03 Sep 2018

Thirty six-year-old Mr Boitshoko Makgekgenene has found a niche in breeding Orpington chickens.

According to traditional trends in most Botswana households, grooming chickens was always the responsibility of women, while men took care of livestock and when a special visitor showed up, mothers and grandmothers chose the best chicken for a savoury relish.

But with evolving agriculture practices and farmers promoting their farming from mere subsistence to profit based businesses, the trend has changed.

Mr Makgekgenene, who resides in Tonota, is one such as he breeds poultry as a means of putting bread on the table.

Apart from breeding Orpington chickens, he has also invested in rabbits, geese, white guinea fowls and Rottweiler dogs.

“My main farming project by far is breeding Orpington chickens. I have been breeding for about five years, and now I have five different colours of pure Orpington chickens,” he said.

For a newbie in the game like Mr Makgekgenene, he surely made right strides in achieving his dream, as in less than five years, he has already achieved a feat some people can only dream of.

He said his journey begun after buying two day-old Orpington chicks following a visit to Tonota agriculture show, where all the interest of pursuing breeding chickens started.

Mr Makgekgenene said his poultry was cable of supplying to different clients with about 100 units of Orpington chicks.

Today, his poultry houses the just ended Botswana National Agriculture Show’s champion Orpington cock, this being his Lavender cuckoo cock.

“I participated at the national show for the first time and have managed to win the prize.

It was a great experience competing against other well invested farmers. More so that I won best and the second place cocks.

While my hen also came second,” he added.

Participating in the recent national show is a testimony of how far he has come and winning in his debut can only mean one thing, that he is moving in the right direction.

Still this year, he participated at the Tonota show where his Orpingtons were not only admired by observers, but walked away with both champion hen and cock.

Furthermore, Mr Makgekgenene said farming has always been his love since boyhood when he started taking interest in rearing doves.

Today, the same love is now his sole income generator as he has never worked but relies on farming.

With regard to his Orpington breeding business, he said he finds clients from over the country regardless of distance with most customers going to his place to buy.

“An Orpington chicken is a beautiful sight.

Their colour differs and there are over 10 colours. But in my poultry I have five colours, namely black, cuckoo, lavender cuckoo, buff and blue Orpingtons,” he said.

He said buff colour seems to be the favourite, adding that people buy Orpingtons for different reasons such as decoration, meat and breeding.

He said he keeps his chickens caged to avoid unplanned cross breeding, which might compromise the quality and colour of the offspring.

Mr Makgekgenene said although it was easy to breed, it took one to understand the colours of Orpingtons to avoid ending up with an offspring with bad combination of colours.

In terms of production, he explained that Orpingtons were a seasonal breed, revealing that in winter their laying rate drops drastically and they sometimes lay infertile eggs, while during off winter season, each hen lays an average of one egg a day.

He said he collects each and every egg laid and places it in an incubator and does not allow the hens to brood to increase his chances to hatch all the collected eggs.

“Breeding these chickens is highly profitable. I do not keep chicks in my poultry. The demand of these chickens is high because every time I advertise my day old chicks for sale, they hardly stay for more than two weeks,” he explained.

He acknowledged his parents’ input, especially on starting the business in terms of financing, urging people to take farming seriously to make a living from it.

Mr Makgekgenene said he looks forward to expanding his business from the small scale he currently operates to large scale. ENDS