Introduction

The term poultry of course refers to all domesticated birds including ducks, guinea fowl, pigeons, turkeys, geese and so on. However, these notes are necessarily limited to chickens. The other poultry species are each deserving of separate attention elsewhere.

Chicken breeds

We speak of three main categories of chickens in Malawi, these are; local chickens, the ones we see in rural areas; hybrid breeds or 'nkhuku yachizungu' which are commercial breeds - the ones we see in restaurants in the larger towns and cities; and Black Australorp or Mikolongwe chickens - the ones regularly distributed by government poultry farms such as Mikolongwe, Bwemba or Choma.

A local chicken with chicks.