So we have finally gotten chickens! I thought over it for some time, then researched chicken keeping to death and we decided that it was economical J and a good idea to get chix for fresh eggs – the eggs we buy (free range, organic and all that) you can’t beat stiff! No matter which trick or additive you try, it ain’t happening!
This is not one of my ‘full’ profiles, since we only have had the chix for two weeks and I am waiting for the mother-of-all chicken keeping books to arrive J.
So during my quest for chickens, many local sites suggested that if you’d like to keep chickens, try and do so with indigenous ones. I did not even know you get chickens indigenous to Southern Africa! J It is hard to find information on these and most of the information is usually cut and pasted (sometimes directly) from two main resources namely ‘South African Country Report On Farm Animal Genetic Resources, Department of Agriculture (South Africa)’ and the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) of SA. So I will provide a combined summary (with no plagiarising J) from both sources. Anyways, the main indigenous and possibly endemic (endemic = only found in certain local areas, like “Fynbos” biome only found in SA) breeds are the Ovambo, Potchefstroom Koekoek, Naked Neck (probably not endemic), Matabele, Venda and Boschveld.
Ovambo
The Ovambo is originally from Namibia and Ovamboland (Northern Namibia). Ovamboes are generally small sized, black chickens with additional streaks of white and/or orange. The colours and small size of the chicken helps it to avoid predators, especially from large birds of prey. They are quite robust chickens and are known for agile hunting of small rats and mice. Their roosting behaviour is similar to Guinea Fowl, where they roost in trees at night to avoid predators (small wild cats, foxes…). They are known for their hardiness and ability to withstand harsh conditions (heat, drought, food shortage – typical Southern African problems).
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| Ovambo Chickens
Photos: ARC: Indigenous poultry breeds of SA
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Averages
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♀
|
♂
|
Weight at 16 weeks (kg)
|
1.32
|
1.74
|
Weight at 20 weeks (kg)
|
1.54
|
2.32
|
Sexual Maturity (days)
|
143
|
143
|
Egg weight (g)
|
52.5
|
-
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Eggs produces (per year)
|
129 ± 5
|
-
|
Potchefstroom Koekoek
The Potchefstroom Koekoek (Pot-chef-stroom Koe-koek, ‘oe’ pronounced ‘ooh’ J, its Afrikaans, my mother tongue J). It was bred in 1960 by Prof. Chris Marais at the Potchefstroom Agricultural College, by crossing the Black Australorp, White Leghorn and Barred Rock chicken breeds. The name ‘Koekoek’ refers to the spotted ‘guinea fowl like’ patterning of the chicken’s feathers. Males and females are sexually dimorphic (physical feature separating males and females of the same species) at a young age. Day-old female chicks are completely black and males are black with a white spot on the head. This clearly makes distinguishing the two for easy separating genders and breeding. The Potchefstroom Koekoek was bred to create a more robust chicken to cope with the South African climate and therefore they are good chickies for both meat (apparently an attractive yellow colour) and egg laying (eggs are large and brown). They are good commercially and for household/backyard chickens.
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| Potchefstroom Koekoek (Potch Koekoek)
Photos: ARC: Indigenous poultry breeds of SA
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Averages
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♀
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♂
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Weight at 16 weeks (kg)
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1.4
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1.84
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Weight at 20 weeks (kg)
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1.7
|
2.4
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Sexual Maturity (days)
|
130
|
130
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Egg weight (g)
|
55.7
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-
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Eggs produces (per year)
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198 ± 8
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-
|
Naked Neck
So, these originated in Malaysia and was likely distributed to the rest of the world through the Dutch East India Company. They arrived in SA in the 17th century and are popular amongst rural SA farmers, but not commercially. Their patterns vary, but there are two distinguishable ‘nakedness’ for these birds. Homozygotes (carrying both genes for the naked neckness J) or purebred (‘pure’ for a characteristic), have a neck void of feathers. The Heterozygote (carrying one gene for naked neckness) or not purebred, have a few fly feathers on the front of its neck. They do well as meat and egg laying chickens.
Having a naked neck is advantageous to French commercial farmers, because (1) A lot of nutrition/protein is required to produce feathers, thus less feathers = chickens eat less/nutrition redistributed to other areas, (2) they are easier and quicker to pluck for eating and (3) they are apparently more heat tolerant (probably due to increased heat being lost through the naked skin).
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| Naked Neck Photos: ARC: Indigenous poultry breeds of SA |
Averages
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♀
|
♂
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Weight at 16 weeks (kg)
|
1.1
|
1.5
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Weight at 20 weeks (kg)
|
1.4
|
1.95
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Sexual Maturity (days)
|
155
|
155
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Egg weight (g)
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55.1
|
-
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Eggs produces (per year)
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? ± ?
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-
|
Matabele
They are ‘big and burley’… and that is all I have. Seriously, I can not find more on this chicken, not even a picture. The Matabele (or Ndebele) people are from once Eastern Transvaal or now Mpumalanga province – so that would suggest that the chicken *may* have originated in eastern South Africa and is *probably* a hardy breed such as the Ovambo. Seen as it is ‘big and burley’ it would probably make a good meat chicken.
Venda
Venda chickens are named after the region they originated, the Limpopo province (the northern-most province in SA). These multi-coloured white, black and red chickens were first described by a veterinarian, Dr Naas Coetzee in 1979. Later similar chickens were seen in the Southern Cape and Free State. An interesting characteristic that pops up every now and then, are rose-coloured combs and/or five-toed chickens. The chickens are large and mothers are good brooders. They lay tinted eggs of a decent size and are therefore mainly used for egg production. Apparently more information is being collected about these chickens.
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| Venda Chickens Photos: ARC: Indigenous poultry breed of SA |
Averages
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♀
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♂
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Weight at 16 weeks (kg)
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1.24
|
1.57
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Weight at 20 weeks (kg)
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1.4
|
2.01
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Sexual Maturity (days)
|
143
|
143
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Egg weight (g)
|
52.7
|
-
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Eggs produces (per year)
|
? ± ?
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-
|
Boschveld
This is another breed developed in SA. The Boschveld contains contributions from the following indigenous breeds in its genetic pool, which include the Matabele, Ovambo and Venda. Each breed was chosen specifically by Mr. Mike Bosch (a local farmer) to ensure certain characteristics in the Boschveld. He wanted a chicken that is hardy and can withstand the harsh South African climate (Ovambo) and is (I suppose) relatively large (Matabele). The Venda chicken made their contribution by producing hardy hens that are great mothers and egg producers. – Oh! They seem to be ‘dipped’ less for external parasites as well, so they are more pest resistant too! J They are good meat and (obviously) egg laying chickens.
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| Boschveld Chicken Photos: http://www.boschveld.co.za/Chicken.htm |
Averages
|
♀
|
♂
|
Weight at 16 weeks (kg)
|
?
|
?
|
Weight at 20 weeks (kg)
|
?
|
?
|
Sexual Maturity (days)
|
?
|
?
|
Egg weight (g)
|
?
|
-
|
Eggs produces (per year)
|
240 ± ?
|
-
|
What I can say is that hens start to produce eggs as 20 weeks of age.
OK, so that covers indigenous breed – phew! Now to our chix. We read that it is a good idea for backyard chicken keepers to get a good selection of different breeds. So, we have 6 chickens, 2 of each – Boschveld, Koekoek and Australorp.
Now, the Australorp:
Australorps are an Australian breed known for their hardy yet docile behaviour and are good meat/egg laying chickens. So there is a lot of info on these – yay! They have soft feathers, white toenails, black (or rather grayish – we have white Australorps) legs and beak. Chickens come in standard and bantam (small/miniaturised) sizes with a multitude of colours, most recognisable is Blue, Black and White. These have a good egg laying capacity with one hen laying 364 eggs in 365 days!!! They are broody and very instinctual mothers J. They are good chickens for meat and egg laying, and just all-round hardiness, especially to cold.
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| White Australorps Chicken |
Averages
|
♀
|
♂
|
Weight at 16 weeks (kg)
|
2.5?
|
2.9?
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Weight at 20 weeks (kg)
|
3.1
|
3.5
|
Sexual Maturity (days)
|
154
|
154
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Egg weight (g)
|
60
|
-
|
Eggs produces (per year)
|
275 ± 25
|
-
|
Point of lay starts at 20-22 weeks.
We aimed to get chickens that were 4-6 weeks of age, as we have cats and do not want to raise one day old chickies in incubators with cats around J. We got three 6-week chickies and three 10 week chickies. The Australorps were R50 and the rest R30 per chicken, fully vaccinated against Newcastle disease.
We managed to build the coop for under R500, re-using a lot of wood and spare parts in the garage. Only new things was the wire and roofing plates. Not the prettiest coop, but definately functional J
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| Makes for a sturdy cat proof coop! |
Conveniently we have a “FarmCity” just 2km from us, so we got all the chicky supplies there: chicken feeder, waterer, mite/tick dust, grow pellets…
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| Chicken Water Fountain |
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| Chicken Feeder |
Here are the sistas in da coop
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| I have not given them names yet, still deciding... |
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| They believe the camera to be a monster – hence the nervous and quizzical expressions J |
Since we got them at 6 and 10 weeks, we will have to ‘socialise’ them. So I established a feeding routine and sit every now and then in the coop so that they can get comfortable with humans – Cause when I need to dust them for mites or other ‘services’ they should be calm and not flutter about. J
They were mostly fed pellets at the farm we purchased them from, so I even had to get them used to other types of foods (like some squash seeds, banana, carrot leaves). I introduced the new food one item at a time (not mixing of carrots with apples or such J) and mix some pellets in there as well – they quite enjoy their snacks now J.
I will keep you updated on the chix and probably do a full profile in the future!
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