Certificate of Poultry

Unit 1 – Introduction, Terminology and Breeds

• The scope and nature of domestic poultry keeping
• Poultry terms
• Contract growing
• Regulations
• Management factors
• Small scale production
• Poultry breeds
• What constitutes poultry?
• What is a bantam?
• Classifying fowls
• Light breeds
• Some light breeds
• Dual purpose breeds
• Some dual purpose breeds
• Heavy or table birds
• More breeds
• Cross-breed poultry
• The advantages of crossbreds or hybrids are:
• Sex linkage
• Incubation and rearing
• Poultry husbandry
• Selection of stock
• Feeding and watering
• Housing and shelter
• Health
• Selection of stock
• Feeding, watering, housing and shelter, health
  • Turkeys
  • Geese
  • Ducks
• Skeletal system

Unit 2 – Nutrition

• The digestive tract
• Gullet, crop, proventriculus
• Gizzard (or ventriculus)
• Intestine
• Caecum
• Rectum, cloaca and vent
• Sources of nutrients
• Carbohydrate
• Protein
• Minerals
• Rationing for poultry
• Palatability
• The end product
• Rations
• Poultry and modern feed requirements
• Phase feeding
• Consumption feeding

Unit 3 – Diseases in Poultry

• Health care of domesticated poultry
• Viral diseases
• Newcastle disease (NCD)
• Avian pneumovirus or metapneumovirus
• Fowl pox
• Infectious bronchitis (IB)
• Avian influenza
• New and emerging viral diseases in poultry
• Bacterial diseases
• Bacillary white diarrhoea (BWD)
• Fowl typhoid
• Paratyphoid
• Yolk sac infection
• Escherichia coli infection
• Mycoplasmosis, fungi and protozoan diseases
• Chronic respiratory disease (CRD)
• Infectious synovitis
• Fungi
• Mycosis
• Mycotoxicosis
• Protozoan diseases
• Coccidiosis
• Non-infectious diseases
• Hereditary diseases
• Vices
• Vitamin and mineral deficiency
• Internal and external parasites

Unit 4 – Layers

• The extensive system
• Housing
• Management
• Egg collection
• Disease management
• Establishment costs and productive efficiency
• The semi-intensive system
• Housing
• Management and egg collection
• Disease management
• Establishment costs and productive efficiency
• The intensive system
• Housing
• Management
• Egg collection
• Disease management
• Establishment costs and productive efficiency
• Comparison of production systems
• Housing
• Nest boxes
• Drinker systems
• Feeders
• Battery units
• Size of cages
• Collecting eggs
• Feeding the laying hen
• Replacing the flock

Unit 5 – Broilers

• Broilers management
• The brooding period
• Feeding broilers
• Feeding during the starter period
• Weekly food consumption of broilers
• Housing
• Hygiene and health

Unit 6 – Incubation

• Natural incubation
• Selecting a broody hen
• Symptoms of a broody hen
• Artificial incubation
• Selection of eggs for incubation
• Storage of hatching eggs
• Turning eggs
• Management of the incubator
• Temperature
• Low temperatures
• High temperatures
• Humidity
• Turning
• Testing
• What’s in an egg?
• Hatching
• Reasons for poor hatchability

Unit 7 – Brooding

• Heating
• The canopy brooder
• Infra-red lamps
• Chicks that are too cold
• Chicks that are too hot
• Ventilation
• Battery brooder
• Haybox brooder
• Feeders
• Drinkers
• Floor space
• Rearing
• Broilers
• Layers
• Time of rearing
• Schedule for providing light to layers
• Problems during rearing
• Cannibalism

Unit 8 – Record-Keeping, Economics and Marketing

• Records
• Growth records
• Flock or house number
• Hatching date
• Number of chickens
• Mortality
• Temperature
• Feed consumption
• Inoculation
• Body mass at sexual maturity
• Incidental expenses
• Income
• Egg production
• Mortality
• Feed consumption
• Egg mass and grading
• Incidental expenses
• Income
• A small-scale poultry business
• Compatible ventures
• Manure
• Spent hens
• Preparing a farm business plan
• Towards better planning
• A way of thinking
• Finance
• Examples of information to be collected and analysed
• Examples of where decisions which might need to be made
• Example structure for a financial plan
  • Financial objectives
  • Financial forecasts & assumptions (educated guesses)
  • Financial analysis
  • Budget plan
• Example for developing a financial budget
• Land care or land management
• Examples of information to be collected & analysed
• Examples of decisions which might need to be made
• Marketing
• Analyse the marketplace and the industry
  • Be aware of your own property
  • Be aware of your industry
  • Be aware of wider global developments.
• Examples of information to be collected and analysed
• Examples of decisions which you might need to make
• Example structure for a marketing plan
  • Marketing objectives
  • Market analysis
  • Sales predictions
  • Develop strategies