HOW TO START A GOOD POULTRY FARM

Poultry Farming

Agriculture also called farming or husbandry according to wikipedia is the cultivation of animals, plants, food and other product used to sustain life. In this article, we will be looking at poultry farming, how to set up and operate a profitable poultry farm anywhere in the world regardless of where you are.

In this article, we will be looking at poultry farming, how to set up and operate

a profitable poultry farm in Nigeria making over million Naira or more yearly.

Poultry farming has become one of the most important aspects of agriculture in Nigeria for some reasons.

1. It create business opportunity for Entrepreneurs

2. It provides employment for job seeking citizens

3. It is the kind of business that can never dry up

4. It brings in lot of income

Chicken and its product (Egg) is one of the most pretentious food or meat in the world which we all agree to i think. You and I need the proteins derived from chicken to maintain healthy living. It is generally believed that every child needs not less than an egg a day for their normal growth while every adult needs like ten in a week; Poultry also provides meat for delicacies.

No tribe,religion or any country forbids chicken meat. Everyone likes it, that's why poultry products sell very fast and in high demand.

Apart from chicken been used as food, poultry farming is so much profitable. A good poultry farmer earns above N15 million per annum depending on how big the farm is. All these benefits are open to you if you start your own poultry farm today.

There are basically three types of chicken. They are:

1. The pullets popularly known as Layers: Layers are reared for egg production and most lucrative but more stressing compare to the other once.

2. The Broiler Chicken: Broilers are reared for meat production; The Broilers grows very faster and are ready for sale at 12 weeks from hatch.

3. The third is the cockerel: This is also reared for meat production. . Cockerels grow slower and can take up to twenty four weeks before they are matured for marketing.

Cockerels are reliable in terms of survival and withstanding bad weathers. They are more resilient, and can absorb shocks far better than Layers and Broilers.

Poultry farming requires having the right knowledge to be able to the right things to get the right result. It requires hard work and prompt attention to details. Poultry Farming is little capital intensive but if you are starting on a micro scale (Home back yard) where you have a small space at your back yard, it is not. I can say, starting small is the best way to enter and learn the business. If you wants to start on a higher scale, You need to prepare for this It’s all like trading money to make more money but be assured to get back whatever amount you invested in the business in multiple times within a short period of time.

Some people have the money to invest into the business but have no time to supervise the farm, instead they get people to operate it for them. Having money to set up the business is really not the problem but the problem is to have the knowledge of the business and that is what makes the business to succeed. If you are the kind that have the money but not much time, ensure that the person you give it to manage for you have the knowledge to know what to do at the right time. Be sure that he can be trusted; if you are not sure of the trust, please just keep your money in a fixed account.

Before you venture into poultry farming business in Nigeria, you need to seat back and do proper calculation and planning; make sure you have idea of all the costs involved.

In this article, I'll be endeavor to give you the ideas of what is involved so you can build upon it; through commenting, people can as well add their own ideas and findings to compliment the write up. So, I hope to make this article as simple as I can, and as we keep adding updates it may end up becoming one stop destination on information about poultry farming in Nigeria!

Currently they seem to be no high poultry farms in Nigeria like the ones we used to see in Europe, USA and other counties. Any investors who have the needed capital to venture into it will have reasons to smile within a short period of time. Till now, Nigeria still import chicken from other countries because the ones the local farmers produces are not enough to meet the demand of the over 180 Million citizens.

There is certainly huge market for poultry rearing in Nigeria but the question is: Who will take advantage of the opportunity in the industry to create wealth. Remember, the very successful and huge companies in the world also started from somewhere. Now, if you ready to get started in poultry farming, these are the basic requirements you need to set up your farm.

Listed below are the requirements

LAND:

The no 1 thing you need to get is a land. A plot of land of 120 x 60 square meters is okay for setting up medium scale poultry farm in Nigeria, at least for a start. Once you have a land that is big enough for your farm set up, almost half of your needs have been taken care of. Land is the hardest and the most expensive part of poultry business in Nigeria most especially, places like Lagos, Abuja and some other big city.

You may not be allowed to carry out Poultry farming in populated environment or residents due to the smell that is associated with poultry rearing and the subsequent health impact, my advice is that you look for land in a rural area or in farms. There you will get lands cheaper, stays out of trouble and do your production there, while your products will be transported to the urban area for sell.

It will be good if you can get your own poultry farm land and build a permanent farm rather than to rent. When you rent, the owner might decide to send you packing and relocating always comes with huge cost.

Chicken Cage:

is the second most important part of your poultry farm set up and it is not as expensive as buying or acquiring a land. There are so many ways you can build the birds house but make sure that the sizes of the building is spacious enough for the chicken to run around.

The house should be constructed in a way that you will be able to control the ventilation and air movement. Get a qualified engineer to do designing and building for you if you are going for large scale construction. Else, you can just visit any good poultry farm to see how the house is constructed.

When planning out your chicken house, always remember that space is very important. Don't compromise on this to avoid frequent loss of your birds through suffocation and contamination.

Day Old Chicks

Here, this is where the business starts. Buy chicks from chicken hatchery that mainly deals with the supplying of different species of day-old chickens. It's better to buy from the hatchery, Chicken hatchery usually produce good quantity of day old chicks through the use of incubators.

The estimated price for day old chicken in Nigeria is N120 - N250. Negotiate the prices with the sellers; you can get it cheaper if you're buying up to 500 chicks. You must buy your day-old-chicks from a healthy source. The productivity of your chicks depends on how healthy they are! Do not pay anybody money until you see the chickens you are buying 419s are everywhere trying to take advantage of people who have the money. Be wise with your money and pay only when the goods are supplied!

Raising hens from baby chicks requires you to check on them often during the first few weeks (Seven to nine weeks). It's really fun to watch them turn from downy, fluffy little balls into feathered-out, gawky adolescent pullets. A chick does not have the ability to maintain its own body temperature without an external source of heat.

Below are my outlines of taking care of chicks

After you have gotten your chick, once those baby balls of fluff arrive home, you'll want to have everything ready for them to settle into their brooder and stay warm and happy. Plan to check on them at least five times a day during the first couple of weeks of life, and less after that.

You'll need to monitor their temperature, keep them safe from pets, predators and over handling by children, keep their feed and water clean.

Make sure your baby chicks have everything they'll need on the first day home. As they get older, you will use different feeders, but for the first week or two, plastic chick feeders like the ones you see above will make life a lot easier for you. Light must be available at all time in your poultry farm to keep the chickens warm, especially during raining season when the humidity is always very low. Look for reliable source of power to supply your hens house with heat and light.

Chicks love to stomp in their feed, tip it over, and generally make a mess. They're also not terribly smart and can eat quite a lot of shavings or bedding while they pick spilled feed off the floor. These feeders are perfect. They're at the right height when placed on the brooder floor.

Caring For Your Growing Chickens. After the baby chick stage passes, you'll have young pullets and cockerels and, once they turn one year old, hens and roosters. Some basic daily chores involving keeping their food and water fresh and collecting eggs is the basis of ongoing chicken care, but you'll want to make sure they're protected from predators and staying healthy as well.

NOTE: Most layers will start laying eggs the moment they are 18 weeks old but some wait till they are about 22 weeks old. Whichever way, Layer farming is considered the most lucrative of all poultry farming because 2 things are acqived from layers, they lay eggs which fetch good money in the market, and are equally sold for the meat.

A full crate of pullet eggs sells for about N600, while a crate of semi-pullet sells for N750 wholesale price. If your Layers are large enough to produce 10,000 crates of large eggs which sells for N750, you will be making at least N750 X 10,000 = N7,500,000 From eggs alone!

The chickens is also another big gain! A fully grown chicken sells for between N1,200 and N1,500 (N1,500 to N2,000 at wholesale price) depending on the size and maturity level. Therefore, ten thousand chickens will give you N1, 500 x 10,000 = N15,000,000!