Reproductive characteristics of indigenous village chickens

Abstract Indigenous village chickens (IVCs) display a wide variation in production performance and reproductive characteristics. This variation is ascribed to genetic and environmental factors and gene-environment interactions. This work reports the results of a cross-sectional study recorded using a face-to-face interview of 119 small-scale farmers regarding their insights on production performance and reproductive characteristics of IVCs. It was reported that pullets were sexually mature on average at the age of 5.5 months and cockerels at 6 months. This comparatively early sexual maturity by the standards of IVCs might be attributed to the impact of uncontrolled gene flow from production breeds. However, there is a wide variation in age at sexual maturity at an individual bird’s level. It was found that pullets mature earlier than cockerels (t = 3.250, df = 159, p = 0.001, 95%: CI -0.670, -0.166). Reportedly, local hens on average laid 14 eggs per clutch. The mean number of clutches per year was 4, which could culminate in the yearly production of 56 eggs. A significantly large proportion of the respondents reported that the warm season is an ideal time for laying eggs (96.7%) and brooding chicks (94.1%). During the dry season, the scavenging feed resource is relatively abundant, the risk of infection is comparatively low, and the warm weather is suitable for laying eggs and brooding chicks. IVCs possess a long reproductive lifetime, i.e., on average 3 years in hens and 2 years in cocks, which makes them more productive than has been anticipated. For example, this study found that a hen on average can lay 174 eggs and hatch 58 chicks in its average reproductive lifetime of 3 years. The high intrapopulation variation observed in the performance of IVCs can be used in genetic improvement programs.