Poultry meat is an important source of high quality proteins, minerals and vitamins to balance the human diet. Specially developed varieties of chicken (broilers) are now available with the traits of quick growth and high feed conversion efficiency. Depending on the farm size, broiler farming can be a main source of family income or can provide subsidiary income and gainful employment to farmers throughout the year. Poultry manure is of high fertilizer value which can be used for increasing yield of all crops.
Advantages of broiler farming are:
- Initial investment is lower than layer farming
- Rearing period is 5-6 weeks only
- More number of flocks can be taken in the same shed
- Broilers have high feed conversion efficiency i.e. the
amount of feed required for unit body
weight gain is lower in comparison to other livestock - Faster return from the investment
- Demand for poultry meat is more compared to sheep/goat meat
Finances for 200 Broilers
Broilers Farming is very friendly to the pocket especially for beginner farmers in Kenya who do not want to spend a lot of initial investment. Below is an investment example of 200 Broilers. Every batch is a new project which runs every month and you need to well planned out to hack this business.
These are the things you will need to get started in poultry farming (Broiler Farming) :
- Chick trays
- Tube feeders
- Brooding jiko
- Chick drinkers
- Adult drinkers
Fixed assets will cost you around Ksh 40,000. Running Expenses (Chicks, Feeds, Vaccines, Vitamins etc) will cost you around 50,000. Total expense cost is Ksh 90,000. Please remember this is cost for one month after which you will sell your chicken then start the whole process again.
The market price for one broiler is Ksh 400, that means 200 (Broilers) x Ksh 400 = Ksh 80,000 (Total money earned from the sale of 200 Broilers). Now, do you remember the Ksh 90,000 expenses mentioned above? Yup, you will need to subtract that amount to the Ksh 80,000 you earned from the Broiler sales. This means you will be left with Ksh -10,000.
Don’t panic just yet. Most of your money was eaten by the fixed assets (chicken house, drinkers etc) which means you will not buy or build these things any more. You will only focus on feeding your broilers and vaccinating them next time.
Your next sale will therefore be;
Ksh 80,000 (Sale of Broilers)- Ksh 50,000 (Running Expenses)= Ksh 30,000 (Profit)
NB: The more broilers you keep the more profit you get. However its always best to start small so that you can get all the experience you need to succeed.
