Abstract:
Village chicken production systems in Africa have ridiculed because of low production potential. It can be argued that the high mortality rate is the major cause of low production (Velum, 1987). Mortality is high for free range chickens in comparison with Intensively housed birds (Maphosa et al, 2002), especially during the first 6 to 8 weeks of life. Mortality outbreaks have many consequences for livelihoods at both the community and individual household levels including lack of physical capital to convert into financial capital. Data was collected using questionnaire and simple random sampling method then analyzed using SPSS (Version 16), Microsoft Excel and presented using pie charts and bar graphs. The major causes of free range chicken mortally as ranked by respondents in the study villages were disease (64%) predation (22.7%) management causes, (8%), and poor nutrition (2.7%). Although respondents could tell the causes of majority of losses in their chicken, still some cases occurred unnoticed. There is need for creation of awareness and training of households as to the importance of proper housing and good chicken management.
