Kienyeji hatchery investment

Hi ,if you had never heard about the chicken farming success story of
Muguku Farm, and someone suggested that you could become a multi-
billionaire from poultry, would you believe? When I first heard about this
story, my first reaction was “A billionaire poultry farmer?” Making a few
hundreds of thousands, and in a very lucky situation a few million
shillings is fathomable, but billions.
But someone has done it.

egg incubator

One Nelson Muguku, a former college teacher, made not one but over
3 Billion shillings worth of wealth from poultry farming in Kenya. Talk of inspiration; his is one truly inspirational story for all those looking to take up chicken rearing as a business. He has proved that you do not need
to go the technocrat way to make a fortune; poultry farming could just
be the thing you need, to enter into the billionaires’ league. Here is the
success story of Muguku Farm:

How did Muguku Farm start?

Like most successful people, Nelson Muguku did not start right off as a
poultry farmer. He was a carpentry teacher in one of Kenya’s colleges.
However, even as a teacher, his hobby reflected a strong inner passion
that thrived in him; keeping chicken. At the teachers’ quarters in the
college, Muguku kept two chickens and a cock and the only profit he
made from that was selling eggs, mostly to his colleagues.

Poultry farming-kuroiler chicken

Poultry farming has always been an interesting option for small entrepreneurs. It does not require a
lot of capital to set up, it is easy to manage and most importantly, its returns are always lucrative.

Today, we are going to talk about one breed of chicken that has been doing some magic in Kenya and Uganda over the year – Kuroiler Chicken.

kuroiler eggs

What is Kuroiler Chicken?
Kuroiler is a genetically improved breed from India. This variety of chicken is derived from crossing coloured broiler males with Rhode Island Red females. This is a dual-purpose breed since it can be used for producing eggs and  meat.

Benefits of rearing Kuroiler as opposed to other breeds

(1)They grow faster than ordinary chicken. The maturity period is about 10 weeks compared to local breeds that take several months or even up to a year to mature. At maturity, Kuroiler chicken weigh about 3.5kg as compared to other breeds that weigh 2kg.

(2)They are scavengers Kuroiler chicken perform quite well under what experts call “scavenging conditions”. You can feed them on animal or plant remains. Unlike other breeds, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to feed them.

Poultry farming in kenya

Marion Dome smiles as she watches her chicks chirp and run inside the brooder located in a pen in her quarter-acre farm in Maili Nane, 7km west of Eldoret town.

Looking at the chicks, they are bigger and healthier than the normal ones. “The chicks are bigger because they are from crossbreed chickens,” she says.

“I get different chicken breeds and cross with others. I have crossbred, for instance, the indigenous cocks with Sasso, Kari kienyeji and Bovan Black,” adds Marion, who keeps over 500 chickens, 200 of them which are layers.

Marion in her farm

Inside her homestead, the farmer has constructed three wooden pens. One is for layers, the other for chicks while the last one hosts over three-week-old chickens.

“I separate them for three reasons. First is to avoid cannibalism, second is to keep diseases at bay and lastly to curb inbreeding,” explains Marion, who sources for new cockerels after every six months.

She gets the cocks from  fellow farmers and uses them to serve the hens. Each cock serves eight hens.

Success story of Leah Muthoni

I make Sh. 120,000 per month from my kienyeji chicken...
The first thing that catches your eye when you arrive at Leamose Poultry Farm is a flock of multi-coloured indigenous chicken darting joyously from side to side inside a wire mesh fenced compound.

The farm at Kabiruini village near the Nyeri showground and Dedan Kimathi University of Technology belongs to Leah Muthoni who crossbreeds indigenous chicken with exotic ones to improve productivity.Leah likes the crossbreed chickens because they are resistantto diseases and mature faster than the local Kienyeji chicken.We found Leah this week in a green apron cleaning the water traps inside one of the chicken cages while feeding them with maize germ.

Leah at her farm in Nyeri

She directs one of her farm workers to lead us in.“Cleanliness is what has ensured my chickens do not contract diseases easily,” she tell us.Leah is keeping over 200 indigenous mature chickens, after shesold more than 500 others over the last holidays.She supplies the eggs and sells the mature birds to hotels and various supermarkets in Nyeri town. She also sells chicks to other farmers who come from as far away as Laikipia, Meru and Kirinyaga.The farmer went into poultry farming in 2013, with six Kienyeji chickens.

“My husband, a former police officer, then went to the bank and got me a loan of Sh400,000 with which I bought a hatchery, brooders, a water tank and water traps. I also installed electricity and constructed cages.”She then enrolled in a poultry farming training which was organised by the Ministry of Agriculture.It is here that she was introduced to the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation improved kienyeji chicken, now just referred to Kari Kienyeji after the institution’s formername.“The chickens are highly resistant to diseases and have high productivity levels in terms of egg and meat quality,” she says.She went on and bought a number of indigenous breeds, the local Kienyeji chickens, the Kari Naivasha, the Kenbro, Kuroiler and the Dorep indigenous chickens putting them all in separate cages.

IT skills in farming,a success story

Being independent and opening his own poultry farm business

-As a very young man, Kevin Kanja decided that he would be independent and contribute to his community by opening his own business in Nakuru, Kenya. Deciding what kind of a business was not difficult.

-“I was brought up with chickens raised by my grandfather and grandmother,” Kanja said. “It was in my blood.”

kanja in his farm

Building IT and business skills through HP LIFE e-Learning

Planning and managing his business’ finances might prove a bit more challenging, so Kanja postponed his dream and made his way to the office of Tears Group Kenya, a training and empowerment group, in his hometown of Nakuru. While enrolling in information technology
courses there, Kanja learned of a unique, online training program for current and aspiring small business owners, HP Learning Initiative for Entrepreneurs (LIFE) e-Learning.

Kanja built his IT and business skills through HP LIFE e-Learning’s fun, easy-to-use modules on finance, marketing, operations, and communications. His confidence grew along with them.

green poultry feed

Poultry farming

Kenya Agricultural Research Foundation (Kari) has come up with a new breed of indigenous chicken that offers better yield called KARI Kienyeji chicken.

Characteristics

-The breed develops faster, is highly resistant to diseases and has high productivity.

-It achieves 1.5kg in about five months when the rest of the indigenous breeds take up to seven months or more

-Ability to withstand harsh conditions is amazing.

-The feathering system makes it adjust faster than the time taken by others to acclimatise with any climatic conditions, including the arid and semi-arid regions.

-The chicken is easy to maintain since it can be kept under the free range system or deep litter depending on a farmer’s financial ability and objectives.

An inspiring success story of Wendy group of farms

Wendy Farms is a rising poultry empire specializing in indigenous chicken. Wendy Farms has strategically positioned itself in various levels of the indigenous chicken value chain. The company supplies day old chicks, eggs, chicken for meat and breeding. It also supplies chicken manure to other farmers. In these farms, everything has monetary value. 

Wendy Farms specializes in KARI improved indigenous chicken breed. A breed that is duo purpose- good for meat and eggs. The breed is also disease resistant and matures in 6-9 months. A dream nurtured from childhood.

Poultry housing

Before venturing in poultry keeping,a farmer should consider putting up an appropriate poultry house. The link below guides on how to go about it...

http://www.extension.org/pages/66243/small-scale-poultry-housing#.VjBPRF2t-o8

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Avoid poultry pests

pest lower the health of poultry and in turn reduce the produce..

Click the link below for more information...

http://www.myperfectchickencoop.com/how-to-get-rid-of-chicken-lice-in-less-than-2-minuets-using-douse-that-louse-99-9-natural/

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