Pius Wekesa of Ingokho Kuku Farmer Company holding an automatic poultry drinker during East Africa Farmers Digital conference last week at KALRO headquarters. Photo: Zablon Oyugi.
Poultry farmers can now limit destructing chicken in their poultry house and also lower the cost of production by using various automatic drinkers as compared to manual drinkers which from time to time must be filled up and cleaned by the farmer.
The drinkers are sold by Engokho Kuku Farmer Company which promotes smart farming by use of modern farming practices come in different sizes depending on the number of chicken to be served within a poultry house.
“Our drinkers are of different sizes suitable for farmers with different number of chicken. Their costs also varies and we offer installation to our customers as there are certain key issues to be observed to avoid any problem,” said Pauline Kadhambi, an officer at Engokho Kuku Farmer Company.
“Water nipples, for example, only work under low pressure of 5.5 psi or less meaning it is unadvisable for a farmer to connect such water nipples directly to a house water pressure hence an expert such as pressure regulator is needed.”
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Nipple drinkers can serve five birds and they goes for Sh70 each. Others include bell drinkers which serves between 30-70 birds and cost Sh500-1000 each, queen drinkers serves seven birds and goes for Sh50 each and chick drinkers which can serve 30 birds and cost Sh300 each.
Benefits over manual drinkers.
Automatic drinkers reduce movement of poultry house managers or farmers that destructs the chicken especially layers and this may cause stress that may lead to low production. More movements in poultry houses is encouraged by manual drinkers especially when water in them runs out and there is need for refill.
“Chicken especially those which are kept for eggs production need near zero destruction which are normally caused by farmers moving in and out of the poultry house to add water to the drinking toughs, this causes stress the birds which may lead to dismal production,” said Kadhambi.
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Farmers also stand to spend less on vaccination as there is limited cleaning of the drinkers because water flows into them continuously. A farmer can waste drugs with Manual drinkers by frequent cleaning which lead to pouring out the remaining drugs in the drinkers.
“Mortality, condemnations and medication costs are almost always lower with nipple systems for example. Bacterial contamination of the birds’ drinking water is greatly decreased and litter conditions are usually much improved.” Said Pius Wekesa, the company’s agronomist.
In addition a farmer can also use a regulator in case of many drinker of up to ten drinkers on. This enables the flow of water according to the demand; one drop or a steady stream as per the user’s choice.
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Pius Wekesa holding poultry automatic drinkers regulator during East Africa Farmers Digital conference last week at KALRO headquarters. The company is selling the equipment. Photo: Zablon Oyugi.
Pius can be reached on +254 7127712205 while Pauline on +254 713930448.