Layer farming brings him solvency

Tanmoy Das of Sreerampur village under Kachua upazila of the district has gained success by rearing layer chickens.

“Three years ago, I started farming the layer variety of chicken as rearing of broiler and cock varieties failed to bring expected profit,'' said Tanmoy, 32.

“I have invested Tk 7.5 lakh for buying and rearing the hens and spent Tk 10 lakh for making the sheds. Now I have 1300 white layer hens on 2400 square feet space under two sheds. I buy one-day-old chicken for Tk 45 each,” he said.

“Then I have to rear it for four months and 10 days for laying eggs. This variety lays eggs up to three years but we sell it after 18 months to 20 months for meat when the rate of laying eggs falls.

“My hens are laying 1200-1250 eggs daily and the buyers come to my farm for buying the eggs. As I am getting good profit from eggs and hens, I have a plan to make another shed for rearing hens.

“Every white layer hen needs 110 grams of feed daily. I have to buy every 50 kg of poultry feed for Tk 2250. I need about 150 kg of feed daily. We have to use vaccines of different companies, which are a bit costly,'' said Tanmoy.

“We urge reduction of prices of poultry feeds produced by different companies as the price of soybean and maize has decreased,” he added.

Contacted, District Livestock Officer Dr Saifuzzaman Khan said, “The eggs are rich in different kinds of vitamins and minerals. The hens of poultry farms usually eat healthier feeds than the local hens. We are supplying vaccines for controlling the diseases of hens for a token money. However, most of the farmers are using foreign vaccines at their farms.''

“If the farmers contact us we will help them to make the feed at their house by buying the maize, soybean cake and other ingredients from the market which will reduce their feeding cost,'' he said. 

“As some lower quality poultry feed contains high amount of harmful chemicals like chromium, we are setting up a laboratory for testing the quality of feed,'' he added.