When someone wants to start poultry farming as a business one first thing that comes to mind is where to get quality chicks. That was my story when I decided to stop poultry farming as a hobby and start a small business.
I asked around about where I could get quality chicks and a farmer referred me to Kenchick. I wanted to do an improved indigenous East African breed and Kenchick had Kenbro, a breed that I later learned that grew extraordinarilu fast with unimaginably relative good food conversion rate. I therefore visited a Kenchick agent and made an order for 100 day old chicks at Kes 120 per chick. I was promised that my order would be delivered after twenty one days. What followed was so discouraging...the three weeks went to a month and then two before I decided to withdraw my order...unfortunately I was informed that my order would have come three days after my withdrawal. What I liked about Kenchick was the fact that Kenchick agreed to refund my cash 100%. I later learned that Kenchick always gets overwhelmingly big orders...so I forgave them for delaying my order. What I haven't forgiven them about to-date is the fact that Kenchick have me a promise that they could not deliver.
My frustration led me to another distributor, Kukuchic, a company that had specialized in another good breed called Rainbowrooster. I had been introduced to Technoserve, a non-govermental organization that was empowering poultry farmers in Siaya county. After paying Kes 200 as a registration fees with Technoserve I was allowed to place my order of one hundred day old chicks. Their deal looked too good to believe...I was to wait for only 2 days. I waited not for a month, not for two but for 4 months only to be given half of my order. I had to wait for another 4 months to get the remaining half from Kukuchic through Technoserve. I had tried to withdraw my order after 2 months but the Technoserve field officer informed me that once an order had been placed it couldn't be withdrawn.
One thing I thank Technoserve and Kukuchic for is their introducing me to rainbowrooster, a breed that I can confidently advise any upcoming poultry farmer to consider doing...they are hardy and grow relatively fast, and they are very beautiful.
The next order, of 200 chicks, that I made was of Kuroiler. This time round I made my order through a farmer who would help me get quality chicks from Bungoma, after I had met her and shared about my frustration. The delivery was to be made after three weeks, just like in the case of Kenchick. After the promised period the lady gave me some stories that never added up...extending the period to two months. After 2 months the lady rang me up to inform me that there had been an increase in demand for kuroiler and as such I was to add twenty shillings per chick on top of the 100 I had already paid. Chicks were eventually delivered, but todate I believe that what I was given was not kuroiler, having secured a better order from Uganda later.
After two years I again helped a farmer to secure rainbowrooster chicks from Guruvet. The turn around time was amazing matching the high quality of their chicks. The delivery of 500 chicks was made after only two weeks. This made me to get another call from another farmer who wanted three hundred chicks...a quality delivery that was made after 2 weeks again. The 2 orders from Guruvet had an unimaginable 100% survival rates. This led to another order of 300 chicks from the latter customer, only that this time round Guruvet decided to kill the farmer's dream by allegedly delivering chicks of lower quality leading to over 80% fatality rate. No other farmer has ever contacted me for an order from Guruvet for the past 2 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment