Variation in nutrient composition of crop contents of scavenging local chickens in North Central Nigeria

Abstract

A total of 154 free ranging local chicken comprising 54 hens and 100 growers of mixed sexes randomly sampled from the rural flock of Beetse and Ahua communities in North Central Nigeria were used in this study to evaluate the effect of season on crop contents of the birds. The chickens were carefully stunned, slaughtered, scalded and eviscerated at the end of the day's scavenging hours for physical examination and subsequent proximate analysis of the crop contents. Crop contents were visually categorized, oven dried to a constant weight at 70 0 C, milled and analyzed for proximate values. Cereal grains, kitchen wastes, green forage and insects/worms were the main crop contents and their composition varied with season and type of bird. Proximate results of crop contents show that the nutritional status of the scavenging birds fell short of requirements for profitable production. Therefore, a deliberate and regular supplementation of feed based on the available scavenging feed resources is recommended for any meaningful profitable production by these class of birds.