CHICKENS TURKEYS DUCKS AND GEESE Poultry

Poultry are domesticated birds kept for their meat or eggs. Common varieties in Canada are: Chickens Turkeys Ducks Geese

Some people raise chickens as pets.

Poultry Products Poultry farms may be classed as producers of: eggs chicken meat turkey waterfowl or game and exotic birds. Production of eggs, chicken meat and turkey is regulated federally and provincially

Supply Management Market Federal agencies:  allocate production quotas to the provinces  remove market surpluses  regulate import and export of products. Provincial boards:  allocate production quotas to producers  set prices  advertise the product  deduct board levies from producers for operating costs.

The general strategy is to ensure that each province is self- sufficient. Waterfowl and the relatively new game bird and exotic bird production have little control and few statistics are available.

Poultry Breeding Foundation breeders have developed hybrid strains of chickens for commercial egg and meat production. To a lesser degree, the same has been done for turkey meat production. Little breeding work has been done on waterfowl. Foundation breeders must keep pure bloodlines for crossing However, most purebreds are kept as a hobby by poultry fanciers or exhibition poultrymen. Nearly all foundation breeders worldwide sell parent stock to franchised hatcheries in Canada, which, in turn, supply commercial stock to poultry producers.

The 'best' breed depends on what you want to get from them. Some of the best are: 1. Egg layers A. Rhode Island Reds [brown eggs] B. Leghorn breed [white eggs] 2. Meat chickens A. Arbor Acres B. Ross C. Peterson 3. Two Purpose [eggs & meatiness] A. New Hampshires B. Plymouth Rocks C. Wyandottes

A male chicken is a rooster and a female chicken is a hen. Female chickens are called laying hens. Those that are being raised for their meat are called broilers or fryers. Babies are called chicks They have a little red comb on top of their heads and a wattle under their beak. combwattle Adult chickens can weigh from one pound to over eleven pounds.

Chickens The basic white egg producing breed is the White Leghorn, while brown eggs are produced by hybrids based on several breeds, most notably the Rhode Island Red, Barred Plymouth Rock and New Hampshire. The commercial white egg layer is white feathered and weighs about 1.8 kg. Brown egg layers are coloured and weigh slightly more.

Laying chickens produce 300 to 340 eggs during the 12 to 13 months they are in lay. They are expected to produce one dozen eggs for every 1.55 kg of feed.

Chickens Broiler birds (for meat) are produced from crosses that originally involved White Plymouth Rock and/or New Hampshire for the mother side and Cornish for the father side. The commercial broiler is white feathered, fast growing, vigorous and well fleshed. Chicken broilers are generally slaughtered when 35 days old, at a live weight of 2.1 kg. They require 1.8 kg of feed to produce 1 kg live weight.

Turkeys When marketed as broilers, these birds are usually slaughtered at 10 to 11 weeks of age.

Ducks and Geese Purebreds and crosses are the sources of commercial stock. The White Pekin is the most popular meat duck The Muscovy is also used to a limited extent The 3 most popular breeds of geese are Embden, Chinese and Toulouse.

Poultry Farms

On a more personal note….

Chickens are fed from a giant tank that has machinery that pushes their food through pipes so that it goes into feeding troughs or bins. They get drinking water this way, too.troughs Scientists decide what the best feed is and what the exact mixture should be. Poultry farmers need to feed their animals lots of food. It takes about four pounds of food to get a dozen eggs.

Egg Collection The egg has a light shined on it. The light will shine through the egg and show the farmer whether there are cracks in the shell or anything wrong inside the egg. If it is okay, the egg is washed, brushed, and put into a container where it waits until it gets shipped out. Farmers will try lots of things to get their chickens to lay more eggs. Sometimes farmers play calm music or warm up the cold floors with heat lamps hoping that this will help. Hens sit on their nests and lay eggs. The eggs fall on a conveyor belt that moves the eggs away from the hen and into a container. conveyor belt

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