Raising kienyeji chicken requires a lot of patience and multi-tasking on your part. Only a small section of poultry farmers get to build massive poultry farming concerns that rake them hundreds of thousands of shillings and even millions. The difference comes in the attitude with which you approach your poultry farming enterprise. Here are some 10 tips on how you can start small and grow big in your kienyeji farming or general poultry farming enterprise:-
Have “big-picture” thinking
According to stats, poultry farming in Kenya in accounts for 9% of our GDP. That is roughly $6.3 billion or more than Ksh.600 billion annually. So this is a massive industry with a potential to create poultry billionaires. When venturing into poultry farming, start thinking big. Put in place measurable goals and work steadfastly towards realizing these goals. For example, instead of aiming for 80 chickens, put in place a goal for raising 800 chickens and start working towards building your flock. Once you arrive there, you wouldn’t have a problem maintaining that medium scale or high level of production. Work your up logically and you will always hover on the high end of high productivity and super profits. What is important is that you should dream big.
Gain and use practical knowledge
To grow exponentially in your kienyeji chicken farming venture, you have to start doing things practically. Having a great idea or big dreams is pretty much useless until you begin deploying your ideas and learning as you move along. When it comes to poultry farming, practical knowledge will come in quite handy in navigating some of the challenges around commercial and intensive poultry farming ventures. It’s good to have a business plan, manuals, training and projections but at the end of the day, you only move forward by DOING.
Solve problems
When it comes to poultry farming ventures, you have to plunge yourself into venture and start solving problems in your enterprise. Making money shouldn’t be your sole motivation when venturing into poultry farming. Think about some of the problems that you wish to solve by starting your venture be it meeting your egg supply needs, supplying meat locally or metting the local egg demand.
Delayed gratification
Like with every business, you will have to constantly pump profits into your business venture in order to grow it continuously. This is particularly important if you can’t access a line of credit. You will have to rely on your profits in order to grow your business.
Mitigate Risks
Do your due diligence and mitigate risks in order to maximize your profitability. Where are you experiencing most losses in your kienyeji chicken farming venture? Are you recording all mortalities? What are the causes of the deaths? What measures can you take to reduce the birds mortality rates? Good record keeping will help you identify and most importantly, quantify the risks that you are facing on your poultry farm. Another risk could be theft by employees and the cost of feeding your chickens.
Learn everyday
In a kienyeji chicken farming venture, every day is a learning opportunity. You get new ideas and discover new techniques that will help you maximize on your kienyeji chicken farming operation. Learn with an aim of improving and making things better and more profitable.
Network widely
Talk to other farmers, extension officers, poultry consultants and experts and get new ideas that you can apply in your poultry farming venture. You won’t grow much if you isolate yourself and do things on your own. Networks unlock so much information and resources that can help you grow.
Use technology
As your farming operation grows, learn to automate the various poultry farming processes in your farm. Automation increases productivity, lower costs, lowers risks such as mortality and helps you run a highly productive and profitable poultry farm that will put you on a path to “industrial-scale” poultry production.
