By Umar Nsubuga
Harriet Nabirye, a resident of Kanyanya, a Kampala suburb is interested in starting a small poultry venture with 500 layers.
She needs advice on the nature of the building (poultry house), necessary space, required equipment, feeds, level of manpower, and supplies.
Peter Mubiru, a veterinary doctor says before you start any poultry enterprise, you need to identify the market.
“One mistake many farmers make is to wait for the birds to mature before they look for the market. If it is a broiler enterprise, you know that after seven or eight weeks of stocking the birds, they are ready for sale,” he says.
He adds, “If they are layers, you know that by about 20 weeks you will have eggs to sell. You, therefore, have to begin identifying the market early enough to avoid wasting time.”
For a beginner, Mubiru says one can start with 100 and 500 birds.
“You can expand later after you have mastered the business. But I would prefer that you begin with broilers as you learn and then tackle layers while you at least keep one batch of broilers to get some experience,” he explains.
Certainly, the loss of one layer is a lot more expensive than the loss of one broiler. So, you don’t want to make any mistakes on layers, he notes.
Once you decide to begin poultry keeping, Mubiru explains that it is important that you have the right housing. The type of housing will determine both the health and productivity of your flock. Poorly ventilated houses can, for instance, lead to respiratory diseases.
Overcrowding can lead to stress and slow growth or reduced egg production, often accompanied by vices such as pecking and egg eating, he says.
Houses that are difficult to clean encourage the accumulation of germs and the spread of infectious diseases.
Mubiru says a proper house should have a floor that is easy to clean and disinfect. Preferably it should be the kind of floor that you can mop.
He says the walls should provide enough ventilation to allow free flow of air in the room and the roof should be leak-proof.
“Any kind of material that meets these conditions can be used for constructing a poultry house,” he says.
