Shyam and his students were visiting the animal farm of Balaji. It had many animals such as cattle, goat, poultry, fish. bees, etc.
After visiting the cattle shelters, they moved to the poultry sections. It contained birds such as hens and ducks.
The students after gaining information about cattle farming, were very excited and wanted to know about the poultry.
Let us look in detail about poultry farming.
Raising chicken, turkey, geese, ducks and other birds domestically and commercially for eggs, meat and feathers is called 'poultry farming'.
Eggs and chicken meat are the products received from poultry farming.
'Layers' are reared for improved quality eggs and 'broilers' are grown for meat in a poultry farm.
A crossbreed of Indian breed of poultry (eg: Aseel) and foreign breed (Leghorn) are generally used for their desired qualities.
The new breed produces a large number of chicks and the broiler parents are dwarf, which is suitable for commercial chick production.
The dwarf variety of chicks have better adaptation to high temperature and they require less maintenance.
Specialized care is required for poultry birds as well.
The egg-laying varieties have a smaller size. These require less expensive fibrous diet, which is easily available.
The fibrous diet of egg-laying birds can thus be obtained from by-products of agriculture.
Broiler chickens are required to have huge size and growth. Hence they are fed with vitamin-rich supplementary food.
The level of vitamin A and K is kept high in poultry feeds and also their food should be protein-rich with adequate fat content.
Special care is taken to avoid broilers from dying. They should be in good shape when sent to the market for meat.
These birds are also needed to be grown in a safe shelter with optimum temperatures and hygiene.
Diseases affecting the poultry fowl are caused by bacteria, virus, fungi, parasite and from nutritional deficiencies.
Proper sanitation by spraying disinfectants and timely vaccinations can prevent the diseases in poultry.
After knowing about poultry, the group moved to the beekeeping sites.
The practice of farming honey bees for getting honey and other related products is commonly known as 'apiculture'.
Honey is a product which has a lot of commercial as well as medicinal value.
Because of this demand, beekeeping for extracting honey has become a profitable agricultural enterprise.
Not just honey, but beeswax is another product obtained from the honey bees through beekeeping,
The commonly used bee varieties include Apisceranaindica, A.dorsata, A.florae and A.mellifera.
A.mellifera is an Italian bee variety. It has high honey collection capacity and stingless.
They are also known for keeping their beehives longer. They have a better breeding capacity.
Because of all these reasons, the farmers prefer this variety over the other local varieties.
The value of honey is determined by various factors.
The land available for an animal such as honey bee to pasture is called as a pasturage.
The flowers available for the bees to collect nectar varies from place to place. This is a determining factor in the honey taste.
The value of honey thus depends heavily on the flowers from which the nectar is collected by the bees.
Compared to other farming methods, beekeeping needs low investments and most farmers use it as an additional income activity.
Revision
Poultry farming is the farming of poultry fowls for eggs and meat. Chicken and duck are the common poultry fowls.
A crossbreed of Indian breeds of chicken (eg: Aseel) and foreign (Leghorn) are generally used for their desired qualities.
Meat chicken should be provided with vitamin A and K rich food and protein foods. Egg-laying chicken should be provided with a fibrous diet.
Apiculture is the process of keeping bees for honey and beeswax. The commonly used bee varieties include Apisceranaindica, A.dorsata, A.florae and A.mellifera.
The value of honey is determined by the flowers from which the bees collect nectar. Bee keeping is less expensive and can be done with other farming practices.