The Egg Hatching Business is part of our Income Generation programme that promotes economically viable activities with the objective of improving livelihoods. This programme focuses on unemployed women in KwaMakhutha.
The Egg Hatching Business is based in KwaMakhutha and is run by local women. We organised formal training for the participants, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to move the project forward. With their newly gained expertise, they were ready to share their skills with other community members and make the egg hatching business a remarkable and sustainable success.
We have four egg hatching incubator machines in which we place approximately 1500 eggs in the machine for 21 days to get approximately 1200 chicks. Once the eggs are hatched, we immunize the chicks and they go on sale from as early as five days old. The incubating and hatching process is very delicate, and the dedicated egg hatching staff members pay close attention every step of the way.
The women take pride in this business because it has improved their lives. Some of the positive ripple effects of the egg hatching business are:
- Income Generator – Creates an income for mostly single mothers who can now fight poverty and unemployment.
- Entrepreneurship – Since the inception of this project, community members have built chicken coups in their backyards and now resell the chickens to make profit.
- Affordable Prices –Residents find that buying the chickens locally is much cheaper as they do not have to pay transport costs to go to the grocery stores which are not locally based.
- Sharing knowledge –The entrepreneurs that buy the chickens to resell are informed about the poultry business and the correct way to take care of the chickens.
Like all business ventures, the hatchery project has areas that need improvements; some of these are:
- Lack of security –The premises do not have burglar bars on the windows and the doors are old and worn down. Criminals often break in and steal equipment, uniforms and the chickens.
- Limited number of machines - There are only four incubating machines and these machines need a couple of weeks to cool off before the next eggs are hatched. During the cooling off period, no money is generated until the next cycle.
- Lack of proper infrastructure - The egg hatching and incubation process takes place in two tiny rooms with very limited space, which limits production.
This business venture is slowly helping us tackle poverty and unemployment.