Local chicken are known to take longer to mature and to always have a small size. There are management practices that can increase on the growth rate and size of local chicken.
Source your chicks from a reputable source with good inherent breeding record because this determines the rate at which the chicks grow. If you will be hatching your own eggs using either a hen or an incubator, ensure that you get your eggs from a reputable farmer who has hens or parent stock that is bigger than the normal hens.
Other management practices
Ensure regular health check ups to ascertain wether your hens are affected by pests, diseases and / injury. Always ensure that your chicken are healthy by vaccination, treating diseases as early as possible, isolating the sick, maintaining proper bio security and proper disposal of dead chicken.
Remove any causes of stress and make your chicken more comfortable. This is by fencing your poultry area to prevent entry of predators, regular dusting of your chicken with a proper insecticide, control amount of flies in your chicken house, remove chicken bullies.
Proper feeding. This is done by providing the birds with a balanced diet, enough grit, enough clean water, and the feed should match the age of the birds. You can supplement chicken feed with kitchen left overs.
Always provide enough lighting to your chicken. This allows the chicken to eat more and gain more weight faster.
Also give your chicken natural growth promoters. These help the chicken gain more weight by influencing the amount of feed conversion ratio and these include garlic, bitter kola, tumeric, cloves, thyme, ginger, cayenne pepper and black pepper. Ensure to give these to the chicken in recommended proportions.
