Famous utility pigeon breed

Pigeon is a famous bird in the world. Some people raise the bird as a game bird. It can fly high and fast. Beside those purpose, they can provide delicious meat for people. In my opinion, the meat is more delicious than the chicken. That is why the meat is more expensive than chicken meat.

A pigeon hen can lay two eggs in a clutch. Both hen and cock hatch the eggs in 14 days. The parents raise the chick until it can fly. You can separate the chick from the parent at one month or thirty days age.

Some region has developed a utility pigeon breed. Most of them are rock dove (Columba Livia) descendant. The breeder has selected the heaviest and full deep breast pigeon for utility pigeon bird. The utility bird has no ability to fly high or fly fast like runner pigeon.

1. King

It is the best utility pigeon breed now. American breeder developed this bird from four pigeon breed such as Duchess, Homer, Runt and Maltese. A month chick weighs up to one kilogram. People slaughter it at thirty days age. The bird is very big and beyond the bantam size. The famous of King Pigeon color is white. The other color variation is brown and blue. People prefer White King because the flesh is pinkish. It has full breast and U shape body.

2. Carneau

This is a utility pigeon bird from Northern France and Southern Belgium. This bird has potential as the squab producer. This breed is smaller than King pigeon. It has big head compared to its body. The feather tail is short and narrow.

3. American Giant Runt.

It was developed in United States. The breeder has crossed some pigeon breed to get heavy utility pigeon bird. They have color variation such as white, black, dun, yellow blue, silver, brown, and more. It has full breast.

4. French Mondain

This looks fat pigeon was originated in Mondain, France. The plumage is very thick. There are two breeds of French Mondain: The American and The French. The body of the bird is round like a chicken hen. The tail is short and narrow. The head is small compared to its body. French Mondain pigeons have color variation like blue, brown, buff, white and more.

Some breeder still crossbreeds various pigeon to get heavy and delicious flesh. Someday, they will find other utility pigeon breed.

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Famous dual purpose chicken breed

Since a long time ago, people have taken care of chicken for meat or egg. They get delicious chicken meat and eggs. Some farmer can invent the best chicken breed which can produce more meat and more eggs.

In the last 18th century or the beginning of 19th, some researcher have been success to develop the chicken ability. They have selected the heavy cock and productive layer hen only. The researcher also has tried to make an efficient breed that can convert the feed to meat or egg efficiently.

1. Rhode Island Red

This breed is very heavy which weighs 9.5 pound and the female weighs 6.5 pound. The hen can lay up to 250 eggs per year. It is brown and red in color. It is originated in Rhode Island, United States. The ancestor of Rhode Island Red is Red Jungle Fowl. Now, we can see it in South East Asia jungle.

2. New Hampshire Red

New Hampshire is almost similar with Rhode Island Red in performance. People are difficult to difference this bird with the Rhode Island. The breeder developed this chicken from Rhode Island Red. It is red and brown color. The cock has big single comb. The hen can lay up to 250 eggs in a year. New Hampshire pullet start to lay the eggs at six month old. This breed has been recognized as a chicken breed in 1930s by American Poultry Association.

3. Plymouth Rock

Plymouth Rock is a dual purpose chicken too. The chicken looks fat. The cock weighs 9.5 pound while; the hen weighs 6.5 pound. The hen can lay up to 200 eggs a year. The famous Plymouth Rock color is black barred. The Plymouth has other color variation such as pencil, silver, white, black and more. The cock has moderately size single comb.

4. Wyandotte

Wyandotte is a dual purpose chicken breed from United States. The hen can lay up to 240 brown eggs. The cock weighs 8.5 pound; while, the hen weighs 6 pounds. They have many color variations such as black, white, blue, red laced, white laced, silver and more.

5. Orpington

The weight of the chicken is 7-10 pounds. It is a fat chicken but it has not deep breast like Rhode Island Red. This chicken is a hybrid of three chicken breed such as Langshan, Minorca and Plymouth Rock. The hen can lays up to 200 eggs in a year. The egg is brown in color. The color of Orpington is black, red, buff, white and more.

Famous bantam chicken breed

Bantam is a small chicken or dwarf chicken. It is shorter than common chicken. People care this bird not for meat and eggs. It produces few meat and few eggs. They care this bird for ornamental bird, or game bird.
There are some famous bantam breeds, such as:

Japanese Bantam (Chaebo)

It is a famous bantam from Japan. In shogun era, only Japanese aristocrats cared the chicken. It is only 20-30 cm height. The cock weighs 30 oz; while, the hen weighs 22 oz. The color of Chaebo is white, white black tail, buff, and others.

Dutch Bantam (Hollandse Krielsen)

It is originated in Dutch. The Dutch sailor brought the chicken from Java Island. They have many color variation such as partridge, lavender, black, white, grey, and others. It has red single comb. Averagely cocks weigh 550 grams and hens weigh 450 grams.

Silky bantam (Silkie)

Silkie is a bantam from Chinese. The hen can lays up to 250 eggs in a year like a commercial chicken breed. As guest its name, the chicken has soft silky feather. The silky have color variations such as white, black and buff. The white is the famous silky color.

Unlike other chicken, Silkie has blue face and earlobes. Some Silkie has crested. The color of meat is dark blue. Some people said the meat could cure some diseases. I think it is just a myth.

Sebright bantam

It was developed in England by Sir John Saunders Sebright. They have two color variation silver and golden. The cock has big red rose comb. Unlike other chicken, the cock has short tail that is similar to the hen tail. The sexual difference of the bird is the comb. The cock has bigger comb than the hen. The males weigh 22 0z (625 gram) in average; while, the females weigh 20 oz (570 g)


Belgian bantam

It is a unique bantam breed. The thick plumage covers the feet and shanks. As guest its name, this bird origin is Belgian. The bantam has thick feather below the beak or beard. They have many color variation like black, white, blue, gray, mottled, white, calico and others.

Serama Bantam

Serama is a Malaysian hybrid bantam. The ancestor of the chicken is Silkiy Bantam, Malaysian native chicken and Japanese Bantam. The bantam is the shortest chicken in the world. It weighs less than 500 gram. The price is very expensive. The price could reach thousand dollars. They have color variation such as partridge, buff, black, calico, gray and others.

Tips on how to keep our chicken in rainy season

In tropical country, the rainy season is a problem for chicken lover. The rain season occurs six month in a year. The cloud often cover the sun shine; whereas, we need the shine to kill the disease in the pen or chicken feather. Some virus include avian influenza cannot stand with sun shine.
Most chicken got sick in rainy season. The diseases attack the chicken in a cage easily. The reason why the chicken got sick is the cold weather. The cage is also wet so the disease can grows at it.
To prevent the chicken from sick my aunt has tips. She used to not using medicine or vaccine. She prefers to use the traditional ways to prevent the chicken from sickness. She is a veterinary who works for government office. She raised over 350 chickens near her home.
She has a principal to keep the chicken satisfied. He provide the chicken food ad libitum.He provide the newly harvest corn grain. She provides the best food for her chicken. She also feed the chicken with paddy. I believe the fresh chicken food contain more vitamin than the old chicken food. The vitamin will decrease if you save the food on the storage the vitamin may decrease.
She also adds Vitamin B complex to the chicken drink. It may increase the chicken immunity.
Marek's Disease
Chicken Winter Care
New Castle Disease kill the chicken population
Mutation in Chicken
Pigeon Canker could kill the Pigeon

The types of Chicken Crow

What do you like from the chicken? Perhaps you like the color of feather that shining and beautiful. Some people also love the brave of the chicken. Everybody has different reason for loving the chicken.
In my opinion, I love the crow of chicken beside its meat and eggs. I love the sound of crow that wakes me at early morning. A lazy people may hate the crow and they will throw the shoes to the chicken.
Most rosters crow at early morning. Sometimes they crows at the afternoon too. Each chicken breed has different crow. Some chicken has long crow but some others has short crow. In my country, there is a chicken that crow like a people laughs. You must be surprised with the chicken. Here are the types of chicken crow:

1. The long crower
The chicken can crow longer than common chicken. In my country, Pelung Chicken can crow longer and louder. There is also long Crower from Czech

2. The Common Crower
It crows like common chicken for example, Rhode Island Red, Red Jungle Red, Bangkok Chicken, Malaysia Chicken, Vietnam chicken, Indonesia Chicken, Java, and so much. The sound is not special like the long crower.

3. Short Crower
Most Bantam crow short. In my opinion, the Bantam crows like necked chicken. Perhaps, its short body influence the duration of crowing.

4. Laughing Crower
Perhaps Only Indonesia that has laughing crower. The crow is horrible if you hear at the night. You may think the crowing is a ghost. There three types of the laughing crow, such as, popular crow, dangdut (Indonesia traditional genre song) crow, and slow dangdut.

The Roosters will began to crow at six month. It also sign that the cockerel grows up to mature. Sometimes a hen also can crow but the sound is weak.

How to raise Guinea Fowl

Raising Guinea fowl is not difficult. You can raise the bird as free range bird. Guinea fowl is a peaceful bird so you can care it with chicken, turkey, and others in a backyard. Off course, you cannot put this bird with other birds chicken in a coop.

You need a pair of guinea fowl. Do not put more than one guinea cock in a backyard. The cock will fight each other to lead the territory and the hen. 

Feed them with common poultry food. It also like grain like corn, paddy, oat,

Provide water silo inside the cage or the backyard. Clean it periodically. Do not let the moss make it green.

Clean and disinfectant the cage periodically

Provide the nest box for the hen so it can lay inside the box.

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Guinea Fowl
The Benefit Raise of Guinea Fowl
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Buckeye: The only American Chicken breed that is created by woman

Buckeye is an American chicken breed that has heavy body. The Rooster weighs approximately 9 pounds (4.1 kg); while, the female approximately weighs 6.5 lbs (3 kg). The chicken shape is round, like other American heavy class chicken breed. The breast is wide and it looks handsome like Cornish Chicken. The Feet looks strong and is white or yellow in color.
The feather chicken is mahogany in color; while, the tail is black in color. It has thick feathering. The chick color is buff. The sickle tail is short like other heavy chicken class. The body of the chicken is round.
The performance is almost similar to Rhode Island Red. However, this chicken is different if you can see the difference carefully. The buckeye color is darker than the red. As I mentioned above, this chicken appears very close to Cornish. Of course, the Cornish has wider breast.
The head is proportional with its body. It has small pea comb upside the head and it is the only American chicken breed that has small pea. We know most of American class breed has single comb such as Rhode Island Red, New Hampshire Red, Jersey Giant, and else.
The chicken has been breed by Mrs. Nettie Metcalf. She is the only woman that produce American Chicken breed. She crossed some chicken breed such as Barred Plymouth Rock, Buff Cochins, and black breasted Games. For first trial, he crossed Buff Cochin male to Barred Plymouth Rock Female. The descendant did not satisfy him. Next years, she crossed the descendant to Black breasted Red game that produced the red offspring. She developed the red become the buckeye.
She has bred the chicken in order to make the best dual purpose chicken. It has good meat and laying ability. Unfortunately, I do not know see any reference about the egg production. The hen lays brown medium size eggs. This chicken has been popular before Rhode Island Red founded.
The chicken is rare species. Only few farmers care this chicken.
This chicken is good forager so it is good to control your weed or grass population. This chicken is suitable for your backyard due it is tame and easy to hand. This chicken also tolerate with hot summer and cold winter or extreme weather.
I am afraid this chicken is aggressive like the ancestor black breasted game. There is no reference that the chicken is aggressive. Perhaps Mrs. Metcalf has selected the aggressive chicken from the breed.

Famous Domestic Duck in the world

Indian Runner
If you want fresh egg daily, you can care Indian runner at your backyard.  It can produces egg up to 300 eggs daily. It eggs is light green color and heavier than domesticated hen's egg. The egg fat is higher than chicken. That is why duck eggs is more delicious than chicken eggs. In Philippine, the duck eggs is a favorite food. They hatch the egg up to eighteen days. It eggs is called balut and it sold at Manila street. I think not all people can eat balut because the embryo still there. People eat balut with jalapeno and vinegar.  In Indonesia, people salt the eggs so it becomes more tasty. They can boil and grill the salt duck egg.

Unlike other fowl, Indian runner does not hatch its eggs. The hen let the eggs in the corner of pen after laying. The breeder hatch the eggs with chicken hen or muscovy duck hen. Some rich breeder use hatchery machine. The eggs hatch 28 days or four week. It takes longer time than chicken eggs because the duck egg skin is thicker than the chicken.

The color of the duck is white, roan, barred, brown, black, plaid, blue, and others. The beak is yellow and black color. The feet is yellow, black and khaki. The male has curly tail. It could differentiate male to female. The male voice is also lower than the duck. Some species is raised as pet like Bali duck which is white color and crested.

According scientiest, Indian runnder is wild mallard descent. The ancient farm has domesticated this bird successfully that produce more eggs and more meat. The body of Indian runner is higher than the ancestors. People named it Indian runner because its high.

Indonesia has dozen Indian runner strain like Itik Tegal, Itik Magelang, Itik Bali, Itik Mojosari, Itik Cirebon, and others.The largest Indian runner farm in Indonesia is Alabio district (Kabupaten Alabio), South Borneo. South Borneo people prefer duck meat than chicken meat. They can hatch duck eggs with rice husk. This is a cheaper way than using hatchery machine or incubator machine.


Muscovy Duck
Muscovy duck (Cairana Moschata) is a domesticated duck that produce red meat. Some people like the dark meat that contain much fat. This bird is easy to care and easy eater. The bird is resistance to some fowl disease. It can eat grain, insect, small fish, snail, grass, young leaf and others.

The wing feather is long enough and could reach 25 cm. I use the feather wing as my pen. The white wing feather is for shuttlecock.

The weight of the drake could reach 10 kg or 20 pounds.It almost similar with the small goose. Meanwhile the female is just 5 kilogram. The Drake is bigger two times than the female. The drake is also longer than the female. The drake is about 86 cm length  and  the female is just 64 cm.

The muscovy body is slender like African geese. The neck length is shorter than Goose. It can fly away from your pen even the domesticated. It does not forget to fly like their ancestor.

It has long beak. The drake has red blood face and crest. There is two sharp nails at the edge wing and elbow. It is useful to expel predator. No Eagle is dare to this bird.

The hen is a productive layer too. It can lay up to 14 eggs per breeding. The hen hatch the eggs up to 28 days or four week. The egg color is light brown. In my country, farmer often use chicken hen to hatch the duck eggs.

The origin of this water fowl is Texas, Mexico, Central America and Brazil. The color of the muscovy is black. After domesticated there are some variety color like : pied, barred, white, blue, chocolate, bronze. lavender, and many pastel color.

Like other waterfowl, the bird like swimming. If you want care it, you need to provide a pool for them. The diet of this bird is corn, pollard, paddy, and others. They need grit too like other fowls.

Cayuga Duck

Cayuga duck is almost similar with Indian runner he weight is double Indian Runner. The drake weight could reach seven pounds and the hen could reach six pounds. It is black blue color. The beak is black color.Cayuga origin is Cayuga Lake in New York State. That is why this duck is tolerate bad winter in North America.

This domesticated is raised for its meat. like other dark, this fowl produce red dark meat which is delicious and full nutrient. Unfortunately, the black dark feather is very difficult to remove. The duck cannot lay many eggs as Indian runner does.The cayuga hen can lay 100 -150 eggs a year. The color of eggs is light white.
Peking Duck

Hence with its name, the duck come from Peking, the capital city of China. United States imported first in 1870. This is the most famous duck in the world. Peking duck is most delicious cuisine and the. It is white color. the beak and the feet is yellow color. The body of the duck is slender like Cayuga duck. The drake is  4.5 kg and the hen is 4 kg. Both drake and hen is not difference in weight.


The farm raise the bird in small cage so the duck cannot move so the fat meat is high. The high meat meat, the more delicious. I think I am pity with this kind duck. Some breeder cross breed this duck with Aylesbury to get juicy meat.
The hen can lay up to 100 egss in a year. Therefore, this duck is not good for layer.

Read Also:
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Ancona: The English Duck
Campbell Duck
Anatomy of Duck
Cayuga Duck: The Native American Duck

Norfolk Grey : The Rare Chicken Breed from English

Norfolk Grey is a chicken breed from United Kingdom. The breed was created at the time of the world war by Fred Myhill. The bird was called Black Maria due its black feather color.
The chicken is heavy enough. A rooster weighs 6-7 pounds while the female weighs 5-6 pounds. The Chicken is beautiful with the silver plumage. Either Roosters or hen has silver feather in neck. Surely the Rooster has shimmering color. The Silver feather of rooster is also in its shoulder, back, and saddle. The color of the rooster is silver duckwing. The small chicken has not yet had the silver color or birchen. It just has black soft feather.
No one sure the ancestor about this breed but Wikipedia say that the chicken is the descendant of birchen English Game and Partridge Wyandotte.
The Grey is good to produce meat and carcass due it is also the descendant of game fowl. Surely, this leghorn descendant also lays so many eggs. Unfortunately, I have no reference the egg production of the hens. This chicken population is rare. Only few farmers raise the chicken
This chicken breed is also good for backyard. It is a good forager that can eat the weed and grass in backyard. There is also bantam version of the chicken with one color variation only.
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Mandarin Duck : The Famous Oriental Duck

This duck is a beautiful ornamental duck.We can raise this bird at your house. Facilitate the duck with poll so they can swim at there.

They have beautiful brown feather while the female has bad color. Unlike other duck, either drake and hen care the duckling until the duckling independent. Se this lens and give the thumb for this lens. You can also buy the duck egg here and you can hatch the duck with incubator.

 Photo by : Mike Bowler

Mandarin Duck is a famous ornamental duck from Chinese. As where its get name, this bird origin is Chinese but we can find this bird at Russia or Japan. This bird is also found at the British, Ireland, and United States. It has beautiful brown color. There are small part of green beetle feather at wing and shoulder. The breast color is white. There is some white color at face and wing. This duck has unique feather that similar to chicken sickle at upper neck. The duck bill is red light in color and short. Some Mandarin also has albino variations with white color but the beak is still red in color.

This duck is small with slender and shorter body which is only 41-49 cm in long include the tail. The male is heavier than the female.

The female color is very bad. The color is dull brown with black spot. The beak color is also black unlike the male.

Both duck spend their time at water or water bank. They find food at the water such as small water plant. This water bird is a smart hunter too. The female lays the eggs at tree cavity. They incubate the eggs for four weeks or 28 days. Mandarin female is not different with other duck female that incubate egg alone without Male assistance.

If you want care this beautiful bird, you have to provide pool so they can swim at there. You can feed them with game bird feed, small fish, vegetable and others.

Read Also:

Cayuga: Native American Duck

Anatomy of Duck

Ancona Duck

Champbell Duck

How to hatch Egg Duck

Bantam Cochin : A Chinese Bantam

When I look this chicken, It reminds me with Elvis Presley's pant which is widen at below legs. The chick also has thick feather in shank and legs. This is an exhibition chicken or ornamental chicken. It is derived from Cochin domesticated chicken. The body is smaller than the common chicken. That is why people call it Bantam Cochin.
Cochin is also called Peking bantam hence with its origin. The British troops introduced as ornamental fowl in 1860s in Britain. There are some exhibition for Cochin bantam in Britain.
The cock weight is one kilogram; meanwhile, the hen is 750 gram. It is has 14 combination color such as white, lavender, golden laced, mottled, red, blue, barred, buff, birchen, partridge and others. There are some variety plumage like frizzle and silky. Most Cochin feather tail does not grow perfect. The comb is red color and single. The hen comb is smaller than the cock. The beak of the chicken is small curve to point.
This chicken is good for your backyard too because it just need small backyard. The bird is easy to care and it is strong enough. This bird is very tame. The hen could produce much eggs to and it can be raised as layer hen. Its egg is light brown color. Some breeder use the bird for mother foster other chicken chick. It because the thick plumage keep the chick from cold weather. The thick plumage is useful for incubating the eggs. If you have any chicken that is not able to incubate eggs, you can put the eggs to the bantam nest. Off course, you should consider the eggs number. Do not put more than twelve eggs in a bantam nest.
If you want care it, you need to provide the chicken pen. The pen should be located far from people reach. Feed them with poultry feed, fresh grass, fruit,scratch,and scrap.
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Silkie Bantam : The Most Famous Bantam
Serama Bantam
Rose Comb : The oldest Bantam

Zebra Dove : The Most beautiful Singer Dove

Zebra dove or barred dove that has beautiful song in the world is very expensive in Thailand, Malaysia, and Philippine, and Indonesia. There are numerous Zebra dove on those areas.

Zebra dove performance is not beautiful. They have zebra-like color gray and brown. The iris of the bird are various such as yellow, blue, and green. The length is not more than 20-23 cm. There is albino zebra dove with red iris eye. The unique albino price is very expensive.

Photo by Oggie dog
The beak is straight at curfew at the edge. The feet are in color like most doves feet. This dove is solitaire dove unlike other dove that lives in a group.

The habitat of the bird is secondary jungle, savanna, and farm crop. It likes seed, grain, and small insect. In farm, the breeder feed them with high quality seed such as paddy, millet, black seed, red rice, ketan, and others. Cuttlefish bone that contains calcium is also good for this bird. Some breeder also mixes the seed with honey and chicken eggs. Some Java people make traditional medicine so the bird can sing beautiful. The hobbyist put the bird at high place so people can hear the song.

The female can lay one or two eggs in a clutch. Both male and female will hatch and care the bird until they can independent.  In the farm, the breeder do not let zebra dove to hatch and care their eggs. The breeder want the zebra dove lays eggs only. They will take the eggs and give it to ring-necked dove. The eggs will hatch in 17-19 days. The ring necked dove will care the zebra dove kid for one to one a half month.

Zebra dove are raise in big farm intensively. The owner selects the best breed from the champion zebra dove. The breeder believes that the champion will bear the champion too.  Surely, the breeder also selects the good female that can sing beautiful.

The hobbyist often organized zebra dove championship before avian flu H5N1. The winner of the championship could get prize and it price increase to thousands dollar. A hobbyist dares to barter SUV car with zebra dove champion. The avian flu has crushed this business. We find rarely any zebra dove contest today. The breeder also cannot sell much zebra dove as much as before avian flu. They do not expand the business. Some breeders prefer to close the farm because they cannot stand to finance the operational costs.

read also:
What is Homing Pigeon?
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Fantail Pigeon: The most Famous Fancy Pigeon
King Pigeon: King of Squab
Jacobin Pigeon

Silky Bantam: The Chinese Bantam Layer

This bantam come from China. It has soft silky feather like hair. Unlike other bantam, its tails is not grow perfect. It is blood red rose comb.The height of silky could reach 20 cm. Its iris is dark brown color. The famous silky bantam color is white but there are black silky bantam and buff silky bantam.

Photo by : eggybird
In China, This bird is raised as layer hen. It can produce up to 250 eggs a year. This is the most productive bantam. Silky can hatch the egg well. It is a good mother too.

In my country, some people silky bantam meat can cure some diseases. I think it is just a myth.
Dutch Bantam is the most famous Bantam in the world. The height is only 20 cm. The cock has wide curve tail. The comb is red blood single. It is not more than half kilos weight. The hen is lighter than the cock. Dutch bantam color is various like red partridge, green partridge, gray, black, and others.

Dutch Bantam is originated at Dutch or Holland. Some story said that the Dutch trader imported the bantam from South East Asia. I believe the Dutch trade brought from Java because Java was under Dutch occupation. It is descendant of Gallus Bankiva or red jungle fowl.

It is prolific layer too. A Dutch bantam hen can lay up to 200 eggs per year. The eggs is light brown color which is size is smaller than common chicken.

Sebright Bantam : The England Bantam whose has unique feather

Photo by: me'nthedogs
Sebright Bantam is a bantam from Britain. The breeder of the bantam is Sir John Sebright. There are two kind sebright: gold sebright bantam and silver right bantam. It is gold laced and silver laced feather.

It is full breast, V-shaped tail feather, and near vertical wing. Unlike most bantam, Sebright cock has no train tail and saddle feather. Both cock and hen has same plumage. The difference between male and female is the comb. The female  has small pea comb but the male has large pea comb like a crown.

I have cared this bird. It can fly up to 10 meters but it does not run from my pen. The hen lay much eggs but it does not want incubate or hatch the eggs. Therefore, you need other hen to incubate the eggs.

 Read Also:
Dutch Bantam Profile
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Serama : Smallest bantam in the world

This chicken is domesticated in Malaysia. The breeder crossbreed various bantam like Japanese bantam, silky, and Malayan native chicken. Unfortunately, only few people know the Serama gen composition. Now, the chicken also breed in Thailand and Indonesia. Serama name is taken from Sri Rama, a Hindu God.

Serama is the smallest and shortest chicken in the world. It is less than half kilo or one pound weight. It is less than 20 cm tall. I saw some Serama is less than soda can. the color of the chicken is various such as red partridge, silver partridge, buff, barred, dark blue, and others

It has full breast, near-horizontal wing, horizontal tail feather. The chicken looks so mighty when walk in show. 

Serama is ornamental pet. Malaysia often organize Serama Exhibition. The winner is the smallest beautiful chicken. The shorter, the better. The bantam price that win contest is increasing. Some insane people dare to change their SUV car with the bantam.

This strain is difficult to breed. The hen just lay six eggs. Only 50% eggs can be hatch.

Read Also:
Rosecomb: The Oldest Bantam in the world
Bantam Breeding Method
Serama Contest
How to produce bantam chicken
Old English Game Bantam

Image by Habib Rahman from Pixabay

How to hatch Egg Duck

To increase your duck, you need to hatch the duck eggs. For some breeder it is not difficult to hatch duck. It will took 28 days or four week.

1.  If you care a group duck that contain drake and hen, collect the eggs. You can let the hen hatch the eggs. Provide the nest box for the hen. You can make wooden box or card box. Fill the box with hay. The hay help the hen to heat the eggs. The benefit of using hen is that the hen can care the duckling until mature.

2. If the duck does not want to hatch the eggs, you  can use chicken hen. For example, most Indian runner does not want to hatch its eggs. Some chicken hen is the best incubator. You should find the hen that lay some eggs. Replace the chicken eggs with the duck eggs. The chicken is not clever so it hatch the duck eggs. notice: if the hen know you replace its eggs, it may break the duck eggs.

3. Some breeder use incubator machine. You can buy incubator machine too. If you have much eggs, you need to buy a big incubator machine. Turn on the light for 28 days or four week. Further, read the manual book of incubator machine. After hatch, let the chicken stay at incubator machine for 24 hours. You do not need to feed them for first day.

4. You can hatch the duck egg with rice husk. In Alabio district (Kabupaten Alabio) , South Borneo, Indonesia. People use to hatch duck eggs with rice husk. They put rice husk in big basket and let duck eggs hatch. This is way is cheap way because we do not need any energy.

You can use any method that you like. For backyard farm, I suggest you use duck hen to incubate the duck eggs.

Read Also:
Cayuga Duck : An American Native Duck
Anatomy of Duck
Ancona : The English Duck
Campbell duck : England Heavy Duck
Bali Duck

Chicken WInter Care

It is not easy to raise chicken in a subtropical region where winter occurs. In winter, the flock owner should spend more money for electric because they should turn on the light all day. On the other hand, the revenue of flock owner will decrease because the chicken stops to production in winter. Some chicken breed cannot lay in winter such as Asian Chicken and Mediterranean Chicken. Therefore, you should select the breed that has egg-laying ability in winter such as Rhode Island Red, New Hampshire Red and other.

It is because they may suffer from cold. The cold weather also causes the frostbite in chicken. The frostbite often attack the chicken whose has wide single comb.

A hen can lay when it feel comfort and has enough food. The flock owner should do like this to keep the chicken warm. To raise the chicken in winter, you can do like this:

1. Place the additional heater lamp during winter. The lamp can make the cage warmer. The heat of lamp depends on the weather and the coop. Some articles suggest 75 Watt lamp for the cage. I think it is not absolute. You can observe the chicken with the lamp. If the chicken far from the lamp, it means the lamp is too hot. If, on the other hand, the chicken close from the lamp, it means the lamp is not hot enough.

2. Put the warm water inside the cage. Do not let the water frozen because the chicken cannot drink it. Alternatively, you can change the water often. Water is essential for chicken especially layer egg. They need sufficient water to keep laying.

3. In an attempt to produce eggs, you can increase the chicken appetite by pouring water to the feed. The feed is easy to eat.

4. Design the coop for winter that can reduce cold.

5. The ventilation and air circulation inside the cage should be good. It helps chicken to get fresh water and decrease the humidity. Some flock owner think that closing the ventilation can make the chicken warm. They are wrong. The closed cage can caused diseases such as lung disease.

6. Remove the chicken coop to warehouse or chicken house. They will be comfort inside a building.

7. Add the chicken hay bedding. The hay can control the manure stinky. Change the hay when it dirty. You can use the hay and manure as fertilizer too.

Campbell Duck : The heavy duck from England

similar to the ancestor Wild Mallard. The drake has green beetle color head. 

Campbell duck is the cross duck between the mallard and its ancestor such as Rouen Duck and Indian Runner. Campbell looks fats than other duck breed. The body slender like the muscovy duck. The beak and feet color is dark.
It weighs 4 pounds or two kilograms. The duck could be considered as the dual purpose duck. It can produce meat as much as chicken.

Photo by: Superfantastic
The breed was introduced in 1898 in United States. The duck was crossed by Adale Champbelin England.
Khaki begin to lay the eggs at six month like New Hampshire Chicken or Rhode Island Chicken. They rarely hatch the duckling like Indian runner duck.

Bali Crested Duck
Ancona Duck
Shepherd Indian runner duck
Anatomy of Duck
Cayuga Duck: Native American Duck

Bantam Chicken: The beautiful Small miniature Chicken

Bantam is small miniature chicken that is also ornamental chicken. People raise this bird for fan. Some people also care this bird for meat. Raising this bird is easy because you need small pen and few chicken feed. There are some bantam various. Perhaps you want to raise it.

Japanese Bantam is a beautiful bantam from Japanese, According to wikipedia, this bantam origin is Java Island, Indonesia. A dutch trader brought the bantam to Japan as a gift. Japanese Bantam is also called Chabao. It words similar with cebol that is mean dwarf.

After hundred years in Japan, This strain become famous as Japanese chicken. It is the Japanese aristocrat pets. Indonesia people called it Katai Jepun. They do not know that the origin of the bantam is their country.

The bantam is one kilos weight for cock and six ons for the female. It is 15-20 cm tall. The head is proportional with its body. It has near-horizontal tail feather, wing, full breast, and red blood single comb. Japanese bantam has so many various color like white, white-black tail, buff, black red, Buff-black tail, buff-white, and others.

Read Also : Rose Comb: The old Bantam in the world 
Silkie Bantam : The Most Famous Bantam
Hamburg Chicken : Germany Bantam
Old English Game Bantam
How to Produce Bantam Chicken

Image by Xuân Tuấn Anh Đặng from Pixabay

Polish Chicken profile : The crested beautiful chicken

The polish has bizarre performance. It has large crested at the top of head. Some crested cover the chicken eye so they have bad sight. I think this chicken is similar with rocker due to its crested.
Actually this chicken’s origin is not Poland. The origin of the bird is Asia. In 12th centuries, The Mongol invader brought the chicken. I saw that The mongol invader has hat like this chicken crest. This chicken has been developed in Ukraine-Polish border. In 16th centuries, this chicken were distributed to Western Europe, Germany, Dutch, England and Italy.

black-white crested polish chicken

Photo by : Thomaspix
The chicken is slim and it has thick plumage. The cock weighs 6 pounds; while, the hen weighs 4.5 pound. They have color variation that have been recognized as a breed like golden, silver, white, buff, buff laced, white crested black, and black crested white. They have crested color variation too like white, black and golden. Beside crested, some Polish has also beard or additional feather below the beak. The color of bread is buff, white and black. In front of the crest, there is a small unique V-shape comb like a horn. The feet and the shank has no feather. The shank is white and khaki in color.
Due its unique and beautiful feather, some people raise this chicken as game bird, or ornamental bird. Actually, it is a layer chicken because it can produce much eggs. The hen can lays two white eggs a week. Unfortunately this chicken cannot lays in winter even they come from region where winter occurs. The chicken also cannot hatch the eggs too. You should find another mother to hatch the chicken eggs or you can use incubator machine.

This chicken is docile and tame. You can hold this chicken easily. This chicken is good for your backyard. You may get fresh egg from this chicken everyday.

Read Also:
Sultan Chicken : Chicken wear Turban
Cut The Polish Chicken hair
Nankin Bantam: The Chinese Bantam
How to breed blue silky bantam
Rosecomb: The Oldest Bantam

Indian Runner The Most Prolific Duck

Indian runner is the most prolific duck in the world. It can lays up to 300 eggs in a year. It is more productive than domesticated layer hen. It begins to lay at six month age. It can lay up to two years effectively.

Yet, the domesticated duck is not originated in modern labs. Ancient people have domesticated the bird from mallard duck. Indian runner is slimmer and higher than the ancestor.

The egg is 80 gram weight. It is light blue color. The yolk sac is bigger than the domesticated Chicken egg. Some duck lay red yolk sac egg. It is because the duck eat prawn or dried prawn. It is more expensive than common duck eggs.

The farmer usually salts this egg with salt and burned hay. In Philippine, the farmer sells embryo duck eggs. They hatch the eggs for 18 days only until the embryo grow inside the egg shell.

The Indian runner drake is almost similar with mallard color duck. The drake head's is light green color. Indian runner has variety color like buff, brown, black, black blue, and white.

Like the ancestor, they can fly high. In West Sumatra, the farmer organizes flying duck competition yearly. The duck are forced to fly to the finish line. The winner is the duck that arrive in finish line first.

Indian runner is the bad mother. It cannot incubate its egg moreover other fowl eggs. Some breeder use chicken or Muscovy duck to hatch the duck eggs. Alternatively, they use incubator machine to hatch it. In Bali and Borneo, the farmer incubates the eggs with paddy skin.

The sexing is quite easy. The drake differs with the hen from its tail. The drake has curly tail. The drake sound is also louder than the female. Some farmer can differ the duckling by pinching the feet. The farmer can differs the duckling sound. To be honest, I am not good at it.

Indian runner are distributed at South East Asia. In Indonesia, There are so many various strain of Indian runner such as Itik Bali, Itik Magelang, Itik Cirebon, Itik Tegal, Itik Bali, Itik Alabio and others. The most beautiful is Bali duck. It has crest in hand and is white color.

Most the duck is risen in beach region. The farmer feed the duck sea fish or dried fish. The farmer just uses simple diet for this bird. They mix rice, paddy, and dried fish.

In Bangkok, people raise it with fish. The duck is allowed swim at fish pool. Off course the, the farmer will not allow the duck swim at the small fish pool.

Photo: From Steve 2008

The duck is useful for pest control too. The farmer often releases the duck at paddy rice to kill golden snail that is paddy rice pest.

Read Also :
Bali Duck : Crested Duck From Bali
Cayuga Duck: A Native American Duck
Ancona Duck: English Duck
Anatomy of  Duck
American Game Fowl

The benefit of raise guinea fowl

Guinea fowl is also important for the crop. It can eliminate so much bugs that eat potato plant. They can eat more bugs but they do not crush the potato plant. They also can keep cotton and strawberry plant. You do not have to buy insecticide to kill the bugs.

Photo by: Guinea Fowl Flock

Unlike chicken, guinea fowl do not use the claw to catch the bugs. They do not disturb the plant. We can put four guinea fowl for a acre land. When winter, you should not let them outside. Their feet cannot stand with the winter cold. Let the guinea fowl outside will make them wild. They will stay at the tree at the night.
This bird is similar to goose. They have very loud sound that warn you. They can detect anything that close to them.
Vulture Guinea Fowl
How to Sex Guinea Fowl
Guinea Fowl
How to raise peacock

Guinea Fowl : Good bird pet from Africa that similiar to Turkey

Guinea fowl is an African fowl that have been domesticated people. The African people raise the bird for its meat and eggs. I saw Amazon sell the fresh meat of guinea fowl.

Its habitat is African savanna.They find food at savanna. Their diet in savanna such as grass, fruit, seed, insect, and more. It lives in a big group.

Photo by Amanderson2
It is only 700 to 1600 g weight and 40 to 71 cm tall. It is black with white spot color. The plumage is very thick.After domesticated, there are other various color like white (albino), royal purple, violet, brown, lavender, and half albino. It is because the new environment affect their genetics. The bird has beautiful feather so it is good for ornamental bird too.

The head is small relative with its body. It has a red small triangular comb. It has two red wattled below the beak. There is no feather in the fowl head so the bird looks bald. The head is white color.

Its body is slender. It is difficult to sex the bird. We are hard to recognize the subtle differences between the cock and the hen or sexing. Some people said that the cock's comb is red blood color. The cock has loud sound. It can warn others guinea fowl. Some farmer use the bird to expel any animal that eat the vegetable farm. The bird is like watch dog or goose.

The hen can produce much eggs. It can lay 60 eggs in a clutch. The egg is light brown color and same with domesticated chicken. Some hen is bad layer that lay everywhere and does not care about the eggs. Some hen lay infertile eggs so we cannot hatch the eggs.

If you want care this bird, you can care at your backyard. They can live at limited spaces. You need a pair of guinea fowl. Feed them with poultry food.

Famous Italian Chicken

Italian has at least three domesticated chicken. Those chicken is included as Mediterranean Class. Now, the chicken has spread across to the world. Most Italian chicken has similar performance. It has red blood comb and white earlobes. They are slim like their ancestor and no feathers in shank and toes. The plumage is thin. It is because they live in hot weather. Some bird can lay the egg in winter or bad condition. Most Italian chicken egg is white in color.

Sicilian Buttercup
The bird whose has buttercup comb comes from Sicilian, Italian as its guess name. The bird is imported in American at the end of 18th century. The bird is very slim or 4 to 5 lbs in weight. This is the smallest Italian breed. There is also bantam type which is smaller. This bird is good for ornamental only. It beaks is sharp and longer than common chicken. Generally, this bird is not docile but an article said that it can be held. The bird color is deep orange and black tail; while the female is buff.
Photo by: Clearwaterfarm

Leghorn
This is the famous chicken layer from Mediterranean. It can lays up to 250 eggs in a year. The bird origin is Tuscany, Italian. The bird color is white but we can find some colorful leghorn.The beak, shank, and skin is yellow in color. It has no feather in shank and toes. Leghorn comb is single but we can find few leghorn has rose comb. The breed was introduced in USA in 18th century. The American Poultry Association has recognized this bird as a strain.

Read Also:
Famous Spanish Chicken
Sultan Chicken: Chicken wears Turban
Old English Game Fowl
Rosecomb : The English Bantam
Scott Grey : The Scotland dual purpose Chicken

Famous Spanish Chicken

In Spanish, they have domesticated Mediterranean class chicken. There are dozen domesticated Spanish chicken. In this post I just explain five kind of Spanish chicken such as Minorca, Blue Andalusian, White Faced Black Spanish, Catalan and Castilians.
Mediterranean class is different from American class, the Mediterranean has slim body. It is lighter than American class but it is heavier than Italian class. The shank and the feet is clean and there is no feather. They have four toes (three in front and one in back). Most chicken has red blood single comb with double witted. The earlobes are white chalk color. They lay white eggs like other Mediterranean class. The feather is closely related.

1. Minorca
Minorca is the heaviest chicken breed. The cock weighs 9 pounds; while, the hen is 7 pounds. This chicken is big as Rhode Island Red. It is Black in color or dark blue. There are also variety colors such as buff and white. It is good for meat and eggs too. Its egg is white in color.

2. Andalusians or Blue Andalusians
As its guest name the chicken origin is Andalusíans in Spain. The hen can lay up to 160 eggs a year so it is good enough for chicken layer too. The blue Andalusíans have been recognized by American Poultry Association.

3. Catalana
Catalana is a Mediterranean Chicken breed from Catalonia. The color is Buff golden. It is dual purpose chicken so you can raise it for its meat or eggs.

4. Castlians
It is also called Moor chicken because The North African Muslim Moor introduced the chicken for the first time. It origin may North African. This breed has not been recognized as a breed. It is white and black in color. Castilians is the ancestor of Minorca.

5. White-Faced Black Spanish
It is black color. The face is white like a clown that is why people call it as clown chicken. It has been recognized by American Poultry Association. The performance is almost similar with Minorca. The cock weighs 6-7 pounds. The hen can lay 150-180 eggs in a year.

Read Also:
Chantecler: The Canadian Chicken
Black Shumen Chicken : Bulgarian Chicken
Dorking Chicken : Roman Chicken
Delaware Chicken
New Hampsire Red Chicken

What is Homing Pigeon?

Pigeon has ability to carry messages or letters from a certain area. Pigeons can carry a letter only to one direction only, and not vice versa. Pigeons will carry a letter from an area to its nest, but it could not deliver a letter from the nest to another place.

Pigeons can remember way back to the hive. It has a natural navigation in the brain and knows the magnetic field as a travel guide.

Photo by:  Ashithosh U:

Homing pigeon is used type of a much larger rock pigeon and have a big nose above the beak. Pigeon has the ability to fly far.

World War I, both Alliance and Axis forces used pigeons to send messages and secret messages to their parent post. Thanks to their pigeons get relief supplies or troops. At that time, radio technology has not advanced. Sometimes enemies can also hear a secret conversation. Pigeon will not be intercepted. Typically for a single message, the army would send some pigeons for sure the message will arrive. Though adept pigeon flying home, there are only one or two pigeons that failed to return. It could be birds of prey such as hawks and kestrel bird snatched it. Enemies also shot pigeon to read for news in a capsule that pigeons brought.

For the secret message, the soldiers use code language so that if the enemies capture the pigeon, they can read the messages. In World War II, Both axis and alliance used homing pigeon for sending messages. At the time, the radio was rare.

In our country, the police force still has homing pigeon. The animal unit police care pigeon beside horse and dogs. The Swiss army is still using a carrier pigeon.

Now the pigeon post was not used again to send the letter. Now is there a twitter can convey a message within a few seconds. It is no longer efficient to send a message via homing pigeon.

Now, Homing pigeon function as exhibition bird only. They are often trained pigeons on a regular basis. Pigeons released in significant amounts by a large container trucks brought. Before release, the owner fired a pistol ray pigeons to scare hawks and other predators.

Sometimes it also can be entered the exhibition by carrier pigeon enthusiasts clubs. Each pigeon will be given a rubber band that recorded the long journey pigeons. When the pigeon arrived, the owner will put a rubber band into the machine reader. The first pigeon that arrive to the home is the winner.
Read Also:
Famous Homing pigeon breed
English Carrier: A Retiree Homing Pigeon
King Pigeon : King of Squab
Fantail Pigeon
How to attract Pigeon to your house

Gallus gallus the parent of domestic fowl

The domestic chicken that we can eat today is the result of domestication jungle fowl by our ancestors. They taken care of jungle fowl and selected the good fowl. at least, there are four kind of jungle fowl. Here are:

Gallus galls or Galus bankiva is the great grand parent of all domestic fowl. Now, we can see the descent of gallus-gallus give us chicken meat and fresh eggs. The habitat of this fowl are India, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, and Sumatra.

The male or the  roster  is red partridge in , while  the female color is brown or black. The weight of the male just one kilo, meanwhile the female is 700 grams. The female can lay the eggs up to six.

They live at the low jungle, farm crop, and settlement. They find foot at jungle ground. The diet of this bird is grain, grass, leaf, worm, and insect.
Photo by: YIM Hafiz

The bird has beautiful sing. Its sing is more beautiful than domestic cock. Some breeder crossbreed the bird with native chicken. It result a new strain with good voice. The price of the hybrid is more expensive than the red jungle fowl.

Green jungle Fowl

Green Jungle Fowl or Gallus Varius is a one kind of Jungle fowl too. They can found in Borneo, Java, Komodo Island, Bali, Flores and Rinca. They live at covered  jungle.

The color of the fowl is green with red saddle feather. The comb color is blue and red single. The female color is brown with black spot. The male wight is 1000 g in average; meanwhile, the female is 700 in average.

This cock has beautiful song too. In Indonesian, people cross breed it with native chicken. the hybrid is called Bekisar chicken. the price of Bekisar is very high. Some collector want to exchange their SUV with the chicken.


Gallus lafayetii

Grey Jungle fowl or Gallus lafayetti is a jungle fowl from ceylon or Srilanka. The performance is not different with green jungle fowl. The cock has grey partridge and the female has grey color.

This bird is an India endemic animal. The length of the cock could reach 80 cm, meanwhile the female is just 38 cm.In a season, a female can lay four to seven eggs.

Gallus sonneratii

Gallus sonneratii is a jungle fowl from Ceylon or Srilanka. The performance is almost similar with red jungle fowl. The color is red partridge and have a single comb.

Read Also :
Grey Jungle Fowl
Domestication process increase the ancestor quality
Mutation in chicken
Rhode Island Red Profile
New Hampshire Red profile

Poultry Industry: Make The chicken Suffer?

Most people love chicken because it is delicious. The meat is soft and so juicy. With special spicy, the fried chicken becomes the delicious food. Some franchise restaurant has own fried chicken recipes.

Have you ever thought where the restaurant gets the chicken? The chicken comes from some poultry farm near the restaurant.

Photo by : Animal Freedom

The farm raises the chicken from daily old chicken to mature chicken in 60 days. The chicken could reach more than two kilogram after two months care. In my country, the farmer harvest younger chicken or forty days old age chicken. Sometimes the farmer harvests it only 30 days. In my country, people do not like heavy chicken that weighs more than two kilograms.

The life of broiler chicken is so short. Some farm also use hazardous chemical like growth hormone to grow the chicken fast. They also forced the chicken eat more so the chicken body becomes larger. The broiler chicken does not have chance to breed.

They are borne from various chicken breed at a breeder farm. The breeder hatches the eggs with large incubator box for 21 days. The broiler chicks do not recognize the mother moreover the father. The breeder put the chicks at cartoon and pick out to the farm.

If the order or chicken demand is low, the breeder often deletes the chicks. In my country, the breeder burned the chicks. I think it is very pity. The police arrested the breeder that had burn the chicks. The breeder does not want the chick price go down so they delete it. Supposedly, they hatch few eggs when the low demand. Some breeder prefers to convert the chicken to chick flour. They mix the flour with other chicken feed.

The farm acts chicken like a machine. In my country broiler destiny is far worse than United States broiler. The farmer transports the chicken with narrow bamboo cage. Sometimes the chicken is heat or get rainy. Some chicken are killed during the transportation from the farm to whole sales. The wholesales sell the chicken to the retail. The retail tied 5-10 chicken in a bunch and hang at motorcycles. It just needs around 30 minutes to the retail but the chicken must be suffered.

The layer chicken must be suffered. They live at narrow cage so they can produce more eggs. They cannot hop and run like chicken at a backyard. The fat must be abundant at the body.

The good layers usually produce 250 eggs a day. If a chicken cannot produce as much as the farmer expected, the chicken would be slaughter or sell. It is loss to raise the chicken while, the farmer still feed with expensive chicken feed.

After two or two half years, the layer chicken production decreases. The farmer should sell the chicken or slaughter the chicken.

Chicken was born to provide meat and eggs for human being. However, the human should be wise to chicken. They should notice the chicken welfare and respect the chicken right.
Read also :
How to raise broiler chicken  
Leghorn Chicken : The best layer hen
New Hampshire Red
How to raise chicken with fish
Tips on Selecting layer hen

Roosters take care of chicken

Naturally, the hen raise the chick until they independent. In some case, a rooster often take care of chicken. It lead the chicken to find the food at the yard. Few weeks ago, I had seen the roster raise 5-6 little chicken. He teach the chick to find the food on yard.
I do not know whether the rooster warm the chicks. I do not saw the chicken cage. I think the chicken will not want to close the roosters.
I saw the rooster often bullying the chicken. He beat the back head of the chick. Perhaps, the rooster want to punish the little chicken.
Read Also:
Silkie Bantam : The Most Famous Chicken
Java Super Chicken
How to tame fighting Chicken
How to care baby chicken
Chicken For Dummies

How to make pigeon cage

People have been care pigeon for thousands years. They also provide the cage for the bird. In Egypt, the pigeon owner build a pigeon tower that can accommodate hundreds pigeon inside. The tower is 10 meters in length. There are some doors at the top of tower. The bird can enter through those doors.

The outside tower is very smooth so snake and rat cannot enter to the tower. Egypt people use clay as tower ingredient. We can also use cement and sand to build a pigeon tower. Inside the tower, there are so many bulges so the pigeon can climb the tower. The owner also provides some nest for the bird. The pigeon also can nest inside the tower. They build nest from wood branch and its feather.

To raise the pigeon, you need build cage. This bird must have the cage for sleeping or lay the eggs. The pigeon can move to other place if they have no cage.

Creating a home pigeon is not difficult. I used small wood box for pigeon cage. I make a door in the front of box. Below the door I add the wood as the perch.

I put the box at the roof of my house. They can play at my roof. I also put the box inside the former chicken pen to protect it from rat, cat, and raccoon. Some people arrange some box for the pigeon. This cage is similar to flat. In my country, some poor people refuse to live at flat because it similar to pigeon house.

Some hobbyist also build pigeon hotel that has so many room. They place the pigeon to their backyard. The hotel uses a high wood to prevent the bird from rat or cat. Raise bird at backyard may disturb your neighbors. The bird often perches at anywhere. They may make your neighbor's house dirty.

Photo by: dynamosquite
Therefore, you can raise the bird at the pen. There are some steel pens or wire pen for the pigeon. The pen is durable due its material. I have used a steel pen for dozen years. The pen has beautiful roof that can protect the bird from sun and rain. Some pen also has no roof so this pen cannot place at your backyard. You are better to place it at terrace.

In my country, people prefer use wood or bamboo pen due it is cheaper. The bamboo cage is round in shape.
Read also :
Carneau Pigeon : Utility French Pigeon
Crowned Goura: Pigeon that has crown
King pigeon : The King of Squab
How to attract pigeon to your house
How to care baby pigeon when...

How to feed Geese

When you raise a goose, you should think about feed too. Feeding goose is not difficult because it bird is easy eater. They can eat any poultry food. However the bird prefers green leaf than poultry food or grain. Some people raise it to control the grass growth. Therefore, they do not use cutting grass machine again.

Photo by : areasaburn
I had experience in feeding goose.I gave them with poultry food only. I mix it with rice and water. In my country, there is no special food for waterfowl because there is no waterfowl farm. Unfortunately, They do not like it. They prefer sugar cane leaf in my backyard although the leaf is so rough.

If you care or raise goose at grass backyard, You can save some bucks. You just add its diet with waterfowl pellet or grain.

A Goose needs at least 15% protein food, Meanwhile a Goosling needs at least 20% protein. You can give waterfowl starter feed. A layer needs at least 200 g food a day. Some breed provide ad libitum feed for goose.

This is list of the editable green leaf for goose such as : alfalfa, barley, corn leaf, paw-paw leaf, banana leaf, king grass, grass, spinach

The list of editable grain for goose such as :

Corn, barley, oat, sorghum, paddy, blue grass, timothy grass, other type pasture grass.

You can mix the food so the goose can get various nutritious.

Beside food, you need to put water basin for them. Do not forget to give grit and grain scratch feed.

You can also shepherd goose at pasture.Surround the backyard with fence that tall is three or four feet. It is useful to bar the goose to go outside. It helps the goose to keep them from predator to like raccoon, wolf, coyote and others.

A goose need at least four square meters for a goose. If you have a pair you should provide eight square meter. Also provide the shelter for goose. It protects them from rain and sunny day.

Read Also:
How to raise Goose
Five Famous Domesticated Goose
Ancona Duck The English Duck
Cayuga Duck : American Native Duck
Bali Duck

Silkie Bantam : Most Famous Bantam

Photo by : north60
History

This Bantam was introduced by Venice trader Marco Polo. This Bantam has been raised for more than 400 years in China. Chinese people raise the Silkie for its meat and eggs.
Anatomy
Silkie is a pure bantam. It has characteristics that is similar to bantam with its short body and short legs. Unlike other bantam or standard chicken, this chicken has five toes. The feet has thick feather.
The Roster has big rose comb like a king use big crown. The female has small rose comb. Some Silkie bantam has uncommon blue comb. The Silkie are either crested or non-crested. The crested is behind the comb. Some Silkie has bearded that cover the face.
Feathers
Silkie Bantam has different feather with common chicken feathers. The feather is similar to human or mammal hair. The feather is soft like silk. That is why people call the chicken Silkie Bantam. The feather structure of silkie is different with common chicken that has web like structure. Web like structure means, each feather strand rigidly adhering to the center shaft by a barb. Silkie has no barb, so their feathers are lose and floppy.
Coloring
The famous Silkie bantam color is white. Actually, there are other recognized color such as buff, black, blue, grey, and partridge.
Today, there are some color variations, such as, white splash, calico and others. The breeder crosses this funny chicken with other bantam to produce new color.
Skin
Most Silkie has white and yellow skin. There is some Silkie which has dark skin. The dark skin has dark meat and black bone. Chinese people make health soup with this meat and ginseng.
Characters
The Silkie is docile chicken. It is good for pet. The hen lays 250 eggs in a year. The hens go broody. The hens is good mother too that can care the baby.
The recognized color of Silkie
White Color

All the feathers are completely white in all section, from head to toes. White Silkie is the most famous Silkie bantam. People like its white clean feathers.
Buff Color
The Silkie has red brown or buff in color. There are black marking at the edge of the tail.
Black Color
The Chicken has black-green color in all section unless the feet. The beak and the face are black in color. Some black silkie has dominantly black color include the feet and the meat.
Partridge
This is the beautiful color to me. It is similar with red jungle fowl. The back of the neck is red or orange in color and the front of the neck is green beetle in color. The chest color is black beetle. The partridge has beautiful red or orange color in its saddle. The tail of the rooster is black beetle. The partridge hen is red bay and black in color.
Blue
Either the rooster or the hen has similar color marking. The chicken feather is bluish in color.
Gray
Some people are difficult to differentiate the gray and the blue. The roster is smoky gray in color while the hen is chinchilla color.

Read Also :
Rosecomb : The oldest Bantam in the world
Bantam Breedeing Method
Hamburg Chicken : Small nice Chicken from German
Booted Dutch Bantam
Dutch Bantam

How to care baby chicken

 Some hen cannot raise the chick. I do not why. Perhaps the hen is bad mother. If the hen ignore the chick you should raise the chick.

Some breeder prefer to care the chick so the hen can lay again. They want increase the production of eggs and more chicks.

1. Provide a brooder for some chicken. The brooder, which measure about three feet by three feet ( 1 m by 1m), are occupied by 10 chicks. Put the old newspaper below the cage that is important to keep the cage clean. Replace the paper once daily.  Alternatively. you can use wood choop as litter.

If you have not brooder you can use cardboard box.

2. The baby chick need heat because its silkie feather cannot cover the body. Use light for warm the chicken. There are some light that keep the chick warm beside this article. They need 24 hours light for one week. You can reduce the hours after one week.

3. Feed the chicken with statrter fowl feed. You can buy it at polutry shop or pet shop.Put the water silo inside the brooder. Clean the chick feeder and water silo.

4. Vaccine the chick such as avian flu vaccine and ND vaccine. If you live in American, you do not need avian flu vaccine.

5. Control the brooder frequently. Help the chick if you find a trouble.

Notice:

The location of brooder is safe from predator and bad weather.

Do not let the feed wed because it can cause disease

You can change the light if the chicken does not comfort.  The sign of chicken does not comfort with the lamp is that they avoid the lamp or the chicken gain near the lamp.

After the four week or the chicken become bigger, Remove the chicken to pen or coop

Read Also :
How to raise chicken with Fish
How to make mini incubator
How to heat cage with coal
How to produce bantam chicken
How to tame fighting chicken

How to raise Goose

Goose is one of domesticated water fowl that has been used by ancient people. The Roman aristocrat  like the liver of Goose because it is very delicious. Today, the goose's liver demand is very high.

If you like liver goose, you can raise Goose in your backyard. Goose in my country is a watchdog. They will shout loudly like trumpet, If an unknown person intrude their territory.

There are some variety of Geese like Toulouse which color is gray, Chinese goose which is the smallest domesticated goose, African which is domesticated in Africa, and Embden which is from Europe. Chinese has two color brown, white and buff.

The unique characteristics of geese is long neck like snake. The beak is so strong and it could expel an eagle or raccoon. The weight of mature Goose is 12 - 30 pounds. The Chinese which is small variety just reach 12 pounds; meanwhile, Embden Goose could reach 30 pounds. Domestic goose is different with the wild goose that can fly high. Domestic goose rarely use its wing to fly. They use the wing to expel the enemy.

Photo: Ralph And Jenny
If you want raise it. You can make a pen in your backyard. Round the backyard with wire so they can run from you. You need at leas 4 x 1 meters for a mature goose. Provide shelter that protect the geese from snow and rain. Make a pool inside the cage. Swan is like to swim and they need to swim.

Feed them enough. Geese is herbivore animal unlike other water fowl that eat fish and water insect. They prefer grass than grain. Feed them with rye, alfalfa, corns, oats, clover and green leaf. Off course, they like vegetable too like cabbage, lettuce, spinach and other. Provide them with fresh grass.You can give water fowl pellet to the bird too. Allocate water basin for its drink too. Clean the cage periodically and wash the food and water dish too.

you can slaughter the goose that older than six month. You can fry or bake it. If you want breed it, you need at least a pair geese.
Five Famous Domesticated Goose 
Ancona Duck The English Duck
Cayuga Duck The American Duck
Anatomy of Duck
American Game Fowl

Famous Homing Pigeon Breed

People use pigeon for racing for thousand years. Some hobbyist release the bird far from the house. They contend the bird to get the winner. The winner is the bird who first arrives at their house.

All pigeon can fly, but not all pigeon can fly fast. Only certain pigeon can fly fast. Here are pigeon bird that can fly faster.

American racing pigeon. This pigeon bird is dedicated as racing pigeon. The bird looks fat but it can fly fast. Most American racing color is blue bar. We also find other variations color

English Carrier. This bird is very tall. The tall is 7.5 inch unlike other racing. It weighs 20 to 23 ounces. The beak is long and there is a big wattle. There is no feather in their red feet. They have color variation including black, blue bar, dun, white and others. Today, people do not use English carries as racing pigeon. The hobbyist cares this bird for exhibition bird. This bird is dragoon descendant too.

Dragoon pigeon. The dragoon is a racing pigeon breed form English. It is believed the descendent of horseman and Tumbler. The color variations are white, blue-bar, dun, red, yellow and blue check. The beak shape like bullet and there are wattles below the beak. The owner also cross dragoon to get

Homing Pigeon

Homing pigeon is a breed of pigeon that specialist for racing . The breeder cross breed various pigeon to produce homing pigeon. This is the most famous pigeon for racing.

German beauty homing

This breed has big head, relative to its body. The breast is full and the tail is narrow. The beaks is wide with big wattles. The beak is almost similar to flamingo’s beak. It has long neck too like English Carrier. The feet are clean from feathers and red in color.

image by jackie Lou DL from Pixabay

Read Also:
English Carrier Pigeon
American Giant Homer
Jacobin Pigeon
Modena Pigeon
King Pigeon