allowed to scratch about in the backyard, getting their fill of insects, worms, green vegetables, organic matter, and was it a wonder that they laid delicious, nutritious, and proteinaceous eggs?Every intelligent householder kept three or four hens depending on the size of his family, and he bought a cock from the market, when he needed chickens. Once a clutch of chickens was hatched, Cocky Locky went into the cook pot.One of the common mistakes made by new poultry farmers is buying a large number of birds, because they are not very clear about whether they want these words for home consumption or they want to trade in the eggs and poultry meat.Around 50 years ago, one of my fathers colleagues was facing this problem. He had this huge garden and backyard. He had heard about dad rearing poultry in that garden successfully. So he also wanted to experiment in this exciting new activity which would keep his family well supplied with eggs, and fresh meat.So the next time dad went visiting to his base on a tour, he asked dad the best way to raise birds without too much of a hassle. You are going to get these easy tips in the book.