Immediately after he was forcefully retrenched from his TV job at K24 in 2013, Caleb Karuga ventured into poultry farming. Two years later, he has no regrets to boot. In fact, the founder and CEO of Wendy Farms Limited has gone on to build a poultry empire that rakes in over Sh. 800,000 from KARI Kienyeji Chicken, and trainings of other farmers.
However, his journey into successful poultry farming has not been a walk in the park. When Karuga first ventured into farming he acquired 200 pigs because pigs were the ‘it’ thing at the time. With no proper research, the venture failed.
He made another attempt, buying two hens and one cock. “When the two hens started laying eggs I decided to buy more hens from neighbouring farms. That was my biggest mistake because some of the hens were not vaccinated. In a span of about one month and a half, I had lost about 200 hens. I learned that you should never buy birds that you are not sure whether or not they have been vaccinated.”
Not one to give up easily, Karuga purchased 500 day-old chicks from the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, but once again made loses as his employees sold the chickens in his absence.
“Theft by employees was the major challenge we have faced. I bought the chicks at KSh. 100 each and after a month of feeding them my employees were selling them off for KSh. 50 each. When they matured I would be told the hens had ‘died’ of diseases.”
Caleb Karuga Trainings
Karuga, nevertheless, soldiered on and bought another 1,500 chicks, but because he used cheaper feed, egg production was poor. Eventually Karuga realized that he would make three times more selling day-old chicks than what he was making selling eggs. “I learned that in indigenous chicken farming the money is in day-old chicks, not eggs. It was like a light bulb moment for me. I realized that I had been sitting on a gold mine.”
Today, Mr. Karuga has chicken farms in Kikuyu, Nyeri and Nanyuki. Although the Kienyeji chicken take longer to mature, Mr. Karuga chose them because they are cheaper to feed and are quite disease resistant. “I sell a one day chick at Sh 100 and a kienyeji egg at Sh 15 or Sh 20. A full grown Kienyeji chicken goes for about Sh 800 while the broilers/ ex layers go for Sh 270-Sh 300. When you do your maths, you realize that the Kienyeji chicken is more profitable,” quips the former TV reporter.
At times, he sells cocks at Sh 1,200 and above during holidays such as April, August and December. “In most cases, I determine the cost of the chicken since the demand for Kienyeji meat far outstrips supply. It’s a very good business.”
On a good month, Caleb says the Kienyeji chicken can earn him a handsome figure in the neighborhood of 600,000 shillings or more. He charges his trainings at Sh. 1,000 per person per session.
“I don’t regret having left employment, God has been very faithful to me despite the challenges I face every day,” he says. “You cannot satisfy demand for Kienyeji chicken in Kenya, East African region and the rest of Africa. As matters stand, the orders I have for day-old KARI Improved Kienyeji Chicken and Kuroilers is overwhelming me, but I am not complaining.”
Despite his initial losses, Karuga says he has learnt a lot along the way. “I believe in going through the learning curve. When a venture fails I don’t take it personally. It is the business that has failed, not me. I might have made a mistake but I choose to keep on the ball. I don’t make permanent decisions based on temporary situations.” While it is encouraging to see more young people going into agribusiness, Karuga says the industry should not be romanticised.
“What we are seeing is people going into farming because they read a story in a newspaper. They don’t do thorough research and they have no passion for farming, but because it seems sexy they decide to take a loan and bury the money. Don’t make farming sexy because it is not.” He warns that anyone looking to get into agribusiness needs to first have a passion for it. “If your only motivation is to make money then you are getting into the wrong business.”
Kwa kweli vijana tunaweza make doh na farming
