Assessment on indigenous chicken incubation, brooding hen and chicks’ husbandry practice of farmers at different agroecological zones of Sidama Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess the indigenous chicken incubation, brooding hen, and chick husbandry practices of farmers in Hulla, Aleta Wondo, and Dale districts, representing highland, midland, and lowland agro-ecologies, respectively. From each agroecology, two kebeles were purposively selected based on potential poultry production and road availability. About 256 households were purposively selected from six kebeles for survey interview. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 and SAS version 9.0 software packages. The results indicated that all the respondents in the study areas incubate only eggs laid at home. The majority (75.8%) of the respondents in all agroecology did not select eggs for incubation. The majority of the respondents (61.3%) in all agroecological zones stored incubated eggs for two weeks before the incubation. Another majority of respondents (66.8%) in all agroecological zones provided water to brooder hen in the afternoon only. All of the respondents in the study areas incubated eggs and rear their chicks naturally using broody hens. About 62.4, 51.0, and 52.0 % of respondents in highland, midland, and lowland agroecological zones, respectively, responded that the handling problem was the main cause of the failure to hatchability. Almost all of the respondents in the study areas provided free access to water to their chicks. The average number of eggs set per hen was 12.46±1.50 (mean±SD) with no significant difference between agroecological zones. The hatchability of the eggs in the study areas was 83.55% and there was no significant difference between agroecological zones. In conclusion, regardless of the agroecological differences, farmers incubated eggs and brooded chicks naturally using broody hens, and they stored incubating eggs for long periods without considering storage conditions. Therefore, promoting incubation and brooding technologies (mini-hatcheries, sandwich incubators, hay box brooders) is necessary to improve the productivity of local chickens.