It is chick season and backyard poultry keepers are looking to start their flocks for eggs, meat, or 4-H youth livestock projects. Tim McDermott, ANR Educator in Franklin County, has created a Backyard Poultry Online Certificate Course to train the new to intermediate poultry keeper.  You can find it HERE or at go.osu.edu/chicken

Backyard Poultry Certificate Course $25

For a variety of reasons, there is an increase in interest in keeping backyard poultry. Backyard flocks provide the opportunity for people in rural and urban areas alike to produce tasty eggs and meat for personal and family food security. You might want egg layers. You might want to raise meat birds for a harvest in your freezer. You might even have a youth interested in raising chickens for their 4-H or FFA project, as these lower maintenance livestock can be kept in a fraction of the space for a fraction of the cost when compared to other species.

Whatever your reason for raising poultry, this course is designed to provide you with the knowledge and resources you will need to get your backyard flock off to a great start.

This self-paced course is expected to take 2-3 hours to complete and includes the following 6 modules:

• Getting Started
• Brooding, Basic Husbandry & Nutrition
• Housing
• Egg Production
• Maximizing Health
• Biosecurity