Poultry farming for beginners:a proven step by step method to success

I have some questions for you. Have you tried to start poultry farming business before but failed?

Are you thinking of how to go into the poultry farming business but have no knowledge it?

If the the above questions concern you, then you are definitely in the right place to learn everything about poultry farming business.

I have seen many people fail in poultry business, that is why I took out time to write this article; Poultry farming for beginners-a proven step by step method.

I understand how it feels to be eager and excited to start this agribusiness, but fail totally and lose some money due to lack of adequate knowledge about it.
Trust me I have been there before, it can be really frustrating.

Thank goodness I took time and made researches by going to successful Poultry farmers to learn and making research both with books and online, today, I have learned my mistakes in the past and have avoided them!. And my farm is now booming.

Poultry business is one of the gold mines in the agricultural sector. If planned and done very well, it will make you rich. Although it requires hard work, but easy when you are used to it.

In counteies like the United States of America, Nigeria, Canada, U.K etc, they have large numbers of poultry farms because understand the importance of it and the huge market it has.

No country can boast of satisfying this need at their domestic level in totality. This is because, the demand and the market is too high.

Have you ever wondered why, no matter how many Poultry farms you might see in your area, the products are still scarce and costly? this is simply because the demand is incredibly huge and the market is also huge and steady.

Poultry products are good source of animal protein, that’s is why everyone loves it and added with their meats are soft and always delicious

I have said too much already, now let’s get into the over – all detailed explanation of everything I have learned to be successful in this business and how to avoid unnecessary mistakes that might ruin it.

I have the step by step explanations/ instructions, so check the table of contents below for easy guide and understanding.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

WHAT IS POULTRY FARMING

TYPES OF BIRDS TO FARM

REQUIREMENTS OF POULTRY FARMING

BUILDING YOUR POULTRY HOUSE

BROILER FARMING

LAYER FARMING

TURKEY FARMING

DUCK FARMING

GEESE FARMING

POULTRY FARMING BUSINESS PLAN

HOW PROFITABLE IS POULTRY FARMING

WHAT IS POULTRY FARMING

Before I go on, first of all, let me explain what Poultry farming means although I know that you know what it means, that’s why you are searching for the information in the first place, but for the sake of new people who might stumble upon this article by mistake.

Poultry farming is a type of live stock farming that involves the breeding or rearing of birds for either meat purpose or for eggs.

This type of live stock farming is all about rearing different kinds of birds or domestic birds like Broilers, Layers, Turkeys, Ducks, Geese.

Apart from fish, beef, pork, snail, goat, poultry is another great source of animal protein. The egg and the meat provides large amount of proteins in the body when eaten and the meat is always soft and delicious when prepared very well.

TYPES OF BIRDS TO FARM

As I have explained the meaning of poultry farming above, let us dive into types of poultry bird and explain them one after the other.

Broiler

Broiler is a type of poultry bird grown mainly for meat purpose, they are usually white in colour and fat.

They are heavy eaters and drinkers, so they are normally fat if reared and fed very well and they are very fast in growth compared to other types of poultry birds.

Good breed of broiler takes about 2 to 3 months of good feeding to mature and gain enough weight.

Layer

Layer is a type of poultry bird grown mainly for eggs. This type of birds are normally yellow and sometimes dark in colour. They are very popular and largely farmed because of their egg laying.

They are much more slower in growth compared to broilers.

They are not entirely for egg purpose as they also serve as meat when they grow weak in laying eggs. Although they serve as meat, but not like Broilers, because broiler is specifically made for meat alone.

Turkey

Turkey is a large poultry bird that is entirely made for meat and sometimes eggs.

They are normally dark in colour and the male are aggressive when provoked. They make one of the best, if not the best poultry meat ever!

Duck

This is a farm bird that is grown for both meat and eggs. It is mainly grown for meat as it does not lay much eggs like the layers.

They come in either white or black in color, and they are good swimmer.

This birds are short in height and fat, it can hatch many eggs an so have many chicks.

It is very aggressive once it has chicks.

Goose

Geese is a grazing water fowl, normally white in colour and bigger than a duck.

They are also a good meat.

REQUIREMENTS OF POULTRY FARMING

Now let’s go on requirements of poultry farming.

These are thing that you really need or requires to start and run poultry farm/farms.
Some of these things are compulsory while some are not, but necessary for running this farm business. They are:

LAND

Land is one of the most important and compulsory requirments or should I say, it is the most important.

We all know that before anything, not excluding farming could take place, there must be land, so you need to procure a land if you don’t have, and if you have one, kindly skip reading this part below.

If you have no land, you need to buy or rent one. Although I strongly suggest it is best to buy one if you have the money than rent, as buying it will make it yours permanently and abolish the recurring cost of rent fee, thereby saving you tons on money in the long run.

When selecting a site for this business, you need to check important things, like,
do the place have electricity, can you get fresh water from there, how is the security in that area, how far is it from people’s resident, how close is the site to the market.

All these are important to consider before you make the plan of siting your farm because like I stated above, you need to site your farm far away from people’s inhibited areas as poultry produces offensive odour.

You need to locate your farm closer to market place/places or closer to a city for easy and cost effectiveness in the transportation to sell your products.

You must check is there is a regular power supply so that you will reduce the cost of using an electric generator or you can purchase solar system, if you want.

Check water supply because birds drinks alot of water, especially broilers, so it best to check if there is a possibility of water supply in the area or you might dig a bore-hole.

Also roads and weather condition is very are very important to check before siting you poultry farm, as you don’t want to site it where there is wind, erosion and bad roads.

FEEDER

Feeder is a tool that is used to give foods to the Poultry birds.

This tool serves as plate for them, hence foods are kept on it while they eat or peck from the feeder/feeders.

It is a very necessary tool or requirment in farming business as you can’t keep foods for the birds on the ground, hence they will certainly develop sick and contact diseases which might kill them.

Feeder have sizes, this depends on the stage or size of the birds involved. For small birds or chicks, small feeders are what they need so that they could be able to reach their food and peck them.

DRINKER

Drinker according to it’s name is a tool used for giving the birds water. There are many types and sizes of drinker, some are advanced and some a are simple.

The advanced type of drinker is mainly used for giving layers water in the cage system. Some cages are built with drinker.

Just like feeder, drinker have various sizes for the simple ones, they are the small size for small chicks, big size for grown up birds.

It is very dangerous to provide big sized drinker to small birds, unless you want them to enter into the water and drown.
So provide them this drinking tool according to their stage and size.

FARM HOUSE

Farm house is the second most important requirement apart from land.

We all know that you cannot keep your birds in an open compound and grow them there, so the construction of a poultry house is very compulsory.

There are 3 types of poultry house, they are – They are Extensive, Semi-intensive and Intensive poultry housing system.

For the commercial poultry farmers, the intensive Poultry housing system is the best.

You could decide to either raise your birds on a litter floor or you can choose to do it in a cage poultry housing system.

The most prefared and advanced way to raise birds is the battery cage system.

BROODING

Brooding is very necessary in poultry farming because the young birds require it.

Brooding is the act of taking care of younger birds through providing them a heat system which they need to survive or hatch.

For farmers dealing with day old chicks, you need to provide a good heat system as the day old chicks have not yet developed feathers, so need heat to warm their body untill they grow strong feathers. So you need to have a good lighting or heating system.

For the eggs, you need to get an incubator, this is if you plan to hatch eggs and sell day old chick.
Please consult a specialist on hatching of eggs.

LIGHT SYSTEM

This is a compulsory tool to have if you must succeed in poultry business.

This tool or equipment is very important in the lives of the birds because the younger ones and even the grown up ones use the light to heat themselves as it provides heats. They need this every night, but mostly on cold days.

They make use of the light to feed and walk about in the night, which helps them to develop faster and produce effective results.

The broilers and the turkeys need this most, as they feed in the night, they also gain more and more weight because they are meat birds which requires, they must have enough weight to be able to sell costly in the market.

MEDICATION

Medication is very compulsory requirement in the Poultry farming business. This is because poultry birds are very prone to diseases and infections, so this made it very compulsory to set in a good medication plan for them.

I will explain about medication later, but in over all, it is best to set medication plan for them.

QUALITY FEED

The third must important thing to consider when planning to rear farm birds is the quality of the feed or the feeding plan or system.

Birds like Broilers are heavy feeder, so you need to set in motion a good plan to feed them regularly and also make research and find out a very good quality feed you can give them for effective and fast growth.

There are many types of feed for many types of birds, for Broilers there are three different types- the starter feed, the grower feed and the finisher feed.
For layer, it has has starter for layer chicks, and the one for grown up layers which helps them to lay eggs.
Turkey, goose and duck have theirs too.

I will explain them later.

EGG TRAYS

This is an instrument used by layer farmers to pick eggs.

It is a necessary tool to use for it reduces the rate of egg breakage when picking them.

VENTILATION SYSTEM

The ventilation system is one of the most important requirements to have.

This is structuring you poultry house in a way that it brings in fresh air in the farm houses and also dispose off bad air and smell from the farm houses.

To succeed in poultry farming, you must make provisions for good ventilation system as it solves many thing like reducing of diseases, reducing of odour, giving in fresh air to the birds etc.

WASTE DISPOSAL SYSTEM

The waste disposal system is a compulsory requirement for birds farming.

Waste disposal as the name goes is setting up a good way or ways to dispose off waste products and dirt’s from the farm house.

The waste are normally broken eggs, feathers, dirt’s from the farm houses like dungs etc.

The was from poultry is a good source of income, I will explain this later.

NEST

This is a place made specially for the birds, especially the layer birds to drop or lay eggs.

The next is made specially that it is conducive for egg laying and it reduces the chance of egg breakage.

PERCHES

Perche is a place or places inside the farm where things like sticks, irons etc are hang up so that the birds could use them to exercise by flying to them.

This is used mostly in broiler farm houses because it helps them exercise as too much weight might cripple some of them.

BUILDING YOUR POULTRY HOUSE

Now you have known the requirements of setting up and running a profitable poultry farming business, let’s go in to building your poultry house or houses.

Like I mentioned earlier, there are 3 types of poultry house, they are The Extensive, Semi-intensive and Intensive poultry housing system.

For the commercial poultry farmers, the intensive Poultry housing system is the best.

But no matter the level of farm you want to build, wether small,medium or large you need to plan and build good housing system. Good house must have the necessary features such as good ventilation system, large rooms, good system of lightning and heat.

To build this, it’s either you pay a construction company to construct good houses or you buy the equipments for the construction and employ Carpenters to construct them.

If you want to construct them yourself either with carpenter or by yourself, make sure you have good knowledge of it, or you will end up constructing unfavorable houses which might affect your birds negatively.

Buy planks, boards, zinc or aluminum for roofing, nets and place the necessary things in place like ventilation, perches etc during construction.

Now you have completed the construction of your farm houses with the necessary things in place, let’s talk about how you can rear the different types of poultry birds.

BROILER FARMING

Broiler bird is a type of farm bird that is grown for meat. They are weighty and average in height, although some do grow tall. They are white in colour and do not fly at all or a little.

This bird is the 2nd most popular bird as it is seen in almost any poultry farm you can think of.

They are high risky birds because they have a high mortality rate and easily prone to diseases if not properly managed.

They are the fastest bird in terms of growth as they normally reach their maturity stage in a short while like 2 and half month or 3 months if properly taken care of and fed very well.

Procedures For Broiler Farming

If you are planning to grow broiler, wether alone or with other birds, there are procedures to go about it, or you will fail and they will all die, as broiler has high mortality rate among all birds. Follow my instructions carefully.

First go and book/buy your day old chick. I strongly recommend starting from day old, especially if you are just new and have no knowledge at all, this will enable you to have the knowledge and master it.

Search for any trusted place to book the chicks and look very well at them when they arrive, look at their head and feet, if they are big, there is every chance they are good breed. Or just ask them to give you good breed.

Before you book your day old broilers, sanitize your brooder/their rooms with the necessary germ killer detergents and open the door of the house for one week, so that sun can shine in them and ventilation also.
They will help to kill off the possible remaining germs in the room that the detergents might not have killed.

Wash both their feeder and drinker and allow them to dry under hot sun to kill any germ there.

On the day you will go and pick your day old, go early in the morning or cool evening when the sun is not much and when there is less noise.

One simple mistake some farmers make is, they fail to realize that noise is not good for day old broilers, so try to bring them to your farm when the noise and sun heat is low.

Once you get home, put the in their brooding house or houses and give them water mixed with enough glucose first!.

This is to allow them regain strength, as Broiler is a very weak bird and thus this is a proper thing to do.

Once they might have drank enough, release their foods.

Also it is expected of you to ask the brooders or hatchers if they have been given medication, if not!, go to a veterinary and ask for the necessary medications, direction and stages to give them.

Proper medication is very important and the key to reducing the mortality rate.

Now you have your chicks, do well to clean their houses twice a day when they are little and once a day when they have grown, as the little ones are easily prone to diseases, keeping a dirty room is a great danger to them.

Make provision of enough space in each room . Broiler needs to be exercising by walking about in the room, space the about 3 feet per bird to avoid over crowding the room which can easily spread diseases.

Please do not provide sawdust to them at small stage, or they will be peck them and that can cause sickness.

Feeding is the most important thing when growing birds, for Broiler, there are 3 stages of feed, they are:

STARTER FEED

Starter feed is a broiler feed made specially for young broiler chicks like day old. It is small in size,very compatible for small chick to peck.

They are made in line with the necessary nutrients young chicks will need to develop, grow and protect them.

They need to take this type of feed for a month before you could switch to the next type of feed. That is to say by a month, the birds have grown a lot.

GROWER FEED

This type of feed is used to feed average sized broiler birds.

At the about a month, they will be big enough, so will have to change food for diet sake.

The Grower feed is a little bit bigger than the Starter feed and contains some nutrients that will increase the size of the birds.

They need to eat this for a month too, then you can switch to the 3rd type of feed

FINiSHER FEED

Finisher is a feed given to broiler birds when they have grown and nearing maturity age.

As Grower feed will increase the size and height of the birds, finisher makes them more fat, big and give them heavy weight.

You need to feed them properly from day old till the day you sell them. This is why is is important to leave them with light in the night, as light is not only for heating, it also enable them to eat through out the night, so endeavor to put enough food for them in the night before going to bed.

Follow all my steps and you will have both low mortality rate and exceptionally a good production.

LAYER FARMING

Layer birds are farm birds that are unique for egg production and meat. They are black and brown coloured bird.

This type of bird is a little bit different from broiler, it lay eggs and has low mortality rate compared to Broiler.

In the case of broiler, I recommend buying from day old, but for layer, I recommend you but already grown ones that are closer to start laying eggs known as point of lay ( P O L).
This it due to the fact that layers takes time to grow and mature, so inorder not to spend time and money growing them from scratch, just buy already grown ones.

Procedures For Layer Farming

As I recommended, you need point of lay for this business, it does not mean there is not work or you won’t take proper care of them, but the advantage is, you will not have to bother about mortality high rate as they have passed that stage.

But is you are to breed from scratch, know that is might take between 6 to 9 months for them to mature enough to start laying eggs, think about the time and work you would be doing till then and also the money to spend on feed and medicine.
Just follow the same steps I gave above for day old broilers, they are the same, the only difference is food.

Well let’s continue with the point of lay birds.
A day or two before they arrive, make a proper clean up in their houses with detergents that are capable of killing germs, open their doors for fresh air.

When they arrive, put them in their various houses or cages and feed them and also provide them water.
As point of lay, some birds might even drop few eggs inside the car or truck conveying them, this is because some have started laying and soon all of them will!.

Also meet your veterinary doctor for their medication, but the breeders must have given them medications, you need to ask them first.

Good thing is, Layers does not feed fat like broilers, so provide them with enough feed and also light in the night. Layers give eggs according to what they eat.

I strongly recommend cage system because this is the most advanced method and it will reduce the breakage of eggs and make them easy to pick and also easy to clean the house.

Clean at least once a day or once in 2 days.

Make sure you have enough space in you farm house if you are not making use of the cage system. Give the enough space, at least 4 feet per bird, this will solve the problem of over crowding and reduce the spread of diseases.

The layer bird have 2 types of feed. they are:

STARTER LAYER FEED

As the name implies is a type of feed layers eat when they are still small.

Just like broiler Starter feed, it is small in size and has all the necessary nutrients that will help them grow and prepare them for egg laying.

ADULT LAYER FEED

Once they have grown and can now peck this type of feed, start giving it to them and it will make them to start laying eggs.

The more quantity and quality of this type of feed you give them, the more big eggs they will lay.

Once they lay eggs, go and pick them up with the egg tray and avoid stepping on them if you are raising them on the floor.

Fill up the floor with sawdust as they are soft and it will save the eggs from breakage and it also provide comfort for the birds.

A good breed and well fed layer might lay up to 2 time every day, but normally, they lay once a day.

TURKEY FARMING

Turkey is the largest farm bird and one of the largest birds in general, they are normally black in colour.

If you ask me, it is the best meat when it comes to birds. This bird is the costliest, maybe because of it’s size.

This bird have high mortality rate too if not properly taken care of, but the mortality rate is quite fair compared to that of Broiler.
It is a proud bird and can be very aggressive when provoked, especially the male.

Procedures For Turkey Farming

To grow turkey, you need big farm houses because they are very big compared to either broiler or layer.

Breeding turkey is very much like any other farm bird, they require clean environment, good feeding, water, etc.

It is better to start at day old for turkey and breed them exactly like broiler day old, as I explained previously above.

Turkey takes time to grow and it depends mainly on the breed you bought and the type and level of feeding they are getting.
Normally, they take between 4 to 6 months to mature.

Sometimes, open their house and free them to walk about in the farm compound it the compound is clean enough.
This will help to keep them healthy and lively.

They do not require steady light when they grow, but it will do no harm to give them light even when they grow as they can still feed in the night.

Sweep their house once in too days or daily if you have the strength to do it.

For the female, once they start laying eggs, as they need mating to do, unlike layers,. separate them and put the female in a different room and pour sawdust on the floor. This is to stop the eggs they might lay from being smashed.

When it comes to Feed, they have the same type of feed with Broiler (stages).

Their first feed is very small, just like broiler and layer. The 2nd is a little bigger and the 3rd is big.

DUCK FARMING

From the earlier explanation above, duck is a farm bird that is grown for both meat and eggs. It is mainly grown for meat as it does not lay much eggs like the layers.

They come in either white or black in color, and they are good swimmer.

They always lay eggs in larger amount and also do hatch them themselves by lying on them for a long time like 21 days.

This act of lying on the eggs provides the eggs with enough heat they need to hatch.

Their eggs are bigger than the ones of layer and smaller than that on the turkey.

They are not much of indoor birds, so they need a big environment, maybe with pond in it where they could swim.

Unlike the other birds I explained above, this particular bird can fly a little bit higher and longer on air.

And they are also good hunters when it comes to food.

You can either start with day old or but the growing ones, although they don’t seem to be easily affected by diseases and their mortality rate is almost zero!.

Procedures For Duck Farming

If you are buying at day old (infant), you need to also take care of them by cleaning their house, providing food and water.

Although they are not prone to diseases like other birds, that does not mean you should be careless about them.

Feed them regularly and give them their Medicine with the direction of your veterinary doctor.

Take them out on a clean environment and allow them to walk about regularly because they don’t like being kept indoor always.

Allow them swim in ponds for they love it and don’t allow them to peck rubbish like earthworms and millipedes.

Their feed come in stages , the first stage is small which suit their small size at infant and the second stage is big in size and the feeds are specially made to suit their growth.

GOOSE FARMING

Goose is one of the farm birds, but it is the least popular farm bird as many farmers hardly venture into this business of goose farming.

They are white birds that love to swim, just like duck. Also they are not indoor birds, so requires a large environment and some water where they can swim.

They are not easily prone to diseases and they make a nice meat and egg.

just like duck, they can also fly.

When it comes to feeding, they can feed very well and they have smaller type of feed for their infants and large for their adults, although they can hunt their food if given chance.

POULTRY FARMING BUSINESS PLAN

Poultry farming business plan is the plans and budgets/expenses you will have to plan before thinking of setting up a poultry business.

We all know that it cost alot of money to start and run a profitable poultry farm, that is why I made this particular subheading to educate you on what you are about to face or closer to what you will face financially.

Without due planning and preparation, you will be likely to go bankrupt and fail, that is why it is important to do.

Now let’s start with the cost of land. This is if you don’t have land already, you will need to buy one, like i said before, I don’t recommend renting land and this will incur future expenses by it’s recurring rent fee.

In Countries like Nigeria, Land in the local areas cost about N500,000 to N1Million, unless you are luck to have cheaper one.

Fencing the land can cost about N200k. This is very necessary for security reasons.

Constructing the farm house will cost somewhere between N300k to N400k, depending on the type of house you want and the number you want.

Cages is another one, you need to have a good budget for this.

You must set a solid plan on how to feed the bird, as this can drain your whole money is you are not prepared enough.

Broiler is the master eater and can eat the whole of your budget, so you need to set a good plan for this.

Infact to cut the matter short, go and check the prices of everything poultry Farming equipments I mentioned here.

I will be leaving links to where you could get them at the bottom of this page.

Set a plan whether to use labourers or not. If you can do it yourself, good for you, but is you are planning on having large farm, employ at least 3 or 4 people who have good knowledge of poultry business and are trusted.

The labourers will be paid by either weekly or month, set a plan for that too.

plan your site in closer to a town or market, as this will save you unnecessary transport expenses when it comes to taking your products to the market.

Buy a small van or lorry that will be conveying your products to the market, that needs to be planned too.

you should budget on emergency like during the spread of diseases like bird flu etc, set a budget to employ veterinary specialists to treat them.

When you have planned your business very well, trust me, you can never fail nor regret nor loss money, so business plan is very necessary and important, unless you fail.

HOW PROFITABLE IS POULTRY FARMING

Poultry farming is a very profitable business. In some places, it is the most profitable agro business as it has the capability of generating millions to your bank account if managed very well.

In the case of layer farming, they lay eggs every day up to 18 months, this will definitely make you smile at the bank.
It depends on the largeness of your farm and number of your birds.

Let’s say you have 500 layer birds, they lay every day that will equal to 500 eggs or more, that will be 16 crates every day till 18 months. Nigeria, a crate of eggs goes for N1200.

After 18 months, you will have to sell the old layers at about N1500 each.

Do the calculation and you will see the huge profit involved in this.

For meat birds like Broiler, it goes for N3k or N5k each, especially during festival time.

Turkey goes for N15k to N20k. this is a huge market and the profit involved is mouth watering.

CONCLUSION

I hope you have learned greatly from this article. this is a great knowledge many people don’t know about, if you could follow everything here, you will be successful in this type of live stock farming.

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