poultry

Why More People Are Choosing to Keep Poultry

It has recently become a popular trend to keep poultry as a kind of hobby or a natural source of food. There are many different theories as to why keeping poultry is becoming both a hobby and a life-long investment. It seems as if people are getting in touch with an age gone by. Craft-making and other similar activities have also been on the up-rise.

One of the reasons for this new phenomenon is the simple fact that people are becoming more educated on animal cruelty. Displays of animal cruelty are more prominent and easy accessible across the media and noticeable online. Vegetarianism has been on the rise for the past decade and many of these people aspire to 'save' the animals by keeping chickens in their backyard.

Also, since the ban of battery farming there has been many charities appearing and their soul aim is to re-house these forgotten hens. Amazing figures have been released that state the interest in adopting hens has soared exponentially from 5,000 annual rehoming's in 2005 to up to 60,000.

Upon the petitions to stop animal cruelty, more people have latched onto this craze by purely purchasing free-range eggs. As sales soared for this specific type of eggs, organic eggs then became the next step and now people want them from their own gardens. Many poultry keepers say that there is 'no going back once you have tasted those sunset-coloured yolks'.

Along with this, TV chefs like Jamie Oliver and other various cooking programmes have displayed the benefits of having naturally sourced eggs. This influence from famous and trusted food experts has spurred a revolution against the ready-prepared, commercial products. With this, Tesco have even started selling their own chicken coops as if to show their support.

Despite the obvious inspiration of keeping poultry from the animal cruelty act and similar topics there are also some other reasonable reasons why this is becoming 'fashionable'. With the recession still in our midst many are aiming to save as much money as possible by choosing a more natural way of supplying food for the home. Organic food is a lot more expensive from the supermarket - but not if you are getting it from your own backyard.

Although there are many beneficial reasons why people would want to keep poultry - they also make fantastic pets. With over half a million chicken keepers in the UK there is no denying the fact that they can act similarly to a dog or another household pet. It has also been known that sitting in the garden and watching them cluck away is extremely soothing and relaxing. Maybe this is a good thing for the economy.

Jade Jennison is an enthusiastic writer in many subject matters and aims to provide information to people who share the same interests as her own. The websites recommended by Jade have been thoroughly researched and come highly acclaimed from direct experience. If you are one of the many who are choosing to keep poultry then visit Snack and Tack for a fantastic selection of cheappoultry supplies.

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All breed pedigree

Poultry Pedigrees

There are numerous pedigree services available to nearly all domesticated animals except poultry, until now.

With the large number of fowl kept by serious breeders such as breeders of Gamefowl it has not been feasible for a breeder to register each individual bird with a pedigree service that charges a fee for each registration. International Poultry Breeders Association is the first pedigree service available for all poultry breeds and it is free to register and free to enter all your individual birds.

The International Poultry Breeders Association was established to give poultry breeders of all breeds of feathered fowl including our beloved Gamefowl, a way of organizing and maintaining a record of ancestral breeding.

We support the rights of the breeders to own, breed, and market their choice of poultry breeds internationally. The right to improve on breeds through selective breeding from a widely available and diverse gene pool from which to choose from as to bring the individual breeders vision of perfection within his chosen breed to fruition and would also help with the marketability of those breeds of poultry not only nationally but also internationally to increase the populations of those breeds which is the main method used to prevent the extinction of a breed or species. We feel that the IPBA will eventually increase in membership and help to bring ever increasingly rare breeds into the forefront in the hopes of keeping them out of the endangered breeds list which seems to be the ultimate goal of certain organized groups operating within the United States.

With the IPBA's goal of having a large database of fowl that the breeders can use to increase the chances of finding a line of fowl that can enhance traits that the breeders are seeking to incorporate into their own lines.

Goals that have been set for the IPBA

To promote and protect all pure bred poultry breeds and breeders.
To work alongside all recognized poultry organizations with the promotion and protection of the many different breeds and varieties of all purebred fowl.
To promote and encourage poultry shows as being the preferred method of educating both, breeders, young and old and the general public, in taking up poultry as a hobby and industry.
To assist, encourage and help educate the junior poultry man to the sound and practical value of standard-bred poultry and pure breeding.

In pursuit of these goals, IPBA encourages sanctioned poultry shows internationally.

In our online system, your bird's ancestors would be entered along with the siblings and offspring of all entered birds.
Each pedigree profile has a details page where you would enter particular information that you as the breeder feels is vital to retain for future reference when judging past matings and when considering future matings.

With proper breeding records you should be able to answer four (4) questions.
1) Who are its ancestors and what have been their breeding and productive performances?
2) Who are its brothers and sisters and what were their breeding and productive performances?
3) To which individual bird has it been mated to in the past?
4) What were the results of those matings?

The first question deals with the previous generations, the second and third deal with the individual birds own generation and lastly, the fourth is used to determine future generations,

The website is http://www.featheredfamilies.com and it is up and running right now, at this moment, we have been online for only one week and have 60 registered members from the United States, Germany and the Philippines, 25 total pedigrees entered and nearly 1,000 visitors to our site. We have the support of The American Gamefowl Breeders Association, The American Game Bantam Club, The Belgian d 'Uccle and Booted Bantam clubs, to help get the word out to all of their members through newsletters and emails to the importance of having a record keeping program in place.

Anthony Troy Guillory, along with his wife Margaret have created the International Poultry Breeders Association located at http://www.featheredfamilies.com

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