Poultry

What is this Project About?

Explore the poultry industry, including turkeys, chickens, ducks, geese, pheasants, guinea hens, pigeons or quail. Learn about species and breeds, eggs, feather features, health, feeding, handling, washing, managing a flock, ethics, showing and careers.

Grow in Your Project

Starting Out

  • Learn the different types of birds and what they’re used for
  • Identify different breeds
  • Locate and name parts of a bird
  • Learn proper feeding techniques
  • Learn about poultry conformation

Learning More

  • Learn about chick imprinting
  • Explore flock pecking order
  • Learn to read a feed tag
  • Explore poultry products
  • Learn about carcass grading
  • Discover how an egg is formed

Going Further

  • Construct a poultry skeleton
  • Manage your own laying flock
  • Learn about poultry genetics
  • Explore biotechnology
  • Learn to process chickens
  • Learn about food safety
  • Investigate poultry related careers

Take Your Project Further!

  • Tour a poultry farm
  • Attend a poultry show and observe the judge and their techniques
  • Design a business card or marketing brochure for your farm or imaginary farm
  • Write an educational article about some aspect of poultry production for your newspaper
  • Organize a poultry showmanship contest
  • Attend a national poultry conference
  • Ride with a local veterinarian to learn about animal health
  • Visit a local grocery store to learn proper meat handling techniques
  • Visit a hatchery
  • Order eggs from a hatchery and hatch your own chickens or other poultry

Resources