Kenyan Chicken farming information ----Incubators

Well, if you want to make money in Kenya as a chicken farmer, you need an egg incubator. This is because you can control your chick supply and the cost of the supply. There are many sources of fertilised eggs. Dorep and Kenchic being one of them. You just need to once in a while get good eggs/chicks from these organisations to start the breeding yourself. 

I woke up positive, the day was bright. I think the sun is up at just before 6 and goes down at almost 7 in the evening. I suppose this is what we would call summer, but then again the sun crosses the equator twice a year I think 

Anyway, I made a phone call to go see the state of the art automatic incubator which I was proud of. I made it there about 1 hour late but I did let the guy know he didn’t have to wait for me, but he insisted on waiting for me.  

The state of the art incubator cost KES 65,000 and is the cheapest in the market. They all kind look the same. They are basically a box with a thermal stat and water tube at the bottom couple trays to hold eggs and an on and off switch. They have painted it blue which I suppose is supposed to show a professional job. The machine operates on a normal 100 watts bulb and a computer fan. Clearly the KES 65,000 (approx £500) is too much for this box. At one point I thought of saying this is a cheat, and then I remembered this is something Mike would actually build for me. Why buy one expensive one, whilst I could have mike make one for me and maybe build a business around it? Obviously I would change a few things, but I would not include a mini computer. The fact is that this is a machine which could be used to eradicate poverty. Better yet use it together with the DOREP farmers.  

I also collected eggs from DOREP offices for incubation. Am not sure an Incubator is the way forward without a power backup, plus the machines are just a heavy capital outlay for what they are.

Where to sell your chickens in Nairobi?

If you have started rearing or thinking of starting rearing chicken, the most important question is where do you sell your birds and for how much?

For most, this is a daunting aspect that can make or break your business plan. The bottom line is that People in Nairobi  and other Kenyan urban areas do not farm and they somehow have to buy all the meat they need. The market is there, it is just not streamlined and you might need to think outside the box to actually get access to it. Dont be afraid to join forces with other farmers who are in the same dilema about the market.

I have done some sketchy observations on the chicken meat/live bird distribution in Nairobi. Nairobi because this is where the biggest market is, you will find that most of the rural dwellers do actually have a few birds which they keep for their happy occassions.

Chicken Business! Source - Internet!

First, the road side sellers are a good supply chain.
Secondly, if you live near Nairobi, for instance Thika or Kiambu dont be afraid to approach Hotels and offer them free delivery. They will need you to supply a sample before they can order

Thirdly, approach butcheries, they might be willing to stock chicken if you can deliver on a regular basis as per their needs. Whilst one butcher might only be willing to buy 10 chickens a day, 10 butchers on the same area each buying 10 chicken a day amounts to 700 chickens a week. If you are aiming to sell chicken on a regular basis, you would need to reflect this on your growth cycle. For instant if you make one delivery a week of 100 birds, you should be have approx 120 day old chicks every week to ensure the continuity of the supply.

A day old chick from Muguku goes for 78 shilling and 80 shillling for the Kenchick type - these mature in 5-6 weeks. They weigh around 1.2 - 1.8 kgs when slaughtered depending on the feeding

The dorep and Kenbro type mature at 6-8 weeks and can weigh up to 5 kilos depending on how you feed them. One day old chick goes for 90 shillings and if you dont get a market at 2 months you can grow them to layers. They would start laying at 5 months if well fed. They lay until they are 18 months old when ideally you would sell them for meat.

how many eggs does a DOREP/KENBRO layer lay?

For a normal chicken (Meeting the criteria below), it lays eggs from age of 5 months to age of 18 months. This applies to most commercial breeds as well as Kenbro and Dorep chicken. In line with number of eggs laid also comes the number of eggs eaten by the hens/ducks/geese. The birds eat eggs due to lack of minerals and you would need to suppliment to ensure the number of eggs on your egg trays add up.

The criteria

- good breed, not inbreed (meaning that there is no incest in the blood line). If you hatch your own hens remember to constantly change the cocks.

- well fed, Calcium and minerals affect the growth and laying capability of chicken. so dont just give it maize and think it will lay egg. This is why some farmers crash egg shells and feed them to the hens. If using commercial feeds, remember to provide your hens with peckers - for instance cabbages, maize on corn as this will also prevent cannibalism.
- stress free . Ensure that your hens are not stressed. There should be no attacks from dogs, foxes, and other preditors. This is also a basis for free range farming.
- Use a booster only if you have to, clearly you need to avoid this as it messes up with the natural operations of the hen reproductive system.
- make sure your chicken are well medicated, dont over do it and follow the instructions given.

On average chicken will feed on 150g a day, but ideally there must always be feeds in the trays for them to feed on

Another important factor is the number of hours the hens have access to light. The typical hours recommended are 14 hours - you thus would need to provide lighting for an extra 2 hours a day to optimise egg production.

Remember to watch your animals carefully, for instance if there are hens dozing off, it means that they are ill. You also need to ensure that the hens cages are clean as droppings do form a breeding ground for coccidiosis which will also affect egg laying

Hens do have a molting season where they dont lay eggs at all - they arent like people - they do run out of eggs and their bodies needs to restart the process again - this is when a Kienyeji is sitting on its eggs to hatch ( she doesnt lay eggs at the same time remember!)

Happy farming

Sheep rearing for meat

As promised last week here is a 'business plan' for a seasonal sheep rearing business.

Step 1

Buy and safely store adequate amount of hay during hay harvest season. In Kenya this is around December time. Luckily (for this business anyway), in Kenya during harvest season the commodities under harvest are cheap than any other period for most of the time. Buy an adequate amount of hay to feed the intended number of animals. An average goat eats 5 kilos a day so for 20 goats held for 2 weeks you would need 1,400 kilos. Am not sure how many kilos a hay bale weighs but i know in the low season if you look carefully and stay away from the middle men you can get one for 80 shillings.

Commercial feeds will also be more expensive in this period than in the harvest season, so if you intend to supliment with commercial feeds make sure you stock up with this. Keep a cat if you have to keep them rats away from your feeds. In drought season a 70 kilo bag of polland ( A mix of various grain husks) go for as much as 3k; bran is also good for fattening.

Step 2
Buy your animal stock in the drought season.
Please dont first buy your animals then buy the hay. First secure the hay then wait for drought. The drought season is usually around January. Give it a month or so and then buy the animals when they are weak and most farmers are selling cheap either due to lack of feeds or to secure school fees for their children. Ideally by this stage you should have some good structures to secure your animals. Please note that there is a lot of wizi wa kuku and mbuzi etc...so you might need a watchman and a dog. You dont need a lot of space because you arent growing your own fodder. You will need a good secure storage facility though.

During a 'good' drought the animals go for as low as 1k in the arid areas. You will need to venture out. Also note some of the areas like Nandi just dont know mpesa and have no interest in banking either. So you might want to use a middle man if you think you will loose your money in transit.



Step 3.

Feed the animals.
As hay is dry it is rich in starch and thus good for bulking up the animals. If you suppliment with the commercial feeds your animals will be ready for the butcher in a month or 2 at most. A kilo of meat mutton goes for 480 shillings in the butcher in the good times. A good sheep/goat can weigh up to 15 kilos. With a good realiable butcher friend, you can rake in some good money.

Step 4

Market your animals for butcher
Stay away from the middlemen if you can. It does help if you do have friends who own butcheries as then you can arrange to supply a number of animals on a daily or weekly basis.

Step 5

Pay taxes if you wish to!

The timeline

December  - buy hay at Ksh 80 a bale and store. secure housing for the animals.

January - Feb - buy animals at throw away prices from arid areas - de worm and give appropriate medication

Easter time - sell the meat to butchers ( sell at least 5k)

Repeat next season!

A Corgette goes for 10 bob

I like to write about Kenyan Prices; this is because i believe that if you are in business you do need to know about prices. I mean without price then there is no sale and thus no profits; you might as well not be in business.
For me, I use the prevailing prices to determine where there is a Market gap and if there actually is a business opportunity. For instance I have been to Naivas and discovered some disturbing trend. Quencher, Highland and Pep something juices all go for relatively the same price; Clearly these juices arent the same and the companies selling them are making sure there is no price differentiation rather only quality differentiation.

Today i noticed that a corgette goes for a tenner. I am not saying that this is expensive or cheap all am saying there is a great market opportunity here. A typical corgette plant would produce on average 10 corgettes a week - the plant doesnt require fertelisers etc as it is a vine. Anyway agriculture is clearly the way forward as long as you are creative enough to know where to sell your products. If you can cut out the middle man then even more profits for you.

The butcher down the road accidentally told us of his margins the other day. He buys a kilo of meat at 210 shillings and sells it for 320  shillings. He is making more than the farmer which i just think is wrong.

Next week i blog about a business idea on how to go about it, so keep tuned for it! Ps the business is seasonal but can give you some good money if well planned.

Goat farming

Goat farming is of interest to me for a couple of reasons; unlike cows goats are cheaper ( Dorep sells a pregnant breed goat at 22,00 shillings - this is of course on the higher end), and they feed much less than cows do. In fact goats feeds on 5 kg of fodder a day.

A goat is pregnant for 5 months and after weaning of the kid one can start milking. The kid shouldnt be weaned before 3 months although you can let is suck for longer. The kid is ready for reproduction at 9 months or so. I recently talked to a farmer who told me his goat ( kienyeji goat using German Alpine male for ferterlisation) gives birth to twins on season 1 and then a single kid in the next in an alternative fashion. He also told me he would sell the kid aged 3 months for 4,000 shilling if it were female.

Obviously if you are crossing a Kienyeji with a grade goat you need to be careful how you do it. For instance buying a female grade goat gives you a lower return because she can only give birth to so many of them. Whilst buying a male grade goat, you know he will spread it about and get value for your purchase. There is also a formula on how genes are crossed over, for instance if you want the offsprings to be of a better grade, then you need to use a male grade goat and kienyeji female as oppossed to the other way around. This applies to milking goats - this is my interest, but i can only assume you could cross for meat breeds to achieve a bigger goat which translates to more meat and thus more cash in your pocket.

If in commercial farming, be it pigs, chicken, goats, sheep or even rabbits be sure to sell you animals at the right age. If it matures at 2 months, keeping it for 3 months makes no commercial sense not unless the sale price will have increased to cover the feeds and other costs for the additional one month.

Goat meat goes for 360 shllings a kilo in Nairobi, those in Wazuan think there is a big problem in the market but personally this is not something that would stop me from getting into the business. The fact is that the Nairobi Middle class is on the up and the food prices are just ridiculous at the best.

Here is a link to Common Goat breeds - lets face it that is where most Milk Goat breeds originated from

http://www.allgoats.com/breeds4.htm

Information Information ................3

Continued from Information Information .....2

In nairobi a kilo of chicken meat goes for around 350 shillings per kilo. A Dorep chicken matures for meat at 6-8 weeks if well fed and can weigh around 4-5 kg for hen and 8-10 kg for the cocks.
My research shoes that a chicken feeds on 150 grams on average over its life.

Just like Kenbro Chicken, Dorep variety of Chicken start laying eggs at 4.5 -5 months. As such if one lacks a market, the Chicken can be kept as Layers. As mentioned previoulsy the eggs can be bought back by Dorep as long as you bought the original stock of chicks from them. you also need to follow their feeding and medicating guidelines to be a position to sell the eggs back to them.

The Dorep business model basically helps small scale farmers with breeding stock, management and marketing of their produce.




Direo Chicken

A bag of 70 kg feeds go for 3,000 shillings although this price fluctuates throught the year. as such if the operation is continous throught the year the farmer should be able to average out the cost with the profits across the price fluctuations.

On average outside Nairobi a labourer is paid 5,000 shillings a month. With a ready market this is a viable business project

Please email me for information on how to get a business plan


To be continued ....................

Information Information ....2

Dorep  Eggs and chicken

I have finally made a visit to Dorep, they seem a bit reluctant to give you information over the phone but face to face they are actually very helpful.

To qualify for some of their services you would need to be a member.

To become a member you need to be able to save less than 10,000 Shilling but they dont ask for a bank statement for proof. so if you plan on visiting them, then leave you Chanel bag at home.
Second condition is to belong to a group, they dont accept individuals for some reason.
Thirdly you must participate in a merry go round costing you 200 shilling monthly

They sell Dorep eggs at 30 shillings to non members and this is the only service that non members qualify for

The members price is as below

eggs                          30 shillings
1 month old rabbit   1,000
2,3,4,5 months rabbit 2k,3k,4k,5k respectively
6 month old expecting doe 6k
4 months she goat     12,000
4 months billie goat  10,000
pregnant goat            22,000

they also buy fertilised eggs from the farmer, once hatching a farmer is paid 47 shilling per egg and nothing for non hatched eggs. The farmers are only paid after the eggs hatch

They also buy rabbit meat at 250 shilling per kilo of dead weight



to be continued.........







Dorep Chicken - Red hens

Information information!

I have recently been working very hard to finalise my business plan on my ideal business – farming.  For anyone who has read my blog, it is easy to tell what animals I want to rear. My main challenge has been financial forecast as there seems to be no portal with current pricing of animal feeds etc.

I have since discovered of Dorep.org but they don’t have pricing on their website. I don’t understand why someone would invest in a website but not give the pricing on their website? After all this is a government organisation aimed at eradicating poverty.

Anyway, I have now gone round the problem and established a few things and pricing on Dorep. A Dorep Cock cost no less than KES 1,500.

Firstly, to join Dorep you would need to be in a group of at least 15 other farmers. I am not in any group but once I have joined I will share more information on the INS and outs of the organisation

Secondly, the organisation as per present provdes a ready market for the members produces. For instance, if you buy chicks from them, in about 8 weeks you would be able to sell the chicken meat to them. The Dorep chicken is a hybrid of broiler and layers – meaning that is slaughtered at 8 weeks it is broiler meat but if you hold onto the chicken for 5 to 6 months is starts laying eggs. I don’t know how many eggs they lay in their lifetime as well.

Thirdly, fertilised Dorep eggs cost in between 20 and 30 shillings each. A day old chick costs 65 shillings each

Fourthly, the Dorep chicken suffer from fewer diseases than the western breeds we have. However, I would still get all the medication needed to minimises death, for each dead chick translates to a lost of approximately KES 900. see the fifth point below

Fifthly, Dorep org buys the chicken meat at KES 230 a kilo, a chicken can weigh up to 5 kilos making KES 1150  a chicken. Thus the loss above

Sixthly, based on daily feeds of 150 grams per adult chicken and the price of KES 3,400 per bag of 70 kilo feeds, for 8 weeks a chicken feeds on KES 357. this figure doesn’t include labour, water, medication, interest on loans you may have and other overheads. But the profit margin is pretty good from where I sit. You just need to not make any shortcuts to realise the figures.

Finally, Kenya has the highest middle class population in our region. Meaning there is always going to be a need for food.

Just some statistics I have worked out that I thought someone might find use of.  Please note that these are the prices I discovered at a point in time and that are the bases of my calculations. So if the prices have moved the figures above won’t stand. In the long term, this is a very viable venture, but there is the need of an outlay to ensure that the correct structures are erected and correct feeds sourced.

The main advantage of the Dorep breed is that they taste somewhat Kienyeji without losing your teeth. It is also possible to hatch your own chicks after you’ve bought the initial stock, you just need to rotate the Cocks to avoid inbreeding which would compromise your stock.

Hope someone finds this info useful.

Seeds......Kenya seeds company!

Kenya seeds – farming!

Today, I was on a mission during my lunch hour. This is what I tend to do on my dinner time as firstly I carry my packed dinner as I cannot afford to buy dinner all the time and secondly the office is in a rather remote location for access of Chips etc…..

Sunflower seeds

So anyway, been online looking for the prices on seed. It is no secret, I want to be a farmer for a living. However, researching the various aspects of farming is proving tricky. Most of the information is not online or rather I would need to phone mum or dad for this information; obviously I dare not mention their information is only limited to their location ( venture and physical location). My mum tends not to disclose information on various aspects of farming that she would not like me to venture into; currently the entirety of farming. And so have had to go for alternative source of information

Anyway, I found the website for Kenya Seed; I am not saying they are the best or anything like that, this is the online website of the kind I found. http://www.kenyaseed.com/barley.html

was more interested on the Katumani maize seeds – maturity in 120 days means 4 month and thus in a year I can have 3 harvest with some sort of irrigation. I would not recommend this seed if you want to feed Kenyans with the maize- yellow maize doesn’t go down Kenyans throat. Anyway, for my kind of business this will do just fine. I don’t want to farm cows at this stage so, I don’t need the fodder in large quantities as well, so it all works out

I just wish that the GM food gets here faster and that the website start showing their pricing!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t get this about the Kenyan websites, no one shows the price and no one tends to think of offering wholesale information etc…..

Having said that, i have read somewhere in the news recently stating that farmers in Homabay are now farming passion fruits and hay because Maize is not as profitable. They sell a bag of Maize to the brokers for KES 2,000 instead of selling to the govt for KES 3,000 because they dont want to have to deal with transportation. Now imagine that a farmer has 200 bags of maize; a KES 200,000 loss just because he cannot be bothered by transportation costs?

Anyway, if you got the pricing for the seed company please drop me a line on Kenyanenterpreneur@gmail.com I would appreciate

Case 1 - The farmer cashing in!

In the last couple days I have been writing down some good business ideas I would like to get into. I have searched the internet for endless amount of hours and there seems to be a lack of ideas or information in Kenya. The reason I don’t know but I thought well, I will get sharing what I have found in my others source. 

My first case is close to home; actually it is from home. I had an interesting chat with my Uncle about his farming. He is a qualified accountant just below age of 50 and no longer wants to wear a suit and go to ‘work’ every day 5 days a week. He lives on my grandmothers’ land rent free as it is the custom with the Kikuyus. He used to farm cash crops which he has now given up for a rather lazy but very profitable venture as he call it. 

The usual cash crops for this area (Nyeri) are baby corn, French beans, onions, leeks, peas, flowers and other quick growing back breaking crops that the locals tend not to consume. The fact that the locals don’t consume the produce leads to volatile pricing further deteriorated by the fact that all the above favoured crops are perishables. Needless to say, there are no fridges/freezers in this household and many others and thus the produce goes off in a day after harvest. The real reason they grow the crops is the fact that the land is small and there are many mouths to feed. It thus makes more sense to the locals to farm cash crops for export and spend the money for food. The same piece of land would not produce enough food to feed the entire family. 

So what is the lazy more profitable option to growing cash crops? Well, fish farming. To this I was not quite sure this was a viable idea, but he had his facts right. 

He needs water, and not too much of it. A pond measuring about 3 meters deep and 5meters by 5 meters wide and long. The pond is not permanently walled i.e. it is a simple dug out hole on the ground with a way for water to get in and get out occasionally. He then bought 2,000 fingerlings for KES 3,000 and then hoped for the best. The feedS are quite simple; he feeds the fish ¼ kilo of fish meal twice a day. A 50 kg bag costs him KES 2,800. The fish food portions would increase as the fish grow bigger to about 1 kilo of food twice a day. After a cool 8 months he will be ready to sell his fish. The fish is Tilapia and it lays eggs and reproduces in the same pond without much help. The down side is that you cannot see the fish in the pond as the water is murky; but this doesn’t kill the fish apparently. 

So here are the figures 

A pond – 3 meters deep, 5 by 5 meters wide and long, supplied by a river – this is a week job for 4 men – say a cool KES 7,000 

Fingerlings – 2000 of them costing KES 3,000; approx KES 1.5 each 

Feeds – approximately 300 kilos i.e. 6 bags of the 50 kilo bags – KES 16,800 spread over 8 months 

Labour – Not much as just finding and the occasional cleaning say a generous KES 5,000 a month 

Overall cost (ignoring cost of capital and pond digging cost) = KES 66, 800; Lets say KES 70,000 

Revenue

Fish sale – There is a ready market for fish at KES 300 per kilo; the company buying the fish fillets for export

I fish is ¾ a kilo – so KES 225 a fish

Assuming he sells only a 1000 of the fish and ¾ kilos the sale revenue would be KES 225,000 in 8 months. Less the cost of KES 70000, he would have made KES 155,000 in 8 months and still has the pond and another 1000 fish to breed.

That is an approximate KES 20,000 a month; not bad, in fact very good for someone with no monthly rent or high transport bill to pay.

With this kind of idea well documented to the taste of the branch loan manager, I think Equity bank or any other micro finance lender would be more than willing to offer an unsecured loan of a reasonable amount. 

Food for thought!

The fish Pond and the feeding! Simple ha!