The study was conducted in Bako Tibe and Dano districts of Oromia region, Ethiopia with the objectives to identify indigenous chicken production, husbandry and breeding practices and farmer’s traits preference of chickens. Data were collected using semi-structured formal questionnaires and focus group discussions. A total of 119 households (60 from Bako Tibe and 59 from Dano district), were randomly selected using a multi-stage sampling technique. The study revealed that extensive and semi-extensive chicken management systems were practiced and the majority of the respondents (74%) practices extensive management systems with supplementation of home grown grains. Egg consumption, chick sale and meat consumption were main purpose of keeping indigenous chicken in BakoTibe and Dano districts. The result indicates that majority of the respondent (87.43%) were practiced selection of hens and cocks for breeding purposes emphasizing on production of a high number of eggs, body size, brooding ability, leg length to select hens whereas body size, growth rate, leg length, comb shape in their order of importance to select breeding cocks. Selection of these traits indicates that, egg and meat production were the major aims of the farmer to raises chickens in the study districts. Generally, chicken production is an important economic activity to improve the livelihood of the smallholder households therefore farmers should have got continuous training to formulate balanced poultry ration from locally available feed resources and awareness creation would be needed to vaccinate their chickens before the occurrence of disease out out-break to improve the current husbandry practices and increase chicken production potential in the study area.

Keywords: Livelihood, multi-stage sampling, production objectives, supplementation, trait preference