Are you planning to
start your own backyard chicken farm? If so, then you should read to the end and be well prepared by considering all of its aspects. Right from setting up
some basic equipment to raising the chickens and marketing them to the consumer
or raising eggs for the family.
You have to take every
step wisely. Do not forget that there are many other poultry businesses. You
will be competing with them.
However, if you conduct
your business carefully, chances are that it will grow fast. The demand for
poultry products is increasing by each day. So, there is a lot of scope for
fast growth of your poultry farm despite a tough competition provided you
follow some basics of the business. Your return on investment will be quick.
Wondering how to start
a chicken farm? Here are some awesome guidelines for you. Follow these rules
for a successful poultry business.
1.
Choose
Your Poultry Sector: Poultry farming is a wide industry.
Basically, there are two types of the farming you can choose from – Broilers, Layers
and Noilers. Broilers are chicken that you raise for meat. Layers are chicken
that you raise for eggs while Noilers are mixed breeds. Then, there is the
business of incubating eggs and raising chicks.
2.
Choose
The Type Of Bird: Poultry farm owners rear many types of
birds. Your poultry farm may start by focusing on two to three birds and then
include more birds later as the business grows. Mostly, poultry farms raise
birds such as domestic fowl or chicken as broilers and layers, duck, goose,
quail, guinea fowl, turkey, pigeon, and peacock.
3.
Create
Your Farm Logo: While starting a chicken farm, you have
to name it properly. You may find lots of farm name ideas. However, pick the
one that suits your type of farm the best. Get a web page design for your farm
right after you are done choosing the name. Another essential step you should
take is to have a unique poultry farm logo for your business. Your
logo will be everywhere on your farm products when you market them. The logo
will also be on your marketing material such as visiting cards, websites and
many other places. Therefore, make sure that your logo becomes a tool to show
that you run a professional poultry farming business.
4.
Set
Farm Location: You should think of setting your
poultry farm at the most appropriate location. It is important that the
location has all the necessary facilities. Try to build your poultry farm a
little away from the town so that you can have the land and labor at a cheaper cost.
5.
You
need Money: You may not be having much money at
hand when starting your own farm. But setting up a poultry farm needs
sufficient funding. You will be buying a lot of equipment such as feeders,
drinkers, perches, lighting system, incubators, heaters or brooders, and many
more. Most importantly, you need a huge amount of funds to purchase land. You
will put facilities to enhance your productivity. Don’t let this scare you, you
can start from 20-50 birds.
6.
Spread
A Word For Your Farm: You meet many people on daily basis.
Tell them about your plans to start your own poultry business. Start from
talking to your friends and neighbors. Visit events or join group related to
poultry farming and try to make friends with as many people as you can. You may
meet some of your potential clients. Make all of them aware of your farming
plans. When you contact people and clients, present your business card to them.
This is a professional way to introduce your business. The business card
design must include your contact details like your phone number and
website address. They will keep your card and many of them will contact you
whenever they need your poultry products. They will remember your poultry
business whenever they will have a requirement.
7.
Hire
Professionals: Many aspects of poultry farming are
such that they should be handled only by experienced people who know the
nuances very well. So, hire only professionals who have many years of
experience in the farming. But farming is not labor intensive, if you can
involve technology.
8.
Put
Your Business On The Web: Most of your potential clients
search and shop poultry products online. If your clients are looking for poultry
farms around a town, they will first use search engines to locate such
businesses. If your farm is not on the web, you are missing on a overabundance
of business opportunities. Therefore, make it a point to have a dedicated
website for your poultry business.
9.
Market
Your Farm Products: When starting your poultry business, one
of the significant things to keep in mind is the aspect of marketing. Without
having a marketing plan, it is hard to achieve your business goals. To market
your products, make sure that you have properly analyzed the demand and supply
situation for your products in your niche market. Know your target consumer
also to pinpoint consumer profile. You should then adopt cheaper means of
reaching to your consumers. For example, create and distribute flyers, which
are one of the cheapest means of marketing your poultry products to masses. A
creative flyer design will draw attention of the recipients
immediately and many of them will think of buying your farm products.
Basic Rules
Rule 1
..."Only order for birds you can conveniently take care of".
This is the most important rule of all.
Instead of stocking 500 birds and then struggle to feed them or give them medication, buy 200, feed and give them good medication.
Trust me, you'll make more profit than keeping 500 and struggling to feed and give the medication. If this happens, you'll battle with stunted growth, recurrent morbidity or disease outbreaks and high mortality.
Rule 2
..."Never borrow money to start poultry business unless you are an expert".
Of course, there is no expert in poultry business. In fact, we learn everyday. Every stock you take in will always teach you something different. However, Haven learnt from all the different characteristics displayed by each stock, you get to know more and won't be excited when challenges come. You'll know how to handle them without much damage.
Rule 3.
..."Be vigilant".
The little things you don't take as anything matters.
If you want to succeed in poultry, you must take it as a real business. Do you know what a business man does every morning when he gets to his store? He pray, then open the store and go round to check if everything is in its place. He take stocks of what he met there and relate with his records yesterday before closing the store.
Don't just open your Pen and start rushing to give your birds feed and water and rush out again. Check around. Watch how they behave when you came in. Check what fell and what is no longer in its place
Rule 4
..."Never ignore warning signals".
Yes, I call them warning signals.
Bad smell
Withdrawal from feed
Moodiness
Withdrawal from water
There are numerous warning signals I can't mention here. In fact, they are so many
A farmer must know how his birds behaves when they see him enter in the morning. How they behave when he serve them feed. He should know the very active terrors and gentle lambs
If you keep these signals, you'll easily spot when something is not right
Rule 5
..."Never change feed indiscriminately!"
I know you do this. Yes, you.
When farmers talk about changing feed from this to this and that then this all in the name getting better result, I'm always scared for them.
Whether you are changing from a bad feed to a good one, you must be very careful.
Do you know every change in feed affect you negatively. first, before gradually bringing in the results you desire? Most of the times, you may suffer withdrawal, coccidiosis, feed wastage, stress and more.
Imagine changing from mash to Pellet indiscriminately. Do you know what that means? Have you studied the difference between mash and Pelleted feed and the process of digestion?
They may contain the same ingredients but the formulation process varies so is the digestion process.
Note:
I don't mean changing from starter to grower or finisher but changing from one commercial feed to another e.g. from top feed to hybrid then Ultima, livestock, new hope, Chikun and more; you are doing your birds more harm than good.
Each company use their own unique ingredients to make their feeds although they may give the same nutritional content. Before using any feed for yiur birds, find out first about the feed and make sure you stick with it. Don't be surprised, the cheapest feeds in the market may give you the best result.
Rule 6
..."Never let your birds run dry of water".
Have you heard of heat stress? If it has happened to your birds then you'll understand what I'm saying.
Heat stress can wipe your entire flock. And it may leave your birds vulnerable to all kinds of infection as their immune system get weakened and may take more than 14 days to fully recover.
Your birds can survive 48 hours without feed but they can't survive 7 hours without water.
Instead of running out of water, please, run out of feed.
Rule 7
..."If you can't drink that water, don't give it to your birds".
Some farmers takes chickens as they are just animals and nothing matters. Maybe they've forgotten they are dealing with delicate live animals.
Waterborne diseases are some of the deadliest disease and most difficult to control. Imagine a tiny drop of of harmful substance inside the drinking water; it'll contaminate the whole water. If it was feed, it may not be that bad.
Some farmers believe too that if a particular drug cures a disease, once the same drug is mixed with their drinking water it'll kill all the harmful bacterial inside the water. No, it doesn't work that way.
Rule no. 8.
You don't sleep, if you sleep, your birds sleep, most especially for broilers and if your birds sleeps, they stop growing, get them illuminated both day and night and feed them very well. That is the secret of 2.6kg in 35days on raising broilers
This is the most important rule of all.
Instead of stocking 500 birds and then struggle to feed them or give them medication, buy 200, feed and give them good medication.
Trust me, you'll make more profit than keeping 500 and struggling to feed and give the medication. If this happens, you'll battle with stunted growth, recurrent morbidity or disease outbreaks and high mortality.
Rule 2
..."Never borrow money to start poultry business unless you are an expert".
Of course, there is no expert in poultry business. In fact, we learn everyday. Every stock you take in will always teach you something different. However, Haven learnt from all the different characteristics displayed by each stock, you get to know more and won't be excited when challenges come. You'll know how to handle them without much damage.
Rule 3.
..."Be vigilant".
The little things you don't take as anything matters.
If you want to succeed in poultry, you must take it as a real business. Do you know what a business man does every morning when he gets to his store? He pray, then open the store and go round to check if everything is in its place. He take stocks of what he met there and relate with his records yesterday before closing the store.
Don't just open your Pen and start rushing to give your birds feed and water and rush out again. Check around. Watch how they behave when you came in. Check what fell and what is no longer in its place
Rule 4
..."Never ignore warning signals".
Yes, I call them warning signals.
Bad smell
Withdrawal from feed
Moodiness
Withdrawal from water
There are numerous warning signals I can't mention here. In fact, they are so many
A farmer must know how his birds behaves when they see him enter in the morning. How they behave when he serve them feed. He should know the very active terrors and gentle lambs
If you keep these signals, you'll easily spot when something is not right
Rule 5
..."Never change feed indiscriminately!"
I know you do this. Yes, you.
When farmers talk about changing feed from this to this and that then this all in the name getting better result, I'm always scared for them.
Whether you are changing from a bad feed to a good one, you must be very careful.
Do you know every change in feed affect you negatively. first, before gradually bringing in the results you desire? Most of the times, you may suffer withdrawal, coccidiosis, feed wastage, stress and more.
Imagine changing from mash to Pellet indiscriminately. Do you know what that means? Have you studied the difference between mash and Pelleted feed and the process of digestion?
They may contain the same ingredients but the formulation process varies so is the digestion process.
Note:
I don't mean changing from starter to grower or finisher but changing from one commercial feed to another e.g. from top feed to hybrid then Ultima, livestock, new hope, Chikun and more; you are doing your birds more harm than good.
Each company use their own unique ingredients to make their feeds although they may give the same nutritional content. Before using any feed for yiur birds, find out first about the feed and make sure you stick with it. Don't be surprised, the cheapest feeds in the market may give you the best result.
Rule 6
..."Never let your birds run dry of water".
Have you heard of heat stress? If it has happened to your birds then you'll understand what I'm saying.
Heat stress can wipe your entire flock. And it may leave your birds vulnerable to all kinds of infection as their immune system get weakened and may take more than 14 days to fully recover.
Your birds can survive 48 hours without feed but they can't survive 7 hours without water.
Instead of running out of water, please, run out of feed.
Rule 7
..."If you can't drink that water, don't give it to your birds".
Some farmers takes chickens as they are just animals and nothing matters. Maybe they've forgotten they are dealing with delicate live animals.
Waterborne diseases are some of the deadliest disease and most difficult to control. Imagine a tiny drop of of harmful substance inside the drinking water; it'll contaminate the whole water. If it was feed, it may not be that bad.
Some farmers believe too that if a particular drug cures a disease, once the same drug is mixed with their drinking water it'll kill all the harmful bacterial inside the water. No, it doesn't work that way.
Rule no. 8.
You don't sleep, if you sleep, your birds sleep, most especially for broilers and if your birds sleeps, they stop growing, get them illuminated both day and night and feed them very well. That is the secret of 2.6kg in 35days on raising broilers
….Go
organic
Do all the research you can on
organic poultry rearing, this would help reduce cost and sell very rear birds.
Pure organic breeds sell high if not better in the market if you can convince
the buyer. Higher bidders prefers non-chemical birds.. Noiler would do this
magic for you.
Poultry business is not a child's play, especially when you want to go commercial, I have taking time to do the above research for your action so as to avoid stories that touch.
Happy reading