Thursday, March 28, 2024

How couple made millions from rearing ornamental birds

Stephen Macharia rears ornamental birds in his quarter an acre land in Nyeri County.

He began by acquiring a Sh. 2,000 permit from the Kenya Wildlife Service three years ago and bought 10 guinea fowls, 400 quails, pigeons and falcon birds. Now he has about 500 indigenous birds of different types.

The 65-year-old man rears the birds together with his wife Teresa Macharia, 60.

“We began the venture in 2008. That’s when we got a license from Kenya Wildlife Services. We had conducted a research that proved that the costs of rearing meat and egg chicken was prohibitive which reduced profits margin. Many farmers are going for broilers and layers, making competition very stiff, that’s why we decided to take a risk and go for ornamental birds. We do not regret the decision,” says Macharia, whose compound is decorated by a collection of birds from all over the world.

“We spend a lot of time in research, studying different types of birds in the world, their behavior and how they breed. We have identified a good number of other types of birds that we do not have here, and we intend to get and breed them here. We won’t rest until we have almost all types of birds in the world,” Macharia adds.

The birds and their eggs fetch better markets than breeds traditionally kept by local farmers.

For example, an egg from kienyenji chicken retails at between Sh15 and Sh20, while those from some of the birds they rear sell at Sh200 each.

“A chicken sells at between Sh500 and Sh1,000, while we sell some of our breeds such as bantam at Sh4,000 each. The cost of production for the layers and other chicken is far much higher compared to that of ornamental birds,” Teresa adds.

They first bought guinea fowls, quails, pigeons and falcon birds.

Other species of birds in the farm include the Egyptian geese, silkies, marans, bantams such as pekin bantams and booted bantams, crown birds, Turkeys, a variety of indigenous chicken and many others.

steohen-macharia

Bantam is a small variety of poultry which has increasingly become popular as pets due to their small size and more varied exotic colours and feather patterns than other chicken.

Some of the ornamental birds are small in size compared to local types, but Macharia says the breeds are the most sought after and expensive breeds in the world.

A week-old bantam chick sells at Sh1,000, compared to other types of chicks that retail at between Sh100 and Sh150 when they are a week old.

“Birds like Egyptian geese sell at Sh7,000 each and Sh9,000 for a vulturine guinea fowl. However, some birds can even fetch Sh20,000 each depending on their type and availability,” she says.

Macharia says most of their customers are from outside Nyeri county, some visiting from as far as Kisumu, Mombasa and Eldoret.

“Ornamental birds are easy to manage and feed. A good number of them feed on insects, plants and scattered grains in the compound,” he says.

ornamental-birds

According to Teresa, the minimum she earns from sale of eggs from ornamental birds is Sh1,200.

“Some buyers place orders for chicks through phone. In case of such orders, we advise them to collect the chicks when they are about one week to one month old instead of when they are a day old, this is to ensure high survival rate,” Teresa said.

The couple has invested in four modern incubators, whose capacity is a total of over 6,000 eggs and a 5,000 capacity hatchery.

By the end of the month, the least the couple makes fro the ornamental birds could go as high as Sh. 1.2 million!

SourceThe Star

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