Poultry industry remains one of the oldest farming businesses in the world. It is dated back to the Neolithic times when our ancestors kept scavenging local fowls (gallus gallus) for both meat and eggs.
Layers (egg laying birds) are one of the most important poultry ventures together with broilers.
Before now, the scavenging birds were kept in a locally constructed hutch where they roost and also lay their eggs. They sit on the eggs, hatch and then brood the chicks for as many weeks before leaving them to fend for themselves.
That normally takes a lot of time and reduces drastically the number of eggs produced in a year by one hen.
To bridge that gap, hybrid hens like light sussex, Rhode island red (RIR), and white leghorn where compounded by Animal breeders.
These breeds are capable of dropping one egg each day. They are bred either to produce a fertile egg for breeding or table egg for consumption.
In our subsequent articles, we will talk about fertile egg production but right now follow me lets discuss what it will take you to start a table egg layers production business.
REQUIREMENTS
Let’s take a look on the things that would be required to be in place before venturing into the egg production business.
LAND: You will need a space of land either for lease or buy (depends on your financial capacity). It would be preferable if you can find a fenced plot of land for lease in a remote area.
BUILDING: A deep litter building would be put in place even if you wish to employ battery cage system. Try and seek a professional directives/advice from either experienced farmer or a scientist in order to position the building well (it must not face the direction of prevailing wind).
CAGES: Known as battery cages, it is optional because of some of the merits of it which is more compared to when you raise the birds on a deep litter system. Both this cage system and the other option of deep litter system have their merits and demerits which we would discuss in our next article.
OTHERS: This would include things like feeders, drinkers, spade, wheelbarrows, stoves, lanterns, and crates for packing eggs. Storage tank might also be needed in the absence of bore hole.
Now let us look at what it would cost you as a young entrepreneur to start up with 200 pullets (they are called pullets when they have not started laying yet).
Leasing a fenced plot of land in a remote area 30,000 naira annually
Construction of a 10m by 15m pen 200,000
120 birds’ capacity battery cage (optional) 70,000 each
Drinkers and feeders (for deep litters) 10,000
Storage tank (in the absence of bore hole) 30,000
You can see the fixed assets would take up either 270,000 or 400,000 naira depending on the management system you wish to adopt.
When you are done with the fixed assets, you would then proceed with what it will take you to get and raise 200 pullets to the point of lay.
It is good you know that pullets would start laying eggs at 20-22 weeks of age. That’s equivalent to 5 months. Though they do not consume much but you have to feed them till 5 months when they will start dropping and consequently pay for their feeds in addition to your earnings.
200 DOC (day old chicks) at 170 each 34,000 naira
Vaccination/medication 15,000 naira
Feeding till 22 weeks 130,000 naira
Total production cost till 22 weeks 179,000 naira
That implies it would cost 179,000 naira to raise 200 pullets to the point of lay.
Meanwhile, when the birds start dropping eggs, the consistency only starts from third to fourth week. By then, each bird is supposed to drop one egg daily.
Though, there may be some of them that are “barren” which does not drop egg at all. It is your duty to pay attention and find them out before culling them.
Assuming there was 5% mortality, 190 birds would be remaining. Then maybe 10 is not dropping, that leaves you with 180 eggs from 180 birds every day.
INCOME
Each crate contains 30 eggs each. That means you would have 6 crates of eggs each day from the 180 eggs picked.
And a crate of eggs in Nigeria sells for 700 naira.
We then have 700 multiplied by 6 giving us 4200 naira daily.
Moreover, the birds would consume 5 bags of feed weekly which would cost 10,250 with each one costing 2050 naira.
Weekly income from the egg sales would be 4200 multiplied by 7, which is 29,000 naira.
Therefore what you are expecting to realize from the 180 birds that are viable weekly is total profit minus the feeding cost for the week.
That is
29,000 – 10,250 = 19150 naira.
Poultry farming/production includes raising of all those
domestic birds for so many purposes which would include research, raw
materials, games and above all food. The birds referred to as poultry include
Turkey, Quail, Ducks, Geese, and chickens.
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| 8weeks old birds |
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| Broiler birds eating |
Though, when you mention poultry, the first thing that comes to the mind of majority of the people is chickens and turkeys alone.
Poultry production industry remains one of the oldest agro-industry with scavenging fowls (gallus gallus) as its origin. It has liberated so many people from poverty. It has proven to be a quick fix to poverty for industrious persons who ventured into it.
Meanwhile, over the past years, people have ventured into poultry production but rushed out the way they rushed in(some of them even before they started). That is because they were not informed.
Before I sing the alluring song of the reasons why you should consider investing in poultry production, let me first hang this caution sign- it’s not all profit( thank God you know every business has its shortcoming).
You might decide to quit even before you had started if you didn’t do the necessary (compulsory if you ask me) consultations about it. You can get that from any professional around you (either practicing Animal scientist or an experienced farmer)
Having shown you the caution sign, let me then open it up for you why you should consider investing in poultry production.
1. Exploitation of unused space/land: Even when you do not have access to your own personal land, you can still lease a space (I did that also). But if you have a land that is not in use that is a major reason you should consider converting it to a poultry farm.
2. Less capital intensive: - Compared to what you stand to achieve/benefit through hard work, it is less capital intensive for SME’s.
3. Access to Agric loans: - When you start up your poultry farm, you become a farmer automatically and stand the chance to access government Agric loans. The loans would even become more available and easier to access very soon.
4. Short generation interval: - Generation interval implies space between successive production and in terms of poultry birds, it is very short. Broilers now mature and ready to eat at just 6weeks of age. This makes synchronization of production easy for the farmer.
5. High dressing percentage:- Dressing percentage is the ratio of the live weight over the carcass weight. It is very high in poultry especially the meat broilers and turkeys. This is as a result of the high feed to flesh conversion rate.
6. Available market: - Poultry production has graduated from a seasonal business to all-year-round business. This is because time has gone when only few families can afford to slaughter chicken all the time while the rest do that 3 times in a year (Christmas, New Year celebration and Easter). You also find either fast-food eatery or bars/pubs/taverns every one kilometre in all the cities now. Hotels are now surpassing the number of churches in the cities. All these are potential customers in the waiting, why still wait?
7. Profit-oriented: - with the high dressing percentage and high demand, it becomes profit-oriented. It is a business that can yield up to 70 percent of the capital as profit when properly managed, ceteris paribus.
8. Improved breeds all the time: - This is one area where poultry industry boasts of improvement. Recently, there so many new hatcheries with improved breeds of parent stock. Both for pullets, broilers and turkeys, there are now so many improved breeds with encouraging traits.
9. Perhaps you might have experienced the harshness of the economy recently as a result of the dwindling oil prices which is not even giving any sign of improvement. The government is now set to look elsewhere to boost the economy of the nation and is prepared to achieve it through Agricultural sector. When that happens, farmers are the ones to get empowered through various Agricultural programmes that would be backed up with government loans.
So, what are you still waiting for?
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