Make way for bantam, the new bird in town

By Lillian Kiarie

Kenya: Exit quail, enter the silkie bantam chicken.

As the appeal of quail farming wears off, owing to what economists would refer to as cobweb adjustments — a process where product prices pendulum depending on changes in supply — it is time to cash in on a breed of unexplored birds.

Unlike other chicken breeds, these birds can double as pets and attract high prices.

Mr Martin Njogu, an exotic species farmer at Blue Farm, sells a mature female bantam chicken of the silkie breed at Sh6,000, while a chick costs Sh1,000.

How much do they cost?

“I sell a fertilised bantam chicken egg at Sh300. Their demand is high while the supply is low, so they fetch a high price in the market,” he says.

Ms Mary Mokua, a poultry farmer at Ukulima Smart, an online agribusiness farmers’ interaction portal, says she sells her bantam chicken mostly as ornamental birds.

“I sell a mature cock (male bird) at Sh9,500 while a female bird ranges between Sh6,000 and 3,000.”

Contrast this with the regular broiler chicken that retails at about Sh450.

So what exactly is the bantam chicken breed?

They are small domestic fowls that are often miniatures of standard breeds but are characterised by exotic colours and feather patterns.

There are about 18 breeds of bantam chicken, which include pekin, dutch and sebright, but silkie is gaining the most popularity in Kenya.

‘Weird’ characteristics

The silkie bantam breed has several unusual characteristics that include feathers that feel like silk or fur; black skin, flesh and bones; and it has blue earlobes and five toes on each foot whereas most chicken have four.

And unlike regular chicken that can get fierce, silkies are very docile and calm and have a friendly temperament, which makes them ideal pets.

In Kenya, many have neglected them for their “unusual” characteristics, dubbing them weird and associating them with witchcraft, which is a myth.

Njogu describes them as “chicken with wool covering up their eyes”, while other farmers term them chicken with the hair of a fluffy cat or dog.

But what is so special about this chicken that makes it attract such high prices?

There are farmers who keep the birds as ornamental fowl or pets to incubate and raise the offspring of other domesticated birds like pheasants, geese, ducks and quails.

According to a farmer from Kuku Farmers, there is growing demand for these types of birds in areas like Kirinyaga, Nyahururu, Juja and Ruiru where farmers have taken up breeding indigenous birds, but there is also a large export market.

Brooding

Blue Farm, which is in Kirinyaga, got into the business of breeding indigenous fowl in 2010.

“After a lot of research on different breeds of chicken, I bought several bantam chicken and now own a large brood of this unique bird.

“Some farmers have approached me to cross-breed this bird with their chicken. A cross-breed egg of a silkie and another variety of chick costs between Sh150 and Sh200,” Njogu says.

Bantam eggs also take fewer days to hatch, and can be incubated.

According to Ecochicks Limited, you can purchase a 60-egg incubator at Sh15,000 while a 176-egg incubator will cost you Sh60,000.

The Youth Enterprise Development Fund also sells egg incubators with the capacity to hatch 528 eggs at Sh198,000, and offers loan options for purchase .

Njogu adds that these birds are delicate in comparison to other breeds of chicken.

Tame birds

“They are more susceptible to sickness than normal chicks. When the silkie bantam chicks are young, they are especially affected by changes in weather and if they are not taken care of well, they could die.”

Njogu advises that bantam chicks be kept in a brooder longer than other types of chicks.

“They should be kept in a barn and need a roosting place to use at night. However, you can let them roam free during the day.”

Due to their small size, they can be reared on a small piece of land.

Njogu says that it takes two days to tame these birds, after which they can be let loose without the need to monitor them for fear of them running away.

The birds feed on the normal chicken feed or can be given vegetables and grains.

“They enjoy eating some small plants and insects such as grasshoppers, flies, mosquitoes and slugs,” Njogu says.

But beware that due to their nature and appearance, they are prone to attacks from predators such as hawks and cats.

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