HOW TO START POULTRY FARMING BUSINESS

Poultry farming in Nigeria has not only proven to be one of the most important aspect of farming but also a very profitable business opportunity for entrepreneurs and provides employment for the job seekers.

Apart from Pork and fish, Chicken is one of the major sources of animal meat and is one of the most popularly eaten meat. The major customers for poultry farms are hotels, fast food restaurants, beer parlours etc. So because of this high market demand, Poultry farming offers an opportunity to make big bucks for big investors as well as small scale farmers.

This article is will help you go through the steps and will teach you how to start poultry farming in Nigeria.

But before you dive into the guidelines for raising chickens, let me sound this note of warning to anyone that is planning to start his or her own poultry farm.

“Poultry farming is not an easy route or short cut to being a millionaire!” I have seen articles and studies that give unrealistic profits forecast on paper. I have seen a feasibility study give the impression that one can invest N750, 000.00 in poultry farming and realize over N10million in a year. That’s one hell of a cock and bull story! It is false! So if it is such misleading statistics that you are relying on, better you back down or better still; have a rethink! Yes, one can make over N10million a year in this business, Yes, you can make over 100% returns but you need to understand that there are factors and conditions that makes high profit expectation possible in poultry farming.

That said; let us go back to the purpose of this article “how to start a poultry farm in Nigeria”

If you are ready to get started in poultry farming, here are the basic requirements you need to set up your farm.

Research Your Product

As the “first things first!” saying goes, you will need to carry out a proper research on poultry farming.  You need to know the pros and the cons in the business, have all grounds covered before getting started.

Research on the following:

Various breeds of birds

What to look for while selecting day old chicks

What each breed eats

Their life span

How often they lay eggs if they are layers

How to care for them

Housing requirements

Chicken illnesses, symptoms, causes and cures

And other challenges

Land

If you are looking to fully get into poultry farming in Nigeria, I recommend that you acquire a plot or two of land. Buying a land to situate your poultry firm can be said to be the most expenses you will make in the poultry business but you should see it as an asset which it definitely is. Because if by any chance the business fails, you can sell off the land and recover some of your capital. Here are some tips to land acquisition for your farm.

You should acquire land in rural or remote areas. This is because land in such less developed areas is cheap. You can get 3 or 4 plots of land in the rural area for the price of 1 plot of land in the city. However, you will not have to bother with animal/human cohabit polices.

Make sure that the land you acquire is accessible so that your birds can be transported to the urban area for sell.

Housing/Coop

Housing for your birds is another important factor to consider before you can start your own poultry farming in Nigeria. Here are a few basic tips;

You should construct a well ventilated coop (hen house) for your chickens; well aired but not too warm. Your coop should be able to keep off rodents, snakes, cats and other predators.

Ensure there is enough space for the birds to move around. The space helps curtail an outbreak of epidemic.

Make sure that your coop is easily accessible, as you will need to make regular visits to feed, refill water and clean the coop.

Include a roosting area in your coop (if you have layers)

Employ a means for handling or disposing chicken manure/ waste.

Visit any reputable poultry farm to see how the house is constructed.

Chicken feed:

Your birds will need a properly prepared chicken feed that is the right type for their breed, age, for growth and sustenance. To make sure that your birds grow fast and stay healthy, buy quality chicken feed products. You can buy such chicken feeds in any animal product store close to you. As there are different types of feeds in the market, make sure you are buying the right kind of feed that suits your birds at every point in time (e.g. chick starter, Broiler starter, Layer feeds etc. There are locally made feeds. I would advise that if you will have to use these locally formulated feeds, be sure of what you are doing.

When it comes to feeding your chickens, here are a few basic tips;

*Birds eat small amounts of feed frequently, so fill the chicken’s feeders so that food will be available always. Or you can feed them at certain times of the day (morning and evening).

*Chickens do not eat in the dark so you must have the lights on for the birds to eat in the night.

*Make sure feed is stored in a dry cool environment

*Do not feed your birds’ moldy food. It will harm them.

*Make sure there is always clean drinking water.

*Check on the feeders and water troughs often; so you can remove chicken droppings from them.

Medication

To guarantee constant production of chicken and eggs, your birds must be regularly checked by a veterinary doctor to ensure their good health. Your chickens should be vaccinated to prevent all bird related diseases like bird flu, fowl cholera, fowl pox etc. I advise you have a personal vet doctor for your chickens.

Maintenance Tips

Clean out your poultry farm regularly and disinfect your coop on a regular basis to avoid diseases.

Use wood shavings for your coop floor.

If you are a starter in poultry farming in Nigeria, I recommend you start small and then grow over time.

A heat lamp must be available at all times in your poultry farm to keep the chickens warm, especially during the raining season.

Poultry business requires time and attention

Note that as breeds of chickens are different, so are their feeds and medication.

It takes just 6 to 8 weeks for broiler chickens to be grown enough for meat and 18 to 20 weeks for layers to start laying eggs. Layer farming can be said to be the most profitable of all poultry farming. This is because Layer chickens will do two things for its farmer; they will lay eggs which fetch money in the market, and when they have past their prime, they will be sold for the meat. Either way, poultry farming in Nigeria is and will always be a money making venture for anyone that takes the advantage.

         OR

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.

Before we start, let me first tell you one of the 2013 prophecies said by most ministers of God throughout the world. They said   “Our youth who think always of travelling should use the money to go into agriculture or foodstuff (Farming, Animal Husbandry) business because in the New Year, God will bless them. They will achieve greatness by transacting in agriculture and foodstuff and become successful in export and import business. The money I am talking about could be in the region of ($1,000, $1,500, $2,000)”… Now let’s get down to work

In this article, we will be looking at poultry farming, how to set up and operate a profitable poultry farm in Nigeria making over 10 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.

THE REQUIREMENTST ARE

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.

TAKING CARE OF YOUR CHICK

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.