adminPamela Shumba Senior Reporter
HYGRO Chickens, a chicken breeding company in Bulawayo, has introduced an innovative, convenient and economic way of running a poultry business for rural farmers to increase egg production.The mordern battery cage system, which is made of up of welded wire mesh, has drawn a lot of attention from farmers at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF).
Hygro’s customer development manager, Pretty Kahlu said the battery cage system was imported from China and India and is specifically designed to reduce labour and the feed bill as well as produce bigger eggs for farmers.
“This is a very convenient system for poultry farmers, which has a guaranteed 30 percent increase in egg production. We started importing these cages from India and China last year and the response from the farmers is overwhelming.
“The cages come in two sizes to suit the needs of our customers. One has a capacity of 240 layers and another with a capacity of 96 birds,” said Kahlu.
She said one of the biggest advantages of using the battery cage system was that it produces clean eggs and no breakages are recorded.
“It has so many advantages. It’s designed in such a way that all the eggs are the same size and clean and they don’t break. The chickens are always healthy because the feeds and the water are clean all the time. It also reduces floor space area, space and labour making it easier for the farmer to make more money,” said Kahlu.
She added that all feeds go to production, which makes the chickens stay healthy and produce large eggs.
Kahlu said for security reasons, farmers were advised to build a secure place for their battery cages to protect them from snakes, cats, wild birds and thieves.
Layers take between 18 and 22 weeks to start hatching eggs and each bird can hatch one egg per day.
The chicken’s body begins forming an egg shortly after the previous egg is laid and it takes 26 hours for an egg to form fully.
Bongani Moyo
Online Reporter