Poultry Farming and Chicken houses

Where am I allowed to farm poultry in South Africa? I battled to find any information on Agricultural Land Zoning in South Africa. Try and phone 012 319 6249 / 012 319 6249 / 012 319 6249    

Web site below with an interactive map of South African agricultural information.

Certain areas are not zoned for farming. In particular chickens and pigs require special permission to farm. The smell caused by a badly run chicken farm can upset your neighbours! Impact assessments will be needed if you are starting a large poultry farm - if you are only doing a small chicken run for home use then you should not have a problem.

 This site here is a great resource to find information and location of

http://www.agis.agric.za/agisweb/agis.html

STARTING A POULTRY FARM

If you are interested in starting a poultry farm, there are some basic facts that you must know before you can start. When you want to produce foodstuffs, especially meat, poultry is the only type of animal production that can provide an income in the short as well as the long term.
When you farm with chickens, you produce meat and eggs, but there are also valuable by products such as manure and feathers.
You can also farm with chickens while farming with something else, and you can farm with them anywhere in the country. You can even farm with chickens in the backyard of a city house. You do not need a big farm to farm with chickens.
When you think of keeping poultry for household purpose or as a business, the first question you ask is “How do I start?” The answer to this question is not a simple one, because there are many different poultry production systems. There are also many different breeds used for different products and a variety of housing and equipment systems.

What are the different production systems available?

There are basically three systems from which the farmer can choose:

· Extensive – This system of keeping chickens is the oldest form of keeping chickens.
According to this system, you keep chickens but you do not provide them with any housing, feed and medicine. These chickens can walk all over the property feeding them, laying their eggs anywhere, hatching and rearing chicken without your knowledge. With this system, you do not have any control over the number of eggs that you can collect, or the number of chickens that are hatched, and grow up.

· Semi-intensive – When you keep chickens in this way, you provide them with housing nests, feed and medicine. Although you provide them with housing, you also have a camp attached to the house where these chickens can walk freely. By providing them with housing and nests, you have control over the number of eggs that you can collect as well as the number of chickens that are hatched and grow up. With this system you can increase your flock and sell your eggs.

· Intensive – This system is a system where you keep the chickens inside a chicken house and provide them with housing, feed and medicine. Normally this system will be for commercial use only.

The system that you choose will depend on:

· The reason why you want to keep the chickens. Is it to provide eggs and meat for your home, or is it as a business, or a bit of both?
· Do you have enough land available for a semi-intensive or intensive system?
· How much money do you have available to build a house and buy equipment?
· Your knowledge of chicken farming

What breeds of chickens are available?

There are the breeds that can be kept under the extensive and semi-intensive systems usually indigenous breeds, as well as standard breeds such as the New Hampshire, Rode Island Red and Black Australorp. These breeds are normally used for more than one purpose. Then there are the breeds that are used in an intensive system such as the Ross or Cobb for meat and Hi-Line of Lohmann for egg production.