I created this account so as to give practical steps to break into the Poultry Industry in Nigeria. I have seen posts/ threads about poultry production here on Nairaland, but I am yet to see threads that have given hands-on practical approach on how you can raise poultry birds- Broilers, layers and others, without fear of losing your money.

This thread will be updated from time to time. It will be some kind of place where you, as a budding farmer or someone who wants to take a chance in this industry, can go to, to get a tip or two, so as to be on track in whatever activity you are engaged in.

It will be a mixture of Practical as well as Theoritical Steps to keep you in the game.

My name is TheFarmer1. I have been in the poultry business for about 4 years and i am more than willing to give you what you need to succeed in this endeavor.

Follow this thread if you have interest in what I am about to dish out.

This thread will focus mainly on Broiler Production. Yes! Broilers! That meaty bird that you like to enjoy every now and then. I will occasionally write on Layers and other poultry birds but my flashlight will be beamed on Broilers most times.

As a poultry farmer, most times, what interests you apart from keeping your customers and creating a brand, is making sure you don't lose money. Like in every other business, making money is always THE GOAL. What more reason would drive you into business if not to make money? Just like any other business, if you keep losing money, it will be only a matter of time before you drive yourself out of business.

Like every other business, there is always the very important need to know the ground rules of the business you want to venture into. This is also applicable in Poultry Business. If you wake up someday and decide to start poultry business, you'd probably wake up some other day and find out that you have been kicked out of business. Why? It's simple. You have failed to know the ground rules.

You don't need a soothsayer to tell you that there aren't a lot of jobs in Nigeria. But must you look for a job? How about you create a job for yourself and others? Wouldn't that be nice? If you decide to venture into poultry farming today, you have succeeded in creating a job for, not just yourself, but also for some other person. Job creation is like a chain- you don't exist in a vacuum. The moment you start off something, you will automatically engage the services of some other person or persons. It's almost inevitable.

Let's say you are a young guy hustling to put food on the table for yourself and probably for your siblings. Let's also say you are a young and recently married man. You have a wife and possibly a kid, would you consider going into this business? I would say ABSOLUTELY on your behalf.

Let's also say you have recently hit some good money and you need a business to help you build this money up and probably set you up for the foreseeable future. Would this business be a good one? Why not! The more money you have in poultry production, the more money you actually stand to make. This is a FACT.

As a consultant, one of the best advice I give budding poultry farmers is to make sure they have the MONEY down before venturing into this business. This business is actually done with money. Yes. You definitely need lots of money if you want to do it big time. You don't also need lots of money if you want to start small and build on whatever amount you have.

The moment you have some money down, the next very important thing you need is the Technical Know-how. You don't just wake up and become a mechanic, do you? You actually need practical knowledge of how an engine works or how to change a tyre or loosen a knot to actually succeed as a mechanic. That's exactly the same way you need to know how livestocks like poultry birds are raised to succeed.

I like to be very practical and feasible. Not everybody have N2,000,000 or more to start a poultry farm or business. Some people have less that N100,000 to kickstart the journey. The question is, is that N100,000 or N50,000 enough to start something? That is the question. I say YES. N50,000 can start you off on a journey that can rake in millions over time. Poultry Production isn't a Ponzi scheme, neither is it a get rich quick kind of business. You can get rich. Yes! You can become quite rich but it does take determination to get there.

It takes time too. Yes. A lot of time, I must say. It actually takes time and patience to hit it. You practically watch these animals grow from day 1 till the day you feel you are ready to make some money out of them. If you are the type that can't be patient, maybe this business isn't for you. Trust me.

Keep an eye on this thread. More to come...

It's been a short while. Let's get back to business.

Just yesterday a client who wanted to start off her poultry production gig reached out to me. She complained and screamed at the cost of input for raising these birds. She wanted me to guide her on how and where to start.

Indeed, the cost of raising broilers have hit the high roofs. Most poultry farms have actually shutdown because of high cost of production. Looking at it critically, why won't the cost of feed be high? How many farmers are growing maize, a major content of broiler feed, in Nigeria? Bandits, Herdsmen and other non-state actors have made it almost impossible for farmers to go to their farms and grow crops. This has led to limited production capacity and scarcity, thereby driving the price of these materials up- demand and supply factors will always come into play.

If you are considering going into broiler production at this time and you don't have a lot of money to burn, you should consider raising BROODED BIRDS and selling them. That's right. You can actually raise broilers for a period of 2-3 weeks and sell them off. You must not raise and sell mature birds.

Raising birds for this short period of time doesn't cost so much. There is also a huge market for young birds. The big players can focus on raising mature birds while the small-scale famers can focus on selling brooded birds.

What do you actually need to start off?

For the sake of clarity, I will focus on raising just 100 birds for a period of 3 weeks. 100 birds here means 2 cartons of your favorite broiler, which usually contains 51 birds per carton. If you have plans of raising more than 100 birds, these figures will serve as a guide on how to proceed.

Your brooding house or brooder
For a brooder that should accommodate 100 birds for about 12 days, it should measure about 5m X 5m. A floor area of 25 square meters is big enough to keep those 100 birds comfy for atmost 12 days.
Your brooder could be set up on the floor or it could be set up on a platform. For the sake of this write-up, I will advise you set up your brooder on a platform. There're a lot of reasons for this.

Experience has shown me that the survivability of day old chicks tend to increase if they are raised from DAY 1 on a platform that can only be accessed using your hands. We tend to wash our hands more often than our feet or legs, making our hands cleaner, to a large extent, than our feet. When you raise day old chicks on the ground, you have to walk into the brooder, making it very, very easy to spread diseases that can easily kill those young birds. On the flipside, when you raise these birds on a raised platform, you only access the birds using just your hands.
You get the gist now, right?

Most times you should have 100% survivability in the brooder if you follow this method.

There is need to construct your brooder in such a way that it can retain heat/warmth. Yes. Warmth in the brooder is very, very important. Day old chicks are somewhat cold blooded for the first few days of their lives. They need external warmth to stay alive. As much as possible, use materials that can help retain warmth to fabricate the walls of the brooder. Your source of heat can be from your coal pot using charcoal. It could be the gas brooder. It could even be the usual yellow bulbs. It all depends on what you want and can afford.

The bottom line is making sure you provide constant warmth at the appropriate temperature level for the period the birds will be in the brooding room.

What exactly should your birds feed on while in the Brooder?

The first 2 weeks of a Broiler's life is the most important and whatever you do, never joke with what they eat within this period. If your target is to sell these birds within 3 weeks, then you should be able to feed them with highly nutritive broiler feed. Between Day 1 and Day 14, your broilers should be on high quality Super Starter Feed. There are a lot of players/companies in the commercial feed subsector. You should look out for the best feeds since you are on targeted production.

For this write-up you should use feed from companies like NewHope, Ultima, Hendrix and so on. These feeds may be expensive, but they give you the benefit of giving your birds the best nutrients to hit appreciable size and weight in the shortest possible time.

With the best feeds, it is possible to get birds as heavy as 700-900 grams or more within 18 days. Remember, you need to sell these birds not later than 21 days old.

It should be noted that your birds must be fed ad-libitum. This means that you must feed your birds round the clock. They must have feed in their feeder at all times until they are sold. Broilers like to nibble on food even at very odd hours. Broilers tend to feed more at night. If you don't feed them at night, you may never hit the adequate size and weight category within 21 days.

Adequate drinkers and feeders for the specific age category must be provided for the day old chicks. Go for age specific plastic or aluminium feeders. Like I will always advice farmers who consult with me, avoid using tray feeders in your brooder. Most farmers feed their birds for the first 4-5 days using tray feeders. Avoid this. Use the usual round or rectangular feeders that can allow the chicks to feed appropriately.

What should be on the floor of your brooder?

Broilers spend a lot of time feeding and squatting down/ lying down. It is very important you provide a good floor surface for them to stay on. Use newspapers or cartons to provide a comfy spot for these birds to stay. Change the floor materials often. Broilers tend to mess up the whole place with poo. It is very important you change the floor materials the moment they become messy, to avoid disease outbreak.

Now that we have sorted out the issue of setting up your brooder, as well as the issue of warmth, feeders and drinkers, we shall delve into the nitty gritty of the whole process: BOOKING YOUR DAY OLD CHICKS.

The whole process could come to a sad end if you book your birds from the wrong sources. Yes. You could regret going into this business if you decide to patronize roadside day old chick vendors. You can fall a victim of low quality breeds if you aren't careful.

Whichever state you reside in, there are approved vendors who you can do business with. Find them and place orders for your preferred broiler breed. Most people tend to patronize companies like Agrited, Chikun, Chi, Sayed and a host of many others. This is because Broilers from these companies have proven to give good yeild. Whatever your choice, it's adviced you stick to a breed that gives you the result that you want.

Before welcoming your birds, you should have the routine energy boosters like glucose handy. You should also have your multivitamins and antibiotics accounted for. These items will make your brooding experience seemless.

TheFarmer1:
Before welcoming your birds, you should have the routine energy boosters like glucose handy. You should also have your multivitamins and antibiotics accounted for. These items will make your brooding experience seemless.

I want to say a big thank you @theFarmer1. The write up is well detailed sir. I have three questions before you continue


1) Please recommend a good brand of super starter feed that gives results from experience

2) How many bags of feed will raise 100 broilers in 9 weeks

3) Which breed will you recommend. I have been using Zartech overtime but I want to change to a better one sir

Thank you Boss

Op u mentioned selling broilers within 21 days. Do u mean 21 days from day old or 21 days after brooding.
And if u mean after brooding, how possible is that. Pls through more light on the possibility

Tunjoel:


I want to say a big thank you @theFarmer1. The write up is well detailed sir. I have three questions before you continue


1) Please recommend a good brand of super starter feed that gives results from experience

2) How many bags of feed will raise 100 broilers in 9 weeks

3) Which breed will you recommend. I have been using Zartech overtime but I want to change to a better one sir

Thank you Boss

You are welcome, Joel.

For the first question, I will recommend you use Ultima Super Starter Feed. Use this for a period of 2 weeks or 14 days. By the 15th day, switch over to Ultima Starter till the birds are 28 days old. From the 29th day, start finishing your birds. Place them on Ultima Finisher.

For the second question, 100 birds will eat an average of between 30 - 32 bags of feed for a period of 9 weeks. This will enable you hit an average weight of 4kg by the end of the 9th week.

For question 3, Zartech Broilers belong to the broilers called Cobb 500 strain. They are good in their own right but I will suggest you use Ross 308 from Sayed, for a change. These birds will hit an average weight of 1kg by day 21 if you follow the steps and guide I have given so far. You will definitely get birds weighing over 4kg by the 9th week.

ashpanez:
Op u mentioned selling broilers within 21 days. Do u mean 21 days from day old or 21 days after brooding.
And if u mean after brooding, how possible is that. Pls through more light on the possibility

What I mean is 21 days from day old. Infact, most of my birds are ready for market by day 18. By the 18th day, I already have birds weighing almost 800 to 900 grams, with well formed feathers. So, yes, you can start selling and making profit by day 18.

Now that you have placed an order for your favorite broiler and you have a verified arrival date, what you need to do next is to set your brooder up for welcoming the birds. The arrival day is usually a day filled with all manner of expectations. First, if you are expecting the birds from a distant hachery, what happens if you open the carton and find out that you have 5 dead birds out of the 51 birds you expect in a carton? What happens if you find out that a good number of the birds in your carton are down with some kind of paralysis? What happens if the bus carrying your consignment is involved in some kind of accident?

This is the reason why I said that the arrival day is filled with a lot of expectations. This is also the reason why you must buy from a verified vendor. That way, you know who to hold responsible if your birds don't arrive in one piece.

Let's assume that your birds all arrive in one piece, you know you are on the path to success. You then need to administer the birds with the first dose of Intraocular Vaccine or what we call I/O. Each chick gets a dose of this vaccine through their eyes. This is to prevent Infectious Bronchitis in young chicks. Although these birds get a dose of this vaccine in the hachery, it is always adviced to give them another dose, just to rule out the possibility that any of the chicks may have been omitted from getting a dose.

While you are off getting the chicks, there is usually need to have someone at the brooder, who will set up the drinkers with appropriate level of glucose in the water. It is also advisable to preheat the Brooder before the arrival of the chicks.

Gradually introduce the birds into the brooder and watch them closely while they drink and run around. Do not feed the birds for the first one hour after arrival. Allow them to take in as much glucose water as they can. This will help them stabilize and wear off stress that may have occurred during transportation period.

TheFarmer1:


What I mean is 21 days from day old. Infact, most of my birds are ready for market by day 18. By the 18th day, I already have birds weighing almost 800 to 900 grams, with well formed feathers. So, yes, you can start selling and making profit by day 18.

Brooding time nko? I thought brooding takes up to 3weeks.(21dats).
I am sorry o, but I don't quite understand ur market

ashpanez:


Brooding time nko? I thought brooding takes up to 3weeks.(21dats).
I am sorry o, but I don't quite understand ur market

At 2 weeks, it is expected that a broiler is done with brooding and should be removed from the brooder. So a 3 weeks old Broiler is old enough to be sold.

TheFarmer1:


You are welcome, Joel.

For the first question, I will recommend you use Ultima Super Starter Feed. Use this for a period of 2 weeks or 14 days. By the 15th day, switch over to Ultima Starter till the birds are 28 days old. From the 29th day, start finishing your birds. Place them on Ultima Finisher.

For the second question, 100 birds will eat an average of between 30 - 32 bags of feed for a period of 9 weeks. This will enable you hit an average weight of 4kg by the end of the 9th week.

For question 3, Zartech Broilers belong to the broilers called Cobb 500 strain. They are good in their own right but I will suggest you use Ross 308 from Sayed, for a change. These birds will hit an average weight of 1kg by day 21 if you follow the steps and guide I have given so far. You will definitely get birds weighing over 4kg by the 9th week.

. What weight should 12 days old chicks acquire sir

timmond:
. What weight should 12 days old chicks acquire sir

A 12 days old chick should weigh between 400-450 grams. This is dependent on the feed and Broiler breed you are using though. High quality feed/ day old chicks could give slightly more than this. Again, Broiler weight greatly depends on the management practices of the Farmer. If you don't feed your birds round the clock, with high quality feed, you may never hit the required weight.

Now that your birds have arrived and have taken in glucose water for at least an hour, introduce the nutritious broiler super starter feed into their feeder. For 100 birds, you need to have between 8-10 feeders and 4 drinkers. These will be enough to ensure the birds have unrestricted access to food and water.

Closely monitor them intermittently. Look out for birds that aren't drinking. Dip their beak into the drinker. This will give them a headstart to take in water. While you do all these, make sure you sustain the heat coming from your heat source. Place the heat source in a central place so that the warmth can circulate evenly. Monitor your brooder temperature using the thermometer. Temperature should range between 34-37 degree celcius. If you don't have a thermometer, closely look at the birds. If they are crowded together and making chirpy sounds, it means that the heat isn't enough. You may have to increase warmth. If they are evenly spread out, it means the temperature is good enough. If alternatively the birds are dispersed to corners of the brooder, panting and aren't feeding and drinking, it means the temperature is too high and you must reduce the heat.

Whatever you do within the first 24 hours of the arrival of the birds goes a long way in determining if you will have a successful brooding or not.

Quality control in most of the hatcheries in Nigeria isn't top notch. Most day old chicks (DOCs) tend to get infected with all manner of microbes while at the hatcheries. If you fail to acknowledge this fact, it may spell doom for you in the brooder. It becomes very important to start prevention/treatment against these microorganisms before they lead to unexpected mortality.

In the evening of day 1, introduce your birds to antibiotics. A sample picture of the antibiotics you can use is attached below. Around 6pm of the arrival day, put fresh water in their drinker and place 1 teaspoon of the recommended antibiotics as well as 1 teaspoon of glucose in each of the small drinkers. Stir very well and place them at strategic spots in the brooder.

The recommended antibiotics comes with an infusion of vitamins. DOCs need vitamins at this early stage to help build up their immunity and also encourage feeding. They should drink this mixture till 6pm of the following day.

On the second day, around 6pm, remove the water content of the drinkers. Wash them properly and, again, add 1 teaspoon of the antibiotics and glucose. They will drink this for the next 24 hours.

Because Broilers are prone to diseases that can manifest at any point, there is need to also purchase what we call coccidiostat. This drug is specifically used to prevent coccidiosis in your brooder and farm in general. A sample picture of a coccidiostat you can buy is attached below. You will have need for this drug in the coming days.

At the end of the 3rd day, clean up the drinker and administer fresh antibiotics in their drinkers. Discontinue with glucose. Do not add glucose by the end of Day 3. Just place the birds on the recommended antibiotics. Follow this routine till the 5th day. At this point, you should have no mortality if you follow all the steps that I have listed here.