By Joshua Kato
Start with chick mash with an average consumption of around 2kgs each in the first eight weeks.
This means that if you have 1,000 layers, then that is about 2,000 kgs of feeds in the first two months. At a cost of sh1,650 per kilogram of pellet feeds or sh1,200 for ordinary feeds, you need sh3.3m or sh2.4m to feed 1,000 layers in two months.
From week nine to week 20, layers feed on growers’ mash at a rate of about 140 grams per day or about 6kgs through the 10 weeks for each bird. This means that for the 1,000 birds, you need about sh9.9m for pellet feeds or sh7.2m for ordinary mash feeds.
After week 20, change to feeding using layers mash. The chicken are ready to start laying eggs. The good thing is that they will now start ‘feeding’ themselves from the sale of eggs.
Feeding the layers for the next 70 weeks will cost you between sh50.4m and sh69.3m.
