Video of a goverment funded poultry house
Poultry Pictures...



Posted on March 20, 2012 by Admin
Loan for chciken farming - chicken house

Governmant funded poultry houses

A video showing a government grant chicken house. The house had no poultry house insulation, nor a concrete slab or chicken fans or poultry lights. These, while not critical, do make farming easier. The video shows a walk through of the broiler unit – there are no chickens in the house yet, and work needs to be done  – like the concrete slab etc. It was supplied with poultry house curtains, and all the equipment in the house is enough to farm successfully – but it could have been made easier for the chicken farmer had all the correct requirements been filled. The person who did the poultry house designs for the chicken house did not think through all the possibilities – the department of agriculture should have been more on the ball and advised the farmer better!  The poultry chicken house is located in Mpumalanga – it has a local market for chickens, live chickens and chicken portions.

Poultry house video – walk through of a 9m x 3m government funded chicken house

The poultry chicken house in the video is a broiler chicken house (for raising chickens for slaughter) The house chickens live in depends on what kind of chicken farming you wish to do. This chicken house holds 405 broiler chickens – and it will take 4 – 6 weeks before they are ready to go to the slaughter house to be processed in portions for eating. The farmer may well sell live chickens from his property – the best strategy in this case would have been several poultry houses – each with different aged chickens – then the poultry farmer would have had a batch of chickens ready for sale every week. In rural areas people like live chickens – but they will not buy large quantities – the farmer would do well to find local spaza shops, taverns and super markets to sell larger quantities to – again, for a flowing business he should have live birds available all the time – one poultry house will not provide for this! He is going to have to find a way to sell all 400 chickens on the same day. If he does not the chickens will just start to eat his profits – the longer you keep a chicken past the day they are the correct weight, the more it costs in feed. Finding a market for chickens is not that easy in rural areas – not for large quantities of live chickens. In saying that, with the correct marketing and the

 Supplied with the broiler house are:

  • chicken house curtains
  • feeders,
  • automatic bell drinkers
  • minimum maximum thermometer
  • gas heater for chicken houses
  • water tank with ball valve

The land where the poultry house was built was on a very gentle gradient – hence the small gap underneath the house – this will be bricked up and a cement slab will be thrown inside the chickens house. In fact your slab should have a gradient so that when you clean the house after a cycle is finished the water will easily run out of the house instead of pooling on the concrete. (make sure you mix of concrete is strong – you will be scrubbing the concrete with a hard brush every 6 weeks and this can easily make the surface crumble. The farm already had fencing – so poultry electric fencing was unnecessary – although he may consider electrifying his current fence. The farm will use green farming techniques – the vegetable garden will supply the chickens with food and the chicken litter will be turned into compost and put back on the veggies.

buy pigs for farming

Rural pig farming

The farmer has a small rural piggery – This is not a good idea as the pigs are very close to the chicken house – this is asking for problem as disease will become a big issue on the farm. He plans to get rind of the pigs and turn the pig sty into store rooms for the chicken feed.

The farmer should have thought about poultry house insulation, while the poultry house curtains will handle the cooling of the house, insulation would have been a real energy saver – and green building, green farming and saving the planet is the game in Africa at the moment. The poultry house designs should have taken into account these facts – and indeed he should have a poultry fan as well. He has no lights – also a pity, chicken lights make a big difference in how well your chickens grow. Solar lights, or solar poultry lights would have been inexpensive and not to difficult to install. Th house chicken stay in can be built in a way that will assist in energy savings and electricity savings. The chicken house door faces the sun, thereby minimizing the amount of sun shining into the house – this is the correct direction for the house to face – if the sun shines into the structure the birds will overheat – and then he will definitely need chicken house insulation and chicken fans in the poultry chicken house.

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Free Range Eggs

Posted on August 20, 2011 by Admin

Free range eggs

Who sells free range eggs in Gauteng

Great looking eggs, great tasting eggs!

Free range eggs are healthy – it is official. Eggs produced by free range chickens or organic chickens are better for humans. Of course it depends on who and how the free range hens are being treated – free range just means that the chickens are allowed outside – it says nothing about what they are fed. A true free range chicken will be allowed to eat naturally, bugs, lizards, small mice and even snakes. They will also have their diet supplemented with layer mash (food for laying chickens). If the chickens are healthy there will be no need for medication or food filled with hormones – this is usually reserved for caged hens – and boy, they need all the help they can get to stay alive and produce eggs.

Free range eggs taste better and look better – the yolks are firm and deep orange. The egg sizes, with the right diet, will be larger – small eggs are usually from very young hens or from chickens whose diet is limited. Some companies sell grain fed chickens and eggs – this is crazy – chickens are not vegetarians – so why punish the chicken.

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Chicken processing machines

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Admin

What is a Chicken processing machine? – These are automated machines designed for mass production slaughtering and processing of poultry. The types of processing equipment include deboning machines, defeathering machines and machines that cut the chicken into portions. Other types of poultry equipment are items like:

  • nest boxes
  • layer cages
  • types of drinkers
  • bell drinkers
  • water fonts
  • automatic drinkers

In large poultry units, systems like:

  • chain feeding systems
  • nipple drinking systems

If you plan to set up a slaughter house for chickens you will need to get a license – and probably have an impact assessment study done. You will also have to be zoned correctly. In all likelihood your neighbors will find issue with such a plant. Chicken farms do not usually have a slaughtering house with chicken processing machines on the same property. The chances of disease will increase dramatically with these two operations on one property. What mostly happens is that poultry farmers will contract a slaughter house to process the chicken meant and to pack into portions before selling the meat. Often the buyer of the live chickens will handle this side for you – it does mean a lower price if you do not handle the whole supply chain. But then again you, as a farmer, will need to decide where your expertise lies. Most farmers concentrate on their core business – which is chicken farming – not slaughtering. Many small producers in rural areas will battle to find a slaughter house close to their farm – this is one of the challenges that small farmers face. The fact that they may only have 200 or 300 chickens ready at any single time means that they pay a premium for transport and slaughtering. In some case it may be advisable to join forces with other small poultry meat producers, and jointly send the chickens for processing.

On the upside, in Africa anyway, is that the buying public in outlying areas is quite happy to buy live chickens and do the slaughtering themselves. This does not really occur in western countries – but certainly in South Africa. Another quirk about the South African market are chickens known as “hard chicken“. These are usually chickens that are running free in the townships and villages. The chickens are free range and do not get fed any grain or chicken feed – but are left to their own devices. They forage for themselves and look after themselves – sleeping in trees and make shift chicken coops. They have to avoid the the local dogs which also run free. The meat is harder than factory chicken meat – as they are older and get a lot more exercise. Some layer farms are taking advantage of this need and selling their layers which are not producing eggs anymore as “hard chicken” – the layers are obviously older and the chicken meat not as tender as a broiler raised in a factory farm. These birds, if sold to the right market, will attract a better price than they usually do when sold as old layers. Small poultry producers in rural South Africa can also take advantage of this peculiar need by setting up free range chicken farms. There is plenty of space available, unlike in metropolitan areas, and the fact that much of the land is covered with natural bush means that the fed costs will decrease dramatically (as will the need for processing equipment fall away). The poultry house is almost the same for free range chicken farming, and in fact maybe done away with all together! A cautionary note here – factory produced chickens are rarely as robust as rural chickens and are more susceptible to poultry disease, and they need to be coddled more! These birds can be sold one by one to the local villagers – who need a constant supply of birds everyday. There are many such unique things that are endemic to South Africa and Africa – looking for, and finding these oddities in the local poultry market, can be leveraged by small chicken farmers. Too often farmers follow the standard and set ways of the larger producers instead of finding a unique market, and using clever and new techniques that would suit the small African Poultry producer better. As any entrepreneur will tell you – it is not about doing business like others – but finding a niche and leveraging it to fulfill needs – and there is plenty of opportunity in Africa for this!

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How much does a layer chicken cost?

Posted on June 19, 2011 by Admin
indigenous chickens south africa

Indigenous chickens

How much does a layer chicken cost?-Prices for laying chickens vary between R40 to R60 per hen. When you buy layer chickens or layer hens you usually buy at point of lay. This means the hen has been raised to a point that it is ready to lay. If you are conned and buy a younger hen you will be paying for chicken feed or layer mash for a few weeks before the hen comes into lay. This can seriously affect your production costs. Conversly, if you buy an old hen that has been laying for some time she will stop laying eggs sooner than you want. Deal with a trusted supplier – decide what breed of layer chicken you want to farm with. If you are free range chicken farming in South Africa you may want to buy an indigenous breed of chicken – the Boshveld chicken is probably the best free range breed in South Africa for free range chicken farming – although  egg production is said to be lower than other breeds. Layer chickens are raised in a layer house and the poultry house dimensions will depend on how many chickens you wish to farm with. Layers do not generally require a poultry heater – only day olds for broiler production.

 

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Layer cages for chickens

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Admin

Layer cages are used in large poultry houses that are doing intensive egg production. They are used for egg farming and these eggs are usually sold as eating eggs. Layer cages, whilst being the easiest way to manage egg production, are considered by many a cruel way of producing eggs. Layers, or chickens that are bred and raised for laying eggs, are kept in these cages for their entire adult life. Often 3-6 chickens per cage. They cannot move around or extend their wings. The quality of eggs is open to debate – but certainly an unhappy hen must have problems producing a happy egg! Deformed eggs are not usual if the chicken farmer knows what he is doing. The deformation of eggs is not determined by whether the eggs are free range eggs or organic eggs or factory eggs, but by disease, age and temperatures that the hens are exposed to.

Layer cages in South Africa are legal and the best layer cages are available from Chicken Shack Agencies, a poultry equipment manufacturing company based in Pretoria, Gauteng. The laying cages feature an larger than normal bay or cage, and price wise there are no cheaper cages on the market in South Africa. Chicken Shack also erect and build one of the most affordable chicken houses in S.A.

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Who can I sell my chickens to?

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Admin

You have built your chicken houses, put in you day old chicks and are expecting your first 1000 broilers to be ready in 5 weeks – now what – who are you going to sell 1000 chickens to? Only so many friends, neighbors and family – who will you sell your live chickens to?

who buys broilers in SouthA frica

Free range birds

Who can I sell my chickens to is a question you should have asked and answered before you even placed your day old chickens.

The best option is to find someone, or some company who is willing to give you a contract. The larger broiler chicken producers often sub contract to suppliers – Early Bird, Kroons, Chubby Chick, Rainbow chickens – these are all large producers of Poultry in South Africa – and if if you are lucky you can get a contract – watch out though – they will dictate how, when, where and what you do in your chicken house. It is unlikely that if you are a small chicken farmer with steel chicken houses that any of the big producers will give you a contract

The other option is to find small super markets close to you and supply them. If you are in Rural Africa you can sell live birds directly to the public – but that will be one at a time – not great. Look for several small spaza shops and see if you can contract to supply them every week with live birds. You will need several smaller chicken houses rather than one large chicken houses – this way you can have chickens ready every week.

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Laying a slab for a chicken house

Posted on January 14, 2011 by Admin

Laying a slab for a chicken house – The slab you lay will need to be a minimum of 50mm thick – 75mm is better though. The ground will need to be level. Any area larger than 30m x 6 meters will probably need reinforcing – and if you are planning on taking any kind of vehicle into the house I would suggest reinforcing anyway. The mix will have to be a strong mix with a smooth finish – you will be scrubbing the surface with hard brushes every 7 weeks and if your mix is weak you will end up scrubbing the concrete away. You can find an online concrete calculator here For ordinary garden work with concrete, and other trivial building projects, where the final strength need not be accurately known and isn’t particularly important, the quantities of all components are usually measured by volume – commonly 1:2:3 or 1:3:3. For more important projects the proportions are expressed on a mass:volume:volume basis: kg cement to volume of sand to volume of stone. For “general purpose concrete”, local cement manufacturers recommend 100kg of cement (two standard bags) to three-and-a-half wheelbarrows of sand and three-and-a-half wheelbarrows of stone. (A standard builder’s wheelbarrow has a capacity of about 40 liters.) Translating this into an all-volume ratio, using the fact that cement is about 1.4 times heavier than water, it works out to about 1:2:2. As concrete sets, the water in the mixture enters into a chemical reaction with the cement, and new chemical substances are formed. Although the concrete “dries”, in the sense that no liquid water remains, the water is still there, as a very important part of its structure. This is different from the drying of mud, for example, in which the water simply evaporates and leaves the remaining solid material, without having changed it chemically. For this reason we talk of “curing” (or “setting”) of concrete rather than “drying”. In fact it’s very important to keep concrete wet during the early stages of curing. This is normally done by spraying it regularly for the first week or so, and keeping it covered with sacks, leaves or any other convenient materials. Guidelines for various concrete projects such as floors, paving and concrete roads.

How many bags of cement are needed to lay 1 000 bricks?

For the normal joint size (12mm), 5 bags of cement and 0,6m³ of sand will be needed.

How many cubic meters of concrete are required to cover a given area?

It will depend on the chosen thickness for the slab e.g. for 10m² of 100mm thick slab, the volume of concrete is:
1m x 10m x 0,1m = 1m³
Laying a slab for a chicken house is no different from any other concrete slab – whether you are laying slabs for organic poultry or free range chickens – the chicken house should always have a concrete floor.
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Chicken Farming

Posted on January 4, 2011 by Admin

Chicken farming – FARMER’S DUTY

22.1        Feed stocks must be checked and feed orders made out. Feed stocks may never go below 3 tones except 3 days prior to P.O.L transferring, when the chicken farming. 22.2        Check feeder and drinker height and correct ventilation of birds. 22.3        Housekeeping, gate house, site office, worker houses as well as his residence are to be of an acceptable standard as in the case of the worker’s houses. 22.4        Complete wage attendance register daily. 22.5        Be on site 15 minutes before official starting time. 22.6        Check that site staff and visitors shower with soap. 22.7        Record temperature readings. 22.8        Check for cull, runt broodiness and mortality when the chicken farming. 22.9        Supervise vaccination, medication, weighing, day old chick placement and point of lay bird transfer. 22.10      Provide staff training on a weekly basis. 22.11      Control of fixed and loose assets as well as consumable. 22.12      Keep a check on general maintenance work, done by the Broiler Maintenance Team. 22.13      Follow procedures on bio security and disease control. 22.14      Record keeping must be tidy and up to date. 22.15      Site and access roads kept clear from rubbish. 22.16      Prompt and efficient execution of instructions from Broiler Farm Manager. 22.17      Ensure all employees do what is expected from them to do. 22.18      Check that the farm borehole pumps and water reservoir booster pump is always in operational condition, 22.19      Check that the water control program is in place. 22.20      Check that a feral cat control program is in place. 22.21      Check that the rodent control program is in place. 22.22      Follow bio – security procedures. 22.23      To make sure that the site staff works in a safe environment as per the safety regulations. 22.24      Check that the lighting program is in place when the chicken farming. 22.25      Check that the vaccination program is in place. 22.26      Check that the routine serological examination is in place. 22.27      To ensure that the standby generator is in operational condition when needed. 22.28      See to that company assets are serviced timorously e.g. services every 10,000 km and kept clean. It is also your responsibility to fill in your logbook daily before undergoing any form of business. 22.29      Be cost conscious. 22.30      Keep a record of all gas deliveries and usage. 22.31      If we have a breakage in farms, which affect production, have them rectified immediately and if spares are not available, contact the Broiler Farm Manager so spares can be obtained elsewhere. Don’t wait until tomorrow.

Chicken farming is not difficult as long as you follow the basic proceedures – Know what type of chickens you are growing – certain poultry breeds need special attention and feeds. You farm manager should know all this and follow procedure and do his duties diligently.

 

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