The study was done with objective of assessing production, reproduction performance and marketing system of village chickens in eastern and south eastern zone of Tigray region. Three districts covering two peasant associations (PA) were selected purposely based on chicken potential. About 178 households having experience on chicken production were interviewed. Therefore, the breed compositions were 8.60 locals, 5.46 exotic and 5.38 crossbred chickens per household. Private chicken houses were made of stone wall with 76.8% grass/soil roof, 9.2% corrugated iron, 2.8% made of wooden with grass roof and corrugated iron, and 8.5% with gabion. About 98.9% and 99.4% of farmers provided supplementary feed and water to chickens respectively. There was similar performance (P>0.05) of chickens in age at first service, age at first lay and egg production in the districts, except local chickens took them longer time (P<0.05) to lay eggs in Hawzen (6.17 months) than chickens of D/temben (5.71 months) and H/wajera (5.5 months), though there was no difference (P>0.05) of performance between Hawzena and D/temben, and D/temben and H/wajerat districts. Similarly, cockerels mature at the age of 5.64, 5.96 and 5.06 months and pullets mature at 5.79, 5.91 and 5.21 months age for local, exotic and crossbred respectively. The egg production/hen/year was 95.25, 272.15 and 174.7 for local, exotic and crossbred chickens at all districts. Farmers sell eggs and chickens in the local market with seasonal price variation, lack of capital and price depend on plumage color as the major problems. Similarly, farmers purposely keep chickens and eggs for cash, consumption and hatching. Therefore, it is important to characterize the village chicken production and marketing system and forward possible solutions to get maximum benefit from the sector.

Keywords: Characterization. Egg production. Marketing system. Village chicken.