My Plan To Become A Millionaire Through Quail Farming In Kenya

I was in Naivasha, just leaving for my farm in Narok, when a friend of mine called. He knew that I was into Quail Farming so when he met a lady, Ivy, who wanted to start the business but couldn’t figure out how to go about it, he knew that the right person to contact was me. After all, I would not charge for the consultation that was to be done over a cup of coffee. Thank God I went, because the lady I met there made me see quite a different side of what I always thought was a small business: the big side of it, the side that could make me a millionaire!

Ivy had read my article, Why Quail Farming In Kenya Is The Talk Of Town and had allowed her crazy big dreams grow even bigger and crazier. At first, I laughed when she told me what she wanted to be making per month in profits in a year’s time: 2 million Kenya shillings! “So what’s this ingenious plan you have, Ivy?” I asked. She moved in her seat as if to position herself well in order to unleash the Millionaire Secret. After an enthusiastic sip of her coffee she started.

“I have not much money, Evans, but that’s what I want to make and I believe that quail farming in Kenya is the business with which I will do that. My target is to have 3000 laying birds by the end of next year.” Now knowing how long one has to wait to get just 100 birds from any quail breeder in Kenya at the moment, I thought she was oblivious of what she was saying but I let her continue.

“I already got a small-scale quail farmer in Nyahururu who has not been doing it for commercial purposes and he agreed to sell me 100 quails.” That got my attention. “Ten of this will be males to ensure that I get fertilized eggs,” Ivy went on. “I am told quails have a 90% rate of laying eggs but I want to be more realistic and give them 80%. With that, I expect about 70 eggs daily, so about 2100 eggs in a month. With a 350 capacity incubator that I bought for just Sh.75,000 from Ecochicks, I realistically expect to hatch about 300 quail chicks every month. For the remaining eggs, I intend to sell 1700 eggs at Sh.30 each, which will fetch me Sh.52,500 per month, more than enough to keep me comfortable and keep the project going.”

With that I took a deep breath and as the reality started sinking, I wanted to take over the math. “Wait, Ivy, let me do the calculations now,” I said. “So hatching 300 quails every month, in 10 months you will be having your 3000 quails!” She laughed. “Evans, you are too quick and you lose the details of the project. Quails take only six weeks to reach sexual maturity and start laying eggs. So the first batch of 300 chicks that I hatch over the first month will be productive in about 2 months’ time and this trend will continue. So if I want, I will be having more than the 3000 quails before 1 year elapses. However, what I want are 3000 quail layers. Of course, not all the quails I hatch will be female so I plan to be selling off the males and use part of the money to purchase another incubator. With another 350 capacity incubator, I am sure to hit the 3000 quail layers mark I set for myself in a year’s time. From there you can do the math, right?”

I took another deep breath and quickly did my math following Ivy’s realistic formula. 3000 quails laying eggs at a rate of 80% gives 2400 eggs a day. I know one quail egg currently retails at Sh.35 but according to Ivy’s realistic formula, it is Sh.30, giving a cool 72,000 shillings a day. With that, Ivy will be able to hit her 2 million shillings target even on a 28-day February. That simple, realistic plan lifted me from my chair. I couldn’t wait to get to my farm and even as pen this down, I can hear my little birds singing outside, cheering me on to the millionaire’s league. See you at the millionaires club. 

Yes, It Is A Million-Dollar Business, But How Do I Get Started? Here Are The Answers

I am greatly encouraged by the massive number of responses that I am getting on my articles about the million-dollar business of quail farming in Kenya. It is so unfortunate that I cannot currently respond to each email individually due to the high number and even worse, I cannot provide all that it takes to start the business to all the farmers interested in starting it. So I thought of the best way I can afford for now: to write a few important points on how to get started with quail farming.

In Uncovering The Gold: How To Start Quail Farming In Kenya, (please read that before reading this) I covered the three primary requirements of starting this business: 1, having a KWS license, 2, constructing quail cages according to KWS requirements, 3 breeding and feeding. I know the information we have there is scanty but as always, I welcome you to drop me specific questions on my email and I will be glad to address it. So let us do what I think are the last 2 steps to get you started on the business.

4. Caring for quails

There is a major advantage with the quail business in the fact that these birds are not as delicate as ordinary chicken. Can you imagine that you will not need to give them any vaccines? Yes, and you will not have to worry that a disease will come and wipe your entire stock. However, the greatest challenge is in taking care of quail chicks. They are delicate, of course due to their tender age and one thing that kills quail chicks fast is cold. You have to construct a good brooder for your quail chick s and ensure that they have warmth throughout the night.

The worst mistake you can do is to let your chicks soak in water. I can assure you one leg in water for an unnecessarily long period of time will squeeze the life out of the poor bird. As such, I advise that you remover drinkers from the brooders at night when you cannot really keep an eye on your chick.

5. Marketing

Now that you have your cages, you have been lucky to get breeding birds and you know how to take good care of your quail chicks, where will you sell the eggs and the mature birds? Well, I must say that I get surprised when people ask this question. The reason is that the market for quails in Kenya is too big and largely unsatisfied. By the way, if you have quails or quail eggs for sale please email me right now on enthiga@gmail.com or post that on our FB group Quail Farmers Kenya. Farmers looking to start quail farming provide the major part of the market.

The demand for quail eggs in supermarkets is also unimaginably high and there is no sign of satisfying it any time before 2020. And contrary to what people think, this market is likely to grow as more farmers get into quail farming. I know that does not make sense to you but think of it this way; few people know the health benefits of quail eggs. Only recently did the larger Kenyan community start emphasizing on white meat. So as more farmers go into quail farming, the faster the awareness in the benefits of quail eggs and meat will grow. The resultant effect is that the market will grow even bigger.

Tourist restaurants are other major buyers of quail meat and quail eggs. I don’t know the real reason for this but I guess most foreigners know the health benefits of quail products but cannot keep the birds where they come from.

Finally, as I visited one of the quail farms in Nairobi, I heard that there is a pharmaceutical company buying quail eggs for purposes of producing medicine. Well, I am yet to establish the truth about this but from the fact that quail eggs are high in antioxidants and the real benefits that I have seen them give to people with health complications such as allergies, high blood pressure and blood sugar problems, this claim is very close to the truth.

I am still putting together a complete guide on quail farming that will give all the details on the business. Meanwhile, I hope this will give you a good starting. And don't forget to join our FB group Quail Farmers Kenya I wish you success and see you at the millionaires club.