poultry at your backyard
poultry on a largescale(intensive farming)firstly, you have to know what aspect you want to be based on. Is it????
- Egg production
- Meat production
- Poultry feed production
- Chicken breeding
Secondly, you have to know the type of bird you want to breed.
- Chicken
- Turkey
- Goose
- Duck
- Peacock
But I would be writing on chicken breeding for meat, there is hardly any person that doesn't eat meat.
thirdly, now you would look at how much you want to start with (capital)
Poultry farming is capital intensive depending on the scale, but if its a poultry behind your house(small scale), it would require littile capital (ranging from N5000 - N15000) depending on the size, but if its a large scale poultry depending on how large, it would require N100,000 - and above. The scale is directly proportional to the capital.
fourthly, look for a good location, because its vital to the success and profit of the farm. Locate your farm where there is large availability of cheap land and if its your backyard its still good, at the same time it shouldn't be situated in a residential area because the poultry produces odour which can be very offensive.
furthermore, how to house your birds is another challenge but there are three types of housing methods employed in respect to housing your bird.
- extensive system - free range
- semi-intensive
- intensive system - deep litter, battery cage, wire and slated floor
if you are running a small scale poultry and you are using your backyard, adopt the method of building a cage (intensive system) and start breeding your birds, but if its in large scale, you should adopt the intensive system, I think I prefer the deep litter system but you know its your farm, your choices count. NOTE each type of housing has its own advantages and disadvantages. Now your poultry house should be built.
the following equipment may be needed on your poultry farm.
- feeders
- drinkers
- lighting system
- waste disposal system
- heaters and brooders
- cages and coops
- nests
- crates
- egg tray
- incubator
but for people small scale you may only need the first five.
Now you all what you need to start your farm, let's put it all together, when you have your building erected, go and search for place to get healthy day old chicks put them in a very. Warm place that has been thoroughly disinfected to prevent them from diseases, make sure no cold breeze comes in because of their body temperature you can put even put source of heat like lantern or bulb, then u'ld feed them with chick starters feed and give them a lot of water with appropriate vitamins and antibiotics (see your vet) continue till about 6 weeks with constant supervision,when they are strong enough you can now bring them out to the place you have built for them and feed them morning and evening. You can start selling off your birds when they reach full maturity between 20 – 24 weeks. The payback period of a poultry farming business is between 3 – 5 years.
