How To Start Small Scale Poultry Farm

There are so many questions people ask on how to start a small scale poultry farm business. If you are wondering how? then you are not alone. This article would give you an insight on how to start the business and how you can grow it successfully.


Poultry is a very viable and lucrative business. It can be a risky business suddenly, especially when you are not concerned about poultry feed management. Poultry birds require energy. In order to obtain desire growth rate, you must have to purchase and provide highly nutritious poultry feed. It is an established business, so all types of necessary facilities are available.

Steps To Take When Starting A Poultry Farm.

Select Your Poultry Niche

Poultry industry is a very broad niche with different aspects. Below are niches in the poultry business;

Egg productions (Layers breeding)

Meat production (Broilers breeding)

Chicken breeding (Hatchery)

Poultry feed production

Poultry equipment and manufacturing

Egg and meat processing, packaging and marketing

Poultry farming and consultancy
This is to tell you poultry farming has a very broad branch. Therefore, you have to choose your area of specialization. Of course, if you have the money and the technical know how of the business you can do all, but it is better to find out which aspect is more profitable in your area in terms of demand and income.

Capital Requirement

A small scale poultry that is set up on a piece of land behind your house may require a capital of
₦25,000-₦200,000 to start with.

Farm Location

The major thing to acquire before starting a poultry farm is a suitable piece of land. Generally, a plot of 120*60 square meters is suitable for a medium sized poultry farm. The size of land depend on the number of birds you want to raise and the farming system. Acquire the land from far towns and big cities. It’s advisable to buy a land in the rural area. Because lands and labor are highly available in cheaper rate. Select a fresh environment and pollution free area.

Establishing a poultry farm in a rented land is absolutely a bad idea. However, while selecting land, keep in mind some important facilities like great source of water, free from all types of animals and predators, a market near the farm, proper transportation facilities, e.t.c.

Housing

Housing system depends on your poultry breeds and farming method. Below are few tips to use while building suitable houses for your poultry birds.

The poultry house has to be well ventilated. Well ventilation keeps the bird healthy and productive.

Make a suitable system for entrancing sufficient amount of fresh air and light inside the house.

Try and make the house north to south faced.

In the case of making numerous houses, the distance between one house to another house should be about 40 feet.

Before bringing the chick into the farm, clean the house and the entire farm area properly.

Make deep liter clean regularly.

You can use some cheap materials like wooden material or rice ban for making liter.

Keep the feeding and watering equipment in proper distance from each other according to the number of birds and farming system. And always clean all types of equipment everyday.

The house must have all required facilities for poultry birds.
The housing system commonly used in poultry farming are;

Extensive System: range and fold unit

Semi intensive system: Standard semi intensive unit and straw yard

Intensive System: 1. Deep liter, 2. wire and slated floor, 3. battery cage 4. straw yard

Feeding

Good and high quality of food keeps the birds healthy and highly productive. Good quality fresh and nutritious food is the key success in poultry farming business. It’s advisable to provide adequate amount of food according to the age and number of poultry birds. Along with feeding good food, always supply sufficient amount of clean water according to the daily demands of the birds.

Poultry feeds includes

Wheat: Wheat is one of the best grains to be used as poultry feed ingredients. For this reason you should include a certain amount of wheat in the poultry feed ratio. During the wheat harvesting season, you can feed the poultry birds as mash or as scratch feed. You can also use wheat as a poultry feed throughout the year.

Barley: Generally barley is not as delicious like wheat and oats. But it contains fiber and a great source of fat.

Corn: Corn can be very effective grain for your poultry birds. You can feed whole, cracked or grinded. You can feed ripe corns to your hens.

Millet: It has good advantages as poultry feed. You can use millet in growing, laying and fattening ratio. Millet is easily digestible and help to increase body temperature.

Flax: It is suitable for high amount of protein in your poultry feed. You can use small amount of flax in the feed mixture.

Skim Milk and Butter Milk: They are very useful for all kinds of poultry birds. Especially for the young chicks and laying hens. Skim and butter milk play a vital role to get high quality eggs for hatching. And it’s also reliable source of protein.

By Products Of Grain: By products of grains have a great health value and suitable for feeding the poultry birds. Buy various types of by products if grains are available in the shop where poultry feed are prepared or sold. It’s price is comparably higher than any other poultry feed ingredients.

Fish Oil: Fish oil is a dependable source of vitamin A and D. Main.

Poultry is very sensitive and may be infected by diseases easily. Generally, they suffer various types of viral, bacterial, fungal, nutritional and parasitic diseases. Proper vaccination is a must for keeping your your birds diseases free, healthy and productive. So vaccinate the birds timely. If somehow, disease occurs in the farm, meet a vet doctor as soon as possible and listen to his advice.

Staffing

Staffing And Man power is not labor intensive if the use of technology is employed. Being a small scale poultry you don’t need so many staff, what you need is a manager and accountant. Either way, your manager can also assume the duty of the accountant too in order to save cost. This individual oversees the day to day running of the business.

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