...’Cross bred chickens are tastier’

From Adamu Saleh, Gombe

Local poultry farmers in Gombe State who breed their chicken at home for both local consumption and commercial purposes, said the best way to get enhanced chicken meat and good eggs is through cross breeding the local and foreign chicken, also known as agric chicken.

Bello Mahmoud Ibrahim, a Gombe based poultry farmer, said cross breeding the exotic breed of chicken with the local one enhances production, saying when you cross breed the two varieties you will get larger than the normal chicken.

“As the chicken becomes big so its meat will be very sweet. The ones you cross bred will be bigger in size and they lay more eggs than the two earlier varieties before the cross breeding,” he said.

Another farmer, Ramatu Joseph, said cross breeding the exotic chicken and the ecotype is good and will improve the chicken in terms of meat, laying of eggs and even in the way they breed.

She said the major difference between the crossed bred and the exotic variety is in the sweetness of their meat. The exotic chicken’s meat is not as sweet as the ecotype chicken, thereby making the crossed bred sweeter than the exotic chicken.

She said the variety produced through cross breeding are stronger than the exotic chicken and can withstand any rough handling.

She added: “Another advantage of the crossed bred variety is that with enough feed, they can lay more eggs.”