Caring For Chickens and Other Poultry

This course provides a comprehensive learning experience for anyone who either keeps or plans to keep poultry. 

Learn:

• Chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, and more
• Make better choices of what to keep
• Appreciate the ease or difficulty involved depending on what you choose to raise
• Develop a solid foundation upon which to build your experience and grow your knowledge

The course provides a wealth of information from academic experts who have years of industry experience.  This short course covers 6 lessons that explore the history and origins of chickens and other poultry, the overall nature of caring for chickens, recognising breeds, the fundamentals of feeding and nutrition, health care, general management of a flock and the industry services and opportunities.

Lesson Structure

There are 6 lessons in this course:

1. SCOPE AND NATURE OF DOMESTICATED POULTRY
   • A brief history.
   • Keeping poultry – profit or pleasure.
   • Chickens.
   • Turkeys.
   • Ducks.
   • Don’t buy sick birds.
   • How to help hatchings chicks.
   • How to revive ‘dead’ hatchlings.
   • Poultry products and uses.
   • Value adding to poultry products.
   • Concerns for human health.
   • Ducks
   • Types of ducks - Choosing a duck breed
2. BREEDS
   • Basic nomenclature.
   • Categories of breeds.
   • Breeds.
   • Chicken (fowl) classification.
   • Rare breeds
   • Turkeys
   • Ducks
   • Geese
   • Ostriches
   • Emus
   • Other poultry - quail, squab, pheasant
   • Australorp - history, broodiness, nutrition, water
3. FOOD AND WATER
   • Feeding for stages – starter, growth, maintenance.
   • Nutrition during reproduction.
   • Digestive system.
   • Nutrients from feed.
   • Water requirements.
   • Favourite treats.
   • Feeding fowls.
   • Feeding turkeys.
   • Feeding ducks.
   • Feeding geese.
   • Feeding and watering poultry
   • Food items to avoid
   • Day old chicks and pullets
   • Types of feeders
   • Water needs
4. HEALTH
   • A definition of health.
   • First aid kit for poultry.
   • Administering medication by syringe.
   • Common poisonous household products.
   • General basic care.
   • Common diseases affecting poultry.
   • Parasites.
   • Keeping chickens with other pets
   • The introduction process
   • Chickens with dogs
   • Chickens with cats
5. MANAGEMENT
   • Housing and shelter.
   • Managing waste.
   • Environmental issues.
   • Regulations for keeping poultry.
   • Management procedures for breeding.
   • Meat production procedures.
   • Keeping chickens in a city/urban area
   • Winter care of chickens
6. THE POULTRY INDUSTRY
   • Working in the poultry industry.
   • Farm management – egg, meat or breeder.
   • Grading eggs
   • Meat processing
   • Feather production
   • Exhibiting and showing
   • Farmers Markets
   • Animal Welfare officer
   • Eggs
   • Decline in lay
   • Components of an egg.
   • Egg colour and appearance
   • Green yolks
   • Egg nutritional value
   • Collecting and storing eggs
   • Chicken nutrition and egg quality
   • FINAL ASSESSMENT

Who is this course for?

• Hobbyists - people who keep or aspire to keep poultry as a hobby
• Self Sufficiency - people attempting to improve their food security by producing more of their own needs
• Farm workers, pet shop workers - anyone who seeks employment working with poultry supplies or poultry  can benefit from a formal course such as this
• Beginners, Students - this can provide a foundation and help anyone decide if they want to learn more, and where to focus they attention beyond this course.
• Professional Development - people who may be working in agriculture, permaculture, teaching or some other area, could have a need to know more about poultry than what their prior training and experience has taught them