I have successfully started a poultry farm from scratch and sold it at a later stage in South Africa. My farm was not one of the big farms, it was just a decent poultry farm, this is a guideline on how much you can expect to spend when starting a poultry farm in South Africa. Here are the most common costs of starting a poultry farm.
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Costs of starting a poultry farm in SA
First thing first, you need to have an operating area, this is the area where you will raise your chickens. The size of the area will depend largely on your ambitions and goals, are you farming poultry just to feed your family or you want to supply stores? I started my poultry business in a rural area so I got 50 by 50 meters of land for free.
Farming system
The next thing you have to do is decide on your farming system. You can either do free-range farming or intensive farming. Intensive farming means that you will grow your chickens indoors in a controlled environment, this is a better way to farm but once you go this route be prepared of the costs. If you are just starting out with a low budget then you can do free-range farming like I did, this just means that your chickens go freely around your yard.
The main disadvantage of this is that you have very little control over what chickens consume, they eat all kinds of things and might get sick more often. However this is a good way to start, you will need to buy some medicine to keep them in check and build a shelter for them to sleep in and for when it rains. This shelter can cost anything between R2 000 and R10 000. If your budget is really tight then I advise you to setup a shack using some zinc to begin with.
Feeding costs
I spent around a R145 a month buying feed for 53 chickens, that was a 45 kg of maize, the feed for chicks and older chickens differ so you will have to spend accordingly, go to your nearest store and find out the prices for feed. My chickens were fed twice per day.
Other costs
Besides setup costs and feeding costs; you won’t have to spend much, I did not have to pay for water or any rates since I was situated in a rural area. You will need to buy medicine for your chickens, it’s really not expensive. Do you have any thoughts or questions? Comment below
here is a much more detailed article on everything you need to know about Poultry farming
Mamosa
29 Sep 2021I will love to start poultry farming but I live at place where there is no space to start it. Can you advice on that and what types of chicken are better to start with?
naledi
25 Oct 2021hi I’ve registered my business but still waiting for funding I am a stuck between pig and chicken farming. i would love to know how to supply stores is it easer for them to accept you chicken or do you have to go though so procedures in order to become a supplier?