how to start a chicken farm

How to start a chicken farm

It's one thing to start a chicken farm, but to start an actual business out of it is something else entirely. You are not only going to become a chicken farmer, but a businessperson as well, depending on what markets you want to target and what part of the chicken industry you want to tap into. In the chicken industry there are two main sectors: Layers, which are chickens bred and raised to produce eggs, or broilers, chickens raised and bred to be slaughtered. Whatever sector you choose, you have to make responsible managerial and financial decisions to make your chicken farm business a profitable one.

Steps

1.       Formulate a business plan. This is one of the most important things to draw up as part of your operation. It tells of what goals you wish to achieve and how you intend to get there. It's also a plan of how you want to operate your business from not just a producer's standpoint, but the banker's, lawyer's, accountant's and even possibly the hired hand's stand point.

2.       Have land, capital and equipment. You cannot start up nor maintain a chicken farm or a chicken farming business without these dire necessities. You will need buildings to raise your chickens in, whether they be barns or hutches depending on how you are wanting to raise your chickens: conventional or free-range? Land is to have the buildings on and to grow crops on to feed your chickens. Equipment and machinery are needed to clean barns, dispose of deadstock, work crops, etc.

3.       Make a decision how to best raise your chickens. There are two main ways to raise them. Conventional systems have chickens confined to barns that are temperature and photo-period controlled areas. Free-range systems allow your chickens to just about have the run of the farm to behave as naturally as possible.

 Decide what sectors of the poultry industry you wish to pursue. Ultimately there are two types to choose from: broilers, which are chickens raised for meat, or layers--chickens raised for their eggs. However, there are also the other sectors of the industry that you can pursue. Eggs which are not to be put on the market for human consumption (these can be from both broilers and layers) are incubated and the chicks hatched and raised until they are at the right age to be sold to farms to be raised as layers or broilers. Often the business of incubating eggs and raising chicks is separate from that of raising the chickens themselves. There is also the part of slaughtering chickens for meat that is a separate sector in itself you may wish to pursue.

4.      Many chicken farms (primarily those that are not conventional) have more than one sector of the chicken farming business to operate. Whether you wish to operate all sectors or just one or two is your choice.

5.       Find a niche market, if possible. If the area you are in is popular for raising chickens a certain way (more conventional than free-range), you may wish to pursue a niche market that targets the consumer's interest in free-range chickens rather than the conventionally-raised ones.

6.       Make yourself known to potential customers and consumers. Advertise yourself by simply letting other people know you have eggs or meat you want to sell. Often selling by word-of-mouth is a lot cheaper and still the most popular means of advertising than paying for an advertisement in the local newspaper that may get read by only a few people. However, there is no harm in doing that either, nor is there any harm in setting up a website promoting your product.

7.       Keep up with records and accounting of your business and operation. This is so that you can always tell if you are making money or not.

8.       Raise your animals in accordance with local, state/provincial and federal law.

How to start poultry farm business in Nigeria

Have you been thinking about poultry farming? Maybe you have passion for poultry farming business? Then you’re in the right place. There have been many who have written about this business in summary form. These will be as detailed as possible, to inform you on what you need to start the business of poultry farming in Nigeria.

Poultry farming is one of the lucrative business in Nigeria. The business is experiencing an unprecedented growth as more Nigerians are turning away from eating smuggled bird due to health concerns.

 

Why choose poultry farming business

 There is increase in consumption of local poultry product than imported ones. This is evident due to growing health concerns in smuggled imported poultry product.

According to National Agency For Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC), they observed that there is a break in cold chain during transportation of imported poultry. As microbes begin to work on the meat. Due to the poor way of transporting this product, there is increase in local poultry consumption.

o With increase effort and crackdown on fish smugglers by the Nigerian government means less smuggled poultry and more business opportunities for local farmers.

o Demand for poultry product is increasing daily due to increase number of restaurants, hotels, suya spot, social gatherings, religious gatherings, political gathering etc.

o The business can be started from the backyard of your house. However, it’s the space that will determine the number you’ll need stock.

o The poultry droppings (faeces) are another source of income as it can be sold to farmers as organic fertilizer. This can augment some of the losses incurred.

Types of poultry bird

In poultry farm there are three types of bird. They’re broilers, cockerels and layers.

Broiler and cockerel

Broilers and cockerel are food meat product. That is they’re grown to be consume as meat. For the broiler bird, it takes a minimum of 6-8 weeks depending on the breed to get to table size. Broilers are sold between 1200-2000 depending on the size and your location. The advantage of broilers over cockerel is the growth to table size is fast.

For cockerel, they need at least six month to be ready for the market. The advantage of cockerels over broilers is you can feed them with the desired poultry feed for 4-6 weeks and continue feeding with the normal food you’re feeding local bird.

Layers

Layers are the type of poultry bird that lay eggs. A layer takes a minimum of 19nweeks to start laying. A single layer production cycle last from 52-56 weeks. That is just over a year. A crate can be sold for 650 naira. The layers can also be sold after their laying cycle is complete as spent layers between 800-1200.

 

Factors affecting poultry farming

 Poor breed will not give you theØ desired outcome at the end of the day. No matter how you feed their will still be little improvement. These have affected many poultry farms especially small scale farmers because of the adulteration of the bird by middle men. The main problem is at day old, it’ll be difficult to know the breed. Always buy day old from reputable farms.

 It’s difficult to raise these birdsØ without mortality. According to standards, 5% mortality is expected, anything beyond that, then consult an expert.

 Poor ventilation can lead to their dead especially during hot weather.Ø

Steps for starting poultry business

Step #1: choose your poultry type

As mentioned above, there are three basic poultry type. Take your time to choose the type you think you can start with. For a beginner, I recommend starting the farm by using a single product. This gives you focus and practically learn how the farm works. Remember broilers need 7-8 weeks to grow to table size, cockerels 6 months and layers at least 19 weeks to begin laying.

Step #2: Acquire and prepare your space

If possible, acquire a land that can meet your demand for today and future. This is to enable you expand with little stress. Once you bought the land, fence and construct your poultry house. The most important is constructing a house that can have cross ventilation. Poor ventilation might lead to their mortality.

If you’re using a spare room in your backyard or have even finish constructing your poultry house, then move to preparing the space by disinfecting the place using strong disinfectants at most two days to the arrival of the bird, putting necessary majors to prevent rodents and lizard from entering the house and so on.

Your space determines the number of bird to stock.

Step #3: acquire the knowledge

There is nothing wrong in trying to know more. The number one thing that is affecting most poultry farm is poor farm management. Learning proper management like changing the water or food when there is faecal contamination reduces the chances of disease, cleaning places where there is water spillage which reduces the breeding of germs which causes diseases to this bird are all management methods. Getting to know them will help you great deal.

Step #4: Target market

There are poultry farmers who are seasonal farmers and maybe you want to be one. They stock there bird to target festive period. For instance, a farmer targeting Christmas will stock broilers at the end of October so that by the third week of December, they’re ready for the market. Who you target will determine how frequent you stock. For those who choose layers, their market will be all year round since layers requires more than 52 weeks for the laying cycle to complete.

In my opinion and base on what I’ve seen, the demand for both meat and egg is not a seasonal thing. That is to say there is market for the product at any time.

Step #5: What it takes

When it comes to poultry farming business the following are required.

Feeders

The feeders are of two types the big one and the small one. The big one is sold at 500-700, while the small ones at 170-200.

Drinkers

Like feeders, there are big drinkers which can cost about 500-700 and the small ones between 170-200.

Feed

Let’s assume we’re stocking 100 birds, for broilers, you’ll need 16-20 bags of 25kg feed to feed them from day old to table size.

For layers, you’ll need 35-40 25kg bags to raise 100 layer birds to point of lay.

For cockerels, you’ll need 3 bags to raise them to the point where you can start feeding them with local food.

The prices for feed vary from one company to another. Choose the feed you’ll use. I personally have used vital feed and livestock with great success. There are other feed around that are equally good.

If you’re raising 100 poultry bird, you’ll need about six feeders and four drinkers. This is to ensure equal growth as both small and big bird will feed with little stress.