It’s one thing to start a chicken farm, but
to start an actual business out of it is something else entirely. You are not
only going to become a chicken farmer, but a businessperson as well, depending
on what markets you want to target and what part of the chicken industry you
want to tap into. In the chicken industry there are two main sectors: Layers,
which are chickens bred and raised to produce eggs, or broilers, chickens
raised and bred to be slaughtered. Whatever sector you choose, you have to make
responsible managerial and financial decisions to make your chicken farm
business a profitable one.
Steps
1.
1Formulate
a business plan. This
is one of the most important things to draw up as part of your operation. It
tells of what goals you wish to achieve and how you intend to get there. It’s
also a plan of how you want to operate your business from not just a producer’s
standpoint, but the banker’s, lawyer’s, accountant’s and even possibly the
hired hand’s stand point.
2 Have land,
capital and equipment. You
cannot start up nor maintain a chicken farm or a chicken farming business
without these dire necessities. You will need buildings to raise your chickens
in, whether they be barns or hutches depending on how you are wanting to raise
your chickens: conventional or free-range? Land is to have the buildings on and
to grow crops on to feed your chickens. Equipment and machinery are needed to
clean barns, dispose of deadstock, work crops, etc.
3 Make a decision
how to best raise your chickens. There
are two main ways to raise them. Conventional systems have chickens confined to
barns that are temperature and photo-period controlled areas. Free-range
systems allow your chickens to just about have the run of the farm to behave as
naturally as possible.
4 Decide what
sectors of the poultry industry you wish to pursue. Ultimately there
are two types to choose from: broilers, which are chickens raised for meat, or
layers–chickens raised for their eggs. However, there are also the other
sectors of the industry that you can pursue. Eggs which are not to be put on
the market for human consumption (these can be from both broilers and layers)
are incubated and the chicks hatched and raised until they are at the right age
to be sold to farms to be raised as layers or broilers. Often the business of
incubating eggs and raising chicks is separate from that of raising the
chickens themselves. There is also the part of slaughtering chickens for meat
that is a separate sector in itself you may wish to pursue.
·
Many chicken farms (primarily those that
are not conventional) have more than one sector of the chicken farming business
to operate. Whether you wish to operate all sectors or just one or two is your
choice.
5 Find a niche
market, if possible. If
the area you are in is popular for raising chickens a certain way (more
conventional than free-range), you may wish to pursue a niche market that
targets the consumer’s interest in free-range chickens rather than the
conventionally-raised ones.
2.
6 Make yourself
known to potential customers and consumers. Advertise
yourself by simply letting other people know you have eggs or meat you want to
sell. Often selling by word-of-mouth is a lot cheaper and still the most
popular means of advertising than paying for an advertisement in the local
newspaper that may get read by only a few people. However, there is no harm in
doing that either, nor is there any harm in setting up a website promoting your
product.
7 Keep up with
records and accounting of your business and operation. This is so that
you can always tell if you are making money or not.
3.
Raise your animals in accordance with
the Kenyan law.
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