Farmers incline towards colour hen rearing in Ishwardi

Swapan Kumar Kundu, Ishwardi (Pabna) :
Farmer Akmal Hossain of Ishwardi, who received the Bangabandhu National Agriculture Medal, has benefited from raising color chickens and producing chicks from eggs. He is also encouraging other farmers to breed color birds. On the advice of Akmal, many farmers of Pabna district including Ishwardi are now starting color bird rearing. Due to the comparatively low cost and high profit margins, farmers are inclined towards color hen rearing.
Talking to the farmers, the color hen looks exactly like the native chicken. This chicken looks very beautiful for its rich colored feathers. The meat is also very tasty. Many people who are reluctant to eat broiler prefer colored bird meat. This meat is not as tough as domestic chicken, and not as soft as broiler. In 70 days golden chicken weighs one kg. There the color bird becomes one kg in just 40 days. Also, the demand for color bird is more than any other breed of chicken in the market.
Talking to Akmal Hussain in Kamalpur village of Dashuria union on the surface, it is known that raising color hens commercially requires less capital than other chickens. These chickens have high disease resistance and low mortality. The market demand for color hens is quite good. It is being sold from the farm to traders at Tk 240 to Tk 250 per kg.
In Akmal’s farm, there are about 22 thousand chickens of different species including layer, golden and color hens. Among them there are 3000 color hens. Akmal Hossain told about his future thoughts and dreams about this new breed of chicken. He said, I started a chicken farm in 2008. At that time, the production cost of one egg was Tk 4 , but it was sold at Tk5 to Tk 6. Broiler chicken cost 55 to 65 taka per kg, sold for Tk80 to Tk90. The collapse of the farm business over the past few years has led many farmers to lose capital and close their farms. About 150 to 200 farms in the upazila have already been closed. But once again farmers can benefit by rearing color birds. That is why I have given great importance to rearing color birds and encouraging other farmers.
Akmal also said that besides the farm, we have set up a small scale hatchery for the production of chicks. From which one lakh chicks can be produced every month. The hatchery is producing golden chicks as well as color bird chicks. Colorbird chicks are produced only in this hatchery in Pabna district. Chicks of this breed are being sold at 45 to 50 taka each. All the farmers who have started raising Color Bird chickens are benefiting. At the same time, color birds can play an important role in meeting the meat demand of the country.
Poultry farmer Shah-Alam of Rokanpur village said that it is more profitable to raise color birds than raising broilers and golden chickens. I now have 4000 color bird chickens in my farm. The profit obtained from color birds in one year is not possible in other poultry farming. The demand for color bird chicken meat is quite good. Akmal Hossain, the farmer, gave me support and advice for rearing color birds. Many like me have benefited from his advice in keeping color birds. Upazila animal resource officer Nazmul Hossain said that farmers did not rear color bird chicken before in this area. Now some farmers have started rearing. The Animal Resources Office provides assistance to the farmers with all kinds of advice.