Poultry Farming: Raising Chickens, Turkeys & Ducks - A Comprehensive Guide

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Introduction to Poultry

Poultry, domestic birds raised for their meat and eggs. Chickens, geese, and ducks are of greatest worldwide commercial importance. In the United States and Canada, turkeys are second only to chickens in importance, but turkeys are not raised on a large scale in other countries. Ornamental birds such as swans and peacocks, and birds raised for exhibition or for cockfighting, are sometimes called poultry.

Turkeys are raised throughout North America.

Poultry meat and eggs are highly nutritious. The meat is rich in proteins and is a good source of phosphorus and other minerals, and of B-complex vitamins. Poultry meat contains less fat than most cuts of beef and pork. Poultry liver is especially rich in vitamin A.

Poultry is a convenient livestock for small farms and for family subsistence, because of the relatively small size of individual birds. Eggs in their natural state are less perishable than meat and dairy products, and may be processed in many ways for safe storage and transportation.

The United States is a world leader in poultry production. Its poultry industry is highly specialized, and is largely concentrated in mechanized commercial farms each having 10,000 to 100,000 birds or more. Poultry and poultry products, including chicken eggs, account for roughly 9 per cent of cash receipts from farm marketing in the United States.

The rest of this article is concerned primarily with chickens.

Description and Habits of Chickens

Chickens are also called fowl, or domestic fowl. An adult male chicken is a rooster, or cock; an adult female is a hen. Young chickens, while still covered with downy feathers, are chicks. Males less than a year old are cockerels; females are pullets. Castrated males are capons. A group of chickens, especially if closely related, is a flock. A group of chicks hatched and cared for at the same time is a brood. A hen incubating eggs or keeping chicks warm with her body is said to be brooding, or setting.

Description

Chickens have compact bodies, sturdy legs, strong feet, and short, pointed beaks. Their short wings are not capable of sustained flight. Chickens are distinguished from other birds by the comb, a fleshy red growth on the heads of both sexes.

Is a Chicken’s Comb Cool?

All chickens have a fleshy growth called a comb on the top of their head. Combs are usually more noticeable on males than on females, but all chickens have one. Combs are nearly always red.

Some experts believe that a comb helps a chicken to cool down. When humans are too hot, glands in the skin make sweat. As the sweat evaporates, it cools the skin and the blood that circulates beneath it. A chicken cannot sweat. But, the blood that circulates through the comb cools faster than the blood that circulates in the bird’s body. So a chicken sends more blood to its comb when it needs to cool down. The cooler blood that results helps the bird to lower its body temperature.

Combs come in many shapes. The simple, red comb seen often on roosters in cartoons is called a single comb. Some breeds of chickens, such as the Polish, have a V-shaped comb surrounded by an elaborate crest of feathers. Still other chickens have a small comb shaped like a walnut.

Habits

Under natural conditions, a pullet or hen lays one white- or brown-shelled egg each day until there are 10 or 12 in the nest. She then stops laying and spends most of her time on the nest until the chicks hatch out—a period of about three weeks. She does not start laying again until the chicks are old enough to look after themselves.

It is not necessary for females to be mated to lay eggs. Eggs laid by unmated hens or pullets are infertile, and are preferred for table use. Eggs for hatching purposes must be fertile. Chickens are polygamous, and on farms that produce hatching eggs there are from 12 to 20 females to each male.

By removing eggs from the nest as they are laid, farmers encourage hens to keep laying. Through selective breeding, hens are produced that do not brood, but continue to lay throughout the year. On many farms, hens do not incubate their own eggs; instead, the eggs are mechanically incubated.

If allowed to run free, chickens eat grain, fruit, insects, worms, slugs, and other kinds of vegetable and animal matter. Specialist poultry farmers control the diet of their flocks, in order to produce the best possible birds, and prevent meat poultry from eating material that tends to give the flesh an unpleasant taste.

Kinds of Chickens

Chickens are classified according to class, breed, and variety. Most classes are named for the country or region in which they were developed. Breeds are distinguished chiefly by the shape and weight of the body, and by habits. Varieties within a breed are distinguished by type of comb, and by color and pattern of plumage.

In each class, miniature chickens, called bantams, have been developed. Some poultry producers classify bantams as breeds; others consider them varieties. A bantam is about one-fourth the size of individuals of the large breed from which it was derived. Bantams are raised primarily as pets, or for show.

The four important classes of chickens raised in the United States are:

English Class, developed primarily for meat. Mature birds weigh 6 1/2 to 10 pounds (2.9 to 4.5 kg). Their shanks are clean. Most breeds have white skin and lay white-shelled eggs. Breeds important in the United States are Orpington, Cornish, and Australorp. Australorp was developed in Australia from the Orpington. Other breeds are Dorking, Sussex, and Redcap.

Asiatic Class, developed for meat and show. They have heavily feathered shanks. Mature birds weigh 7 to 11 pounds (3.2 to 5 kg). They lay brown-shelled eggs. Breeds include Brahma, Cochin, and Langshan. One variety—the Black Langshan—has white skin; the others, yellow. Several birds in the American and English classes were developed from birds of this class.

Mediterranean Class, developed primarily for egg production. Mature birds weigh 4 1/2 to 9 pounds (2 to 4 kg). They lay white-shelled eggs, and have clean shanks. The Leghorn, Minorca, and Ancona are important in the United States. The White Leghorn is the variety preferred by commercial egg producers. Other breeds are Spanish, Blue Andalusian, Buttercup, and Catalana. Leghorns and Anconas have yellow skin; others have white.

American Class, developed (with one exception) in the United States and Canada for both meat and egg production. Most mature birds weigh 7 1/2 to 9 1/2 pounds (3.4 to 4.3 kg). They have clean (unfeathered) shanks, and yellow skin. They lay brown-shelled eggs. Leading breeds are Plymouth Rock, Rhode Island Red, New Hampshire, Wyandotte, and Rhode Island White. Others are Dominique, Chantecler, Lamona, Buckeye, Holland, Delaware, Jersey Giant, and Java. The Java was developed in the East Indies. The Jersey Giant weighs 10 to 13 pounds (4.5 to 5.9 kg). The Rhode Island Red is the state bird of Rhode Island.

By crossing one breed or variety with another, poultry breeders produce hybrids that possess economically desirable qualities, for example, poultry meat is popularly spoken of as white meat (breast and wings) and dark meat (back and legs). Poultry has been bred that has proportionately larger breasts, thereby yielding larger proportions of white meat.

The domestic chicken is Gallus gallus of the pheasant family, Phasianidae.

Raising Poultry

Chickens, and to a lesser extent other forms of poultry, are raised on most small farms in the United States, mainly for farm consumption, although surplus eggs may be sold. Few of these small farms specialize in poultry. Most poultry farms in the United States are large industrial plants, the majority of them specializing in the production of chicken eggs. Many specialize in producing broilers—chickens sold for meat when they are 8 to 12 weeks old. Turkey broilers under 16 weeks of age are also important in the poultry industry.

Young Poultry

Egg production is either for the table or for hatching. Breeding farms produce eggs for commercial hatcheries, which supply chicks to table-egg producers and meat producers. Hatcheries are equipped with incubators, often holding several thousand eggs, in which the eggs are kept properly warm and moist until they hatch.

Poultry farmers buy chicks two to four weeks old from hatcheries. They keep the young birds in brooder houses until they are six to seven weeks old. Birds to be marketed as broilers are then transferred to broiler houses, where they may be kept in cages or on the floor. Chickens destined for breeding or laying purposes, and such large birds as turkeys and geese, are allowed to run free on a range where such crops as alfalfa, clover, and grain provide part of their food.

Layers

Pullets begin laying at about six months of age. During the second year of laying, hens lay fewer eggs but also consume less food. Poultry farmers often keep good layers for two years. Layers whose egg production has markedly declined are sold for meat. Laying flocks are kept in laying houses where they may be allowed the run of the floor, and are provided with nests. Sometimes layers are kept in individual cages where eggs roll into wire troughs as they are laid.

Feeding

Poultry consume a large amount of feed. More than half the total cost of producing eggs is feed cost for layers. Feed consists of grain, bone meal, fish meal, soybean meal, milk solids, and supplementary vitamins and minerals. Starter feed for chicks, poults (young turkeys), and other young poultry contains antibiotics that eliminate harmful toxin-producing microorganisms from the intestinal tract. Small doses seem to stimulate rapid growth, while larger doses prevent stress and disease. Layers are sometimes given antibiotics to increase egg production.

Maintaining Health

Buildings and runs, nests, food, and water should be kept clean. Proper lighting, temperature, and ventilation are necessary. Cleanliness helps keep the flock free of such parasites as lice and worms, and from disease. Disease is treated by inoculation, and by putting drugs in the feed. Parasites and disease can be controlled by breeding resistant varieties of poultry. Pullorum and coccidiosis, both of which affect young birds, are the most serious diseases of poultry. Mature birds are affected mainly by such virus diseases as Newcastle disease, leukosis, and bronchitis.

Marketing Poultry

Poultry marketed as meat is classified according to kind (such as chicken, turkey, goose) and class (such as broiler, roaster, stewer). Market classes are not to be confused with classes of breeds. Poultry is marketed live, dressed (killed and plucked), or ready-to-cook. Ready-to-cook poultry is poultry which has been dressed and drawn (that is, has had feet, head, and entrails removed).

Inspecting and Grading

In the United States, federal law requires that all poultry and poultry products sold in interstate or foreign commerce be inspected for whole-someness by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors. State inspections, meeting USDA standards, are required of poultry and poultry products produced and sold within a state.

After inspection, poultry may be graded for quality under USDA or USDA-state supervision. In grading live poultry, inspectors take into account the bird's health and vigor, normality of body shape, amount of edible flesh, proportion of fat, and such defects as torn skin and broken bones. Dressed and ready-to-cook poultry are also graded on fleshing and fat covering, on amount of protruding pinfeathers, and on existence of freezer burn. Freezer burn—shown by dried areas or pockmarks on frozen poultry—is caused by improper packaging before freezing.

Poultry for retail consumption is graded as U.S.A or No. 1; U.S. B or No. 2; and U.S.C or No. 3. Wholesale poultry grades are U.S. Extras; U.S. Standards; and U.S. Trades. Birds below minimum standards are rejected.

A USDA inspection mark on poultry and poultry products shows that they have been passed by federal inspectors. It may be found on ready-to-cook whole birds and parts of birds, and on canned, cooked, or partly cooked poultry products. A combined inspection and grade mark shows both wholesomeness and relative quality of the product. It is found only on ready-to-cook whole or cut-up birds.

History

Pigeons, ducks, and geese were bred in China more than 3,000 years ago. Chickens, developed from the Asian jungle fowl, were domesticated probably about the same time. In ancient and medieval times in the Old World, chickens were raised primarily for cockfighting. In the 16th century, chickens were introduced into America from Europe, and turkeys were introduced into Europe from America. After cockfighting was outlawed in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain in the 19th century, poultry fanciers raised chickens for exhibition purposes.

Geese have been bred in China for more than 3,000 years.

The modern poultry industry began in the late 19th century in Europe and America as breeders began to stress meat and egg production. Although eggs were artificially incubated in ancient China and Egypt, this method of hatching poultry was not used on a commercial scale until the 1870's. The first college department of poultry husbandry was established in 1901 at the Connecticut Agricultural College (now the University of Connecticut).

Discoveries and inventions relating to the scientific housing, feeding, and breeding of poultry led to the rapid expansion of the industry after the 1930's. Production and consumption of poultry products increased markedly during World War II when meat from other livestock was scarce. Since 1945, improved methods of storing and distributing poultry meat and eggs have helped stimulate consumption of these foods. Important in the expansion of the poultry industry has been specialization in raising broilers.

How Do Wild Birds Become Farm Animals?

Although the red junglefowl may look a lot like a domestic chicken, it is actually a wild bird that lives in Southeast Asia. There is, however, a good reason that the red junglefowl looks like a chicken—it is the ancestor of the chicken. In prehistoric times, people captured and raised junglefowl for food. Gradually—through a process called domestication—these captured birds became the modern chicken.

People have domesticated other galliforms, such as turkeys, as well. Farmers often breed domestic animals for favorable traits. For example, many farmers allowed only the largest turkeys to breed. Over time, this led to domestic turkeys being much larger than their wild relatives.

Today, millions of chickens and turkeys are raised on farms. They outnumber their wild relatives.