Josephine Nyaboke is a poultry farmer currently breeding over 8,000 chicken; both broilers and indigenous (kienyeji) chicken.
She started with keeping kienyeji chicken but with the high demand of grade eggs, they decided to breed layers chicken.
As the demand went high, Nyaboke expanded her chicken farm and she currently collects at least 2,000 eggs daily.
Here is her story as told by WoK.
Chicken farming
In an interview with Imagine Business, Nyaboke disclosed that she ventured into chicken farming with 500 chickens.
The soft-spoken farmer estimated the total cost of setting up her agribusiness venture at approximately Ksh 100,000.
“We started with 500 chicken and when the demand went high we decided to add more. The capital depends on the number of chicken that you start with
“At the time we invested Ksh 100,000 for the same. During those days things like the layers mash were cheaper compared to now,” Nyaboke said.
Nyaboke advised budding farmers who intend to go into chicken farming to consider starting with chicks rather than going for grown chicken.
“You have to start with chicks. There are people who go for grown chicken because they don’t know how to handle chicken because if you aren’t careful you might lose all of them
“You can go for grown chicken but it’s also expensive, the cost of grown chicken is about Ksh 500 and that is before taking care of them until they start laying eggs,” she explained.
Nyaboke also explained precautions needed to be taken in order to raise chicks and prevent them from diseases outbreaks.
“You need to prepared the room very and keep it warm using electricity because they don’t have mothers that keep them warm. You also have to ensure that they get the right feeds until they grow and they start laying eggs,” she stated.
Nyaboke collects about 2,000 eggs which equals to 65 trays per day.
Nyaboke also disclosed that she sells chicken droppings to farmers who place orders and use it on their farms.
“We use chicken droppings as manure or sell them to farmers who either use them as manure or use them to feed cows or goats. We sieve so that we go and other products
“Most farmers like the chicken produce. They work well. A 90-kg bag sells at Ksh 300 each while the sieved one goes for Ksh 400,” she added.
Challenges
Nyaboke highlighted the high cost of feeds and the low market price of produce such as eggs as their main challenge.
“Our main challenge is the feeds prices and the cost of eggs are too low. So here we find ourselves doing business that is not that much profitable,” she lamented.
Other challenges that they face include diseases outbreaks that, sometimes, can wipe all the birds.
Check out the full interview below.
