NewStats: 3,259,470 , 8,170,225 topics. Date: Sunday, 25 May 2025 at 08:00 AM 6odc

I started in the poultry business back in 2016. i have been in and out of the business because of rising cost of chicken feed, but I love the business so much I keep going back to it. I have two spots I raise birds at; my poultry (outskirts of Ibadan), and my parents house in Lagos. Last February, after selling off most of my birds at my parents house, my mom suggested I try out local chickens instead. I felt they took too long to grow, and they don't have enough meat on their bones. But she told me there was a market for them, and they were less stressful, as we had a big abandoned garden in the compound they could forage around. When I was still reluctant, she went ahead and bought the first batch with her money, and asked me to help take care of them.

So, in February 2024, she bought a mature local hen. After watching it for a few weeks and understanding its daily routine, we bought two more local chickens.

So, now we had one roaster, and two hens. At first, the first hen we got was always chasing the roaster away, basically claiming dominance of our garden. I decided to start feeding it a little finisher feed that I feed my Agric chickens so that it would grow quickly. Within 2-3 weeks, it had enough testosterone in him to dominate that hen, and it started mating with it.

By the way, we feed the chickens oka baba (guinea corn/red sorghum) in the morning, and then let them forage around for food themselves. And my mom gives them leftovers from the kitchen every now and then. They sleep in the trees in our garden.

Within 2-3 months, the the first hen we bought started laying eggs. Like every day, it would lay,..or every 2 days. When it had laid 10 eggs, it started the 21 day process of sitting on the eggs/incubation. This process has really amazed me over the year because I have seen how dedicated they are to this process, and how much they have to sacrifice. Like 23 hours of the day they do nothing but sit on the eggs. The remainder of the one hour or so, they use to run around for food, sun bathe, drink water, and make loud noises (yes...they do this, I guess as a way to release stress).

Around day 19, the first chick might break through, and then by the 21st day, the whole eggs that will hatch would have hatched. It's not always all the eggs that were laid that hatch. I guess that's where the saying, don't count your chicks before they hatch comes from.

So, after the first chicken hatched 7 of the eggs it laid, and started walking around with them, the male started walking around with the second hen, and they were shopping for a safe place for her to lay her eggs. Unfortunately, she laid eggs, but never hatched them. Looking back now, I think it was a noiler that was sold as an agric chicken or something, because it never had the agility and speed of a local hen.

In the next post, i'll write about how we lost the two hens

Everything was going fine, the new mother hen was taking care of her 7 chicks, the roaster was moving around with the other hen, till one morning, we heard them making loud noises. It was around 6:30am, and it wasn't fully bright yet. I rushed over with my phone's torchlight on, and saw the mother hen on the fence, with two of her chicks. I looked around the garden for the rest, as she kept making loud noises. After a few minutes of me being there, 4 chicks came out of hiding, from under some cut down tree branches in the middle of the garden. I kept searching, and after a while i realized i wasn't going to find the last chick, because it was gone.

This happened a few more times, till there were only three chicks left from the 7 chicks. At first i thought it was a bird (maybe a hawk or owl) eating them, then i thought maybe rats, cos i didn't believe birds of prey could come out to feed that early. At last, I found the culprit. It was a stray cat that lived in the ceiling of the bungalow building behind us. I started locking all the chickens up in a cage, and putting poisoned food everywhere around our compound, but the cat didn't die, cos I was still seeing it around. After a while, I stopped seeing it, so we started letting out the chickens again.

Within 2 months, the hen started chasing her 3 chicks away, and I guessed it was ready to mate again. The roaster was tired of the other hen, as it never seemed to want to sit on its eggs. The first hen started laying eggs again, and when it started the 21 day process again, I went back to my house for a while (I come and go). One day, When I came back after a couple of weeks, expecting to see new sets of chicks, my mom told me the cat had struck again, killing a whole mother hen. The reason why the cat was able to kill her was because she didn't want to leave her eggs when it attacked her. It broke my heart and got me furious. It was time to hunt down and kill this cat.

By the way, the other non productive hen was sick for a while and died. So now, we had one roaster, and three growing chicks left.

I got some OPC men in my area to give me the trap they use in catching bush meat, and then set in the path the cat es. Around 11pm I heard the thing snap, and there was a little struggle. When I got out, I saw a few strands of cat hair from the cat's body around the cage. It had escaped cos it wasn't fully in when the trap snapped, and it was able to escape. But after that day, we never saw it again, and it never came close to the trap again.

After being left with one roaster and 3 growing chicks, we decided to buy 2 more hens. Within 2 months, one of the hens started brooding, and came up with 6 chicks. One had a bad leg, and died later, and one flew inside a bucket of water and drowned. The 4 remaining chicks are growing. The second hen had 3 chicks.

Now the 3 chicks from the first mother hen that was killed by the cat are now grown, and are now going through their 21 day process, and their brother is always fighting with their father for position of the leader of the pack.

So now, after 12 months, we have two roasters, two hens (one with 4 chicks, and the other with 3 chicks), and two other hens sitting on a total of 22 eggs. The 22 eggs are due to hatch by the end of the month.

Honestly, the rate at which they are reproducing, if there is no serious prey around, we might have like over a hundred chickens by the end of the year.

Keep it up.
Thank you for our effort to post and share your experience

kay29000:
After being left with one roaster and 3 growing chicks, we decided to buy 2 more hens. Within 2 months, one of the hens started brooding, and came up with 6 chicks. One had a bad leg, and died later, and one flew inside a bucket of water and drowned. The 4 remaining chicks are growing. The second hens also had 3 chicks.

Now the 3 chicks from the first mother hen that was killed by the cat are now grown, and are now going through their 21 day process, and their brother is always fighting with their father for position of the pack.

So now, after 12 months, we have two roasters, two hens (one with 4 chicks, and the other with 3 chicks), and two other hens sitting on a total of 22 eggs. The 22 eggs are due to hatch by the end of the month.

Honestly, the rate at which they are reproducing, if there is no serious prey around, we might have like over a hundred chickens by the end of the year.

Agriculture is a big money spinner provided there's fence n security

U for add pictures

Sharpsharp00123:
Agriculture is a big money spinner provided there's fence n security

U for add pictures

I will. I just realized I have been making videos all these months and not snapping pictures. I will go out now and snap a few pictures of them.

Reverseng:
Keep it up.
Thank you for our effort to post and share your experience

Thanks for the comment.

This is the mother hen with 3 chicks. The rest are hiding from the sun right now.

How do you intend making money from these(your poultry)?

This is the second hen with her 4 chicks and the main rooster, the leader of the pack.

By the way, this is a rare shut of the hen with her 4 chicks, cos after 6 weeks, she started chasing them away to go.fend for themselves and started following the main rooster around. Now she has laid 5 eggs so far...when she gets to 10 or 12, she will start the 21 day process again.

Love800:
How do you intend making money from these(your poultry)?

Selling them. Although they're not as expensive as broilers, they still are good business, cos the feeding is very very minimal. An adult local hen goes for about 6k.

Right now, i'm focusing on getting their population up to like 70, then I can sell off like 50 at once. Their population is currently at 6 adults, and 7 chicks. That's 13. By the end of the month, i'm expecting at least 17 chicks from the 22 eggs on ground. That would bring their total population to 30 by month end. They increase in sort of like a geometric progression. It's really incredible to watch.

Free rangers. They multiply within time just predators. If they're secured from hawks, then expect a boom

psucc:
Free rangers. They multiply within time just predators. If they're secured from hawks, then expect a boom

Exactly.

kay29000:


Selling them. Although they're not as expensive as broilers, they still are good business, cos the feeding is very very minimal. An adult local hen goes for about 6k.

Right now, i'm focusing on getting their population up to like 70, then I can sell off like 50 at once. Their population is currently at 6 adults, and 7 chicks. That's 13. By the end of the month, i'm expecting at least 17 chicks from the 22 eggs on ground. That would bring their total population to 30 by month end. They increase in sort of like a geometric progression. It's really incredible to watch.

How interesting.

I've always wanted to know what rearing local chickens entail.

@ bolded, plus less mortality rate.

How will your customers come to you to buy your fowls? Or how will you get customers?

kay29000:


Selling them. Although they're not as expensive as broilers, they still are good business, cos the feeding is very very minimal. An adult local hen goes for about 6k.

Right now, i'm focusing on getting their population up to like 70, then I can sell off like 50 at once. Their population is currently at 6 adults, and 7 chicks. That's 13. By the end of the month, i'm expecting at least 17 chicks from the 22 eggs on ground. That would bring their total population to 30 by month end. They increase in sort of like a geometric progression. It's really incredible to watch.

Mariangeles:


How interesting.

I've always wanted to know what rearing local chickens entail.

@ bolded, plus less mortality rate.

Exactly. Mortality rate with agric chickens can sometimes be depressing. I lost like 9 Broilers last Christmas.

kay29000:


Selling them. Although they're not as expensive as broilers, they still are good business, cos the feeding is very very minimal. An adult local hen goes for about 6k.

Right now, i'm focusing on getting their population up to like 70, then I can sell off like 50 at once. Their population is currently at 6 adults, and 7 chicks. That's 13. By the end of the month, i'm expecting at least 17 chicks from the 22 eggs on ground. That would bring their total population to 30 by month end. They increase in sort of like a geometric progression. It's really incredible to watch.

Where is your location? It's likely I'll need local cock

Love800:
How will your customers come to you to buy your fowls? Or how will you get customers?

I'll sell mainly to market women in the various markets around my area. I'll also in my area, like how the person we bought from d.

Some of the chickens getting ready for bed. You can see the father and son rooster...the son is in front, and the father is in the back.

Excel70:

Where is your location? It's likely I'll need local cock

Idimu -Egbeda area...Lagos.

These are my Noilers, not local chickens. They also free range with the local chickens. I call them Johnson and Johnson

I want them to mate with the female local hens.

kay29000:
These are my Noilers, not local chickens. They also free range with the local chickens. I call them Johnson and Johnson

I want them to mate with the female local hens.

I've always wanted to ask, but I've not really been cleared on this; do local chickens lay unfertilized eggs?

Your chickens are neat, by the way.

Mariangeles:


I've always wanted to ask, but I've not really been cleared on this; do local chickens lay unfertilized eggs?

Your chickens are neat, by the way.

Yes, local chickens lay unfertilized eggs when there is no male.around, and they're fed feed with high protein content.

Thanks for the compliment you gave my chickens.

I believe whatever chicken eat can be reared in a farm. I heard of cassava peels of recent

Adam and Eve didn't go to a chicken feed company to feed chickens

I believe this is the blueprint to endless meat supply.

Apart from some other 'ideas' of mine

Modified: ideas like the scam of balanced diet and food combinations. Written about it in a post of mine
https://nairaland.unblockandhide.com/8304162/humans-starve-themselves

kay29000:


Yes, local chickens lay unfertilized eggs when there is no male.around, and they're fed feed with high protein content.

Thanks for the compliment you gave my chickens.

Reverseng:
I believe whatever chicken eat can be reared in a farm. I heard of cassava peels of recent

Adam and Eve didn't go to a chicken feed company to feed chickens

I believe this is the blueprint to endless meat supply.

Apart from some other 'ideas' of mine

Okay.

Okay.
My last question. Who buys local/native fowls? I only know that nigerians mainly buy agric fowls to be slaughtered in easter/Christmas!

kay29000:


I'll sell mainly too market women in the various markets around my area. I'll also in my area, like how the person we bought from d.

kay29000:


Yes, local chickens lay unfertilized eggs when there is no male.around, and they're fed feed with high protein content.

Thanks for the compliment you gave my chickens.

That's good to know.
I'd like me some free range eggs.
Also, I like that local chickens are smarter.

👍🏼

Love800:
Okay.
My last question. Who buys local/native fowls? I only know that nigerians mainly buy agric fowls to be slaughtered in easter/Christmas!

you would be surprised to know that those local fowls have a huge demand in some parts of the South east

In parts of Nigeria where traditional worship is prevalent, these local fowls sells at a very high price, even more expensive than broilers.

Love800:
Okay.
My last question. Who buys local/native fowls? I only know that nigerians mainly buy agric fowls to be slaughtered in easter/Christmas!

There are people that just prefer eating local chicken. I know it sounds odd cos of how skinny they look, but there are people out there that prefer local chicken. If you know surulere well in lagos, at the beginning of Adeniran Ogunsaya street, there is someone that sells local chickens there. This is an area with middle class to high class people...so for that spot to be there it means there is a market for them.

There are people who buy for sacrifice This is odd too, but "ibile" chicken (local chicken) is really sort after by some people.

There are also people that eat eggs from local chicken...they believe it is the most nutritious and healthy type of egg, cos the chickens don't eat commercialised feed filled with chemicals.