Nezile Dlozi is a small-scale farmer and founder of Mabaya Hatchery and has been in the business for four years.
“We hatch, grow and supply broiler chicks. We also slaughter and package our own chickens and supply them to customers around Nkomazi, Karino and Mbombela,” she said.
Dlozi’s chose chicken farming as it is scarce around Nkomazi.
“In the difficult times we are living in today, one should not have one source of income. This made me think outside the box. I observed that there was a scarcity of chicken farmers and decided to try out this field,” she said.
Dlozi put her plan into action, but had a rocky start. “I bought a 5 280 hatcher and incubator to hatch my own chicks, but I experienced a lot of challenges. I received poor quality eggs from the supplier, and I
had poor hatching due to load-shedding.”
“I decided to shift my focus from hatching to raising the chickens for the purpose of selling them. This also came along with a lot of issues like sickness and disease, expensive medication, vaccinations, food and maintaining the chicks. This was difficult,” she said.
Dlozi’s business gradually became a became a success as more and more people supported her. “I had so much support that I could appoint four casual employees from Nkomazi to work shifts. It was important for me to employ people from my community in order to empower them.”
She hopes to own a franchise one day.
“My goals are to have a Mabaya Hatchery franchise one day and teach the youth in my community about the poultry industry.”
