Our Seminars
Please note:-
Due to knee-replacement surgery I will be having, there will be no seminars for March 2025
It has not been logistically possible to have the seminars on Wednesdays and all seminars are shifted beck to Thursdays
"To succeed in business, to reach the top, an individual must know all it is possible to know about that business." J. Paul Getty, Oil magnate and philanthropist
Most people fail because of lack of knowledge. To help start-up chicken businesses, we run 4 seminars each month. One is free and three are charged R380.00 per person. Additional family members and people from the same business will be billed at half price.
A certificate will be issued to all participants that have completed all 4 seminars.
Free: As our contribution to assist our youth in getting practical training to make them more marketable to get a job, we will every month allow up to four four bona fide job-seekers under the age of 30 years old to take the entire course free of charge. They will get the same certificate on completion as all our other students. Bookings need to be made in advance.
Inquiries & Bookings: Send and Email to seminars
Please Note:
1. A maximum of 10 persons per Seminar - Booking essential.
4. All seminars start promptly at 10h00 and lasts until about 15h30. Participants must please arrive on time. Being late will cause you to miss key elements of a course.
5. No-shows at a free seminar who have not given adequate cancellation in order to enable us to offer the space to another person, will be charged R380.00 in advance should they again wish to attend the seminar at a future date.
Click on a seminar title below to view a detailed summary of the content for that seminar
1. How to Run a Successful Small-Scale Chicken Business
Article: Establishing A Small Chicken Business in South Africa
Thursday 8 May 2025 |
Thursday 5 June 2025 |
Thursday 3 July 2025 |
Thursday 7 August 2025 |
Free, please bring your own lunch. Coffee and tea will be provided |
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2. Management of the Free Range Small-Scale Chicken
Farming Unit
Thursday 15 May 2025 |
Thursday 12 June 2025 |
Thursday 10 July 2025 |
Thursday 14 August 2025 |
R380 per person. Coffee, tea and a light lunch will be provided |
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Thursday 22 May 2025 |
Thursday 19 June 2025 |
Thursday 17 July 2025 |
Thursday 21 August 2025 |
R380 per person. Coffee, tea and a light lunch will be provided |
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4. Incubation & Breeding for the Small-Scale Chicken Farmer
Thursday 29 May 2025 |
Thursday 26 June 2025 |
Thursday 24 July 2025 |
Thursday 28 August 2025 |
R380 per person. Coffee, tea and a light lunch will be provided |
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To enable meaningful interaction, we only allow a maximum of 10 people per seminar, so booking is essential.
To reserve your place, please email us at seminars.
For the paid seminars (R380 per person), we will notify you of our banking details in order for you to effect payment. Refunds will only be considered if a cancellation is received at least 3 days in advance.
Seminar Details
On Starting a Business
Full article: Establishing A Small Chicken Business in South Africa
Paraphrasing Miles Kubheka, entrepreneur and founder of Vuyo’s. Read the full Vuyo’s Story at http://www.vuyos.co.za/the-vuyos-story/
- You don’t need much capital to start a business, only to “just start”. If you just stand by your broken-down car, nobody will stop to help. Start to push, and someone will soon try to help.
- Avoid borrowing money, it has to be paid back, after tax and with interest.
- The trick is to start small (It’s easier to push-start a small car than a big truck).
- This way you can test and adapt your product to what the public want. You cannot force people to buy; they must want your product. Only if the public want it, and buy it, will you grow. Then grow within the means of the business.
- Most expensive for any business is redundant stock: expensive to acquire, expensive to store and maintain; and expensive to throw away.
- Next are overheads: admin, marketing, infrastructure, rental and loan repayment. Let the business pay for it, not your pocket.
- Better to make R10.00 than loose R1 million. It’s profit that counts, not turnover.
The First Steps
The first step of any business is to define a niche in which to operate. The second is to draw up a detailed business plan, which will help you define a clear path for your business to operate in and grow. This article will not present you with a business plan, but merely point you in the right direction and provide the basic idea. For a free business plan template visit www.businessplantemplate.net. Should you require funding of any sort, drawing up a proper business plan becomes essential.
Defining a niche
In South Africa the chicken industry is huge and business opportunities abound.
However, for the small guy to compete directly with the big companies, whether for eggs or meat, or both, is just not feasible. The big companies practice huge economies of scale, usually produce their own feed and are highly automated. In addition, their bulk-buying capability ensures they can obtain supplies and equipment at prices the small producer just cannot.
The big firms have taken things a step further: To protect their market share they have lobbied and promoted increasingly unrealistic “health” and “Bio Security” requirements to push the small producer out of the market. I remember in 1983 the CEO of a big producer proudly announcing on TV: “We have been fortunate to further protect the public by convincing the authorities to outlaw chicken meat sales from chickens that were not slaughtered in an approved abattoir”. Over-night thousands of small producers were forced out of the market. Fact is at the time there was no record of anyone ever getting seriously ill from eating cooked meat, whatever the source, to base this unrealistic “health” requirement on.
For more info about the size of the Poultry industry, see:
South Africa Broiler Industry Report (June 2015) by the South African Broiler Association.
Egg industry stats summary for 2014 by the South African Poultry Association
Opportunities for the Small Scale Farmer
In essence, the price at which mass produced chicken meat and eggs arrive on the supermarket shelves just cannot be matched by the small producer. The small man therefore needs to find a niche where he can compete. Fortunately, the authorities have been unable to outlaw anyone slaughtering his own chickens or producing and selling eggs. Hence, the small egg producing and live chicken market is alive and well and it is in this space that the potential small business entrepreneur must carve his niche.
Fortunately, in our modern society with its ever changing needs, there are plenty of opportunities. Henry Ford defined two extremes in business: On the one extreme High volume with low profit (the domain of the large companies) and on the other, Low volume with high profit. However, the low volume – high profit model can only succeed together with high quality, at a level mass producers cannot match. A practical example would be a motor company (Eg. Ford) producing relatively unsophisticated cars in high numbers, literally millions, at a relatively modest profit on the one end compared to, say, Ferrari, that produces relatively few cars (less than 7,000 in 2015) at very high profit, and of course very high quality.
For the small entrepreneur to function effectively therefore, the Henry Ford model needs further refining. It is within the Low Volume – High Profit / High Quality model where there are plenty of opportunities for the small-scale chicken farmer. Remember, we live in a free market and the right price is the price the market will pay!
The Three Defined Areas in The Chicken Consumer Industry:
- Egg production
- Meat production
- A Combination of the above
Seminar Content
1. How to Run a Successful Small-Scale Chicken Business
Attendance: Free - Booking essential
Next date: Click here
Focus: How to be competitive against the big boys
Full Article (serves as seminar notes): Establishing A Small Chicken Business in South Africa
- Starting a business
- The first steps
- Business opportunities
- Quality vs. Quantity
- Infrastructure
- Defined areas of a chicken business
- Egg production
- Meat production
- A combination of the above
- Which breeds to buy
- Starting with day-old chickens – the basics
- Brooder
- Heat
- Feed
- Bio-security
- Basic Chicken Health
- Rearing to six-weeks: the basics
- Rearing from six-weeks to production: the basics
- Maintaining producing chickens: the basics
- Infrastructure
- Managing aging
- Replacing dead chickens
- Chick transport
2. Chicken Health Management
Next date: Click here
- Chicken Health - Almost all you need to know
- Emphasis on Free Range chickens
- Immunity & Bio-security
- Vaccination - how to
- Vaccination - what for
3. Management of the Free Range Small-Scale Chicken Farming Unit
Next date: Click here
- Looking after day-old chickens
- Rearing to six-weeks
- Heating
- Feeding
- Rearing six-week-olds to production
- Maintaining producing chickens
- Fixed cages vs mobile cages
4. Incubation & Breeding for the Small-Scale Chicken Farmer
Next date: Click here
- Breeding
- Basic genetic principles
- The importance of selection
- Cross-breeding
- Genetic variation
- Female : male ratios
- Egg storage
- Incubation principles
- The first 18 days
- The last three days
- Which incubator to buy
- Combination Incubators (A no-no!)
- Setter-Hatcher incubators
- The Brooder
- Chick transport