The term “rural poultry” or “family poultry” in most developing countries is indicative for the traditional, low-input husbandry of domestic poultry (e.g. chicken, duck, pigeon, quail or guinea fowl) that are typically maintained by the rural poor (somewhat similar to backyard chicken on a wider concept), a system having been adopted in Bangladesh for many decades. Sonaiya (2007) defined rural poultry as involving ‘any genetic stock; improved or unimproved that is raised extensively or semi-intensively in relatively small numbers (usually less than 100 at time). Rural poultry production, particularly chickens (followed by duck production) plays a significant role in the socio-economic development of Bangladesh. Almost 90% of all rural families keep a small number of indigenous chicken and duck under traditional free-range semi-scavenging systems. This traditional system is very popular to the villagers, and has been employed for centuries and is likely to remain as such for at least the next few decades. The main feature of this production system is the low-input/output requirements, sometimes generating a quick return on investment. Farmers who cannot afford to keep large animals because of the big investment required can easily maintain a few chickens or ducks within their homestead premises. The contribution of scavenging fowls and ducks in terms of supplying meat and eggs is still believed to be large in Bangladesh’s poultry production, which eventually can be considered as an indispensable mechanism and vehicle to promote the rural economy. A household flock in Bangladesh is usually comprised from two or more varieties of poultry species (i.e. chicken, ducks and/or pigeon). Occasionally farmers keep geese, but quail are mainly kept as a hobby. Depending on the space available, there is wide variation with regard to the number of birds per household. The distribution patterns of different species of poultry on the basis of farm size. Customarily, small numbers of males are maintained in the flock for the sake of fertilization and hatching. This is practical because some farmers erroneously believe that mating is a prerequisite for inducing hens to lay eggs. Accordingly, eggs sold in rural markets are most fertile. Feeding rural poultry is mainly based on scavenging and byproducts. Most rural families provide a small amount of feed twice a day; once in the morning when the birds leave their night shelter and again in the evening when the birds return home. Generally, these feeds include rice polishing, rice bran, broken rice/wheat, kitchen wastes like rice, rice-gruel, vegetables, fish wastes etc. During the scavenging period, domestic fowl consume various types of feed materials that are available around the farmer’s homestead areas. Indigenous ducks, which usually scavenge in the nearby ponds, river, lakes or any other low-lying areas, mainly eat various types of aquatic insects and weeds, shard or snails. Depending on seasonal variations, a variety of insects, cockroaches, earthworms, beetles etc. are consumed by domestic birds. Several varieties of indigenous fowl with distinctive colour characteristics exist in Bangladesh. Among them are the Hilly, Naked neck, Aseel, Yasine and Native dwarf breeds, as well as a non-idiosyncratic typical type recorded so far. However, little is known about their genetic make-up, general characteristics and productive performances. In general, they thrive under harsh nutritional and environmental conditions and are strong enough to prevent themselves or their chicks from predators, well adapted to changes in quality and quantity of nutrients and resistant to common resident diseases. As a part of poverty alleviation activities, a large number of renowned NGOs in Bangladesh have concentrated their efforts on small-scale poultry production involving poor rural women. The Department of Livestock Services (DLS), a government organization responsible for the expansion of the country’s livestock and poultry farming, has provided a special programme, in conjunction with some leading NGOs, to increase family poultry production. Recently, Dhar et al. (2007) fed diets of varying nutrient concentrations to these crossbred birds. They reported that the birds attained 1.18 kg body weight at 20 weeks under a semi-scavenging system of rearing when metabolizable energy, protein, calcium, total phosphorus, lysine and methionine contents in the supplemented diet were 2950 kcal, 160, 11, 12.5, 5.4 and 3.4 g/kg, respectively.