Poultry Farming in India: How to start poultry farming in India?

 The growing demand for chicken meat in the past 10-15 years opened new opportunities for Poultry farming in India.  Many people those who are interested in poultry farming have a basic question in their mind, “How to start poultry farming in India?”.
This particular article will answer your question and provide you the knowledge about the things you need to know and the approach you need to have, to start the poultry farm.

The Poultry Farming involves various stages of work, here we will get the broader view of all the stages and their importance, later on, we will discuss each stage in details. The main motive here is to understand the process and the activities to be done when starting a poultry farm.

1. Stage One: Farm/Shed Construction

The very first thing to be done is the construction of the shed. This will mark the beginning of your journey into the world of poultry farming.

The stage involves following steps:
* Selection of appropriate land / Site for construction.
* Selection of appropriate capacity of shed
*Selection of appropriate layout plan for the shed.
*Selection of appropriate material for shed construction
* Making a Shed Estimate
*Actual Construction

2. Stage Two: Farm/Shed Setup

Once the shed construction is successfully completed, we need to prepare the shed for the birds. This stage involves attaching the equipment, pipeline, ground base, brooding system, airflow system and much more, this stage is one of the most important stages when starting a new batch of birds every time.

This stage involves the following steps:
*Making farm clean
*Attaching pipeline for drinker
*Attaching drinker and feeder
*Making farm antibacterial
*Covering the floor with Rice Husk
*Selection of appropriate brooding method

3. Stage Three: Selecting Poultry Breed for Farming

Selecting the perfect breed according to your nearby market is important since you profit depends on the type of your breed and the demand of the market. You need to be very cautious when it comes to selecting the breed for farming. You also need to consider the duration of your batch, as in when you will start the batch and when you will be ready to harvest it.
In India, there are a few months when people don't prefer to ear meat, so the starting time of batch becomes very important, make sure that your batch does not get harvested in the month when people don't prefer to eat.

This stage involves following steps:
*Doing the research of Local Poultry Market
*Try to find Buyer for your batch before you start farming.
*Check which breed has demand and provides better margin
*Selecting Appropriate Breed
*Timing of Starting the Poultry Batch
*Buying Chicks of selected Breed
*Buying the Perfect Feed with better Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR)
*Vaccination of Chicks
*Taking Care of Chicks
*Doing Debeaking(trimming the beaks of batch)

4. Stage Four: Diseases related to Breed

Once the chicks arrive at your farm, you need to take good care of them, provide them adequate water, feed, brooding, and vaccination. But even after taking good care there might be chances of diseases. That is why Poultry farming in India becomes a challenging task.
This stage involves following steps:

*Learning about the Diseases related to your breed
*Noting Down Symptoms
*Consulting the Doctor
*Asking your fellow farmers
*If mortality of chick is high, then considering post-mortem of chicks

5. Stage Five: Medicine for Diseases and Growth of the Batch

The medicine is not for the diseases but also for the growth of the batch, providing the supplements through medicine is a normal practice everywhere. You should consult a doctor and fellow farmers about the proper medicine. This stage involves following steps:

*Consulting Doctor
*Buying medicine for Diseases
*Giving the proper Dosage
*Separating ill Birds if necessary
*Giving supplements for the weight gain
*Giving Vitamins and Minerals
*Giving Growth Supplements
*Checking the weight of birds

6. Stage Six: Last two weeks before Harvesting

The last two weeks before harvesting are most crucial, this is the period during which the birds make their maximum growth, keep making sure that birds get all the required things right from the feed, water, and brooding. This stage involves following steps:

*Giving Second Dose of Vaccination/Medicine
*Giving Second Dose of Grower supplement
*Weighing the birds to check if the required weight is achieved.

7. Stage Seven: Selling of Birds/ Harvesting the Batch

The selling of birds is the important step, this is where you earn money the poultry farming market is very competitive in India. Make sure that your birds gain enough weight since your whole profit depends on the weight of birds. Also, note that not all the birds will have the same weight.

 This stage involves the following steps:

*If you can sell your birds to local supplier then
*First sell the birds with the best weight
*Then let the remaining birds gain the required weight in few days
* Then sell the Birds.
*This method gives more money
*Check the Online Market Rate on our site before selling
*Ask your buyer to buy at the same rate as Online Market Rate

8. Stage Eight: After Harvesting the batch/ Farm Cleaning

Once your batch is harvested and all the birds are sold. You can start cleaning the farm for the next batch. Start your procedure from the beginning of stage 2.

The stage involves following steps:

*Cleaning of Farm/Shed
*Cleaning of Equipment
*Cleaning of Farm Floor
*Making farm Antibacterial
*Starting again from stage 2.