The Growth Performance of Indigenous Kenyan Chickens Fed Diets Containing Different Levels of Protein during Rearing

A study was conducted to investigate the growth response of indigenous chickens in Kenya offered ad libitum diets with 18%, 20%, 22% or 24% crude protein. The body weights of the birds were recorded weekly and used in statistical analysis to determine the effect of the diets, using covariance analysis to adjust for the effect of the proportion of males in each pen. There was a significant effect only in the early growth stages, when diets of a higher protein level gave better growth than diets with less protein. This advantage was later lost. Adjusting for the differences in the proportion of males was important for determining the dietary effect.