POULTRY AND HATCHERY FARMING

Poultry farms are increasing steadily. Many government agencies are encouraging poultry farming and even short term training courses are organised regularly. Such farms have generated considerable employment opportunities in semi urban and rural areas. Marketing of poultry birds is expensive and death of birds during transit is the main bottleneck. This compels most of the poultry farms to concentrate on nearby markets even if it means less prices. Instead, if these birds are processed after dressing and packed in tins then transportation is easier, shelf life of the product goes up and the product is more hygienic.

Poultry farming means ‘raising various types of domestic birds commercially for the purpose of meat, eggs and feather production’. The most common and widely raised poultry birds are chicken. About 5k million chickens are being raised every year as a source of food (both meat and eggs of chicken). The chickens which are raised for eggs are called layer chicken, and the chickens which are raised for their meat production are called broiler chickens.

The UK and USA consume more meat and eggs of chicken than other countries of the world. On an average the UK alone consumes more than 29 million chicken eggs everyday. However, in a word commercial poultry farming is very necessary to meet up the demand of animal nutrition (eggs and meat). Commercial poultry farming is also very profitable. And commercial poultry farming business is one of the traditional business ventures.