Imphal, December 20 2008: Till date , Department of Animal Sciences has availed Giriraja breed of chicks to around 35,000 to 40,000 people in the State.

Giriraja breed of chicken is a hybrid of Broiler, fighting cock and Layer.

The Department started rearing Giriraja chicks after some chicks were brought from Bangalore in 2006-07 .

Head of Animal Sciences Department Prof M Dhaneshwar said that the Department has 3000 Giriraja hens at present.

These hens lay 350 to 400 eggs daily.

A Giriraja cock weighs up to 5.5 kg in just 100 days.

A fully grown hen weighs around 3 kg, he said.

Saying that the Department has its own auto incubator, Dhaneshwar said that the incubator has the capacity of 1650 eggs.

Out of these eggs, 1200 chickens would be hatched after 21 days.

At present, eggs are put in the incubator every Thursday while hatched chicks are removed every Friday, he informed.

Giriraja chicks have been sold in most of the districts besides availing the chicks to KVK sub-centres, ICAR and other training centres.

Eggs for incubation are sold at Rs 5 per egg.

For consumption, it costs Rs 4 per egg.

One day old chicks are sold at Rs 20 per head while those seven days old are sold at Rs 27 per head, Dhaneshwar said.

Giriraja breed of chicken is suited to the climatic condition of Manipur and can be reared just like the local chicken with husks and vegetables once they start growing, Dhaneshwar said.

One unique characteristic of Giriraja is that they can be reared like Broilers or Layers depending on the manner they are reared.

For this, the Department of Animal Sciences, CAU gives training to prospective poultry farmers one day before they are given chicks.

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