Many clients are confused on starting chicken farm for broiler or layer in their poultry farming.
Broilers are poultry birds that are usually reared for meat production, they possess a strong gene, which will make them grow faster. Layers are poultry birds reared for Egg production, and layers are not expected to gain weight and its feed ingredient is mixed in a way that it will help it layer more eggs with less weight.
Farm Setup
It is easier to start a broiler poultry farm than a layer farm because the initial cost of starting a broiler farm is cheaper and the expertise or skills needed are minimal compared to layers that are more complex and costly initially. Layers will ask for much more Capital to begin with than that of broilers business. Broilers need clean water, few vaccines, space, light and food, and they will be ready to sell within 7 weeks, and you can start rearing another flock. Layers will require all what broilers take with multiple vaccines and debeaking. What’s’ more, it will take layers 120-135 days to start to lay eggs, so just imagine the extra cost you will have to spend during pre-laying period.
Management Costs
Broiler feeding is more costly than layers as more energy and protein is required for broilers to quickly gain weight than it is required by layers. The more the amount of protein content in poultry feed, the costly the feed can get.
Marketing for Broilers vs Layers
The biggest problem for marketing Broilers is that your chicken will keep on consuming the feed whether you have a prospect to buy the chicken or you do not. If the market is not good, the broilers will stay in your farming without selling, you will keep incurring loss.
Layers are easier to market, because the egg can be stored conveniently without getting spoilt. The main issue for layer marketing is the egg price, if your egg price is good and stable, you can get stable egg source to distribute to your customers on daily basis.
Short Term Revenue
You can start earning within few weeks for broilers but you must wait for a minimum of about 5 months for layer chickens to start laying eggs, i.e. if you start brooding the chicks yourself; except if you are going to buy point of lay chickens, which would be additional cost.
Broilers reach market weight and are ready to sell in just 45 days or in some cases 6 to 8 weeks. This is just a little period. With this short timing,you can rear so many sets of broilers in one year.
Long Term Revenue
Layers will not only give you income on a daily basis through the selling of eggs but will also serve as a source for long term revenue through selling the layers when they get to the end of lay- that is when the layers grow old and the rate of their feed consumption is higher than the egg production, you should know it is time to sell them out and start another set of production.
Conclusion
So now, hereis the question: Broilers or Layers, which is more profitable?
We can not offer you a direct answer to this question. But Whether broiler farming is more profitable than layers will depend greatly on your skills, market plan, as well as the capital you employ.
Use your creativity to raise chickens for money. Raising chickens is rewarding, but you’ll get even more benefits if you can make money in the process.
Pick a poultry management system that works for you based on cost, number of birds and breeds.
If you would like to learn more about Setting up your poultry farm, buying the best breeds, feeds and vaccines, then reach out to us for a free consultation via our website, social media pages or Call/WhatsApp +2348110948773.