Indigenous (Kienyeji) chickens have many advantages over exotic breeds

Oh yeah! that what we do! Farmers need not keep chickens just for their own home consumption in terms of eggs and meat.

They need to rear them as a source to generate a reasonable income to improve their income.

For a long time now, farmers with an eye on the market believe that one can only keep hybrid or exotic breeds for this purpose. Indigenous chickens, if well selected in terms of breed can bring much more income, if not better than the exotic breeds

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One of the factors a farmer should look at when going into poultry production of either indigenous or exotic chickens is the cost of production and the market including prices of each of these breeds.

Advantages of indigenous breeds Indigenous chickens have many advantages over exotic breeds.

i) Indigenous chickens can be fed on home-made feed rations.

ii) They can also be allowed to free range, therefore cutting down the amount of feed that the farmer has to give them.

iii) Unlike exotic breeds, indigenous are tolerant to many diseases, this reduces the veterinary costs.

iv) Although exotic breeds are highly productive in terms of eggs and meat, the cost of keeping them including management is a big challenge to farmers.

This makes indigenous chickens much more attractive to keep.

Recently, researchers at Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) Poultry unit at Naivasha came up with more productive indigenous breeds, which lay more eggs than ordinary indigenous breeds.

An exotic breed such as the Leghorn can lay up to 300 eggs in a year, but under good management, the improved indigenous breed from KARI can produce 220 – 250 eggs under good management.