Some of the chicken in the poultry house owned by Mary and her mother. The two collect about 18 trays of eggs per day which they sell to suppermarkets and local shops. Photo: Zablon Oyugi.
Mary Wambui, a Bachelor of Arts in Hotel Mnagement graduate from Kenya Utalii College (KUC) who is running her own outside catering services has ventured in poultry farming which earns her about Sh44,100 a week in a bid to supplement her income to avoid relying only on one source of income.
After graduation in 2014, she decided to join her mother, Peninah Wanjiku who started the poultry in 2008 having bought around 250 chicks from Kenchic at Sh80 each spending a total of Sh182,000 which included putting up a poultry house.
“I have realized that starting off in poultry is not that ieasy and that is why I decided to team up with my mother, join efforts to increase poultry production owing my interest in keeping chicken,” said Wmbui.
According to Salary Explorer, a salary comparison and career resources website for both employees and employers in Kenya, a starting salary in Food, Hospitality, Tourism and Catering sector for fresh employees is about Sh10,000.
It is this amount of money which seems inadequate for most starters in the sector like Wambui pushing them to look for an alternative source of income to meet their needs and save some.
“Well-paying jobs are very difficult to get especially for fresh graduates. The available opportunities require commitment and sacrifice. Starting my own catering service which has since been giving me room to run other business was my best option,” she said.
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Currently Wambui and her mother, still buy layers from Kenchic thought at a projected price of Sh100 a chick from the Sh80 per chick then. They then rear them for eggs for a period of two years and sell them off back to the chicken dealer at Sh350 per fully grown hen weighing around one kilogram.
Selling the older chicken gives them room to bring in new and fresh layers. This earns the two entreprenuers a sum of Sh280,000 just in one sale, thanks to the ready market.
“We never lack where to sell our chicken as Kenchick has been coming for them after every two years while some we sell to those having functions on order along our catering services,” said the Gathiga, Kiambu farmer.
From their poultry house which currently has a total of 800 chicken, they collect over 18 trays of eggs per day which they sell to supermarkets in Nairobi and local shops.
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A tray of 30 eggs goes at Sh350 meaning in a single day the poultry rakes Sh6,300 translating to Sh44,100 gross income per week. At around 10:00 am when we visited the home, already eggs which had been gathered from the poultry the previous day had just been collected.
“These empty trays you see here are a replacement of the ones which have gone with the eggs around a half an hour ago. We will be using them to pack other eggs for the next round of collection,’ she told Farmbiz team.
Buying feeds are her main challenge. She says the chicken consume one 50 kilogram sack of feeds a day and seven such sacks a week translating to Sh3,500.
“Feeds are costly and sometimes they may not be of quality forcing us to look for other supplements to add to their diet for quality eggs and healthy chicken,” said Wambui.
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For any inqury, contact Wambui on +254 06400381 or peninah Wanjiku on+254 721579670.