How Many Birds Should You Start Rearing as a Beginner?

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People usually ask me for advice on the advisable number of birds, especially layers, to start rearing as a beginner poultry farmer. In the past, I used to advise them to begin by raising 200 layers. Because 200 layers could potentially bring in a monthly profit of GH₵ 700.00 so in my opinion, this is the minimum number of birds you should raise if you want to make any significant financial return from poultry farming. However, I have now toned down on this advice. Because for instance, if someone has GH₵ 200,000.00+ that she’s willing to lose, then it is not a bad idea for her to rear 1000 birds as a starter.

One could argue that if a massive disease outbreak occurs, the one who started with 1000 birds stands to lose more than the one who started with 200 birds. However, one must not forget that there are reasons why disease outbreaks happen in the first place. Even if you have 5000 layers and adhere to strict biosafety procedures, you aren’t going to start magically losing your birds. Also, you must ensure to vaccinate your birds on schedule and hopefully, you don’t suffer excessive mortality rates.

Furthermore, starting from a relatively large number of birds could help make your business more appealing to investors and financial institutions such as banks. For instance, if you are starting with 1000 layers, you could make as much as GH₵ 23,000.00 in a month in revenue. Now, this is more attractive than probably making GH₵ 4,600.00 revenue in a month from 200 layers. So once you’ve invested your own cash to start with 1000 birds, it would be relatively easier to gain access to funding to expand your farm even further.

Is telling poultry farmers to start small good advice? Well, it depends on the context the word “small” is used. If it is used in the context of starting with an amount of money you are comfortable losing, then that’s fantastic. But if it is used in the context of starting with a specific number of birds, say 200, the advice may be great for certain people but not necessarily good for everyone because different people have different financial situations.

Don’t get me wrong, starting a poultry farm with even as little as 200 birds is no mean feat because that could cost around GH₵ 70,000.00+ to run for the first eight months. Therefore, don’t just purchase some day-old chicks and begin raising them. Make sure you plan adequately before you start.

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