In this write up, we will be answering questions that I have received from different poultry farmers across our different platforms who are interested in delving into the business of raising parent stock birds for the production of day old chicks .
Hopefully, we will get to understand the concept of raising Breeder birds for supplies to other farmers.
How competitive is this sector of poultry?
Answer : Am sure many of you who are broiler farmers can tell tales of how the price of day old chicks went to an all time high in the month of October and early November last year. This shows that there are few players involved in the production of day old chicks while there are thousands of poultry farmers scattered all over the country who need the chicks produced by the Doc sellers.
What’s the capital required for a medium scale production. Just an estimate?
As regards capital required…. You need quite a large sum of money to get started especially if you are starting from the scratch. But if you already have the structure and Poultry equipment in place, then it would be less capital intensive to set up. Generally, the price of a parent stock chick is usually far more expensive… #1450/chick as against #220/#250 that you purchase your commercial Broilers or layers. So that alone says a lot as regards the start up cost of setting up a parent stock breeding farm.
How To Market The Day Old chick birds?
As regards marketing of chicks. Infact, this should be the least of your problems, as the current market trend has shown that demand outweighs supply, so all you need to do is to inform fellow farmers about the existence of your day old chicks business long before the parent stocks start laying hatchable eggs, but do ensure that the chicks are of excellent quality so as to retain your customers. No customer wants to buy Chicks that are runts, no customer wants to buy Chicks that are not healthy, no customer wants to buy Chicks that don’t convert. Let your chicks be of high quality and be rest assured that you will be finding it difficult to meet up with demand as time goes by.
How to know best hatchery to patronise ?
When it comes to hatcheries, brand integrity matters a lot. And most of the popular hatcheries around are wary of the fact that without parent stock hatching eggs from Breeder farms , they won’t be able to operate, So be rest assured that the hatcheries available ensure standard quality control in their hatchery operations so as not to lose patronage. Alternatively, you can patronise different hatcheries within a speculated time frame and compare the hatchability results before going for your preference amongst the rest.
How can I get parents stock and start hatching of D.O.C of different Chics?
There are very few farms that sells parent stock chicks, but most of the medium scaled and large scaled parent stock breeder farms do purchase from Chi parent stock hatchery. Apart from selling commercial day old chicks you can get quality parent stock chicks from them both layer breeders and broiler breeders.
What can it cost for a small beginner, i.e;equipments,building structures likely to use etc?
it depends on how you plan to start, if you already have an existing poultry farm, then you will require fewer equipments in addition to the existing ones on ground, but if you are starting afresh from scratch then you will require far more start up capital. As an already established farm, you will require additional restricted feeders for feeding males and females broiler breeder PS separately , you will need to get some additional net for partitioning, you will need an experienced and expertise hands in the management of the breeder flock as this is one of the most important requirements for setting up such enterprise. When it comes to the egg laying stage you will be required to hatch the eggs using the services of an hatchery as well as sell the chicks when they hatch in 21 days time.
By the way the price of day old chicks has started it’s January upward bound trend again.
The parent stock farms are now smiling again.
