Poultry bible has kept my chicken farm alive

After a hard day at work, Noel Malanda passes her evening time browsing the internet. During one of her jaunts online, she came across an article on poultry farming that whetted her appetite for farming. 

The following day, she visited the Kenya Agricultural Livestock and Research Organisation (Kalro)- Kakamega Non Ruminant Centre where her journey to being a poultry farmer began to take shape.

She was taken through a crash course on poultry farming and by the time she walked out of Kalro offices, she had made up her mind. 

Her first step was to purchase an incubator worth Sh75,000 and in it, she started incubating her dream. Kalro helped with egg sourcing. She bought eggs worth Sh15,840 and after 21 days, 350 chicks were hatched. Over 170 eggs went bad.

“I went in the trade with very high expectations, I expected all my eggs would hatch but they didn't. We had so many power outages that month and this affected the hatching process. Besides, I was new in the venture,” said Ms Malanda.

Remaining true to the lessons given at Kalro, Ms Malanda, who holds a Master’s degree in Educational Psychology, administered Marek’s vaccine when the chicks were a day old. She followed with Newcastle vaccine after seven days and gumboro vaccine after two weeks.   

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“I was strictly following the vaccination regime the way I was taught by Kalro officers,” said Ms Malanda.

For the first 14 days, she fed the chicks on chick starter since it’s rich in proteins and vitamins. After 14 days, she fed them on chick mash after which she introduced chick mash once they turned two months. She said getting the feeds right also determines how fast they mature. 

“I also give day old chicks liquid paraffin (not kerosene) which helps in clearing and softening the digestive system in preparation for feed ingestion. As it is a laxative, it also prevents constipation which leads to death in small chicks as they are not used to digesting solids,” said Ms Malanda.

The paraffin is mixed with water. Since the liquid paraffin is not soluble, she says, it spreads to form a thin film, and the chicks consume it together with water.

“On a good day, I could collect between 250-300 eggs and since my eggs were fertilised, I used to sell one tray at Sh600. I saved the money and bought another incubator from Engokho Poultry Farm at Sh95,000 with a capacity of 1,056 eggs and then imported another one from Britain at Sh120,000 with a capacity of 1,232,” said Ms Malanda.

She has now ventured fully into chick hatching as it's more profitable. A day old chick goes for Sh100, one week at Sh120, two weeks at Sh200, four weeks at Sh250 and then two months at Sh400.

According to Eugene Oloo, the farm's manager, in October last year, there was a sudden increase in demand for chicken which saw them venture in rearing broilers.

“Broilers mature fast, within four weeks, when fed well, they are ready for slaughtering and one goes between Sh400 – Sh500. Since January to date, I have sold over 6,000 birds to leading hotels in Kakamega, Bungoma, Busia, Kisumu and Nakuru,” said Oloo.

Mustapha Hores aged 20, a worker at the farm, said for layers, they also feed them on Amaranth, Sukuma wiki, pumpkin leaves and seeds or ripe paw paws. “Pumpkin seeds and ripe paw paws are rich in vitamins and more so, paw paw is a remedy for coccidiosis (loss of appetite) among the birds."

Currently, the farm has 5,000 birds.

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