INTRODUCTION
My
project is on chickens. Most people take for granted the luxury of being able to
buy chicken meat and eggs at most shops.
Chickens are wholesome, good for you and hygienic. there is a large amount of chicken eaten in Queensland. Chickens are a member of the poultry family and they have beaks, feet, feathers and a crest.
HISTORY
The chicken industry is very young in Australia as it is only 40 years old. The
original home of domestic fowl is South Western Asia. Charles Darwin considered chickens
descendants of a single wild species, the red jungle fowl. During the past 20
years, the amount of chicken meat eaten in Australia has increased to the
present level of 30kg per person per year.
HOW IT IS
RAISED
In Queensland, meat chickens are raised on fresh clean bedding of wood shaving,
sawdust, shredded paper or any other suitable material, in large steel sheds.
Egg chickens can either be kept in a battery or can be free range birds. In a battery, thousands of hens are kept in separate cages, stacked up in a large building. They are kept in artificial light which encourages them to lay more eggs. Their food and water are fed to them automatically.
Free range hens usually have a special house that can be moved with them as they are transferred from field to field.
New sheds generally are tunnel ventilated. Automatically operated curtains close the side walls of the house and large fans at one end draw air through the length of the house. One advantage of free range chickens is that you get better, tastier eggs with deeper coloured yolks and more vitamins. A disadvantage is that you need more land.
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Here are some types of chickens. |
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Ancona Chicken |
Andalusian |
Australorp |
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Hamburgs |
Leghorns |
Sussex |
HOW IT IS HARVESTED
When the chickens are ready for processing, they are caught by hand or by
a special machine, placed in the crates which are lifted by forklift to semi
trailers which are parked outside the sheds and they they are transported to the
processing plant doe slaughter. They harvest the eggs in free-range sheds
by just picking them up.
All female birds lay eggs. If the bird has mated with a male, a baby bird develops inside each egg she lays. The bird sits on the eggs until the chicks hatch out. You are not killing a chick when you eat an egg. Hens on egg farms are not mated with a male, so there are no chicks inside the eggs.
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Here are some chicken relatives! |
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USES FOR THE PRODUCT
Chickens are used for meat and eggs. The chickens who are the meat breeders are
bred for their meat. You often see chicken meat in fast food giants such as Red
Rooster, MacDonald's, KFC and Hungry Jacks. An egg giant such as Sunny Queen
Eggs is a large company in Queensland which sells eggs of all sizes. There are
51 664 000 chickens bred for meat in Australia and
12 844 000 for eggs.
BY-PRODUCTS
Some by products of the chicken and chicken eggs are pavlova - it has egg
whites. Pate has chicken liver in it. People use chicken bones as flavouring for
soup and dog and cat food often has chicken meat in it as it tastes nice and is
healthy for the animal.
EXPORTS
The chicken industry for meat produces about 55 million chickens annually and
makes 70 000 tonnes of meat. In economic terms, the value of chicken meat to
Queensland is about $150 million per year and it creates employment for about 4
000 people.
Company or contract growers produce about 97% of total production, the 3% comes from independent growers.
In 1998, the estimated total market value of commercial; chicken farms on
Queensland was $160 million dollars. They export chicken eggs to New Zealand.
CONCLUSION
There are three areas of poultry farming in Queensland. Two of the three major
areas are the chicken meat industry and the commercial egg industry. The third
id the fancy poultry and birds that you see at shows.
Since the chicken industry is young, it ahs a chance to grow and develop.
Chicken meat is a popular substitute for red meat and this will help to develop
the industry.
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