Teresa Wairimu: How Businesslady Started Venture With 5 Chicken To 10,000 After Failed Quail Business

Teresia Wairimu Ng’ang’a is the founder of Jolly Footprints which is trading under the name, Jolly Poultry.

Wairimu is one of the pioneers of quail farmers in Kenya before its unprecedented fall.

However, despite failing in quail farming, she did not back down but decided to do something else but within the poultry industry.

Here is her story as narrated by WoK.

Failed quail business

In 2014, quail farming was introduced in Kenya and many poultry farmers ventured into the quail business.

The business quickly gained popularity following claims that quail eggs cured several ailments.

With many Kenyans venturing into the business, the market was flooded resulting to a sharp decline in prices.

Wairimu is among quail farmers who were affected.

“From the quail farming we learnt quite a lot and you don’t stay where you were because you failed… That’s a long story, not really gone, it will come back in future but at least it’s a story of the past,” she said.

In an interview with W TV, Wairimu noted that what she practices at the moment was inspired by the experience that she had while practicing quail farming.

“It taught us a lot that made us venture into improved poultry. A lot that we do now is based on the experience that we went through in the quell business,” she explained.

Chicken farming

At Jolly Poultry, Wairimu rears kuroiler, an improved breed from India.

She explained that she purposely bred the chicken as she was targeting backyard farming, which is common amongst most people.

“If you look at the kienyeji chicken, the small birds to mature and this way, it’s difficult to predict commercially

“We’re in an era where farmers are farming because they also want to make some income. This is a much better version of the kienyeji chicken,” Wairimu said.

The prices of kuroiler chicks increases depending on the size of the chick.

3 days old chicks go for Ksh 100/150, 1 week old chick (Ksh 150/180), 2 weeks old chick (Ksh 200/250) and 4 weeks old chick (Ksh 400/450).

Wairimu rears chicken mostly for meat other eggs or selling chicks.

“When I kept quails, I didn’t target the final market, here, we’re a bit in what we’re doing. We’re not only doing the chicks but keeping the birds for meat as well,” she said.

Challenges

On challenges that she deals with in kuroiler farming, Wairimu mentioned lack of proper information on the chicken breed.

“It is a new bird, we don’t have a clear measure on how much food we are supposed to give them and what kind of quality food,” she said.

Wairimu added that the breed tends to become sensitive when it’s underfed or given the wrong feeds.