My blueprint to reap from poultry this year

By Abraham Ahabwe

It is 8am and I am sitting by my veranda enjoying the cool breeze as I rack my brains trying to figure out how I would steer my poultry business in 2022. The sky is clear and the sea is a little calmer.
My crystal ball tells me that 2022 will bring better tidings for my business after a tough 2021, but that is if only I can implement 10 lessons learnt.  

You see, I came into 2021 expecting the worst. I was smarting from a nasty disease that wiped out my entire flock forcing me to de-populate, clean and disinfect the chicken pens and start afresh.  
To add insult to injury, as the year was coming to a close, my loyal dog mauled 130 hens just when they had started laying eggs.   Therefore, to make 2022 work, I decided to use sometime during my holiday with my family to meditate. And these are the 10 lessons I learnt in 2021 to make my poultry business better this year.

Verify the feeds 
First, whether you formulate your own feeds like me or rely on commercial rations, you need to test their quality regularly. You see, investing in a good chicken breed is useless if the quality of the feeds is wanting.
There are many millers out there who sell sub-standard feeds to farmers. Poor quality feeds affect growth rate and can lead to diseases and death. Making my own feeds has helped me control the quality. 
To verify, take a sample of feeds, commercial or home-made to a laboratory for testing. Myself I send the samples to the laboratory. 

You may find that feeds are the reason production of your birds has dipped drastically.
Business plans do not answer all questions
You have probably heard that before you venture into poultry farming, first develop a business plan. 
Although it is an important working document, a business plan is just a guide to ensure the risks you take do not outweigh the benefits. 
As such, it does not have to be perfect and focusing too much on it can lead to planning fatigue. Instead, start small and learn as you go along.  

Vaccinate and observe hygiene 
I used to vaccinate my fowls against common chicken diseases such as Newcastle, gumboro, fowl typhoid and fowl cholera and ignored farm bio-security (infection prevention) and basic hygiene practices that include things such as isolation, traffic control and sanitation. But this I changed after my flock was attacked by infectious coryza and mycoplasma, diseases that made me dispose my flock.
Another key component of farm bio-security plan is the so-called “all-in, all-out” management approach where you get rid of a given stock after sometime, clean and disinfect the premises and leave it empty for three months before bringing the new stock.
The bigger lesson here is that merely vaccinating your birds against common diseases is certainly not a substitute for poor hygiene practices. 

Marketing 
Just to be fair, marketing is such a wide and complex subject, but here’s my take: If you are looking for buyers, do not target anyone who eats chicken or eggs.
In fact, we read from the Holy Scriptures that although many are called, few are chosen. The idea here is to develop a product – chicken meat or eggs – to satisfy the preferences of a few but loyal customers who are willing to pay the premium.   

Do not be a lone ranger
Okay, poultry industry (and farming in general), works best through networks where ideas and inputs are shared. As such, it helps to be part of a supportive network of producers, processors, financers and business experts. Reading Seeds of Gold is part of this network.
The moment you stop making mistakes, it is time to close the business.

You have probably heard that if you make the same mistake twice, you have not learnt anything. That is true. But then, there is something else I learnt when my loyal dog mauled 130 hens that had just started to lay eggs. That is, people who don’t make mistakes are those who take no action. The moment you stop making mistakes, it means you are not taking (calculated) risks. By extension, you are not learning anything and it is time to close the business.   To make money from poultry, think beyond the common fowl:
I used to advise anyone interested in keeping poultry to think beyond chickens and consider a whole range of exciting birds like turkeys, guinea fowls, geese, ducks and peacocks.
I just discovered recently that there  is demand for indigenous chickens with special features such as frizzles, naked- neck, feathered feet, dwarfed, five-toed and bearded types.  

Books of accounts
Besides keeping farm records related to animal husbandry practices (deaths, egg production, feed quantities, weight gained and equipment inventory), it adds value to keep books of accounts to track expenses in a systematic manner. Books of account can be used to seek grants or loans from banks and to make tax returns.   

Do not quit just yet
Finally, I have come to learn that it is easy to give up in the face of hardships. In such times, it helps to focus on short-term rewards because the big money does not come quickly. 

Advice
 There should be enough lighting in the chicken house. Lighting affects chicken development and productivity. For laying hens, nesting boxes should be a bit dimmer and private. Construct the chicken house so that you can provide supplemental lighting if need be.  Extra lighting, especially for laying hens can lead to increased productivity.