Composition of farmyard chicken, production practices and season effect on the reproductive parameters of local hens in the regions of Eastern Chad

<p>This study was about the composition of the farmyard chicken, to evaluate the production practices and the<br>reproduction performance of the hens of the Eastern Chad .The transversal retrospective survey covered 113<br>villages chosen at random in 12 Departments of three (3) regions (Wadi Fira, Ouaddai and Salamat). It was about<br>732 chicken farms with a total number of 18197 chickens. The average number per chicken farm was 25±17<br>chickens. The females were 62% of the total number and the males 38%. The sex ratio was 4.7 in favor of the<br>females. The henhouses with a roof were the majority (95%) among the ones with no roof (5%). Many producers<br>(91%) distributed the cereal ban in some troughs for the chicks and 98% of the grains were thrown straight on the<br>floor for the young chickens and the adult ones. The average total number of the hens clutch per year was 3.6±0.7<br>and the average total number of eggs per hen clutch was 11.7±1.7. The yearly average production was 41±9 eggs;<br>the average hatching rate was 86.6% and the average survival rate when chicks were two months was 60%.<br>According to the seasons, the low reproduction performances were noted during the dry hot season (P<0.05). The<br>loss was important after the weaning. Some practices aiming to reduce that loss would permit the numerical<br>increase of the numbers. The characterization of the initial state of the hens production allows to evaluate the<br>impact of the improvement and innovation practices which were introduced in the concerned regions.