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/ local 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 6 weeks, pig farmers every 5 months, beef farmers every 2 years,rabbit farmers every 4-5 months.
Indigenous chicken are ready for meat at about 6 months and are sold at between 20,000 Ugx and 35,000 Ugx.
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.If you remember very well in my previous article I had talked of how to raise 300 chicken every year using 10 hens and 2 cocks.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(I will come for a meal of chicken thighs). Get out your pen and paper, fasten your seat-belts and travel with me to chicken kingdom.
You have your foundation stock (around 250 hens. 24 cocks included therein. A ratio of 1 cock to 8 hens is recommended). Indigenous chicken have higher demand than hybrid chicken when it comes to meat because of the great taste and most people are going organic nowadays.
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. In order 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 70 kgs of feed. During the first 2 months the chicks will consume about 1.5 kgs of feeds.That will be around 300 kgs of feed for 2 months or 4 bags of 70 kgs feed. At 3 months 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 3-6 months they should have fed on 1,000 kgs or 14 bags of 70 kgs feed(each bird feeding on 5 kgs for 4 months).
When it comes to vaccination,the vaccines to consider are:Newcastle disease vaccine and fowl pox vaccine. In the first week vaccinate your chicks against newcastle disease(buy newcastle lasota vaccine 200 doses),repeat newcastle vaccine on the third and 5th week. At 4 weeks for fowl pox vaccine buy 200 doses. Repeat fowl pox vaccine at 6 weeks and newcastle plain at 16 weeks.Notice that indigenous chicken are resistant to most diseases but this does not mean you avoid proper hygiene and good biosecurity measures.
Your birds are now mature at 6 months and you have batches following at 5 months, 4 months, 3 months, 2 months and 1 month. You sell your first batch and bring in a new batch to maintain the cycle. Each month you will be selling birds.
Let’s do a little math: Your birds fed on 4 bags for 2 months and 14 bags for 4 months. In total you used 18 bags. Suppose a bag of home made feed is 60,000 Ugx ($15) you will have spend 1,026,000 Ugx ($270) on feed alone. Suppose you lose 10% of your birds from day one to maturity. You remain with 180 birds. Let’s say you have 90 hens and 90 cocks and sell hens at 20,000 Ugx ($6) and cockerels at 30,000 Ugx ($8) You get 4,500,000 Ugx ($1,184).
Deduct feeds and other variables like drugs, vet services and vaccines and you have not less than 2,240,000 Ugx ($700) per month. 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.