Agriculture

5 Things You Must Know Before Starting Up A Poultry Farm

Raphael Okhueleigbe 6 years ago 3 min read

Poultry Farming

5 Things You Must Know Before Starting Up A Poultry Farm

Poultry farming is simply the act of rearing domesticated birds like chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese for either egg or meat production purposes.

Poultry business is one of the most lucrative businesses you can invest into as it is one of the easiest ways for a rapid increase in protein supply.

Studies have shown that the demand for poultry egg and meat is far more than supply, meaning that there is a need for more poultry businesses to be able to bridge this gap.

But there are certain things that you need to know in other to do well in this lucrative business and neglecting such key information can make you run at loss or witness business failure.

Starting up a poultry farm

Choose an area of specialization

Poultry business is a very broad area that entails many subset of businesses. It is important you look into the various areas and critically choose the aspect that you can do well.

It is also possible to do all aspects of these businesses if you have the needed resources and technical know-how. But as a starter with no much experience it is good you choose an aspect of this business to start with.

The various aspect you can look into includes;

Rearing of layers for egg production
Rearing of broilers to table size
Rearing of turkey
Rearing of ducks
Hatchery business
Poultry feed business
Selling of table size broilers
Selling of day-old chicks

Feasibility study

After you have been able to choose the type of business to go into, you need to carry out a feasibility study to know how feasible and viable your business plan is.

A feasibility study entails, a pre-analysis of your business plan, a projected income statement, and a market survey to analyze market competitors, value, demand, and demographics. Data collected should be analyzed critically to be able to make the right recommendation.

Location

For a successful poultry business, location is very important, and most be a keynote in establishing a poultry farm.

Things to put in mind when choosing a location for a poultry business.

Your poultry business should be sited in a remote area free from noise
There should be a good road network
The site should have a good topography
Good drainage
Free from natural disaster
Nearness to market

Building your poultry house

The next thing to do after being able to get a good location is to start your building plan. And in doing this you have to put into consideration the type of building that will be perfect for your poultry business.

The types of poultry house commonly used in Nigeria includes;

Battery
Deep litter
Semi-fold
Half litter and half slats system

The building should have an East-West orientation to avoid the effect of direct sunlight. The house should be constructed in a way as to allow proper ventilation. A dwarf wall of about 2ft is mostly preferred with wire mesh.

Feeding

It will interest you to know that one of the most important things to take very seriously in your poultry business is feeding your birds. Studies have shown that poultry feeds occupies about 70% of the total expenses.

Your success in poultry business depends largely on how you can manage the cost of feed and at the same time feed your birds very well as required. The growth of birds and the size of eggs depends largely on how you can feed them.

Plans must be made on getting a quality feed from dealers and if possible personal compounding of feed to help reduce cost.

You must be able to know the various types of feed and the right time to administer them to the birds. Below are the types of feed that we have.

Types of feed