You can start your poultry farming with backyard chickens

Do you know that you don’t need a large expanse of land to start raising backyard chickens? If you have free space at your backyard, you can start your poultry farming from there.

Chickens are good sources of protein whether you eat it as meat or you eat the eggs. Unfortunately, the local production of chickens in our country is so low that we need to depend heavily on imported frozen chickens. Government has tried to correct our dependency on imported frozen chickens by placing embargo on them. However, we don’t have enough local farmers who are into poultry farming. This makes such policy ineffective. This is a good business idea and opportunity for anyone that wants to go into poultry farming knowing fully that the market for chickens is very large. Most people prefer fresh chickens to frozen ones. There was a time I stopped taking frozen chickens completely. I believe that it is not only me that has distaste for frozen chickens. The main challenge is that locally grown chickens are not as freely available in the market as frozen chickens.

Although, poultry farming can be capital intensive, you don’t need to start it in a large scale.  You can start your own poultry business in small scale with very little investment by raising backyard chickens.  This is one of the small business ideas that do not require any special certification. It is a good home business idea for moms and dads. If you are interested in starting a backyard chickens business, there are steps you need to take. These are enumerated below:

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Comply with laws

Every state and country has their own laws. You need to find out if the laws governing your area allow backyard chickens business. You might have free space at your backyard. That does not mean you can start a backyard chickens business there. In any business, compliance with laws is very important. Otherwise, you will be exposing yourself to legal suits. If your area is zoned for backyard chickens, then you need to obtain permits from the local authority. In most cases, permits do not cost much. But if you fail to obtain them, the fines and penalties involved can cripple your backyard chickens business.

Define your objective

Ask yourself the reasons you want to start a backyard chickens business.  Do you want to start the business in order to earn extra income? This means that you will be operating the business as a side business. On the other hand, if the backyard chickens will be your main source of income, you will need to devote a lot of your time to the business. However, the space you have available for raising the backyard chickens will determine how large the business can be.

Choose chicken breeds

There are many chicken breeds out there. You will see a lot of people advertising chicks for sale. If your plan is to raise chickens that we be laying eggs for you to sell, you need to go for chicken breed called egg layers. Of course, all chickens can lay eggs but egg layers are the best when it comes to laying of eggs. Layers will start laying eggs within five months. And a layer can have between 5 and 7 eggs a week. They tend to be most productive in their earlier years. As they begin to grow, the rate at which they lay eggs begins to decrease.

On the other hand, if your desire for your backyard chickens business is to grow chickens that can grow to the marketable size within shortest period, you will need to choose broilers.  Layers can provide you regular income immediately they start laying eggs. And you can sell them if you discover that they are getting too old and the rates at which they lay eggs has started decreasing. For broilers, you make money by selling them when they are matured. So, you need to select the chicken breeds that are suitable for backyard chickens business you intend to start. If you are new to backyard chickens business, you need someone to assist you select good chicken breeds. It may be difficult for you to distinguish between male and female baby chickens.

Decide on method to use

There are two ways of raising chickens. You can raise your backyard chickens either by using free range method or by growing them in chicken coop or pen. Free range chicken can move freely within your backyard. This gives them the opportunity to enjoy free nature that is available to other birds. This is only possible where you have a fence round your backyard chickens. However, free range method of raising chickens exposes them to dangers. Enemies of backyard chickens include dogs, cats, raccoons, hawks and snakes. Alternatively, you can construct chicken coops to provide shelter and protection for your chickens. The chickens that are kept in chicken coops seem to be more secure. If you don’t know how to build a chicken coop, you may need to contact a specialist who is good at chicken coop designs. They usually have different chicken coop plans. You will find one that will suit the size available for your backyard poultry. Ensure that your chicken coops are big enough so that the chickens can live comfortably among themselves. Overcrowding can jeopardize their health. You need to ensure that the chickens have access to sufficient lights.

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Feed them

Some people usually complain that their chickens don’t lay eggs as frequent as it should be. The secret here is that, if you want your layers to lay eggs maximally, you need to feed them very well. Their feeds should contain enough of protein. It is important to mention that the type of feeds you buy for your backyard chickens will depend on the type of chickens you keep. The feeds for layers are different from the ones of meat chickens. Also, you need to keep changing their feeds to match their age. Apart from feeding, you should put their health into consideration. With proper feeding and good healthcare, your backyard chickens will grow well. If they are layers, you will surely recover the cost of feeds from the sale of chicken eggs.

Do the marketing

I mentioned earlier that there is a ready market for chickens. Notwithstanding, you need to create awareness so that people will know that you have chickens for sale. The people that are into backyard chickens business usually enjoy patronage as they are very close to the consumers. By just placing a signage containing ‘chickens for sale’ outside the house, people will spread the words. Before you know it, customers will begin knocking at your door. Because of the frequency at which chickens lay eggs, you may need to establish customers who will be buying from you. You can sell directly to the consumers or other people may buy from you so that they can resell at a profit.

Business analysis for backyard chicken business

Having given you a brief description of how you can start your own backyard chickens business, it is important that you do proper business analysis before you rush into the business.In this regards, let’s use PESTEL to analyse the business. PESTEL is a business analysis tool used to scan macro environments in which a business operates. The acronym stands for Political, Economic, Social. Technological, Environmental and Legal factors as they affect business activities.

Political Factors

Before you venture into backyard chickens business, you need to have an understanding of your political terrain. While there seems not much impact that political factor have on your decision to start a backyard chicken business, you still need to consider the possibility of political unrest and terrorism may have on the business. For example, this is not the right time to start backyard chickens business in the North East part of Nigeria because of Boko Haram terrorists. A lot of people are being displaced. In such a situation, you will consider the safety of your life rather than a thinking about any backyard chicken.  Also, you should not undermine the influence that a a big chicken farmer can have on the government. Such individual may lobby the government to come up with a policy that is not favourable to small backyard chickens farmers. However, this may not stop you from starting your own backyard chickens business as you can easily sell off your chickens if need be.

Economic Factors

Certain economic factors such as interest rates, exchange rates and inflation rate may influence your decision whether to start a backyard chickens business or not. If you don’t have initial capital to start the business and possibly you want to access loans from the bank as a source of finance, high interest rate may make the business unprofitable. In the same manner, if the exchange rate is high as we are currently experiencing in Nigeria, the cost of foreign feeds may be too high. To keep your costs low, you may need to source for local feeds. However, if inflation is the problem you are having in your country, costs will be generally high. This make make the imported frozen chickens to be much more cheaper to buy. This provides a good substitute for the consumers. Therefore, this can make backyard chickens business not be able to compete favourably in the market.

Social Factors

Chickens seems to be well accepted across various ethnic and religious groups. However, the population size of your environment has a big role to play. Starting a backyard chickens business is a place where you don’t have much people to buy the chickens will not be a good idea. For example, in villages, almost everybody raises chickens for personal consumption. If you attempt to start a backyard chickens business in such environment, you should have your target market elsewhere. Otherwise, you will be the one to eat your chickens.

Technological Factors

Is there any way you can leverage on technology to drive your backyard chickens business? For instance, if your location is far from your target market, having a small website can connect you to the outside world. Also, the use of mobile phone can enhance communications between you and your customers. Also, with the use of social media, you can easily connect with your friends and colleagues letting them know about your new backyard chickens business.

Environmental Factors

Backyard chickens business is susceptible to environmental factors. You need to consider what may be the attitudes of people around you towards the business. There is tendency that your neighbours may complain of pollution. To be at a safer side, it is better to consider taking public liability insurance. On the other hand, bringing chickens closer to the people around you can be a plus.

Legal Factors

If you are considering starting a backyard chickens business, you need to familiarise yourself with current and future legislations that may affect your business. You need to comply with zoning laws, health and safety laws and other laws as the case may be. Do you have a law in your state or country that supports backyard chickens business such as Right to Farm Act protections as we once had in Michigan? With such law in place, you can rest assured that your backyard chickens business is protected.

Furthers Analysis of Backyard Chickens Business

It does not do you any harm if you analyse the business further before you invest your hard earned money into it. Nevertheless, you also need to know when to take action so that you don’t fall victim of analysis paralysis syndrome. Before starting a backyard chickens business, you need to consider other external factors which can represent a threat to your business. We shall be looking at two important threats namely threats of new entrants and rivalry.

New Entrants

Backyard Chicken business is open to as many as those people that have the space to do the business. You need to bear in mind that the same way you are planning to start the business, others may be planning to do the same. It could be that they don’t start with you. Along the line, they may realise that the business is profitable which may make others to their own backyard chickens business. Therefore, you need to consider the impact the new entrants may have on your business. Will still be enough market for you or the new entrants may force you to reduce your price in order to still maintain your market share? This should not be a major threat as your chickens may likely mature at different times.

Rivalry

You need to consider the existing level of competition in market. How many competitors do you have? What is their size? What strengths do that have which you don’t have. How do you plan to compete with them. While you may not be able to do anything about your competitors, you should be able to develop a strategy that will ensure you have a your own footing in the market. If you think you don’t have capability to compete, then, it may be better you consider other business ideas.

Agriculture

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