If you plan to start your own poultry farm business as a beginner, you have to enter the business with a well-defined plan and preparation by considering all of its aspects. Right from setting up a farm with some basic equipment to raising the birds and marketing properly, you have to take every step wisely.
Do not forget that there are many other poultry farms around you also. You will be competing with them. However, if you can run your business properly, chances are that it will be able to grow fast. The demand for poultry products is increasing by day by day in the local market as well as the international market.
So, there is a lot of scope for the fast growth of your poultry farm though a tough competition provided you follow some basics of the business. Your return on investment will be fast.
Now don’t wonder how to start a chicken farm. Here are some important guidelines for you. Follow these steps properly for a successful poultry farm business.
Table of Contents
Poultry Farm Business:
1. Choose Your Poultry Sector
As an industry poultry farming is not very wide. Actually, there are two types of farming you can choose from:
- Broiler
- Layer
Broilers are chicken that you raise for meat production and layers are chicken that you raise for eggs only but there are extra options too both for broilers and layers farming both are for meat more or less. Then, there is the business of including eggs and raising chicks.
As usually poultry farm business runs in more than one sector. So, take a decision, if you want to operate in all sectors or you want to restrict your business to just one or two sectors of your choice especially in the beginning. The following are the niches you can choose from.
- Meat production or Broilers breeding
- Egg production or Layers breeding
- Poultry feed production
- Chicken breeding or Hatchery
- Egg and meat processing
2. Choose the Type of Bird
Poultry farm farmer can rear many types of birds. So in your poultry farm may be started by focusing on one or two birds and then includes more birds later as the business grows up. Most of the poultry farm business men raise birds such as domestic fowl or chicken as broilers and layers, duck, goose, quail, guinea fowl, turkey, pigeon, and peacock which depend on the choice of the farmers, location, market demand and even expertness of farmers.
So, you should also determine whether to rear broilers or layers. This is basically the choice for the beginner for meat production or egg production.
3. Production Systems
Poultry farm business can run by several systems depending on the place, process, and intensiveness, which can be classified into one of four broad production systems.
- Free-range extensive;
- Backyard extensive;
- Semi-intensive; and
- Intensive.
As a beginner, we prefer for the intensive farming system. In the case of a semi-intensive or free-range farming system, you need more land, and production may be hampered as well.
4. Get Financial Help
You may not have much money at hand to start your own farm. But setting up a poultry farm business you need sufficient funds. You have to buy a lot of equipment such as feeders, drinkers, lighting systems, incubators, heaters or brooders, and many more.
Most importantly, you need a big amount of funds to purchase land but if have own land then you need less amount fund. You will put facilities to enhance your productivity. Moreover, you need funds also to pay the salaries of your laborers. So, analyze your financial requirements.
5. Set Farm Location
You should also think about setting up your poultry farm at the most appropriate location. It is important that the location should have all the necessary facilities or if there are no then make sure the necessary facilities. Try to build your farm a little away from the town so that you can have the land and labor at a lower cost.
When you will construct a house like a professional poultry farm business, future plans have to be taken into consideration as well. Like, after the operation starts, waste material will be generated regularly. Construction planning includes plans for an isolated area for disposing of the waste material without causing any health or environmental risks, including risks to water resources and other animals.
However, setting up the farm too far away from the town is not a good consideration at all. Remember that you have to approach a town more often to target your consumers, which may cost you more on transportation.
6. Housing
Chickens need enough space for them to grow properly, there should not be crowded, otherwise, they may throttle to death and that may lead a bad impact on the farm even to a loss in your poultry farm business.
Generally, each chicken requires about 0.1 square meters of floor space, which means to 10 hens per square meter for broiler but in case of layer, it requires less. So the size of the poultry house will depend on the number and nature of birds.
7. Chicks Collection
The success of your poultry farm business mainly depends on the chicks which you buy. Well checks mean better production. So now you should collect one-day old chicks from a reliable authorized hatchery or company where the parents are well managed.
You should ensure the quality of the chicks by checking the following steps:
- Chicks are clean and dry,
- They have bright eyes,
- They are active and alert, and
- They should not have any deformity on the body.
8. Introduce Your Farm
You should meet many people and tell them about your plans to start your own poultry farm business. Start from talking to your friends, nearby people, and neighbors. Even you can meet some of your potential customers. Make them aware of your farming plans and take their advice as well.
9. Marketing
A good marketing technic always plays a good effect on the profit from your business as well as in your poultry farm business also. If you sell your products in the target market easily and with a high price, then it will encourage you in getting more profit and more production. We always suggest making a better determination planning for marketing. Your business will not be much profitable if you are unable to market your products properly.
