Introduction:

Nepal is an agricultural country. More than 66% of total population is involved in agricultural practices. Agriculture contributes 33.33% of total GDP among which 15% is contributed by livestock production. Poultry raising is one of the main practice among livestock production in Nepal. Out of 2, 95,167 MT ton total meat production poultry accounts for 42,810 MT ton in year 2073/72. (MOAC year book 2014). Livestock, including poultry is an integral part of the agricultural production system in Nepal, providing draft power, manure and high value animal protein such as meat, milk and eggs for the human consumption that accounts for approximately 32% of agricultural GDP. Numerous people are involved in the production, slaughtering, processing, and trading of livestock and livestock products. Over 2 million households own cattle, and over 1.4 million households raise chickens.

 Poultry farming is the practice of raising poultry, such as chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese, as a subcategory of animal husbandry, for the purpose of farming meat or eggs for food. More than 50 billion chickens are reared annually as a source of food, for both their meat and their eggs. Chickens farmed for meat are called broilers, whilst those farmed for eggs are called egg laying hens. After 12 months, the hen?s productivity will start to decline. This is when most commercial laying hens are slaughtered. Poultry farming have emerged as a major income generating enterprise in agriculture sector over the last three and a half decades. Today, poultry production has become one of the most rapidly growing enterprises within the reach of the poor, women, marginal farmers and entrepreneurs, considering the trends of population growth, urbanization, road access, transportation linkages, increasing awareness on nutrition and growing demands for consumer products, increasing international level restaurants, it will be safe to assume that poultry sector will constantly grow in a foreseeable future. The poultry enterprises is an emerging economic sector, over 65,000 people are employed in commercial poultry farming. So far as the scope of poultry in Nepal is concerned, poultry farming has a good scope in present context. People are engaged in poultry farming because of more profit. Some of the reasons for the increment in its scope are summarized under the points given below:

• Increase in the number of the hatchery farms and consumers of the poultry product.

• People are being educated thus consumers of poultry products have been increased.

• Products can be obtained within short period of time in case of the meat production.

• Poultry farming provides the employment opportunity all-round the year.

• Poultry meat, egg as well as litters can be used. 

Statement of problem

The growth of poultry raising in Nepal has indeed been impressive but broilers production has encountered varieties of problems. Its problem including inefficient management of heat stress, selection of time of growing season and occurrence of diseases lead to failure in poultry raising. The quality aspects of this sector have great problems. KFC, recently established multinational restaurants, has decided to import broilers meat from Brazil shows that quality of product of our country is unable to meet the specified demand of the company. Lack of GAP (Good Agricultural Practices including heat stress management) as well as selection of right time for raising poultry is the main reason behind it. Beside this, farmers are facing other problems such as, feeding management, housing management and marketing management. Poultry feeding management is the most expensive item in the production of poultry meat and eggs. Feed only accounts for 70-80% cost (Panda and Mohpatra, 1989; Opera, 1996) of production. Good nutrition allows broiler to fully express their genetic endowment

In Bhairahawa there is very wide range of the temperature fluctuation i.e. from 45?c in the summer months to 0?c in winter months. The production of broiler in winter months seems more profitable than in hotter climates however care must be taken to protect the birds from extreme cold temperature. Along with this we are also not fully aware about the management practices like the feed supplement, vaccination, time of different vaccines, diseases, etc. Also, the major problem during the conduction of the project was the insufficient infrastructural facilities in the poultry shed. Due to lack of inverter during the load-shedding periods the mortality of chicks increased as they were unable to cope with the extreme cold temperature.

Scope and Limitation

The project was conducted within the premises animal farm of Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences, Paklihawa. The project was mainly conducted to get the knowledge about the poultry raising and its economic analysis. It helped us to realize the problems and feasibility of poultry production in Rupandehi district as a whole for the summer months in the area. The study aims to help us get further knowledge about the scope of poultry production in Nepal as a whole. However due to fluctuating climatic conditions the study may not prove true for every season and every condition.

objectives 

Broad objectives:

• To study the feasibility of the poultry production in Rupandehi District during summer season. 

Specific objectives:

• To provide knowledge and skill about care and management of chicks.

• To know about the effect of temperature on poultry production.

• To be able to generalize the feed conversion ratio.

• To determine benefit-cost  (B:C) ratio.

Literature review:

There are more chickens in the world than any other bird. In fact, more than 50 billion chickens are reared annually as a source of food, for both their meat and their eggs. Chickens farmed for meat are called broiler chickens, whilst those farmed for eggs are called egg-laying hens.

Birds are homoeothermic – they produce and dissipate heat to maintain a relatively constant body temperature. The internal body temperature of birds shows more variability than mammals, and therefore there is no absolute body temperature. In the adult chicken the variability is between 105?F and 107?F (40.6? and 41.7?C). The body temperature of a newly hatched chick is about 103.5?F (39.7?C), and increases daily until it reaches a stable level eat about three weeks of age. Smaller chicken breeds have a higher body temperature than larger breeds. Male chickens have a slightly higher body temperature than females, probably the result of a higher metabolic rate and larger muscle mass. Activity increases body temperature. For example, the body temperature of chickens on the floor is higher than that of chickens kept in cages. (University of Kentucky,2014)

For birds to perform at their optimum capacity they need to among other factors to be in homeostasis with their environment through the maintenance of thermobalance. Thermobalance is the equilibrium between the heat produced and the heat given out by living organism, and this is at its maximal physiological level within the thermoneutral range of any given specie. Birds, like mammals are homoeothermic, they produce heat to maintain a relatively constant body temperature and may permit certain variations within their temperature range without significant perturbation (Joachim Ajakaiye,2010). 

The cold stress can also be the reason for the mortality among the birds. Low brooding temperature causes several problems such as pneumonia in young chicks, in which the colour of lungs become blue. Also, due to low temperature chicks huddle together to maintain body temperature which results in smothering and death. (Prof. Dr. Ahsan-Al-Haq, Causes of Early Chick Mortality, 2003)

Methodology

Location of the Farm:

It is located at livestock farm of IAAS Paklihawa which is in north-east side of campus about 2.5 km away. The farm was well equipped with water, feed, lights, and many other facilities. 

Before Chicks Arrival:

The poultry farm and equipment were cleaned and disinfected about one week ahead.

The dry floor was covered with litter (rice hulls, 3-4 inches).

The bed was prepared and well set with papers.

Feeders and waterers were placed in proper space.

Brooder was kept in the middle which was sufficiently provided with lights.

The whole room was fitted with about 8 bulbs to regulate the temperature.

Birds size, population and sampling procedure: 

110 broilers chick were reared in one room. There were 08 groups formed to rear the broilers. There were two students in each group. For data recording, randomly selected birds were taken.

Housing:

Broilers need to be housed in a clean and dry environment. The broiler pen needs to have some form of protective siding (such as 1-inch chicken wire), a roof, ventilation, a form of heating (brooders or heat lamps), and feeding and watering equipment. The broiler pen needs to be big enough to provide 2 square feet of floor space per bird, and the pen should be at least 36 to 48 inches in height. A roof is necessary to protect the broilers from rain and direct sunlight. The sides of the pen can be made of wire that can be covered with plastic to protect broilers from cold weather and wind. Also, broilers can be raised successfully on the floor of a shed or garage. Broilers need some form of bedding or litter to help keep them warm and to absorb moisture. Wood shavings, sawdust or rice hulls are good litter choices. More or less the same approaches were done. The floor of the broiler pen was covered with a layer of litter at least 3 to 4 inches deep. 

Brooding:

Since the temperature was very high to suffer the chicks, two tungsten bulbs of 25 watts were used in a brooder. 

Lighting and Fan:

Light should be provided 10 hours a day for broilers. Light (natural and artificial) facilitation increases feeding time, increase weight gain and improve feathering in broilers. During load shedding, no light was used. The bulb was hanged 6 ft. above the broilers.

There were 2 fans which were in operational state, and the facility of fan was provided for 12 hours? time in the initial stage while it was increased to 24 hours later when the chicks grew up. Due to extreme increase in temperature, the provision of fanning daily was done. 

Floor space:

The area of the room was 144ft?. 100 birds were kept per room. Stocking density was 1.44ft? per bird. Generally, broiler requires 0.8 to 1.0 square feet of floor per bird. So, there was no problem regarding floor space in our contest.

Feeding:

Feeding of Ration:

Since feed constitutes about 70 to 80 % of the cost of production broiler, it is important to give special attention. Broilers must be provided proper nutrition for optimum performance to result. Commercial feeds contain adequate nutrition to provide optimal growth.  We should let feed dealer know what type of feed we will need about two weeks before we get chicks. This will ensure that we have fresh, quality feed when chicks arrive. Broilers should be fed a high protein diet to stimulate growth. The starter ration contains 23-24% cp and finisher containing same level of ME i.e. 3200 ME Kcal/kg feed. They can be fed B0 Feed (26% to 30%protein) for the first two weeks. Then, broilers can be switched to a broiler feed (20% to 23% protein) for the remainder of the project. That feed needs to be fresh and high quality. Broiler was fed with three types of ration i.e. broiler starter (B0 and B1) and finisher (B2). The former ration was fed up to 5 week of age and later till marketing. We provided the B0 ration from starting.Then we provided them B1 ration which is about 10 days. we provided them finisher B2 ration to later till marketing.

Feed intake = 3.75 kg per chick (approx.).

Feeding of Supplement:

To prevent from different physiological stress, electrolyte was given through water. For the supplement of energy and to overcome the stress, the chicks were provided with antibiotics (N DOX) and vitamin supplement (Gravit). 

Watering:

Fresh and clean water was supplied through waterers three times a day. In the later period of days, the supply of water was done 4 times a day to minimise the heat stress to the chickens. With water, supplements like vitamins, calcium, etc. were also given.