Have you made up your mind to start a poultry farm? Congratulations!

The next thing is setting up your farm.

Like every other business, setting up a poultry farm requires a careful planning and consideration of many factors.

Below is a step-by-step guide to walk you through the process:

Research and Planning

Your poultry farm is your business, and it requires a lot of research and planning to get it all right. Your research and planning process will include:

Defining Your Business Goals

You’ll need to determine the scale and purpose of your business or farm. Will you be raising chickens for eggs (Layer) or meat (Broilers)?

Doing Your Market Analysis

It is not enough to just enter the poultry industry; you need to do a market research in your area or location to identify your market target. There’s no need for production when there is no demand for your products. This is one of the mistakes many farmers make.

Checking Out for Legal Requirements

You should check out for any legal requirements in your location before starting your poultry farm or business. If there are any local regulations, endeavor to obtain necessary permits to avoid having any problems with the local authorities.

Choose Poultry Farm Type

Now you’ve done your research and planning. It’s time to choose your poultry farm type. Every farmer from the beginning must know which area of poultry they want to specialize in.

Poultry in Nigeria is mainly focused on the two areas, Layers farming (eggs production) and broilers farming (meat production).

Each of the types of poultry farming has its basic and production requirements that must be met to ensure success.

You should decide on the type of poultry farming you want to engage it or whether you want to combine both.

Once you’ve decided which area you want to specialize in, you’ll also need to select specific breeds of poultry birds to keep in your farm. Breed selection is an important aspect of poultry because your goals and market demands are dependent on it.

Note: All broilers are not of the same breed. The different breeds of broilers in the market have their specific characteristics that distinguish them from the others. These characteristics include: height, gait, broad chestedness, duration of maturity, feed conversion rate (FCR), shank quality and color, disease resistance and more.

Choose A Suitable Location

The location of your poultry farm is another significant aspect of your poultry business that must be considered carefully. A suitable location must have easy access to transportation, markets, and utilities. Ensure that your location has proper zoning for agricultural services.

Construct A Suitable Poultry House or Penn

Your poultry house or Penn must ensure proper ventilation and lighting. It must be well insulated to avoid either of freezing and heat.

It must provide enough space for proper installation of feeders and drinkers. Furthermore, it should include a space for storage, an office for paper works, a sick bay (an isolation room for sick birds) and other necessary facilities.

Your storage room must provide protection against pests and other invaders that can cause contamination of food, water and other materials used in the farm.

Proper Selection of Equipment and Supplies

You should only purchase quality equipment for your poultry use such as brooding equipment, feeders, drinkers or watering system and others.

Biosecurity

You should provide for proper biosecurity measures to protect against epidemics in the farm.

Get Poultry Stock

The foundation of your business is the poultry stock. Be careful while you go about this. Many enthusiasts in the business have been sent off the business by a simple mistake of not getting their poultry stock from the right source.

You should only source your poultry stock (Day Old Chicks) from reputable suppliers or hatcheries to guarantee their health and quality.

Feeding and Nutrition

You should develop a proper feeding program for your stock. Your feed must be sourced from reputable feed producers and checked for balanced nutrition. The secret to achieving your set market target is feeding (feeding pattern and feed quality).

Health Management

If you are a synthetic farmer, keenly work with a veterinarian to develop a health management program and vaccination schedule for you.

If you’re an organic farmer, ensure you’re keenly following the organic timetable or chat and work with your organic producer to maintain and monitor the health of your chickens.

Record Keeping

Record keeping will help you make informed decisions in the farm. You should maintain accurate record of all expenses, health, and weight monitoring and production in the farm.

Sales Or Marketing

The catch of poultry business is sales or marketing. In you’re into broilers production, you must understand that maximizing profit in broilers comes with good marketing strategy and selling off on time.

You should create a market plan to promote your farm products to the local consumers. Build a business relationship with available local markets, retailers, and processors.

Staff Training

As your business grows, you may need to employ some hands to help manage the farm. Having a good knowledge of the business yourself is a plus for you to help you train your staff on proper poultry management in all areas including biosecurity. If you lack the knowledge, you can use the services of a trainer to help you train your staff or employees.

Financial Planning or Budgeting

You should develop a budget or financial plan for your poultry farm. Endeavor to monitor your expenses and revenue regularly to ensure profitability in your business.

Conduct farm assessment on regular bases and make necessary adjustments when required.

Keep learning, adopt new skills, and adapt to new approaches when necessary.

Seek help or advice from experiences farmers, industry experts and agricultural extension services when necessary.

Note: successfully running a poultry farm requires knowledge, ongoing dedication, passion and paying careful attention to details.

Good Luck.