Page 209 - Agriculture_Form_Three

Agriculture for Secondary Schools

For local chicken, where natural mating and brooding is mostly done, you should
observe the following:
(a) One heavy breed cock can mate only 10 hens while one light breed cock can
mate up to 15 hens..
(b) Make sure you have active cocks and healthy ones for higher fertility.
In this case, incubation is done naturally compared to the large-scale production
where incubation is artificially done. In both cases, the fertile eggs are subjected into
a conducive condition of temperature, relative humidity, turning mechanism and
adequate ventilation so as to develop into chicks.

Incubation and brooding in poultry
Incubation is the process of providing suitable condition to a fertile egg to facilitate
the hatching of egg to a chick. Different species of birds have different incubation
periods or hatching time (refer to Table 9.1). In general, the smaller the bird species
the smaller is the egg produced. Such small eggs takea shorter period of time in
incubation period.
Table 9.1: Incubation periods for poultry

S/N Bird species Incubation period (days)
1. Pigeons 17 - 19

2. Domestic fowls (chickens) 21
3. Ducks (Perkins & Mallards) 28
4. Turkeys 28

5. Geese 28
6. Guinea fowls 28

7. Pea fowls 26 - 28
8. Pheasants 24
9. Japanese quails 16 - 19

10. Bob white quails 24
11. Ostriches 42

Natural incubation and brooding: This is done by the female birds themselves.
During incubation, female birds sit on the eggs and provide warmth sufficient to
hatch the eggs. It is preferable to incubate eggs laid within 10 days. After hatching,
female birds provide warmth to chicks. They also protect the chicks against
predators. Heavy breeds are best sitters. The farmer should provide clean water and
high-quality feeds to both female bird and chicks. Figures 9.2 and 9.3 show natual
incubation and brooding, respectively.

Student’s Book Form Three
198

10/01/2025 12:31
AGRICULTURE FORM 3 9.11.2022.indd 198
AGRICULTURE FORM 3 9.11.2022.indd 198 10/01/2025 12:31