Updates

The chicks at 3 weeks

The dig of the septic tank

Part way

The completed tank

Apologies for the lack of updates the past few weeks. We have been so busy with the festivities.

Currently our chicks are at 4 weeks and thus far we haven't had any casualties apart from the initial 10. We are in the midst of building our sleeping quarters as well as our sanitation unit. It is a slow process. This is due to the fact that we are strictly doing everything by ourselves without employing workers to do the 'dirty work' for us.

Our goal is to prove that we can do it, with hard work and determination.

Happy New Year 2012!

Happy New Year to everyone!

It has been awhile since the last update.

We have been working on the farm and we have kicked off the new year with new chicks.

What we've done:-

1. Completed another section (8 Jan 2012)

2. Got water and electricity running (8 Jan 2012)

3. Got chicks in (10 Jan 2012)

We are looking at some really good progress. More updates in the days to come!

Work in progress with photos!

Front view of our premises at Ladang Kalang.

Vallerian Tan A.K.A Nanak Working Hard!

Our new 'easy' chair

Roof in need of repair.

Floor needs repair

Nanak Again

1st Batch 2012 Chick run

Entrance for chick run

Above are some photos taken of our work in progress at our new premises at Kalang, Tenom, Sabah.

Will upload more soon.

Eric Has Left Us.

At 12.09 this afternoon while working on our new farm today, I received a shocking text informing me that Eric has passed on. It was sad news as Eric had brought so much laughter and fun. Vallerian mentioned to me that Eric didn't have the appetite to eat this morning.

I suspect bad weather was the cause of his death. He was a brave Spartan Warrior Chief. Eric can't be replaced, he was a special rooster, one of a kind. He will be deeply missed by us here.

Rest in peace Eric.

Season's Greetings!

Wishing all of you greetings of the season!

It has been awhile since the last post. We have been busy working on the new farm. Had cleanups for two days. Tried to post pictures a couple of days ago but was not successful.

Vallerian is here and we got off to a late start as planned earlier, due to the demise in the family.

Pictures are up!

Rest In Peace Spartans

It is somewhat a gloomy day today, although it is bright and shining outside. It has been raining heavily the last couple of days. Found 39 brave Spartans dead today, all given a proper burial. They fought hard against bad weather.

At least they made it through a week. Now it is a matter of getting replacements.

Eric has been so good even though, Le - a and her crew have gone. He did go missing the other day, but I found him in our living room sleeping on the floor.

Well, everything's on course for crunch time.

New Chicks In Again.

Well, I got up early this morning as usual and went to collect another 110 day old chicks, bringing current total chickens to 225 plus 1 Eric. It's getting to be a pretty serious affair.

Progress with the new rearing facilities are going on schedule. Another 3 to 4 weeks to be fully operational. Vallerian Tan and I are going to be very very busy. With Christmas, New Years and The Chinese Lunar New Year 2012 coming in quick succession, I'm pretty sure you all will see hunka hunka drop dead gorgeous chiselled dudes pretty soon.

Sold 50 Chickens yesterday. I received a call at about 5.40am requesting 30 chickens for some celebrations with regards to Malaysia winning the SEA Games gold medal in football (Soccer to the un-schooled). So delivered them around 8.30am. About an hour later the same guys called up and asked for another 20. What! I couldn't believe my luck! So again I sent another 20. I was hoping to be invited for the celebrations but, alas, it wasn't the case. But I am definitely happy I sold off those chickens.

Very tiring! Plus it was very hot yesterday! So it's a quiet day for me today. Right now having a freezing ice cold Nescafe. Soothing and refreshing.

Now for some rest and relaxation... till next time..

Chicks are 4 Weeks and 12 Weeks.

It's Wednesday, I just thought I'd update you guys on the chicks. New Chicks are numbering 103 as of today. Lost 6 due to bad weather. Rainy season. Apart from that they are all looking healthy and have grown huge. Eating so much!

The larger chickens are in the range of 2.5 to 3kgs at the moment. There are about 34 left after sales. It's been good, I have made a total of RM2842.00 (Roughly USD800.00). Initial costs were about RM1200.00 which include the chicks, feeding containers, corn feed and chicken feed. So I've managed to get that back.

The profit has gone back to expanding my operations as in earlier posts. Now we are set on the 1st week of December to start our operations at a new location.

Eric is 4 months plus, he is getting Huge and he has a way with the girls. Took him to town last week, he doesn't run around and stays close to me. Although I didn't dare take him into any restaurants. For obvious reasons.

Eric is starting to grow leg horns (Taji to us locals) and soon he'll come of age and start harassing female chicks and getting babies. I feel like a father seeing his kid grow up.

Well I am off to get busy. So do stop by again for updates.

11.11.11

Just thought I'd post that special date!

New Stuff

Went to visit the site again this morning. Had a closer inspection of the place. And my oh my there's quite a few things that need to be done.

1. Cutting the overgrown grass

2. Repairing some of the flooring.

3. Getting some lights in.

4. Installation of wiremesh to certain sections of the building.

5. The building of partitions for an office as well as storage for chicken feed.

6. Repair of the stairs.

7. Disinfecting the whole darn thing.

At least there is electricity and water. Nice all round condition. I am pretty happy with what is happening now.

I had a moment of serenity and peace while just sitting on the steps of the building, looking out towards the lush greenery surrounding it. I shed a tear. I pulled out my iPhone.. and darn.. I forgot to charge it again! So much for the thrilling moment.

Chickens are doing well. I got back early from the office and cleaned out the coop. 2 gunny sacks full. The new chicks are healthy and getting bigger and fatter. I haven't lost any so far. Which is very good compared to my first time around doing 100 chicks about 2 months back.

Eric is making a nuisance of himself, as always. He accidentally 'fell' into the one of the gunny sacks and made a mess! EEEEEW! But he's unharmed. The rest of the turkens are doing so well. I am feeding them corn and grower pellets now. They are catching up to Eric in terms of size.

I have a page on Facebook, you can see the link at the top right hand corner of this blog. I called up a few friends to ask about some sponsorship with regards to prizes for our fans who can come up with a unique and creative name for our farm.

Good news is I have a few promising items coming along. But at the moment I am still contemplating on how to go about doing this contest. Well I'll get there somehow.

So here's to another updated. Will keep you posted.

Progress

Making progress the last couple of days. Managed to get a reduction in rates for some important items for the new farm. Also managed to get a reduced rental due to the fact that I have promised a 5 year contract with the owner.

I have made a check-list of things to purchase and things to do before fully commencing work on the farm. There's a lot of cleaning and minor renovating to be done. I can't wait for my partner Vallerian Tan to come over. God knows, I could surely use his help around here.

Apart from that everything seems to be going just fine. Chickens are really doing well. And today for the first time ever I saw and heard Eric crow! He's all grown up now. A bit overweight I might add as he is constantly being shown affection! Also there is the sign of his feathers getting longer.

Well it's back to work!

Some News

I have only managed to source 200 Chicks for my upcoming project. I am currently trying to source more. It seems that the current supply of day old chicks are hard to come by due to the forthcoming Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations in January.

I am undeterred and I am very positive that I will be able to get around 500 by months end. Research has been very interesting and I have been to the relevant people for advice and I am pretty sure we'll be kicking off this new project very soon.

The Chickens are doing very well, Today the new chicks are 9 days old and the larger ones are about 10 weeks plus (72 days to be exact) an error on my previous post I might add. After changing from normal sawdust to the more smoother rice husk, I find that they are more comfortable and eat much much more.

Well I'll keep you posted.

10 weeks and 1 week.

My chickens will be 10 and 1 week old respectively tomorrow. Overall health is very good, the week old chicks are healthy and I haven't lost anymore. Total count is 167 chicken.

Have done a lot of research the past few days with regards to rearing chicken commercially, I've gone to the Department of Veterinary Services and Animal Industry Sabah to ask for advice and they were very helpful.

I shall be forecasting and preparing my project paper to submit to them for approval. I have currently acquired the services of one partner (Vallerian Tan), to assist me in this forthcoming project.

Wish us luck on our journey

Sold 19 and so VERY good news too.

5 Day old chicks

59 Turkens left

4 Day old chicks

Sold 19 chicks to pre-order customers. On average they weighed about 2.5 to 2.8kgs. Managed to make a good amount of cash Bought new feed and met new friends.

I did come across a lady selling fresh water fish, and she was saying to me that the prices I put out for my chicken were too cheap, she suggested I put them up to be standardized with other poultry sellers. I am inclined to do so. 玉米饲喂鸡

Yesterday a very close relative had mentioned to me about a chicken farm that he built but never used. So I took the afternoon to go and have a look at the building. I liked what I saw, I just don't like that my iPhone was out of charge so I couldn't take photographs.

Well, a few blog posts ago I was talking about going full scale commercial, and the good news is now I can proceed as planned earlier than the mentioned timeline. Yes! I am happy and my friends here are telling me to go all out.

A bit about the building. It is 120 feet in length and about 20 feet in width and roughly 15 feet high, it's above ground, just how I like it. I couldn't have asked for anything more. You could house 2000 or more chicks but I am going for 1000 to 1500 just to keep things manageable.

I'll be doing lots and lots of homework in the next few days. Also, I'll be posting here about updates in the next few days so do keep looking.

New Chicks in Today (with Videos and pics)

Received 110 day old chicks today! Very happy! Have some videos down below too.

And the 9 week chickens today!

It's tough but someone's gotta do it.

Chicken Farming

Pengeluaran daging ayam negara telah mencapai tahap saradiri sejak tahun

1981. Pada tahun 2006, aktiviti pengeluaran ayam daging tempatan

menyumbangkan lebih kurang 70% daripada keseluruhan bekalan daging

negara. Walaupun memberi pulangan yang cepat, pemeliharaan ayam daging

bukanlah satu pekerjaan yang mudah diusahakan.

Pemeliharaan ayam daging terdedah kepada banyak faktor yang boleh

mempengaruhi untung-rugi dan daya maju seseorang pengusaha. Antaranya

adalah ketidakstabilan harga pasaran, harga imput seperti makanan dan bahan

binaan, cuaca yang berubah-ubah dan penyakit. Ayam juga memerlukan

persekitaran yang selesa untuk pertumbuhan yang cekap. Pemeliharaan ayam

memerlukan perancangan yang teliti bermula dari peringkat penubuhan ladang,

pengurusan sehinggalah ke pasaran.

Kos pengeluaran ayam pedaging telah meningkat sebanyak RM2.06 sekilogram

iaitu dari RM1.61 pada tahun 1998 ke RM3.67 sekilogram pada tahun 2006.

Pada bulan Oktober 2004 harga siling ayam pedaging di ladang telah ditetapkan

pada harga RM4.00 sekilogram.

English Translation:

Production of chicken meat has reached self-sufficiency in the country since1981. In 2006, local chicken production contributes to approximately 70% of the total meat supply
in the country. Although with quick returns, the preservation of poultry meat is not an easy job.
Preservation of meat chickens are exposed to many factors that can affect the profit and loss and viability of an entrepreneur. among them is the market price volatility, such as the imputed price of food and energy building, climate change and disease. Chickens need comfortable environment for efficient growth. Rearing of chickens require careful planning from the establishment of the farm, management up to the market.
Cost of production of broilers has increased by RM2.06 per kg
ranging from RM1.61 to RM3.67 per kg in 1998 to 2006.
In October 2004 the ceiling price of broilers on the farm has been set
at RM4.00 per kg.

Source:

IBU PEJABAT PERKHIDMATAN VETERINAR, PUTRAJAYA

Scooping the Poop.

Cleaned the chicken coop today. 3 times in the past week. Another 25kgs. The stench is becoming bearable. Found one female chick dead. I do not know what seems to be the cause of this.

16 Gone

Had to sell off 16 chicks, didn't want to but a friend has an event on the 25th of this month and requires the chicken. So I sold 16 off to him after he begged (Really). At least I made enough to get back my investment for the chicks.

Now there are 80 left and I am assuming that the cost in feeding them will be lower, But 26th is the day another 110 chicks are coming and I don't see the cost going anywhere lower.. But things are looking up.

It's been raining for 3 days straight now. At least the veges are being well watered but if it goes on, it'll mean that most of the crops will be on the unhealthy side.

96

96 Chicks left. I found out one died this morning. The smallest one. It was unable to fight for food. I have been away for two days.

8 Weeks

8 Weeks have passed and it'll be 2 months come this Sunday the 23rd of October. Time really flies.

Fed the chicks normal feed today because I haven't got any corn feed left. The growth of the chicken seems to be on track for the targeted 3kgs. The chicks are very active. I think that because of this they don't put on much weight. It isn't like the full blown commercial rearing that doesn't leave any room for the chicken to move around.

Well at least I know my chickens are healthy. My brinjals (eggplants) are coming along nicely. I should say that my wife is the one who planted them. The are about 2 and a half inches in diameter and roughly 18 to 20cms in length. We are currently planning to harvest on Saturday to offload them on Sunday at the local market. They taste real good, I've had a few the last couple of days.

Well that's it for now.