There are many kinds of home business you can start with very little capital, a little skills training, networking with other home based farmers and learn. You can also benefit their networks in marketing. This is a simple startup on poultry farming. You can use local materials to make a brooder in an exiting house or structure that is leak proof, warm and protected from winds, has good lighting. You only need a stapler to join the boxes, lign the inner side for strength and curving with binding wire or bendable twigs or tree branches, have some wood chippings from a timber saw mill. Day old chicks cost about Ksh. 100/= so 50 will cost Ksh. 5000/=, 10kgs starter feeds for the first 2 weeks about Ksh.600/=, feeder trays can be bought or from your kitchen, then local made affordable feeders as they grow older. Disinfectant and check start booster will cost you about Ksh. 500/= in total. The total cost of raising the chicken to maturity if you learn to free range them early after fully vaccination will be approximately Ksh 10,000/- on disease management as well as vaccines. At 5 to 6 months, you can start selling eggs or table chicken between Ksh. 800-1200/= depending on the demand and timing( festive seasons are best to target). The good thing is, you do not need labour for this. To warm chicks at night, use the earthen warmers often called nyungu, they consume very little charcoal and stay warm for long.
These are our Skills for Life initiatives to get young unemployed people to start some income generating initiative instead of just sitting at home, being taken care of by parents or tarmacking endlessly. Check our tips also on our Twitter handle @kaenmc
