Poultry farming has become one of the booming businesses that many youths have engaged in, with the belief that returns are high and can be achieved within a short period of time.
Such is the story of Catherine Macharia, who started poultry farming when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country.
She says her motive to venture into the business was the fact that many people in urban centers relied on their rural areas for food. She saw this as a better opportunity to venture into chicken farming in Nairobi.
Catherine, who is a medical professional, rears broiler chicks on the rooftop of her residential building in Saika, Nairobi.
She buys one-day-old chicks, which she feeds and sells as mature chickens after four weeks.
She prefers broilers since they are specifically bred to grow quickly, reaching market weight in a short time.
“I started with both broilers and layers, and based on my experience, I decided to fully focus on broilers because they take only 28 days to get to the market,” she said, adding that she didn’t prefer layers since they have to be fed for 4-5 months before they start laying.
The farmer says rearing broilers has allowed her to achieve great milestones that she might not have achieved while employed.
With a total of 200 two-week-old chicks and 350 three-week-old chicks, Catherine says she buys one-day-old chicks at Sh 95 each and sells them for between Sh 350 and Sh 400.
Her main sources of markets are hotels and other individual buyers.
