What is it All 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
Resources
- Scratching the Surface, Level 1 (06363)*
- Testing Your Wings, Level 2 (06364)*
- Flocking Together, Level 3 (06365)*
- Poultry Helper’s Guide (06366)*
*Resources available at your local Extension office or shop4-H.org.
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
Applying Project Skills to Life
Enhance Your Communication Skills
- Give a demonstration on how to prepare poultry food products
- Design a poster on parts of a bird
Get Involved in Citizenship and Service
- Donate eggs to a local food pantry
- Volunteer your bird for a local petting zoo
- Build an incubator and hatch chicks in an elementary classroom or daycare
Learn about Leadership
- Lead a poultry selection and feeding clinic
- Invite 4-H members to tour your poultry operation
- Conduct an egg judging event for your club
Showing What You’ve Learned
- Participate in a 4-H poultry show
- Make an egg laying box
- Research and design the best chicken coop layout
- Make your own chicken coop
- Make a poultry historical timeline
- Make a poster on the nutritive value of poultry
- Do a display on meat cuts and proper preparation
- Make a poster on feeding rations
- Photos of different breeds
- Video interview with a poultry producer
- Show poultry by-products
- Create a recipe book, display, or presentation with egg or chicken recipes
- Create an exhibit, notebook, or display discussing food safety and poultry products
- Build your own incubator
- Make a display of different types of feathers
Adapted with permission from Wyoming State 4-H, Project Information Sheet, Poultry. Retrieved from: https://www.uwyo.edu/4-h/projects/animal-science/poultry.html.
