1. How To Set Up a Profitable Poultry Farming Business in Kenya
Poultry farming has become one of the most important aspects of agriculture in Kenya for some
reasons.
1. It create business opportunity for Entrepreneurs
2. It provides employment for job seeking citizens
3. It is the kind of business that can never dry up
4. It brings in lot of income
Poultry farming is very profitable. A good poultry farmer earns above Kshs5 million per annum
depending on how big the farm is. All these benefits are open to you if you start your own
poultry farm today.
There are basically three types of chicken.
1. The pullets popularly known as Layers: Layers are reared for egg production and most
lucrative but more stressing compare to the other once.
2. The Broiler Chicken: Broilers are reared for meat production; The Broilers grows very faster
and are ready for sale at 12 weeks from hatch.
3. The third is the cockerel: This is also reared for meat production. . Cockerels grow slower and
can take up to twenty four weeks before they are matured for marketing.
Cockerels are reliable in terms of survival and withstanding bad weathers. They are more
resilient, and can absorb shocks far better than Layers and Broilers.
Poultry farming in Kenya requires having the right knowledge to be able to the right things to get
the right result. It requires hard work and prompt attention to details. Poultry Farming is little
capital intensive but if you are starting on a micro scale (Home back yard) where you have a
small space at your back yard, it is not. Starting small is the best way to enter and learn the
business.
Before you venture into poultry farming business in Kenya, you need to seat back and do proper
planning; make sure you have an idea of all the costs involved.
Currently they seem to be no high poultry farms in Kenya like the ones in Europe, USA and
other counties. Any investor who has the needed capital to venture into it will have reasons to
smile within a short period of time.
If you are ready to get started in poultry farming in Kenya, these are the basic requirements you
need to set up your farm.

2. LAND:
The no 1 thing you need to get is land. A plot of land of 120 x 60 square meters is okay for
setting up medium scale poultry farm in Kenya, at least for a start. Once you have land that is big
enough for your farm set up, almost half of your needs have been taken care of. Land is the
hardest and the most expensive part of poultry business in Kenya.
Look for land in a rural area or in farms. There you will get lands cheaper, stays out of trouble
and do your production there, while your products will be transported to the urban area for sell.
It will be good if you can get your own poultry farm land and build a permanent farm rather than
to rent. When you rent, the owner might decide to send you packing and relocating always comes
with huge cost.
Chicken Cage:
This is the second most important part of your poultry farm set up and it is not as expensive as
buying or acquiring land. There are so many ways you can build the birds house but make sure
that the sizes of the building is spacious enough for the chicken to run around.
The house should be constructed in a way that you will be able to control the ventilation and air
movement.
When planning out your chicken house, always remember that space is very important. Don't
compromise on this to avoid frequent loss of your birds through suffocation and contamination.
Day Old Chicks
This is where the business starts. Buy chicks from chicken hatchery that mainly deals with the
supplying of different species of day-old chickens. It's better to buy from the hatchery, Chicken
hatchery usually produce good quantity of day old chicks through the use of incubators.
Raising hens from baby chicks requires you to check on them often during the first few weeks
(Seven to nine weeks). It's really fun to watch them turn from downy, fluffy little balls into
feathered-out, gawky adolescent pullets. A chick does not have the ability to maintain its own
body temperature without an external source of heat.
Below are my outlines of taking care of chicks
After you have gotten your chick, once those baby balls of fluff arrive home, you'll want to have
everything ready for them to settle into their brooder and stay warm and happy. Plan to check on
them at least five times a day during the first couple of weeks of life, and less after that.

3. You'll need to monitor their temperature, keep them safe from pets, predators and over handling
by children, keep their feed and water clean.
Make sure your baby chicks have everything they'll need on the first day home. As they get
older, you will use different feeders, but for the first week or two, plastic chick feeders like the
ones you see above will make life a lot easier for you. Light must be available at all time in your
poultry farm to keep the chickens warm, especially during raining season when the humidity is
always very low. Look for reliable source of power to supply your hens house with heat and
light.
Chicks love to stomp in their feed, tip it over, and generally make a mess. They're also not
terribly smart and can eat quite a lot of shavings or bedding while they pick spilled feed off the
floor. These feeders are perfect. They're at the right height when placed on the brooder floor.
Caring For Your Growing Chickens. After the baby chick stage passes, you'll have young pullets
and cockerels and, once they turn one year old, hens and roosters. Some basic daily chores
involving keeping their food and water fresh and collecting eggs is the basis of ongoing chicken
care, but you'll want to make sure they're protected from predators and staying healthy as well.
NOTE: Most layers will start laying eggs the moment they are 18 weeks old but some wait till
they are about 22 weeks old. Whichever way, Layer farming is considered the most lucrative of
all poultry farming because two things are acqived from layers, they lay eggs which fetch good
money in the market, and are equally sold for the meat.
What are you then waiting for? Go ahead and give it a try – am very sure you'll have reason to
smile soonest!!!