How to start a poultry farm business for beginners

Want to start a poultry farm? 

Here's what I've got for you with experience I have from rearing both domestic birds and for commercial purposes as well.

Rearing chickens in particular is moderately hectic and so with good poultry farm practice management put in place and not forgetting the passion for poultry keeping.

Starting a poultry farm business majorly refers to rearing chickens since they are relatively cheaper and easy to manage and they are raised world wide compared to livestock.

Is it profitable and worthy to start a poultry farm?

In Uganda most households that rear poultry majorly concentrate keeping birds at small scale to fulfil the family's animal nutritional needs, whereby they raise these birds on a free range system and no rear occasion sell off some birds but at a smaller scale.

Rearing poultry at a large scale how ever can be profitable to farmers and earn more. Though it is suitable for people who have the passion for it. 

Before you decide to go large scale, it is good you decide which product you'll concentrate on whether eggs, meat products or live chickens. 

It is also advisable and wise to learn or research about what you want to venture in and then invest, if you think you'll manage the business well.

As a beginner, I advise you to start small as you grow your business and gain experience to prepare yourself to run on a large scale.

With the appropriate methods and poultry farm practices suitable for the birds put in place, profited will come in and if these practices and methods aren't carefully abide with it may result into losses for the farm.

Before starting, here are some of the basic things you must know;

Carryout marketing research

Make research about the market whether it has the potential to earn you profits with time, do market analysis to know whether your business will thrive, look for potential buyers you'll supply when your farm starts producing products especially through social media and other plat forms.

Do your research about the poultry farm practices

By coming to this blog means you are already making your research about your poultry business. Before starting, I recommend you research about this poultry farm business you plan to invest into, this can be through attending seminars and trainings about poultry, visit a poultry farm within your reach, keep on seeking for knowledge from professionals.

Decide on what type of product to concentrate on

You can decide on what product you want to deal in, this can be rearing layers for egg production, broilers for meat. This majorly depends on what you can manage and the finance available.

Have a business plan

Most farmers start up a poultry farm business without a plan of how to run and keep track of the business. Have a well written out plan for your poultry business for guidance in terms carrying out activities at the right time and appropriately. 

Have your poultry house constructed 

Aquire land with a suitable location to run and rear your poultry. Make sire your location has easy access market, clean water, roads and security too. Your farm shouldn't be too hidden nor in a busy town but just easily accessible to your customers.

When all of the above is put into consideration, construct the poultry house ideal for the birds with suitable environment such as, disease free, unreachable by rain or sunshine and predator free. 

Generally your house depends on available money, the type of house that will suit your needs and the type of breed of chicken you plan to rear. 

Order your chicks from a supplier you trust

Before ordering and purchasing your chicks, do your research about the supplier you'll aquire the birds from interms of the quality of chicks they supply, how long they take to provide you the chicks after ordering and much more. Make sure the supplier has a history of providing quality chicks. 

Now as a beginner, I would advise you to keep the number of chicks you would want to start with to a manageable number to atleast below 400 chicks, this is a good number of chicks to start with and with time u can increase and grow.

Purchase your poultry equipments/utilities

You can aquire your equipments or utilities in a near by poultry supply store or supplier, these may include, drinkers, feeders, heaters, lighting equipments, nests, cages, perches, wheelbarrow to carry wastes, sawdust, egg trays when your layers start laying etc.

Employ helpers in your farm

As a beginner hire the necessary number of helpers you need in your farm, the fewer the better to cut costs. Now it depends on a number of reasons you would want to employ workers in your farm, either you won't be around, you need an expert in your poultry farm as you learn and gain experience from them, or you have a huge number of chickens in your care. Otherwise if you have all the time you can rear your chickens alone even when they are over 300 birds.

Practice proper farm management

Ensure yo u practice proper farm practices to keep the number of deaths asl low as possible. 

Feeds and vaccination

Now when it comes to feeding your birds do not be greedy!

These feeds will take up a big percentage of your production costs, your farm's success will majorly depend on the quality of feeds and feeding schedule too.

As time goes on you can start producing your own feeds after understanding and gaining experience with chicken feeds. Feed your chickens according to the schedule you've set up that's reasonable and suitable for your birds growth. 

Vaccinate and provide vitamins to your chicks at the right time depending on the instructions or menu the vaccines come with for healthy and strong immune system for the birds. 

How to make a chicken poultry farm business plan with examples

 

A business plan basically means a document describing and stating how the business will operate or run, it provides direction and what is needed to be done in order to attain or archive where you want to be in terms of success in your poultry farm business.

Now remember your plan can be modified later with time after writing it out if need be. When writing a business plan, it structures your business by helping you identify everything you need to know and what activities you have to carry out to avoid mistakes.

Writing out your poultry farm business plan will help you know where you are, find out whether you are doing the right things or whether you have gone off track. So basically it will act as your map to fulfil your goals and objectives set in order to be successful.

If you find that your plan isn't meeting your standards it's reasonable to make adjustments to reach your final goals, in otherwords a plan should be flexible. Make your plan be simple, realistic and easy to monitor any progress as time goes by.

For starters you don't have to go through the stress of writing a 50 page plan document. Your plan can be simple as having the following,;

• A name for your poultry farm business
• The vision/mission 
• The goals and objectives
• The products you'll sell
• Selling point that's unique from your competitors
• The target market
• Competition
• How you'll market your products
• The requirements you need
• The people required
• The financial plan

Let's go deep with the above list!

A name for your poultry farm business

Select or name your business a name that's easy to remember, simple and relevant to your customers. A name that's written in a foreign language maybe difficult to be recalled and not easy to identify by your customers.

For example; let's name the business "Joy poultry farm" the name is easy and simple

Whereas if the name is written in Italian words like "gioia allevamento di pollame " the name is hard and may not be remembered by your clients 

The vision/mission 

These are two different things but make it specific for simplicity, able to figure out the farm's success. Stating your vision/mission will help provide identity of your poultry farm. It defines what your farm is working towards achieving by providing direction in every activity you do in the farm and therefore prevents you from diverting from the original plan or goals you want to achieve. 

For example; Joy poultry farm's vision can be " To produce quality organic chickens and eggs" 

The goals and objectives

Goals are the results you want see after a given period of time while objectives are the activities or actions you'll carryout or implement in order to archive what you want to obtain. Your goals should be specific, motivating, attainable, time bound and relevant. State your goals in terms of short term, mid term and long term.

For example; 

The products you'll sell

 Decide on what products your farm will produce exactly. Is it eggs, processed chicken meat, live chickens, poultry feed products or chicks. The products you vision manageable by you is what you can go for. For starters atleast stick to one or two products and expand when the farm returns are good. The products you choose should be valuable and solve the community's demand. Otherwise if there isn't demand for your products then the business may not strive at all.

Selling point that's unique from your competitors

How will your products be unique from the rest, what's the valid god reason your customers like or prefer your products over the rest. For example, your products would be completely organic.

The target market

Here the questions are, who will buy your products?, who are the people you target to sell your products?. For example, would it be near by restaurants, dealers in chicken, street vendors, people who roast chicken for sell.

Competition

Carryout a research to figure out how you'll outstand more from your competitors, how your products will be more appealing to your clients as compared to the rest.

This can be done by carrying out a survey in the market and the existing competition. Find out their weaknesses and strengths and then lay credible strategy to standout.

How you'll market your products

Now here you need to figure out how you'll sell your products, by setting clear distribution channels, the type of media campaign to opt for etc. For example; marketing through social media, community gatherings, radios etc.

The requirements you need

Simply list all the equipments and utilities you'll need to start or run your farm. These may include; a brooder, drinkers, feeders, chicks, feeds, saw dust. etc

The people required

You can structure a hierarchy so as your employees know whom to report to. This can be simplified by setting departments such as, finance, marketing and operation department.

The financial plan

State your start up capital, the revenue, profit forecast and your source of finance such as, through donations, investors, savings.

 Making a budget for each and everything you'll need can help have a draft of a realistic plan.

Signs, causes and how to control cannibalism among your flocks.

Cannibalism in poultry is a behavioral act that's a disorder among birds that involves them pecking each other to death. For instance, a chicken pecks another chicken which may result in tearing, tissue and organ consuming. It occurs among all breeds irrespective of age. The problem can easily start like a simple feathers pulling among birds and then spreads until it can not be controlled. It can occur among chickens, ducks, turkeys etc. This form of behavioral problem usually occurs among commercial poultry where by the habit develops and then spreads and persists among flocks as a learned behavior even when the behavior is initially rectified or corrected. This is because birds tend to imitate (act like the other) one another. The problem can be prevented or stopped with proper poultry management practices.

Signs of cannibalism

Even though it's difficult to tell the difference between pecking randomly and pecking that leads to cannibalism, you must pay more attention to your birds' pecking behavior and correct it as soon as possible when some of these signs appear,

- Simple feathers pulling among birds. For example, maturing feathers being pecked by chickens

- Chicks continuously picking toes.

Causes and control of cannibalism among birds

Some of the causes of cannibalism among birds may include;

Keeping sick or weak and small chicks together with other normal chicks, this can result in attacking and then killing of these weak small chicks by the normal ones as a result of escalating into cannibalism. This habit can be prevented by removing any weak and small chicks and kept away separately from the rest.

Over crowding your birds 

This can encourage bad habits such as competition for resources that are available, feather pecking and territorial behavior which lead to cannibalism due to little or limited space. This can be controlled by increasing the size and space of the bird's house, providing adequate space ensures that every chick is accommodated right and hence less aggressive flocks which minimizes the chances of cannibalism.

Little or no water and food

Shortage of water and food can lead to feather picking while fighting for the little food and water available. This can be prevented by ensuring that the flocks have enough access to feeders and drinkers all equally.

When the birds' diet isn't balanced

Diets that are so high in energy with low fibre will make the birds extremely aggressive leading to cannibalism lack of nutrients like methionine can increase your bird's craving for feather picking. Deficiencies of protein and salts has also been linked to cannibalism. This can be prevented by providing the birds all the required food supplements at the right time of their age, provide your birds fresh bird greens as well. Since birds spend all day searching for food, provide them materials such as saw dust, grass where foraging behavior can be practiced to prevent cannibalism.

Presence of external parasites on birds

Parasites can attack a bird making it to injure it's self by pecking it's skin resulting in cannibalism. Make sure your birds are not infested with parasites, make sure you disinfect and clean your poultry house regularly.

Too much (excess) light

This increases the bird's activity which may result into hostility and aggressiveness towards each other. Keeping your birds in excessive light for over 15 hours a day can cause stress towards the birds.

Oddly coloured chicks 

Mixing your chicks that do not have the same feather color with the rest of the majority may make them develop a habit of attacking the oddly coloured chicks or peck them due to curiosity which may lead to cannibalism. Try to not mix oddly coloured chicks within the rest of the majority of chicks with the same color.

Too much heat

Too much heat brings discomfort to the birds which may lead to cannibalism because they become prone to picking feathers. Always carefully adjust the temperature of the birds' pen to prevent/reduce cannibalism.

Changes in environment that come abruptly

For instance, when switching from smaller to bigger feeders and drinkers, the birds may not adopt to the bigger feeders and drinkers quickly which may lead to cannibalism because the birds may not know from where to feed from. This can be avoided by leaving some of the smaller drinkers and feeders around as they adopt to the bigger ones as well as practicing proper poultry management practices.

Allowing dead birds remain in the pen

Other birds will pick on the dead birds due to curiosity and once this happens, the habit can develop among the birds. This can be prevented by removing any dead birds among the flocks.

Other causes of cannibalism may include;

Introducing a new bird in a pen, birds that slowly grow feathers are prone to cannibalism, an injured bird, stress, idleness, during egg laying birds prolapse, birds that are nervous, low salts. 

Other ways to prevent cannibalism may include;

Debeacking, for laying hens, provide them with more nest boxes, consider trimming the birds beak

Types of Poultry farming in Uganda

Incase you have plans on starting a poultry farm or just rearing your chickens in your backyard or compound, here are some of the type of poultry commonly reared in Uganda. Get some insight of information about the type you would want to invest in or rear before you start.

Layers breed

This is a type of chicken breed known for egg laying purposes or capacity. Hens of laying breed can start to lay eggs in about the fourth month to the fifth month of age, that's approximately 16 to 20 weeks. Some of these laying breeds may include, Red star, Plymouth Rock, leghorn, Rhode Island Red and many more. A hen of this breed can produce one egg a day, but this depends on the hen's reproductive system and other factors such as climate, nutrition, predators and mainly day length because egg laying depends on the amount of day light they receive a hen may stop laying when it receives less than 12 hours of day light, and hence it will have some days when it doesn't lay at all an egg. 

Meat breed

This type of chicken breed raised for the purpose of meat specially and it is commonly done at every part of the world. These may include, Cornish cross, jersey giant, Bresse, Orpington and many more. These variety of chickens when fully grown at around 4 to10 weeks can weigh between 2kg to 5kg (4 to 12 pounds). These meat breed chickens are commonly known as broilers and grow faster than layers breed.

Turkeys and ducks 

Turkeys are not commonly reared due to how their chicks are too fragile and need alot of care while still young. Turkey chicks have weak immune system and this makes it hard for most people to rear them. Turkeys consume alot of food and are too expensive when it comes to selling them, a meal turkey can cost up to ugx 200,000 and a female can cost ugx 80,000. They are raised for mainly meat purposes. Turkey meat has alot of food values such as, vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12, zinc, proteins, calories and fat and more. Some of the varieties of turkey include; Beltsville, bronze, bourdon red, slate turkey, white Holland and many more.

Dual purpose breed

These are breeds that are usually kept at home in Uganda for the purpose of eggs and later for meat. They can be kept in the backyard/compound and left to move around to look for their own food. It is usually refferd to as indegenous poultry/local chickens. They are easy to raise and can thrive in their given environment. The most common breed for this is the Rhode Island Red chicken. They can be butcherd at atleast 20 weeks old. They lay brown eggs and are usually large bodied.