Kienyeji farmers in Kenya will now have an easier time sourcing Kienyeji feeds for their chickens following Bidco’s launch of Kienyeji feeds late last year.
The new Kienyeji commercial feeds are expected to be substantially reduce the matur
ity period of the Kienyeji chickens while also helping increase production. For farmers, there is now the convenience and peace of mind of knowing where to source your chicken feeds when you need it.
The Bidco Kienyeji feeds will include the Kienyeji Chick Mash, Kienyeji Growers Mash, the Kienyeji Finisher Mash and the Kienyeji Layers Mash. They have different formulations as what is fed to the commercially raised exotic chickens. Each of these feed formulations will be aimed at the various stages of indigenous chicken development.
Bidco Land O’ Lakes has expressed confidence that the new formulations will help fill in a crucial gap in the rearing of Kienyeji chicken in Kenya. It removes the confusion Kienyeji typically face when it comes to poultry feeding. Many are usually unsure of what to feed their chickens.
The Bidco Kienyeji Feed has been developed to ensure that farmers are always buying the right feeds for their chickens for the specific life stages of the indigenous chickens.
Locally sourced raw materials
The raw materials used in the Bidco Kienyeji Feeds have been sourced locally and the ingredients are completely natural to make sure the indigenous chickens maintain the same quality and taste, eggs, meat colour and texture. The new Kienyeji feeds will cater for indigenous chickens specifically which currently make the biggest proportion of the chicken that is consumed locally.
According to the most recent census, Kenya has a chicken population of 45 million. Out of these, some 34 million or 75% are indigenous or Kienyeji chicken. In spite of the high population of the indigenous chickens, most focus is normally placed on the exotic breeds of chickens and very much little attention has been paid to the indigenous breeds at least very recently when KARI began investing heavily on research into the Kienyeji breeds.
Commercial Farming
The launch of the Bidco Kienyejio Feeds comes at a right time when Kienyeji chicken farming is currently being commercialized across the country. Kienyeji chicken farming is no longer a subsistence or hobby farming like it used to be in the past when farmers would raise no more than 10 chickens in their backyards. Commercialization now sees farmers raising Kienyeji chicken farming concerns with stocks of thousands of chickens. Such big concerns require reliable feed supplies.
The gap in the feeding provision for Kienyeji chickens is the key factor that informed Bidco to invest in the formulation of its new Kienyeji Chicken Feeds.
Bidco partnered with the US company Land O’ Lakes in 2019 in order to tap into the American company’s vast expertise, technology and innovation in animal feeds formulation.