One of the keys to a successful poultry business is getting the right equipment.
Therefore, before you start your poultry farm, you must in proper equipment planning. Some of the crucial factors to consider when buying poultry equipment for your farm include-:
Top 10 Crucial Factors to Consider When Buying Poultry Equipment
1. Type of Birds-: Every bird is unique in their needs. The type of equipment you would use to rear quail birds is different from those of turkeys or chickens.
And of course, you won’t rear a peacock the same way you would rear a chicken. Even chickens have different breeds and each breed has its own unique method of rearing it.
Broilers are raised differently from layers and the equipment used to raise them is different too.
So, you see that you first have to give serious consideration to the type and breeds of poultry birds you want to buy before you go ahead to make your purchase.
2. Area of Specialization-: Another factor that you should give consideration to before you buy poultry equipment is your area of poultry specialization.
I mentioned in one of my previous articles that poultry farming is a very broad business with several sub-categories; there is meat production and packaging, poultry feed production as well as egg production; all under poultry farming.
Therefore, it is imperative that you have a clear idea of the category of poultry farming that you want to go into.
If you want to be hatching your own eggs, you would need the right equipment and of course, if you want to process and package meat, you would need specialized equipment for that.
Poultry feed production also has its own unique equipment. Before you start ordering, write your business plan and decide on what you want to achieve and then buy the right equipment to suit your needs.
3. Space-: Another very important factor to consider when buying poultry equipment is the size of your poultry farm.
Some poultry tools and equipment are quite small and space is not really a challenge, but other equipments are really big and can take up a whole lot of space.
You must be able to determine how much space you have for keeping equipment before you buy them.
Look at the product information for dimensions and specifications and then determine if you have enough space for the equipment.
4. Price Comparison-: Yet another important thing to take note of is the price. There are lots of things to be bought and saving a couple of dollars on some items is not a bad idea.
The best places to compare prices in online. You would find a lot of equipment manufacturers online and once you have looked into their product catalogue and made certain that they have you want, call them up for negotiations.
You don’t have to buy equipment at the prices stated on their website especially if you are just buying in bulk.
You can always negotiate and you would be surprised that most suppliers would be willing to offer you further price reductions and discounts if you ask for it.
5. Custom-made or Ready-Made-: What a lot of commercial poultry farmers do is to decide on their needs, draw up some designs and specifications to fulfill their needs and then forward the designs to poultry equipment manufacturers to custom-make the designs to meet with your specifications.
You can adopt this method too and use local welders and equipment manufacturers around you but if you feel that it would be too much stress; then you should opt for ready-made poultry equipment with pre-determined designs and specifications.
6. Technical Know-How-: You must also consider who and how it would be operated.
If you are buying incubation and hatching equipment for instance; you must know how to use it or at least have someone who can operate it for you. You should also consider buying equipment with manuals that would carefully explain how it should be assembled and used.
Some poultry equipment is relatively easy to use while some require a learning curve process.
Ensure that the company you are buying from is ready to provide support during the period which you are learning how to use the equipment in order to avoid serious mistakes that can lead to losses.
7. Cleaning-: This is especially important when constructing your poultry housing system.
You must consider how waste like poop and chicken droppings or waste feed would be cleaned. This may seem like something that is very easy but practically, it is not. You have to keep the poultry clean in order to keep the birds in good health and keep the farm free from diseases.
But chicken droppings come almost every minute and it’s really hard to keep a poultry farm clean without mechanical assistance. It is therefore important for you to go with the construction pattern with optimal waste management system especially if you don’t have many laborers to help out.
8. Cash flow-: Cash flow is yet another important factor to consider before buying poultry. In the process of managing your poultry farm; you would need constant flow of cash. The birds cannot go hungry or it would affect their growth.
They may even start to die. Therefore, you must always ensure that there is enough money to carry on all operational aspects of the business like electricity, heating and ventilation management, payment of workers, feeding and healthcare.
What I am saying in essence is that you shouldn’t buy equipment at the expense of other aspects of farm operation management.
9. Technology-: Technology is also very important when buying poultry equipment. As you already know, technology is always evolving and you don’t want to be caught using archaic equipment or buying equipment that other tech-savvy farmers are already moving from.
Therefore, you must conduct your research carefully to be sure that you are buying the latest poultry equipment.
10. Online or Off-Line-: Lastly, you have to decide on whether you want to buy on the internet or from local merchants. Each method has its pros and cons.
One major disadvantage of buying online is that you don’t get to test what you are buying and you may also have shipping costs added to the costs of product which makes it more expensive to buy online In some cases. Ensure that weigh all the pros and cons before you make your purchase.
Top 10 Places to Buy Poultry Equipment and Tools
If you are planning to start a poultry farm, you would need the right equipment at suitable prices. It is unlikely that when you are starting your poultry farm, you would have a truck load of extra funds to throw around. Most likely, you would be on a tight budget because of the long list of things you have to put in place. This is why you must do everything within your means to cut on costs of buying poultry equipment.
The first step to take in cutting costs of poultry equipment is buying from the right source. In case you are confused about where to buy your equipment from, you have come to the right place because when you are done reading this article, you would have a clearer insight on how to go about buying equipment for your poultry farm. There are three options to consider when buying poultry equipment;
New Equipment-: This involves buying new ready-made equipment from suppliers or in the open market.
Fairly Used Equipment-: You may find poultry farmers who are going out of business, relocating or selling off their poultry equipment as a result of expansion.
Custom made equipment-: Another option is to have your own equipment custom-made specifically for you by manufacturers. The manufacturers would make the equipment to suit your taste, design and needs.
Now, I am going to discuss some of the popular poultry equipment and where you can get them from-:
1. Chicken Eggs Hatching Accessories-: One of the most popular processes in poultry farming especially for large scale farmers is incubation and hatching of eggs. You would need a number of accessories to hatch your own eggs. Some of the accessories you would need are-:
Candles Scales-: The scales are used to weigh the eggs to determine their value while the candles are used to track the development of the eggs.
Thermometer-: Used to measure egg temperature.
Boxes and Trays-: This is used for packaging the eggs.
Inserts and Cradles-: Incubator inserts and cradles are also very essential tools for egg hatching.
Egg washing tools-: You would also need some immersion and washing devices to clean the eggs which are usually very dirty upon collection.
You can get your egg hatching accessories from the following places-:
Alibaba.com-: A Chinese e-commerce platform where you can have almost any type of equipment custom-made for you.
www.solwayfeeders.com
www.maplin.co.uk
www.eggboxes.com
www.eggcartonstore.com
www.bellsouth.com.au
www.thepoultrysite.com
www.amazon.com
www.ebay.com
2. Poultry Processing Equipment-: If you want to go into poultry meat processing and packaging, you would need equipment with specific technical abilities which would also meet your market demands and most importantly, would be affordable for you. Some popular poultry processing devices and equipment are-:
Pluckers-: These are used for removing the feathers from the birds neatly. Poultry pluckers are designed to make the process very fast and easy.
Scalders-: Scalders are used to scald birds using special temperature control mechanisms.
Cutters-: This is used to prepare the meat and cut them up for further processing.
Killing Cone-: Live Chickens are inserted into the killing cones to automate the process of killing the chickens.
Processing bags-: When the processing stage is complete, you would need to pack the meat in durable storage bags for storage and supply.
You can get your poultry processing equipment from-:
Alibaba.com
www.cornerstone-farm.com
www.strumbergschickens.com
www.featherman.net/index.html
www.marel.com
dhopeswap.tradeindia.com
www.weiku.com
3. Poultry farm through standard poultry heating system. Poultry brooders use specialized thermostats to adjust the temperature in the chicken house from time to time. There are the automatic lamp brooders, battery brooders, area brooders and gas infrared brooders; each with its own unique specifications and use. You can get your brooders from-:
www.cumberlandpoultry.com
www.choretimepoultry.com
www.ausagsservices.com.au
www.alibaba.com
www.chistiya.com
4. Poultry ventilation systems-: The right amount of ventilation is crucial to the health of poultry animals and this is why poultry farmers spare no cost to put the right equipment for ventilation in place. You can get your poultry ventilation systems from-:
www.ausagservices.com.au/mini-vents.html
www.choretimepoultry.com
www.alibaba.com
www.plassonpoultry.com
www.cumberlandpoultry.com
5. Poultry drinking systems-: Birds have different drinking behaviors and to ensure growth and optimum level of performance from your birds, you have to set up a good water supply system. Some popular drinking equipment are nipple drinkers and bell and ground drinkers, You can get your drinkers from-:
www.bigdutchmanusa.com
www.choretimepoultry.com
www.cumberlandpoultry.com
www.cableveyag.com
cnlionpower.en.alibaba.com
6. Poultry feeding systems-: The birds need the right type of food for growth and egg production and importance should be placed on the type of feeding system used. Some of the popular poultry feeding systems are-:
Automatic pan feeder-: This is the most suitable for broilers. It includes a feed hopper, automatic feed scales, integrated feed chain systems and champions; all designed to reduce human efforts in feeding poultry animals.
Chain Feeding System-: This is specifically used to supply powdered poultry feed to the poultry house in pre-determined quantities.
Round and Hanging Tube Feeders-: This is one of the most popular poultry feeding systems although it is often argued that this feeding system is not too ideal because it does not provide a controlled and balanced feeding for the birds.
You can get poultry feeding systems from-:
www.choretimepoultry.com
www.cumberlandpoultry.com
www.cableveyag.com
www.cnlionpower.en.alibab.com
6. Poultry feed milling machine-: Making your own poultry feed is more cost effective and it also increases profitability. You can have your feed milling machine custom made for you or buy from the following places-:
www.tradeindia.com
www.made-in-china.com
www.globalsources.com
www.spartanequipment.co.za
www.dhumal.com
Most of the websites listed above can ship items to different countries so, it doesn’t matter where you are based, you can look at their website and when you are convinced that you want to do business with any of the suppliers, call them up for further discussion and shipment arrangement. You can also find most of these items in your locality if you conduct your research well.
