Mariangeles:


Do you grind the guinea corn or you feed it to them whole?


Check out this video below. You might want to try it.
I don't know if it applies to local chickens though.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5njfWZ5ORv0?si=bK604BnAbckwPHAZ

kay29000:


I don't grind the guinea corn (oka baba in Yoruba). It's already really small.

And about the video, I don't think my local hens really need the plantain leaves like that. The woman in the video is rasing agric layers in a pen. I'm more of a free range guy right now. There are different plants in my garden the chickens feed on, and they know what to eat and what not to eat...instinctively. That's why I love free ranging local chickens.

Mariangeles:


Thanks. I'm learning quite a lot from your thread.

When I eventually get to rear local chickens, it'll be mainly for eggs.

With free range chickens, debeaking is not necessary, right?

newoffer:
Babalawo wetin u wan use pure black fowl do. Am working on something this weekend. U have to create a separate area for the newly hatched chicks. Let's say u have 10 hen. All u need is a paint rubber as the mini home. Naturally they will go there and lay their eggs instead of laying around. One you have protected them from those wild animals. Have atleast 3 transfer cage. The mother will only be with them 2 weeks after which they stay on their own. Another two weeks in the cage before setting them free.

If u arrange the cage well the bird hatch 15. Max u lose 2. You can create cockroach box, black soldier larvae box and earthworm spot for your birds. This will be create extra nutrients for them as they look for food around.

dammysholove:



Pls sir, do you have pictures of dos boxes u suggested and sizes to cut the painy bucket 🪣 too?

kay29000:


There are people that just prefer eating local chicken. I know it sounds odd cos of how skinny they look, but there are people out there that prefer local chicken. If you know surulere well in lagos, at the beginning of Adeniran Ogunsaya street, there is someone that sells local chickens there. This is an area with middle class to high class people...so for that spot to be there it means there is a market for them.

There are people who buy for sacrifice This is odd too, but "ibile" chicken (local chicken) is really sort after by some people.

There are also people that eat eggs from local chicken...they believe it is the most nutritious and healthy type of egg, cos the chickens don't eat commercialised feed filled with chemicals.

kay29000:
One of the hens that laid 6 eggs just hatched 4 of them. She laid on concrete, which is why she laid a small amount. Her sister laid on soil, and laid 14. I'm expecting at least 11 of her eggs to hatch by next week Friday.

I'll upload the pics of the new mother hen with her 4 chcks later. It's interesting to know that this mother hen hatched out out of an egg just like 9 months ago.

RainMoreDFARMS:
at the laid on concrete aspect. I doubt that's the reason. I mean, how does laying on concrete affect the laying performance

kay29000:
This is the hen sitting on 14 eggs. I just saw a chick has already hatched from its egg. I guess I made a mistake with the day it started the 21 day process...or maybe the garden burning we carried out last weekend sped up the incubation process. Anyway, in the next couple of days, most of the eggs will hatch.

If you zoom in, you will see the chick next to the mother...close to her neck/chest area.

Factcheck0001:
make your environment clean cos of snakes n also when they are brooding u can put knife behind them

It's a psychological message that once they don't hatch all u will kill them

I teared all these with goats n cattles when I was young n It was fr young age that I learnt how to inject goats n cattles.

If u can create a little space u can add goats to it, they kid twice a year n u will make money

kay29000:
The new mother hen is out with her chicks. One last one hatched yesterday, so they're 5 chicks total.

Her sister is still sitting on 14 eggs and her eggs are due to hatch next weekend.

kay29000:
So, now we had one roaster, and two hens. At first, the first hen we got was always chasing the roaster away, basically claiming dominance of our garden. I decided to start feeding it a little finisher feed that I feed my Agric chickens so that it would grow quickly. Within 2-3 weeks, it had enough testosterone in him to dominate that hen, and it started mating with it.

By the way, we feed the chickens oka baba (guinea corn/red sorghum) in the morning, and then let them forage around for food themselves. And my mom gives them leftovers from the kitchen every now and then. They sleep in the trees in our garden.

Within 2-3 months, the the first hen we bought started laying eggs. Like every day, it would lay,..or every 2 days. When it had laid 10 eggs, it started the 21 day process of sitting on the eggs/incubation. This process has really amazed me over the year because I have seen how dedicated they are to this process, and how much they have to sacrifice. Like 23 hours of the day they do nothing but sit on the eggs. The remainder of the one hour or so, they use to run around for food, sun bathe, drink water, and make loud noises (yes...they do this, I guess as a way to release stress).

Around day 19, the first chick might break through, and then by the 21st day, the whole eggs that will hatch would have hatched. It's not always all the eggs that were laid that hatch. I guess that's where the saying, don't count your chicks before they hatch comes from.

So, after the first chicken hatched 7 of the eggs it laid, and started walking around with them, the male started walking around with the second hen, and they were shopping for a safe place for her to lay her eggs. Unfortunately, she laid eggs, but never hatched them. Looking back now, I think it was a noiler that was sold as an agric chicken or something, because it never had the agility and speed of a local hen.

In the next post, i'll write about how we lost the two hens

kay29000:
I started in the poultry business back in 2016. i have been in and out of the business because of rising cost of chicken feed, but I love the business so much I keep going back to it. I have two spots I raise birds at; my poultry (outskirts of Ibadan), and my parents house in Lagos. Last February, after selling off most of my birds at my parents house, my mom suggested I try out local chickens instead. I felt they took too long to grow, and they don't have enough meat on their bones. But she told me there was a market for them, and they were less stressful, as we had a big abandoned garden in the compound they could forage around. When I was still reluctant, she went ahead and bought the first batch with her money, and asked me to help take care of them.

So, in February 2024, she bought a mature local hen. After watching it for a few weeks and understanding its daily routine, we bought two more local chickens.

Love800:
Okay.
My last question. Who buys local/native fowls? I only know that nigerians mainly buy agric fowls to be slaughtered in easter/Christmas!

kay29000:
After being left with one roaster and 3 growing chicks, we decided to buy 2 more hens. Within 2 months, one of the hens started brooding, and came up with 6 chicks. One had a bad leg, and died later, and one flew inside a bucket of water and drowned. The 4 remaining chicks are growing. The second hens also had 3 chicks.

Now the 3 chicks from the first mother hen that was killed by the cat are now grown, and are now going through their 21 day process, and their brother is always fighting with their father for position of the leader of the pack.

So now, after 12 months, we have two roasters, two hens (one with 4 chicks, and the other with 3 chicks), and two other hens sitting on a total of 22 eggs. The 22 eggs are due to hatch by the end of the month.

Honestly, the rate at which they are reproducing, if there is no serious prey around, we might have like over a hundred chickens by the end of the year.

Excel70:

Where is your location? It's likely I'll need local cock

kay29000:
These are my Noilers, not local chickens. They also free range with the local chickens. I call them Johnson and Johnson

I want them to mate with the female local hens.

kay29000:


I will. I just realized I have been making videos all these months and not snapping pictures. I will go out now and snap a few pictures of them.

jidestroud:
Locals? it's a sure way to go if all the right indices are put in place; secured fenced compound with lots of space, predator free, and good moderate home for them etc. Moreover, with the introduction of Cockerels or Noilers to help improve their flock, you are most likely on the right track. You could even help raise the newly hatched chicks for at least 2 weeks before releasing them with the mother hen. That's what I do to my ducklings when I still had them in numbers; I do a month with them before releasing them outside.

Make I sidon here dey watch your progress and if you by chance happen to have pure black native chicken without blemish, abeg I will be interested to buy

pocohantas:
What happens to the eggs that don't hatch?
Them fit fry am chop?😩

pocohantas:
What happens to the eggs that don't hatch?
Them fit fry am chop?😩