He quit nursing to hatch wealth by incubating eggs

After completing his high school education at Njiiri’s High School in Murang’a County in 2007, where he scored B- grade, Martin Mau’s only hope was to get into the military after missing out on university admission.

But after three years of vain recruitment trials, he gave up on joining the military. In 2009, he enrolled for a clinical nursing course. He was, however, not enthusiastic about pursuing this line of career.

“After graduating in 2012, I was posted to Thika General Hospital. But my heart was simply not in it and I found myself strategising on how to embark on agribusiness to get myself into a progressive path,” he says.

He settled for the poultry industry and started trading in chicken.  However his ultimate plan was to incubate eggs and sell chicks. 

A few years in his new business he had saved enough money to buy an incubator.

“By 2016, I had shopped around for an ideal incubator which was going for Sh156,000. With assistance from a credit facility from a local savings and credit organisation and a grant from the Murang’a County Government, I managed to pool a starting capital of Sh300,000,” he says.

He bought the incubator, built a mini industry in his father’s home at Kambi village in Murang’a County and spent a further Sh15,000 to connect the ‘industry’ with power.
He spent a further Sh50,000 to buy a standby generator to guarantee his new venture an  uninterrupted  power connectivity.

“That is how I charted my path towards personal finance stability and which to date is so promising that my strategic timeframe of making my first Sh10 million by year 2025 is well on course,” he says.

The math in his ambition is based on the incubator’s hatching capacity of 2,132 eggs per single brooding.

“I charge Sh15 per egg. This would translate to a gross income of Sh31,980 in 21 days that it takes an incubated egg to hatch,” he says.

He says the cost of production per single brood is Sh10,000 thus giving him a net income of Sh20,980 monthly.

He, however, says he makes better profit by hatching chicks and selling them rather than just incubating eggs for customers.  The entrepreneur, however, says customers prefer bringing him fertilised eggs for hatching to cut costs.

“I sell a chick for Sh90 which translates to Sh191, 880 as gross income. Minus the Sh10,000 costs of production means a Sh181,880 net income per month,” he says.

“Most customers opt for the shortcut of giving me eggs for incubation since they are sure of minimal cost. A fertilised egg is available in the market for Sh15. When you add my incubation charges of Sh30 per egg, it means the customer will have a chick at Sh45 instead of the Sh90 I would sell a day-old chick hatched from my own eggs.”

Just like any new venture, Mr Mau faces a number of challenges. He says some customers give him unfertilised eggs for incubation.

“But my incubator has a scanner that picks out such eggs. I usually advise farmers to go for ideal eggs. Some of them have surrendered the task of procuring fertilised eggs to me,” he says.

Mr Mau notes that his average monthly income is Sh120,000, an amount he says puts him on the road to being a millionaire.

“This means my dream of hitting Sh10 million wealth mark can be realized in seven years. With creative marketing drives, that period can be shortened. But I opt for a gradual sustainable growth,” he says.

“If I diversify the sources of my monthly income, the period will be shortened further. But new business ventures will have independent growth time-frames. I want this incubator to stand independently and give me Sh10 million,” he says.