Diary of a Poultry Farmer: Before buying seek references

Be it poultry or farm equipment, it is important to acertain quality before you put your money on it

“How do you manage to produce 1 million eggs in a day on one-and-a half acre piece of land?” I asked Alex.

The conversation had veered round to a farmer in Israel that Alex had paid a visit a few weeks before. Seated next to Alex was Steve from Utawala who was just starting out.

I always start my poultry classes by asking participants to share their experiences and expectations of the course.

Besides feed formulation, I have introduced a general course for farmers who are just starting out.

The course covers basic concepts like housing plans, disease control and vaccination, feeding, marketing and branding, networking, sourcing for chicks, record keeping and brooding techniques.

Now, you would think that by sending out a free handout to readers, as I always do, it would answer most of their questions.

For example, I didn’t know that farmers have a problem deciding how to build their initial stock until Steve posed this question: “Between day-old chicks, fertile eggs and mature hens, what would you advice?”

Now, put yourself in Steve’s shoes. You have just received a Sh500,000 retirement send -off cheque from your employer.

You are wondering where to invest this money. Between buying a matatu and rearing indigenous chicken, poultry quickly comes to mind because it doesn’t involved a lot of work and the start-up capital is minimal.

You have also read about successful stories of poultry farmers who are laughing all the way to the bank.

For sure, Steve owned land in Utawala and his house was connected to main electric grid, meaning, he didn’t have to cough up another Sh300,000 to buy land or relocate to his rural home. 

REFFER TO THREE CUSTOMERS

Therefore, to start out, he bought a 528-egg hatching machine from a dealer in town at Sh74,000. That left him a whooping sum of Sh400,000 to manoeuvre.

He then bought eggs from fellow farmers and started hatching chicks. The idea was to sell the day-old chicks at Sh 100 each and use the remaining to build his stock.

This seemed a win-win situation save for one detail. The machine has never hatched more than 10 per cent of the eggs he incubated.

That means he was making loses from the eggs he bought that didn’t hatch, the cost of electricity to run the machine and chicks he didn’t sell in the first place.

Unless you have just landed from Mars, Steve’s experience with egg incubators mirrors mine (SoG May 21, 2016).

Steve has tried unsuccessfully to have his incubator repaired or replaced by the dealer. This is what I advised Steve: All said and done, before you buy an egg incubator from any dealer, ask him to refer you to at least three customers he had sold his or her machines to.

If s/he declines, or if he has never sold any, take a long walk to the park.

Another challenge Steve faced was a very high mortality in his flock of up to 80 per cent. “Out of 100 chicks, I have never raised 20 to maturity,” he lamented.

When I asked about vaccination, his answer didn’t surprise since I have heard his answer repeated by many farmers, “I only vaccinate against Newcastle disease.”

"How about marketing?” I asked. “I sell mature cocks to neighbours and passers-by at Sh700 a bird,” he replied. At that price, I doubted Steve was making any profit unless his chicken was raised exclusively under free-range systems.

This conversation took me back five years ago when I started out in my rural home in Busia. I invested in proper housing and a chain link around my two acre piece of land to keep away animal and human predators.

POORLY MAINTAINED

I then bought some 30 hens and 3 cocks from my neighbours and thought I was ready to go.

Of course, I knew the importance of vaccinating birds (SoG April 30, 2016) and adhered to the schedule although I mostly sourced vaccines from local agrovets and later, when I realised their cold chain was poorly maintained, I started sourcing from reputable agrovets in Nairobi.

However, despite all my efforts, the death rates in my flock at about four weeks was no different from what Steve experienced.

Of all the challenges I faced, one stood out as I later learnt from the experts: Uncontrolled in-breeding increases susceptibility to diseases.

This experience taught me the importance of sourcing day-old chicks from reputable firms who carefully select against weak genes. Now, it is possible that Steve was buying eggs of unknown quality.

In fact, out my first batch of 100 kienyeji chicken that I bought from Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (Kalro) in October 2014, about 80 per cent survived to six months (SoG).

The few that died suffocated in the car during transportation.

According to the experts I have always consulted, a mortality exceeding five per cent during the first two weeks should be a cause for alarm.

For now, with the high cost of feeds and poorly defined marketing outlets controlled by middlemen, I can only dream of producing a million eggs a day.