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.

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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.

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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.
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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.

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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.
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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.
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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.
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