How to do it Right in Kienyenji Chicken farming in Kenya

Kienyenji chicken is a popular breed of chicken reared by most rural and peri-urban farmers in Kenya. The chicken is popularly known for its sweet meat, resistant to disease and parasites and is better suited for local climatic conditions.

Housing

• Construct a strong structure to provide a comfortable environment and also protect the chicken from predators and extreme weather conditions.
• Have a well spaced house depending on the stocking density. 1m² should accommodate 4 birds.
• Provide optimal natural ventilation by constructing an open-sided house. It should be in East-west orientation to prevent direct sunlight from entering the house.
• Construct house in a rectangular shape and wall should not be longer than 3feet on the longer side. The rest of the poultry house should have a wire mesh with small gauge size. This is to prevent rodents and small wild birds from entering in the poultry house.
• Construct a well ventilated house by ensuring that the roof has a reflecting surface and pitched with overlaps.
• When flooring, use cement and add wood shavings after. Cement is easy to clean.
• Include a foot bath at the entrance where the visitors will dip and disinfect feet before entering the poultry house.
• Clear all the vegetation around the poultry within a radius of 3-5m. This is to reduce the risk rodents and other crawling animals from gaining entrance into the poultry house.

House preparation

• Remove the old stock at least two weeks before the new stock is brought in to avoid disease and pest build up.
• Remove all the litter from the house to avoid contamination.
• Clean the house with soap and detergents and disinfect.
• Clean all equipment and disinfect too
• Add litter (wood shavings) at least ¼ inch to the cement floor.
• Leave the room for two weeks before stocking.
• Prepare the brooder 24hours before chick arrive and provide warm water mixed with glucose and liquid paraffin in drinkers. Feed on newspaper is provided 24 hours after chick introduction.

Brooder preparation and management

Keep the chicks in the brooder for the first 3 months under controlled conditions. The brooder should be oval in shape and at least 60cm high.

Make sure the brooder has the following:

• Wood shavings to keep the brooder dry and provide warmth to the chicks.
• Have enough feeders and drinkers; a feeder and a drinker should cater for a maximum of 30 chicks to provide optimum conditions for feeding with minimal overcrowding.
• Have enough high quality chicken marsh which is fed to the chicks for the first 8 months.
• Have good clean drinking water and avoid contamination.
• Have a jiko at the middle of the brooder to provide enough temperature to the chicks. Every jiko should accommodate 300chicks.
• Choose only healthy chicks, transport them in ventilated boxes.
• Remove the chicks carefully from ventilated boxes and transfer them in the brooder.
• Provide water warm water mixed with glucose and liquid paraffin. Glucose provides energy to the chicks while liquid paraffin helps intestinal tract clearance.

Rearing chicken at different stages

Day 1 to 9

At day 1, provide water to the chick to help them clear the digestive tract for the first 24hours. Drinkers should have a red colour to be easily noticed by the chicks. After 24hours, provide food on magazines or Carton. Amount of food offered is 20g per chick to 25g by day 8. At day 1, vaccinate chicks against Mareks disease at the subcutaneous injection. Temperatures should be around 30-32⁰C.

Day 10 to 17

At day 10, vaccinate the chicks against gumboro disease. Put the chemical in boiled drinking water. Provide 30g of starter marsh per chick and water ad libitum. Temperatures should be around 27-29⁰C.

Day 18 to 2.5 weeks

Vaccinate chicks against Gumboro (2^nd dose) in boiled drinking water. Continue feeding the chicks with starter marsh at 30g per chick. Temperatures

3 weeks to 5 weeks

At week 3, 1^st dose of vaccination against Newcastle disease is offered either as eye drop or in boiled drinking water. In hot areas vaccination against fowl pox is offered at wings stab. Feed with chick marsh starter at a rate of 35g per chick. Optimal temperature required is around 24-26⁰C. At week 4, regulate temperatures to 21-23⁰C.

6 weeks to 7 weeks

Vaccinate chicks against fowl pox. Continue with feeding at a rate of 35g per chick with plenty of clean drinking water. Change the feed gradually by mixing starter and growers marsh at a ratio of 3:1.

8 weeks to 17 weeks

Vaccinate chicks against Newcastle 2^nd dose and Fowl pox 2^nd dose. Transfer chicks from the brooder to the well prepared rearing house. Feed the chicks on growers. Increase the feeds per week from 40g to 100g per chick per day by the 16th week. Also provide plenty of clean water. At around 16 weeks, provide chicken with finisher/ layers mash gradually.

18 weeks

Give the chicken 3^rd dose of Newcastle and fowl pox at this age in clean boiled drinking water. Feed the chicken on finisher mash at 120g per chicken per day or if they are layers, provide layers mash at 120g per bird per day completely.

19 weeks

Deworm chicken levamisole in drinking water. Repeat this after every 3 months. Continue with feeding with finisher mash or layers mash and plenty of water.

Above 20 weeks

Layers should be already laying with provision of complete layers mash. Broilers are ready for market

Parasites and disease management

Parasites

• Fowl tick- controlled by treating the house thoroughly mostly in cracked places
• Lice- it’s treated by applying less concentrated permethrin on the bird directly
• Other pests include flea, jiggers

Treat the external parasites by use of an insecticide (permethrin). To treat all the external parasites, clean thoroughly the house and cages. Remove all the litter once pests have infested and all the equipment. Spray the house with a mixture of paraffin and creosote.

Prevention of external parasites 

• Keep the houses clean with droppings removed every week.
• Clean feeders and drinkers everyday
• Separate young birds from old birds.
• Do not keep chicks where old birds had been recently kept to avoid coccidian.
• Treat your chicken regularly with forccidian.

Diseases

Kienyeji chickens are hardy and once you do vaccination at the right timeline, diseases are rare. Also with improved hygiene and sanitation kienyeji chicken hardly contracts diseases.