Poultry farming has never been this easy
How does your incubator work?
The digital egg incubator uses both electricity and solar energy. We designed it this way so that anyone is able to use it regardless of where they are. The incubator works by maintaining temperatures at 37.8 degrees and humidity level at 60 for 21 days. The incubator also has a display that shows the temperatures and humidity. This informs the farmer when the humidity levels are low thus when to add water. We know this may seem complicated, thats why we always show the farmer how to use the machine to incubate their eggs while we do the installation. For the best results we insist that the farmer doesn’t open the incubator for 21 days.
Who is your target market?
We try to make the incubators as affordable as possible. We have great payment plans, fit for everyone. The incubators cost Kshs. 45,000 in total. But if a farmer can not afford that, all they need is a down payment of Kshs. 4,000 then pay a daily instalment of 40 shillings.
What made you start this business?
I started rearing chickens since I was in class 6. I know everything about poultry farming, I have a passion for it. It is a way for us to be able to feed ourselves as country. I also see it as a good way of creating jobs for the youth and women in my community.
What progress you have you made so far?
It’s been quite an interesting journey of failing and learning from our mistakes. We started off with nothing and now we are able to source for materials and we have pieces to sell. We have been able to sell our products to a few farmers and so far they love the incubators.
What makes your incubator different? Why not stick to the traditional methods of hatching eggs?
There are certain benefits of using our incubator; Number one, It can either use electricity or solar which means you do not have to be connected to power, Number two; Our incubator incubates between 90–96 eggs at a go and last but not least our incubators have a success rate of 90% and above depending on the quality of eggs.
What is your vision for your business?
Simple; In the next 2 years we plan to raise brand awareness and expand our operations to; Mombasa, Kilifi and Kwale. We also aim to teach as many farmers as possible about poultry farming and become the main suppliers of poultry food in the coastal region.
What lessons have you learnt throughout the leap2 program?
The crowdfunding process was difficult for us. We were unable to raise enough funds to receive a match fund but we tried our best. On the bright side, we learnt a lot; like how to talk to people, making the perfect pitch and the icing of the cake is that the platform allowed us to network and through that we got our very first client who ordered in bulk. We are grateful for the program, the lessons we learnt and the people we met.
