Course Details

1. Text lessons-5
2. Video (English)-3
3. Video (Hindi) -5
4. Audio (Hindi) -4
5. Quizzes

Lesson-1

Hatchery Couvoir, فقاسة

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Friends, Poultry has emerged as the fastest-growing segment not only in the livestock sector, but of the agriculture sector as a whole. Poultry keeping, both, on a small scale and large scale has flourished all over the world.
Hatching of eggs refers to the production of baby chicks from eggs. In normal way, eggs are hatched by placing them under broody hens. Only 10 to 12 eggs can be put under 1 hen. This method of hatching is unsatisfactory for large-scale production of baby chicks. As per FAO study, poultry consumption is rising by about nine per cent per year. Therefore, artificial methods are used for large productions of chicks. Incubators, which provide similar environment as that of broody hens, but more efficiently, are used at present for hatching of eggs.
The physical factors necessary for successful incubation are, temperature, humidity, gaseous environment and turning of eggs. Optimum and uniform temperature inside the incubator is very essential for obtaining satisfactory results. The temperature required is 99.5° to 100.5°F (37.2°C – 37.8°C) for forced draft-type incubators and about 1°F higher for still-air incubators. egg takes about 21 days to hatch. The relative humidity should be around 60 per cent during the first 18 days of incubation and 70 per cent in the last 3 days for optimum hatchability.
The eggs are candled from fifth to seventh days of incubation to remove infertile eggs and on 18th day to remove dead germs. Depending upon the passage of light through the egg, the eggs are classified as infertile when transparent, dead germ when translucent and eggs with live embryos when opaque. Eggs with live embryos only are transferred to the hatcher.
Fertile eggs are loaded into the incubator with broad end up. Hatchability decreases when eggs are placed in the incubato

Lesson-2

Backyard Chicken Farming ! घर के पीछे मुर्गी पालन ! تربية الدجاج في الفناء الخلفي

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Backyard Chicken Farming !

घर के पीछे मुर्गी पालन
تربية الدجاج في الفناء الخلفي

I am Aprajita srivastava from WDF University. Today I am going to talk about backyard chicken farming for improved livelihood with low investment and better profit. Backyard poultry production is an age old practice in rural India and Africa. Backyard poultry accounts for 20 percent of India’s poultry sector, which is worth over ₹800 billion (around £8.5 billion). Across the country, around 30 million farmers are engaged in backyard poultry. Although most of the backyard poultry production comprises of rearing indigenous birds with poor production performance; 70 to 80 eggs per bird per year and less meat.Today I am going to tell you how better performance can be achieved by using improved variety of chicken and using care and precaution.

In one year, a hen produces 40 t0 200 eggs per year depending upon the quality and variety. The improved variety of hen like Gramapriya, Vanaraja, Giriraja, Girirani, Krishna etc. in India, Kei, Horro, Tepi, and Jarso etc. in Africa can produce 200 to 230 eggs weighing 55 to 60 grams /bird/year. The mature body weight is 2.5 to 3 kg. Just by having two hens in the flock, you can earn about 3000 INR per year. The profitability analysis done in Nigeria revealed that the cost of production and revenue per bird were Naira 3,987.52 and Naira 4,210.11 respectively with the gross margin and profit of Naira 537.99 and Naira 222.59 per bird respectively which indicated that the enterprise is profitable
Few considerations for rearing chickens are:
1. Housing: No elaborate housing arrangement is required; they can be left loose for foraging during day and provided shelter during night. But they have to be protected from sun, rain and predators.
2. Brooding: If natural brooding is used, hen is given nesting materials, food and water during incubation. A broody hen can take care of 12-15 chicks which should be left with mother for scavenging. In artificial brooding, heat can be provided by electricity, wood, gas etc to maintain a temperature of 95 degree F in the first week that can be brought down to 70 degree in 6 weeks by reducing 5 degree per week. Enough light should be maintained.
3. Feed consist of insects, termites, weeds, crops, leftover grains during scavenging supplemented by broken rice, wheat rice bean, maize, fish meal etc. which may be 60 gram per bird per day.
4. Periodical Vaccination of birds are required to prevent diseases. In the following video, I will talk of prominent diseases and cures.
5. Flock size: Rural poultry production systems with flock sizes of over 50 birds per flock are described as semi-intensive production systems, because the flock size requires partial confinement and consequently supplementary feeding. the flock sizes in Ethiopia and the Gambia averaged 10 and 12 birds per household.
In the last let us discuss the profit. The Cost benefit ratio varies from 2.25 to 2.84 times. This mean for every 100 INR spent, you are earning a profit of INR 125. In a case study in India, a farmer started his business with 200 Vanraja chicks and earned 11000 eggs and 500 KG meet in the first year of operation with a profit of Rs. 100,000 in the first year.

Lesson-3

Prevent and Treat the Most Common Chicken Diseases ! منع وعلاج أمراض الدجاج الأكثر شيوعا

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How to Prevent and Treat the Most Common Chicken Diseases
रोकथाम और आम मुर्गी रोगों का इलाज
منع ومعالجة أمراض الدجاجة الأكثر شيوعًا

Prévenir et traiter les maladies des poules les plus courantes

I am Aprajita Srivastava from WDF University. Whether you’re raising a large flock of chickens, or only a few, keeping your birds happy and healthy is always a priority in raising them. Today I share with you some of the ways to prevent the most common chicken diseases. To better understand the poultry diseases, it’s important to first understand the types of diseases. Each type of disease has its own causes and set of issues.
Behavioral Diseases
If your birds are acting aggressive, pecking other birds, or excessively plucking feathers, this could be a sign of a behavioral health problem. Overly stressed birds may begin eating eggs or revert to cannibalism under certain living conditions. To stop problems before they start, make sure your flock has adequate nutrition, isn’t overheating or overcrowding.
Metabolic/Nutritional Diseases
Chickens that are living in an unhealthy environment are more susceptible to metabolic and nutritional diseases. Birds can become lame, have soft bones and beaks, or have a reduction in egg production if they are not receiving proper nutrition and exercise. Most of these diseases can be easily remedied with proper care of your birds, but sometimes these symptoms can be a factor of other underlying diseases.
Infectious Diseases
Infectious poultry diseases can be viral, bacterial, or fungal and tend to be the most common since they easily spread from bird to bird. Infectious diseases can affect your birds’ intestinal, nervous, respiratory, immune, or reproductive systems, as well as their skin. If any of your birds show signs of an infectious poultry disease, it’s important to isolate the incident as much as possible and treat your birds quickly to protect your flock.
Parasitic Diseases

Parasites can live on or in your bird and are often contracted via contact with other infected birds or particular living conditions. A few types of common parasites are ticks, mites, lice, fleas, or roundworms. Most of the time you can see the parasites or their symptoms via feather damage, irritation, or even in the feces of your birds. Doing monthly checks of your birds and keeping your chickens’ enclosures clean should help avoid any parasitic poultry diseases.
Most Common Diseases in Chickens are:

Fowl Pox
Symptoms: Fowl pox can come in two forms—wet or dry. In the dry form, unfeathered areas of your bird will have wart-like lesions that heal in about two weeks. The wet form of the disease features lesions appearing around the mouth and discharge from your bird’s eyes.
How to Treat: There is no treatment for fowl pox, but it will typically go away after a few weeks on its own. We suggest giving any sick chickens a little extra care to make sure they’re as comfortable as possible.
How to Prevent: There are special vaccines designed to prevent fowl pox in most birds, but if any birds show signs of infection, make sure to quarantine them. Also, make sure you control mosquitos in your chicken enclosures since they’re able to transmit the disease from flock to flock.
Infectious Bronchitis
Symptoms: Just like humans, your chickens can get a cold, and it’s just as contagious. If your flock becomes infected, you’ll notice that egg production will drop, the consumption of food and water will decline, there may be a discharge from the birds’ eyes and nostrils, and you may notice labored breathing from your birds.
How to Treat: Unfortunately, there’s not much that can be done for bronchitis. You can give your birds antibiotics for a few days to make sure no other infections happen while they’re sick, but otherwise you just have to wait it out.
How to Prevent: Like fowl pox, there are a few types of preventative vaccinations against infectious bronchitis, but it’s not a guarantee. Having a good biosecurity method in place, as well as adequate rodent control should help keep the disease to a minimum.

Marek’s Disease
Symptoms: This disease, also referred to as fowl paralysis, typically affects chickens between 12 and 25 weeks old. If your chick has developed tumors, has irregularly shaped pupils (typically results in blindness), or develops partial paralysis, it’s likely that they have Marek’s Disease.
How to Treat: Since this poultry disease is a form of avian cancer, there is unfortunately not much that can be done for infected chicks. It’s also contagious since it’s a virus and is transmitted when a chicken breathes in feather dander from another infected bird. If the bird survives, it will remain a carrier of the disease for life, so it’s best to remove it from the flock early.
How to Prevent: While this disease sounds scary, there are vaccines available. Newly hatched birds can be vaccinated for Marek’s disease to help reduce the likelihood of infection.
Newcastle Disease
Symptoms: As a respiratory disease, symptoms of Newcastle (ND) tend to appear through breathing difficulties, nasal discharge, murky eyes, and a reduction in egg laying. Sometimes birds can experience twisting in their neck and paralysis in their legs and wings. There are varying strains of this poultry disease, some of which are more lethal than others.
How to Treat: Birds will typically recover from ND and not be carriers, but if your chicks develop the disease, they will likely not survive. As with other diseases, you can give your birds antibiotics for a few days to avoid any other bacterial infections.
How to Prevent: Since the disease is carried by wild birds, keeping your flock vaccinated is very important. It’s also recommended to practice good sanitation since a person can infect other birds via clothing or shoes.

Coccidiosis
Symptoms: When your chicken has loose droppings, it’s likely they have coccidiosis, a parasite that damages the gut wall of chickens. In addition to loose droppings, you may also notice bloody or watery diarrhea, weight loss, and ruffled feathers in your chickens.
How to Treat: Since there are six species of Eimeria (the coccidiosis parasite), your bird may become immune to one kind, but contract another. You can treat this with antibiotics or other specific types of medication that will get rid of the parasite.
How to Prevent: Keeping food areas, brooders, and coops clean and dry will help avoid the spread of coccidiosis. Using medicated starter feed for your unvaccinated chicks, or adding probiotic supplements to their food, is another way to help control this poultry disease.
In the end, I will like to tell you that proper upkeep and regular watch of chickens will help you better profit.

Common diseases in chicken

Voice in Hindi

Lesson-4

Chicken farming: Various aspects

Hatchery – Chick Production

Chicken farming mainly is done for meat and egg production. It can provide a source of income to the rural peoples, particularly the poorest families. In this course, we will study-

• Benefit of chicken Farming
• What is hatchery?
• Incubation
• Process of Artificial Incubation

Benefit of Chicken Farming

Chicken farming is quite profitable, in this-

• It needs limited resources like land and capital.
• It gives good returns for the amount invested.
• It consumes less time and energy.
• Fewer laborers required.
• Chicken farming offers employment opportunities for farmers.

Hatchery

• A place where eggs are hatched under artificial condition.
• Hatching of eggs refers to the production of baby chickens.
• Chicken eggs hatch in 21 days.

Incubation

• Incubation is the process by which certain egg-laying birds hatch their eggs; it also refers to the development of the embryo within the egg.
• Incubation is of two types-

1. Natural method b) Artificial method

• Natural Incubation
• It is done by parent bird.
• In this, eggs were hatched by placing them under broody hens.
• Only 10-12 eggs can be put under single hen.
• This method is highly unsatisfactory for the large-scale production of baby chickens.

• Artificial Incubation
• Artificial hatching is done through an Incubator.
• It is a machine that provides a similar environment as that of broody hens.
• It works more efficiently.

Process of Artificial Incubation

• Firstly all selected eggs kept in one place.
• Avoid cracked eggs. The penetration of disease organisms increases in it.
• Avoid excessively large or small eggs. Large eggs hatch poorly and small eggs produce small chicks.
• Then every egg is checked; only fertile eggs are selected. The egg checking process is called candling.
• Keep only clean eggs for hatching.
• Store cleaned eggs for 8-10 days.
• There are two stages of incubation period- a) setters B) Hatchers
• After storing, the eggs are kept in a setter machine for 18 days.
• The temperature inside the setter is 99-100*F and humidity is 85- 87%.
• On 19th day, eggs are kept in hatchery whose temperature is kept at 98*F and humidity is 89%.
• The chick comes out after 3 days being put in the hatchery.
• The chick is kept in the hatchery that day so it dries well.
• The chicks are vaccinated after coming outside.

Lesson-5

Hatchery: Process Flow diagram