Wycliffe Lwangu and Mogan Abukose feed their improved kienyeji chicken at Maji Mazuri village in Lugari. [Duncan Ocholla, Standard]

After graduating from university in 2015, three young men from Lugari in Kakamega County found themselves in a tight corner. They tarmacked for three years without meaningful employment.

Morgan Amunga (27) and Wycliffe Lwangu (26), graduated from the University of Eldoret with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Food Science and Nutrition respectively while Derrick Angekhi (31), graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Kenya. Though it was trouble finding gainful employment, their different skills would come in handy when they combined forces to start poultry business.

At first, Mr Lwangu was employed as a lecturer at a college in Eldoret town where he was to earn Sh5,000 but never a coin. He quit after six months. Morgan and Angekhi were hustling in Nairobi.

Last year, they attended a youth workshop in Turbo where they were taught on opportunities in agribusiness. Poultry farming stood out for the childhood friends.

To begin, Amunga says they contributed Sh4,000 each and bought 200 eggs and gave them to a farmer in Limuru, (a facilitator during the workshop) for hatching.

They hatched 183 chicks but he (the farmer) helped them in brooding the chicks for a month and then transported them to their home in Maji Mazuri village in Lugari. The chicks were Kenbrow Improved Kienyeji.

“Since we didn’t have electricity and money to buy jikos, we took two pots and put them in the poultry house. We placed burning charcoal in the pots so that the chicks could get enough heat at night and during cold seasons,” recalls Amunga.

They used to feed the chicks with chick mash for three months and after five months, the birds were fed on layers mash and Kienyeji mash, before they started laying eggs.

Social media marketing

According to Morgan, they started realising profit when they brought in the second stock.

Mr Lwangu, says as a way of maximising on profits and raise enough capital for starting a big poultry farming, they started designing improved hatcheries and after selling them, they buy more birds.

In the partnership, Angekhi, an engineer, has taken up the role of assembling locally available spare parts and modify them to hatcheries as Morgan and Lwangu look for market.

“A locally assembled hatchery that can hold 250 eggs and goes for Sh65,000. That of 500 eggs costs Sh85,000 and for 2,000 eggs goes goes for Sh150,000. We get orders because new hatcheries cost double our price. We only use timber, aluminum sheets and capacitors to modify a hatchery,” says Mr Lwangu.

They supply the hatcheries in Nairobi, Eldoret, Kakamega, Bungoma and Machakos counties.

They now hatch their own eggs using the modified hatcheries in which one-day-old chick is sold at Sh100 and month old at Sh220, adding that they have sold over 20,000 chicks for the last three months. They have 8,000 chicken aged between 1-7 months and in a week, they collect over 15,000 eggs.

“We use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp to advertise our produce. We take the chicks and eggs to where customers are and get business from referrals,” says Lwangu.

To cut down costs, Lwangu says they are now making their own feeds by breeding larvae (black solder flies) which they feed to birds after drying.

They have a few tips for those interested in poultry management.

“When changing feeds, it should not be abrupt since birds can have stress and even die, adding that it should be mixed in equal quantities for sometime before changing fully to another brand of feeds,” says Lwangu.

Benson Khaoya, a veterinary technologist, has been employed by the three youth to take care of their birds and keep diseases at bay.

Mr Khaoya says the secret to healthy birds is following a strict vaccination schedule. At the farm, he says they vaccinate the birds against infectious bronchitis, Newcastle disease, fowl typhoid and Gumboro.


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