Quacks and sellers of fake feeds push poultry farmers to the edge

• Farmers have fallen prey to quacks who give false information on raising their chickens
• Ideally, an exotic breed of broiler should take six weeks to attain slaughter weight, but farmers said they stay with the chickens for more than eight weeks, spend more on feeds and other inputs but they hardly weigh 600 grammes.
• Fake feeds have found way into the market on pricing model where farmers look at the face value and not the end result.
• The right quality of starter feeds go for Sh3,870 while the finisher sells at Sh3,250, both weighing 70kg.
• Broilers are about feeding and taking good care of them, nothing else. They should be supplied with the required amount of food that they should eat in a day

Poultry farmers who are increasingly under the manipulation of quacks and unscrupulous sellers of feeds are counting heavy losses in Eldoret.

Reliance on half-baked information from the unqualified and the cheap but non-recommended feeds has seen investors keep broilers longer than the usual six weeks before selling.

Ideally, an exotic breed of broiler should take six weeks to attain slaughter weight, but farmers who talked with the Business Daily said they stay with the chickens for more than eight weeks, spend more on feeds and other inputs but they hardly weigh 600 grammes.

The birds ready for sale weigh at least 1.4kg to make a profit, the farmers said. Because of the longer stay, the investors lose both customers and incur extra costs.

“I was supposed to sell these broilers two weeks ago, but I have not because they have not attained the right weight. I am incurring additional expenses to feed them,” said Ruth Kamau, a poultry farmer in Eldoret.

Mrs Kamau blames use of wrong information from the unqualified ‘vets’ for the state of affairs.

Farmers have fallen prey to quacks who give false information on raising their chickens, she told the Business Daily.

Fake feeds have found way into the market on pricing model where farmers look at the face value and not the end result.

“Because of hard economic times, many of us have been compelled at one point to buy these cheap feeds that are not genuine, and in the long run we end up spending a lot while our chicks remain stunted,” said Mrs Kamau.

Ms Margret Kerubo, a farmer in Uasin Gishu County, says: “When I bought these chicks, I was told that they would take six weeks to be ready for slaughtering; now it is eight weeks and my broilers can hardly weigh 400 grammes.”

The right quality of starter feeds go for Sh3,870 while the finisher sells at Sh3,250, both weighing 70kg.

Mrs Triza Wanjiku, a broiler keeper in Eldoret, attributes her success to spending “a lot on feeds.”

For a bird to mature within the required time, it has to be fed well without minimising the feeds.

“Broilers are about feeding and taking good care of them, nothing else. They should be supplied with the required amount of food that they should eat in a day,” said Wanjiku.

She says good hygiene will not only help the farmer to attain the best birds but will also see them cut on costs by ending up spending less on treatment.