THE CHICKEN - A SOURCE OF MEAT, BY MR. JOSEPH AGWU OGBAJIE, @johanjahb.

HELLO MY FELLOW ESTEEMED, HONORABLE STEEMALIVE MEMBERS, GREETINGS.

The chicken is probably those populous bird on earth. According to estimates, there are over 13 billion chickens (2001 estimates ). And it's meat is so popular that more than 73 billion pounds of it are consumed each year. Additionally, hens produced 600 billion eggs a year worldwide.

      MY PERSONAL INTEREST

I personally started thinking on how to cut down on my personal expences on especially as regards food and other related matters, especially this days that things are getting very hard for many families and nations. Even before this time that people are experiencing difficult hard time, I have, on different times in my life as an adult plans to provide some things especially food to grow my food. I have always think in the direction of producing organic food that comes from natural source instead of foods that are contaminated with chemical residue. In this write up, I will narrow my presentation on my interest to produce my own food especially the meat I eat.

My desire to produce fresh meat for personal consumption led me to start raising chicken for my personal use. I started to experiment on this by raising local chicken in the 1980's. At that time, I was living at an accommodation that I shared with other people. My chicken that is now increasing in number and getting bigger in size did not escape the notice of fellow occupants of the compound who now said the chickens are causing a public nuisance in the compound. To avoid having problem with my co-tenants, I decided to stop and discontinue the idea to raise chicken. I killed my chicken gradually, thereby reducing their numbers untill they finished.

As time progressed, during the years of 1997 - 2000, at an address different from my former residence, I started again to raise my local chicken once again. Again the problem I had in my former residence started. The tenants raises objection, this is because one of the tenants, out of jealousy, started to raise his own chicken in the same premises. So the others insisted that we should stop. Like what I did in my previous place, I immediately discontinue with my plan, awaiting another convenient time. This time, I killed all my chickens, using them for meat just as I did in my former residence.

HOW MY PLAN FINALLY CAME TO MATERIALIZE

Finally, my desire to meet my need as it affect the desire to provide and produce my own meat through raising my chicken came to realization when I secured my personal property where I reside now. So no more jealous co-tenants, no more causing of nuisance for others, etc. Please, note that my primary reason for raising chicken was not for commercial purpose, but to provide my own meat. Now I looked for a place to buy a chicken to start, this time it was a friend by name, Mr. Joseph Okoro Isaac that I finally bought one female chicken from him, at a cost of one thousand five hundred naira only ( N1,500 ). By now, you would likely want to know and want to hear how successful I am in my bid to raise chicken for my personal use! However, before I will let you know how I am doing in my project of raising the chicken, let me first take you back to bird's record.

     THE BIRD'S RECORD

The chicken is a descendant of the red jungle fowl of Asia. Man soon discovered that the chicken could be domesticated easily. Why some 2,000 years ago The Greatest Man who ever lived referred to the way a hen gathers her chicks under her protective wings. The use of such an illustration indicates that people in general were quite familiar with this bird's. But it was not until the 19th century that mass production of chickens and eggs become a commercial venture. Today chicken is by far the most popular poultry meat. Chickens are raised by millions of households - including urban families - for domestic and commercial use. In fact, few farm animals are able to breed in as many diverse geographic location as chickens are.

         A SOURCE OF MEAT

Visit virtually any hotel, restaurant, or village eating establishment, and you will rarely fail to see the meat of this domestic fowl on the menu. In fact, in many fast food outlates all over the country specialize in serving chicken. There are societies where chicken is still the ideal choice for special occasions. Many families plan in advance to serve chicken on special occasions, such as during festive seasons - Christmas, Easter, Birthday parties, etc. Parents will kill and serve chicken to make their children happy. Some show honor to a respected guest such as a religious leader or just a friend by killing and serving chicken to him. In Igbos of the South East, South - South and elsewhere, chicken are killed during " new yam festival". Some native herbalist may demand live fowl from their clients. So chicken is thus used for various reasons and ways under different circumstances.

NOW BACK TO MY CHICKEN PROJECT

The chicken displayed here is one of my numerous chicken now growing in number. Like I said above, I started with just one chicken.

The one chicken I bought from my friend in 2019 is now producing chickens and eggs that we use in my family. However, the number of my chickens would have been more than what they were presently. For your information, I am raising this chicken in an environment that makes it hard for the chicken to have rapid increase. For one thing, I have a small area that is not all that secured and protected for the chickens to do well. During the day, the birds were allowed to roam free and scavenge for food, returning home at evening. Many of the birds die off - some as victims of predators, animal and human. On one occasion, two of the chickens had 10 chicks, the mothers fights regularly and eventually, they killed all the 10 chicks.

CONCLUSION
One of my future plans to secure my chicken in order to avoid the incident I mentioned above, is to provide more space for the chickens with the purpose of separating them from each other. Additionally, to prevent them from roaming about. Why not look for things you can provide for yourself to reduce your expenses!