THE AGROPRENEUR: Exit quail, enter the silkie bantam chicken.

Kenya: Exit quail, enter the silkie bantam
chicken.
As the appeal of quail farming wears off, owing
to what economists would refer to as cobweb
adjustments — a process where product prices
pendulum depending on changes in supply — it
is time to cash in on a breed of unexplored
birds.
Unlike other chicken breeds, these birds can
double as pets and attract high prices.
Mr Martin Njogu, an exotic species farmer at
Blue Farm, sells a mature female bantam chicken
of the silkie breed at Sh6,000, while a chick
costs Sh1,000.
How much do they cost?
“I sell a fertilised bantam chicken egg at Sh300.
Their demand is high while the supply is low, so
they fetch a high price in the market,” he says.
Ms Mary Mokua, a poultry farmer at Ukulima
Smart, an online agribusiness farmers’
interaction portal, says she sells her bantam
chicken mostly as ornamental birds.
“I sell a mature cock (male bird) at Sh9,500
while a female bird ranges between Sh6,000 and
3,000.”
Contrast this with the regular broiler chicken
that retails at about Sh450.
So what exactly is the bantam chicken breed?
They are small domestic fowls that are often
miniatures of standard breeds but are
characterised by exotic colours and feather
patterns.
There are about 18 breeds of bantam chicken,
which include pekin, dutch and sebright, but
silkie is gaining the most popularity in Kenya.
‘Weird’ characteristics
The silkie bantam breed has several unusual
characteristics that include feathers that feel like
silk or fur; black skin, flesh and bones; and it
has blue earlobes and five toes on each foot
whereas most chicken have four.
And unlike regular chicken that can get fierce,
silkies are very docile and calm and have a
friendly temperament, which makes them ideal
pets.
In Kenya, many have neglected them for their
“unusual” characteristics, dubbing them weird
and associating them with witchcraft, which is a
myth.
Njogu describes them as “chicken with wool
covering up their eyes”, while other farmers term
them chicken with the hair of a fluffy cat or dog.
But what is so special about this chicken that
makes it attract such high prices?
There are farmers who keep the birds as
ornamental fowl or pets to incubate and raise
the offspring of other domesticated birds like
pheasants, geese, ducks and quails.
According to a farmer from Kuku Farmers, there
is growing demand for these types of birds in
areas like Kirinyaga, Nyahururu, Juja and Ruiru
where farmers have taken up breeding
indigenous birds, but there is also a large
export market.
Brooding
Blue Farm, which is in Kirinyaga, got into the
business of breeding indigenous fowl in 2010.
“After a lot of research on different breeds of
chicken, I bought several bantam chicken and
now own a large brood of this unique bird.
“Some farmers have approached me to cross-
breed this bird with their chicken. A cross-breed
egg of a silkie and another variety of chick costs
between Sh150 and Sh200,” Njogu says.
Bantam eggs also take fewer days to hatch, and
can be incubated.
According to Ecochicks Limited, you can purchase
a 60-egg incubator at Sh15,000 while a 176-egg
incubator will cost you Sh60,000.
The Youth Enterprise Development Fund also
sells egg incubators with the capacity to hatch
528 eggs at Sh198,000, and offers loan options
for purchase .
Njogu adds that these birds are delicate in
comparison to other breeds of chicken.
Tame birds
“They are more susceptible to sickness than
normal chicks. When the silkie bantam chicks are
young, they are especially affected by changes in
weather and if they are not taken care of well,
they could die.”
Njogu advises that bantam chicks be kept in a
brooder longer than other types of chicks.
“They should be kept in a barn and need a
roosting place to use at night. However, you can
let them roam free during the day.”
Due to their small size, they can be reared on a
small piece of land.
Njogu says that it takes two days to tame these
birds, after which they can be let loose without
the need to monitor them for fear of them
running away.
The birds feed on the normal chicken feed or
can be given vegetables and grains.
“They enjoy eating some small plants and
insects such as grasshoppers, flies, mosquitoes
and slugs,” Njogu says.
But beware that due to their nature and
appearance, they are prone to attacks from
predators such as hawks and cats.
Source: standardmedia.co.ke