A cost effective and environmentally friendly brooding machine has been innovated in Bungoma County making poultry farming easier, cheaper and more profitable.
The brooder which is made entirely from plastic materials is the brainchild of a poultry farming company in Kanduyi constituency by the name, Chukwoma Prime limited.
The company is now partnering with Kanduyi Poultry Farmers’ Cooperative Society Limited and Bungoma County Indigenous Poultry Programme to help poultry farmers raise their chicks cost effectively.
The company breeds chicks and raises them from day one to one month then sells and distributes them to farmers in the county and other counties.
“In the month of July, we were able to distribute a total of 6,500 chicks to farmers in Bungoma County and beyond and demand is growing,” chairman Chukwoma Limited Douglas Situma said.
The company also provides training sessions for poultry farmers at a cost of Sh3, 000 in coordination with the county poultry cooperative societies.
“We also sell to farmers these brooders at a cost of Sh5, 500 and once a farmer buys one brooder then training is offered freely,” Mr. Douglas Situma said.
“We rear chicks for at least one month before selling because this is the most vulnerable age in terms of infections and mortality rate,” Situma added.
According to Situma, poultry farming always faces numerous challenges at the early stage as chicks are prone to numerous infections such as Aspergillosis, Omphailits, Coccidiosis, and Newcastle.
“Once a chick is out of this danger zone, then a farmer will always have an easy time in taking care of it till it flourishes into a hen or cock,” Situma added.
The brooder has a capacity of 100 chicks which are reared for the entire month without limitation of space.
“This brooder can hold 100 chicks for one full month which helps the farmer to overcome space limitation as well as labor since one person can handle up to five brooders,” Situma said.
The plastic brooder has the ability to prevent contamination of food substances for the chicks through the use of outside feeders and drinkers that are hung around the brooder to prevent mixing of food, water and the chick’s disposals.
The company received a cash boost from the Agricultural Sector Development Support Programme phase II operating in Bungoma to fulfil the government’s food security agenda.
It has also created employment opportunities in the region where women are employed to do the cleaning of brooders while the youth provide security and fabrication services.
Speaking to KNA, Bungoma South Agriculture officer Mr. Nassir Wekesa lauded group for the innovation for its ability to reduce the cost of poultry production by using chick’s generated heat instead of electricity which amounts to huge bills that are always unbearable to a common farmer.
Wekesa called on more partners to help them expand on their services beyond the county in order for them to enlist more farmers in the country into poultry farming.
By Mwangi Oliver and Roseland Lumwamu
