How You Can Make Ksh70,000 Monthly From Kienyeji Chicken Farming in Kenya - Okuta Ngura

Indigenous birds feeding [COURTESY]

NB: This article is based on renowned Kenyan poultry farming expert and vet Okuta Ngura. Some figures are approximations and may vary from place to place.

Can you do a successful indigenous chicken business anywhere in Africa? The answer is YES. Can you reap profits from it? Of course, you can! Is it complicated? Not at all but you need enough capital to start it.

First things first. Most farmers fail in this sector because they fail to plan. If you fail to plan then you are planning to fail. Do you know where farmers fail most? They start their projects without the end in mind.

Today I will describe how you can rear 1200 indigenous chicken/village chicken/kienyeji chicken in a year successfully without a headache. With this method, you can be churning out 200 birds every month for sale and laugh all the way to the bank.

Chicken in a poultry house [Joseph Sosi]

With indigenous chicken, you will need to have a 6 months plan if you are to have 200 mature chicken for sale every month. You need to have a foundation stock (parent stock) which will be giving you eggs every 21 days for incubation.

Parent stock to start you off

If you remember very well in my previous article I had talked about how to raise 300 chicken every year using 10 hens and 2 cocks.

This is where you will get your parent stock or you can buy from an excellent source free from diseases.

Take note than the cockerel for the parent birds need replacement after one year while hens can be replaced after two years. You will have to be patient with this business since indigenous chicken are slow growers unlike hybrid chicken and improved indigenous chicken. Before getting your return on investments(R.O.I) you will have to sweat that is undeniable but after you start selling your chicken you will remember me (I will come for a meal of chicken thighs). Get out your pen and paper, fasten your seat belts and travel with me to chicken kingdom.

You have your foundation stock (around 250 hens; 24 cocks included therein. A ratio of 1 cock to 8 hens is recommended). Indigenous chicken have higher demand than hybrid chicken when it comes to meat because of the great taste and most people are going organic nowadays.

A hen in a laying nest PHOTO/Joseph Sosi]

Housing and feeding the kienyeji chicken

You need a well-constructed house. They will need a spacing of 1 square feet per bird. During the day they will be roaming outside so you need a chicken run with a good fence to prevent predators and thieves. The measurement of the house will be 60ft by 20ft and 8ft high from the floor to the roof.

The poultry house will be partitioned to measure 20 by 10ft so you have 6 compartments and each compartment will have its individual run outside. Construct using readily available material. You can use mud, bricks, iron sheets or timber.

In the first month, you will have the first batch of 200 chicken which you brood in the first house. Release them outside in the run after 2 months. The second month you have another batch of 200 chicken. You do this till the 6th month when you will start harvesting the first batch of mature chicken.

You need an incubator that can hatch 200 chicks every 21 days. In order to make this venture more profitable and avoid high costs of production(feeds take 70%), you can make your own feeds. You need to feed ingredients such as:

☆ Whole maize = 34 kg

☆ Soya bean = 12 kg

☆ Omena (Fish meal) = 8 kg

☆ Maize/wheat bran = 10 kg

☆ Lime = 6 kg

》Total =70kg

• During the first 2 months, the chicks will consume about 1.5kgs of feeds. That will be around 300kgs of feed for 2 months or 4 bags of 70kgs feed.

• At 3 months release them in the run and feed them on half of commercial feeds and vegetable remains and grains such as millet and broken wheat or grounded maize.

• From 3 - 6 months, they should have fed on 1000 Kgs or 14 bags of 70kgs feed(each bird feeding on 5kgs for 4mths).

Vaccination and disease Control

The vaccines to consider are; Newcastle disease vaccine and fowl pox vaccine. In the first week vaccinate your chicks against Newcastle disease (Newcastle lasota vaccine 200 doses), repeat Newcastle vaccine on the third and 5th week.

At 4 weeks, administer fowl pox vaccine- buy 200 doses. Repeat fowl pox vaccine at 6 weeks and Newcastle plain at 16 weeks. Notice that indigenous chicken are resistant to most diseases but this does not mean you avoid proper hygiene and good biosecurity measures.

Your birds are now mature at 6 mths and you have batches following at 5,4,3,2 and 1month. You sell your first batch and bring in a new batch to maintain the cycle. Each month you will be selling birds.

Breaking down the profits

Let's do a little maths: Your birds fed on 4 bags for 2 months and 14 bags for months. In total, you used 18 bags. Suppose a bag of homemade feed is Ksh1500, you will have spent Ksh27,000 on feed alone.

Suppose you lose 10% of your birds from day one to maturity. You remain with 180 birds. Let's say you have 90 hens and 90 cocks and sell hens at Ksh600 and cockerels at Ksh800. You get 126,000ksh. Deduct feeds and other variables like drugs, vet services and vaccines and you have not less than Ksh70,000 per month. It is good money by any standards. The biggest costs when starting this project will be housing costs and feeds.

From the second year, you will have made enough profits after investing and reinvesting and you can expand your business. I believe nothing is impossible if you are committed. Chicken farming can employ you and can lift you to unprecedented heights of greatness and wealth. Let me not hear you say it can't be done. It can be done and you know it.

NOTE: This article was first published on the author's social media pages. Take note of the fact that these details are on estimation basis as shared by Okuta Ngura.

For consultation reach him on: ngurapoultrycare@gmail.com or call +254729568151