Business: Cost Of Raising 200 Pullets To Point Of Lay

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.