Can you do a successful indigenous chicken business anywhere in Africa?The answer is yes.Can you reap profits from it? Of course you can? Is it complicated? Not at all but you need enough capital to start it.
First things first. Most farmers fail in this sector because they fail to plan. If you fail to plan then you are planning to fail.Do you know where farmers fail most? They start their projects without the end in mind.
Today I will describe how you can rear 1200 indigenous chicken/village chicken/kienyeji chicken in a year successfully without a headache.With this method you can be churning out 200 birds every month for sale and laugh all the way to the bank.
The first thing is that you should have a plan. As you know broiler farmers plan for their batch of birds every 6weeks,pig farmers every 5 mths, beef farmers every 2 years,rabbit farmers every 4-5mths.
Indigenous chicken are ready for meat at about 6 months and are sold at between shs.20,000 for hens and Shs. 30,000 to 40,000 for cockerels.
With indigenous chicken you will need to have a 6 months plan if you are to have 200 mature chicken for sale every month.You need to have a foundation stock(parent stock)which will be giving you eggs every 21 days for incubation.This is where you will get your parent stock or you can buy from a very good source free from diseases.
Take note than the cockerel for the parent birds need replacement after one year while hens can be replaced after two years.You will have to be patient with this business since indigenous chicken are slow growers unlike hybrid chicken and improved indigenous chicken.Before getting your return on investments(R.O.I) you will have to sweat that is undeniable but after you start selling your chicken you will remember me. Get out your pen and paper,fasten your seatbelts and travel with me to chicken kingdom.
You need a well constructed house.They will need a spacing of 1 square feet per bird. During the day they will be roaming outside so you need a chicken run with a good fence to prevent predators and thieves.The measurement of the house will be 60ft by 20ft and 8ft high from the floor to the roof.
The poultry house will be partitioned to measure 20 by 10ft so you have 6 compartments and each compartment will have its individual run outside. Construct using readily available material. You can use mud, bricks, iron sheets or timber.
In the first month you will have the first batch of 200 chicken which you brood in the first house.Release them outside in the run after 2 months. The second month you have another batch of 200 chicken.You do this till the 6th month when you will start harvesting the first batch of mature chicken.
You need an incubator that can hatch 200 chicks every 21 days. Inorder to make this venture more profitable and avoid high costs of production(feeds take 70%)you can make your own feeds. You need feed ingredients such as
Whole maize = 34 kg
Soya bean = 12 kg
Omena = 8 kg
Maize/wheat bran = 10 kg
Lime = 6 kg
This will make 70kgs of feed. During the first 2mths the chicks will consume about 1.5kgs of feeds.That will be around 300kgs of feed for 2mths or 4 bags of 70kgs feed. At 3mths release them in the run and feed them on half of commercial feeds and vegetable remains and grains such as millet and broken wheat or grounded maize .From 3-6mths they should have fed on 1000kgs or 14 bags of 70kgs feed(each bird feeding on 5kgs for 4mths).
Your birds are now mature at 6 months and you have batches following at 5mths, 4mths, 3mths, 2mths and 1month. You sell your first batch and bring in a new batch to maintain the cycle. Each month you will be selling birds.
Deduct feeds and other variables like drugs,vet services and vaccines. It is good money by any standards. The biggest costs when starting this project will be housing costs and feeds.From the second year you will have made enough profits after investing and reinvesting and you can expand your business.
I believe nothing is impossible if you are committed. Chicken farming can employ you and can lift you to unprecedented heights of greatness and wealth.Let me not hear you say it can’t be done. It can be done and you know it.
Contact Jaguza Support