THE GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF NATIVE CHICKENS AS AFFECTED BY THE DIFFERENT LEVELS OF LIMA BEAN (Phaseolus lunatus) SEED MEAL MIXED IN COMMERCIAL RATION

The study on the growth performance of native chicken affected by the different levels of lima bean seed meal, 0, 5, and 10%, mixed with commercial ration was conducted to measure specifically their effects in terms of feed consumption, weight gain, feed conversion ratio, mortality rate and income over feed and chick costs. A Complete Randomized Design (CRD) was used in the study with three treatments replicated three times. Treatments used were chick grower crumble (T1), chick grower crumble with 5% LBSM (T2), and chick grower crumble with 10% LBSM (T3). There were four birds in each replication. The differences among treatments on feed consumption, weight gain and feed conversion ratio was found out not significant. Throughout the conduct of the study, there was no mortality recorded. Cost and return analysis showed that native chickens fed without LBSM in the ration have the highest economic returns.