Layer Poultry Farming Guide

Poultry farming is the breeding of domesticated birds (chicken, turkey, geese, duck, etc.) for commercial purposes and/or for personal consumption.
Poultry farming is a profitable but delicate business. Profitable in the sense that the consumption of the end product; chicken and eggs are in constant demand up and down the country and it happens to be a potent source of animal protein aside from fish, pork and beef.  More importantly poultry products fall into the category of white meat believed to be more healthy for human consumption.
Delicate in the sense that producers must be very careful in caring for the birds to avoid disease which could be infecting the birds.  A good example of the kind of disease that can infect the birds is “bird flu” which can wipe out the entire birds in a matter of days.
Philippines is a huge market for poultry products since people tend to prefer poultry products than red meat because of the healthy benefits it can give.  Some of the diseases affecting particularly the elderly people such as high blood pressure, cholesterol and heart related diseases are associated with red meat.
 
WHY POULTRY FARMING BUSINESS IS PROFITABLE.
 
§  The choice of white meat over red meat makes the demand for poultry products a choice of business for many people;
§  Ready market: The market is available for these products since everybody, young and old, rich and poor eat poultry products;
§  ROI: Investing in poultry layer has the potential to bring in high profit and recoup your investment in just one cycle about 1 and half year period;
 
BRANCHES OF POULTRY BUSINESS
 
Choice of the type of poultry business you would want to start.  There are basically four different branches of poultry business commonly available as follows:
§  Broilers breeding. You can go into this branch for meat production.  The day old chicks grow in less than two months.
§  Breeding of layers. Intended for egg production, chickens lay eggs for an average of two years before becoming culls. Then they can be sold at the local market.
§  Production of poultry feeds. This is another area you can do business, since the market is readily available.  Those in the business of raising day old chicks must buy feeds, all you have to do is to produce the best feeds and make contacts with poultry farmers.
§  Production of poultry equipments. This is a huge market on its own.  Poultry equipments are so many, you can choose to produce some of them, they include:
 
1.     Feeders: the device for supplying feeds to the birds
2.     Waterers: The device used for supplying water to the birds
3.     Nests: The place chickens lay eggs.
4.     Cages: Boxes made specially for keeping  birds
5.     Coops: a place where the birds are housed.
6.     Incubators: Device to keep eggs warm until they are
7.     Perches: Place of rest for birds
8.     Brooders or heaters A heated structure for raising young fowl.
9.     Waste/disposal system
Now you have an idea of the various aspects of poultry framing business, let us go into the nitty-gritty of how to start poultry farming in order to succeed.
However I will be discussing about the production of broilers breeding (for meat) and layers breeding (for eggs) since that is what the majority of players in the industry are into. In summary, I will call this poultry farming for beginners.

STEPS TO START POULTRY FARMING BUSINESS
Here are the steps to start poultry farming business:
1.      Take time to learn the tricks of the business by attending short courses offered by TRC.
2.      Decide on broiler venture or egg laying and have your investment ready.
3.      Set the location of your farm
4.      Put up a poultry farm structure
5.      Procure equipment for the poultry farm
6.      Workers for the poultry
7.      Buying of chicks
8.      Feeding the chicks
9.      Selling the products
10.  The budget
 
1. TAKE TIME TO LEARN THE TRICKS OF THE BUSINESS
Many people who are quick to rush into the poultry farming business regret afterwards. It is a delicate business and only those who play by the rules succeed because caring day old chicks is not something you can be careless about lest the entire chicks die before you wake up from your shortcomings. So the first thing you do after deciding to go into the business is to start a training course on how to breed chicks. Courses are organized by different agencies on how you succeed on poultry farming. Enroll or consult a farmer, pay a token fee, and he/she will put you through. The reason for this training is that handling day old chicks is extremely technical and a novice in the business must surely get it wrong, leading to the closure of the business. Contact me for any inquiry on this subject.

2. DECIDE ON BROILER OR EGG LAYING AND HAVE YOUR INVESTMENT READY
Your scale of operation depends on the amount of money you have available and how much you can access from the financial institutions in the course of time.
So if your investment runs into millions of pesos, you can begin by acquiring a plot of land and putting up a structure deemed appropriate to your business. You must consult an expert in this area if you do not want to lose money. 

3. SET THE LOCATION OF YOUR FARM
In locating your poultry farm, you must take certain things into consideration such as nearness to the market where the products are going to be sold but away from residential areas. It must be emphasized that zoning agency of your community required at least 500 mtrs away from your nearest neighbor's house.  Moreover, you must consider the noise and odor coming from the birds. But wherever the farm is located, it must have access to roads, adequate security, power and clean water supply, etc.

4. PUT UP A  POULTRY FARM STRUCTURE
There are mainly three types of structures for your poultry. Only two are preferred, one is not recommended.
1.      Free range system. Here the chicks are given the freedom to roam about and fend for themselves.  It is highly not recommended since you do not have control of the birds.
2.      The sawdust system. The house where the birds are kept is filled with sawdust and the chicks can move freely about within the enclosure.  The sawdust must be changed frequently in order to keep the chicks safe from disease.
3.      The caging system. Here the birds are housed in cages.  Different sizes of cages for different sizes of chicks.  In this battery caging system, there is always provisions for the feeding of the birds, laying of eggs and droppings of the birds.  The battery caging system is highly recommended because each group of birds are housed in a separate cage that gives the birds freedom of association but it  could be more expensive. For commercial purposes, the battery caging system and the sawdust system must be large enough to give the birds freedom and good ventilation.
 
5. PROCURE EQUIPMENT FOR THE POULTRY FARM
Equipments required for poultry business are many and they are all important. Most of them are listed in my Product page.
 
6. WORKERS FOR THE POULTRY
If you are operating at low scale (between 150 and 400 chicks) you can safely manage it yourself, but beyond this level, you engage some workers to assist in the daily operations of the poultry. But as a beginner, I would recommend that you operate in a small way until you get more mature. But if however you are a novice, you can engage an experienced person to work with you for a fee until you gain all the knowledge required to be independent.
 
7. BUYING OF CHICKS
You must research for a trusted chicks supplier. Try to avoid the risk of buying unhealthy chicks that were not properly bred in terms of good nutrition. Pls consult me on this matter.
 
8. FEEDING THE CHICKS
At the beginning stage, you can start with commercial feeds until you are conversant with the feeds production. So buy commercial feeds first from a trusted supplier and wait until such time that you can prepare the feeds yourself.
For the medication rules, you must vaccinate the birds at the right time and always provide them with clean water as well as maintain proper hygiene to keep the birds healthy. Same so with the egg laying birds.
 
9. SELLING THE PRODUCTS
You must survey the local retailers of eggs and know their prices per trays of eggs. Collect their names and addresses and inform them that you have a farm and that in a particular time you will begin to supply them with eggs. You must make similar contacts for the sale of live chicken.
 
10. THE BUDGET
It will be a futile exercise to run down for you how much it will cost you to start your poultry farming. I would advise you to make a list of all the equipments you would need in the poultry farming business and do some window shopping in order to gather information on the prices. Also don’t forget to find out the cost a day old chick as well the poultry feeds. This is a basic Poultry farming research. After feasibility studies, you will have a more solid understanding. However, in my experience for every layer you must spend about 750 pesos for everything i mean housing and cages except for the cost of land.
 
CONCLUSION
Poultry farming has many ups and downs and can only be profitable if handled with care.  To be successful in this business, you must attend to it personally and have experienced workers to care for it. Do the right way and be patient God will help us all so long that our intention is to help others in urgent needs. Good luck to all.