Ngugi: I dropped poultry to keep dogs

Michael Ngugi Njoroge plays with his dogs in Ol Kalou, town Nyandarua County last week. He got rid of his 200 chicken, which he had kept for two years to rear dogs.

For two years, 30-year-old Michael Ngugi Njoroge drew pride from having 200 improved Kienyenji chicken in his compound in Ol Kalou town, Nyandarua County.

By all standards, neighbours considered him a successful poultry farmer because of the number of hens he kept, despite his small compound at the site and service Huruma Estate.

Ngugi is a trained chef but admits that his love for livestock goes back to his childhood days. That is why when he decided to get a side hustle to his flourishing business as a chef specializing in outside catering in Nyandarua and surrounding counties, chicken rearing is what came to his mind.

He could have opted to keep cattle but the compound was too small for that.

Like a layman, he reared the birds from 2014 to 2016 without keeping any records. Until the hens started laying eggs early mid-2016 and he decided to take them to the market.

“That is when I realized that it was not easy to make a living selling sell eggs out there because the market appeared flooded with imported eggs,” he said. That is when he decided to take stock of the cost of keeping the chicken vis-à-vis returns so far. The figures shocked him

“I was spending Sh10,400 per month on feeds alone for the 200 hens, which means for two years I had spent about Sh280,000,” he said.

That is when he decided that the venture was not profitable and decided to explore the possibility of going into another venture that would be less consuming but profitable.

But his wife and daughter were shocked when he told them he wanted to get rid of the birds and rear dogs. The family could not contemplate how the dogs will benefit them “because they had been used to slaughtering a hen whenever they felt like eating meat or cooking the eggs any time.”

He soon invited people to come and buy out the chicken and the birds were snapped up immediately.

“At the end of the sale, I had only made Sh90,000. It was disappointing considering I had spent Sh280,000 in the two years I had the birds,” he said.

Ngugi made good his wish to venture into dog keeping business and he has already 19 canines both adult and puppies of the mixed breed in the 50 by 100 plot compound. Today the structures that used to be for chicken are now the kennels.

He has two German Shepherds, three Chihuahua, one hunter and several ordinary breeds.

The future of the dog project looks bright. He has already sold two German shepherds to people from Nairobi, and two other breeds to buyers from Nakuru.

“One dog, a Chihuahua breed fetched Sh30,000,” he happily revealed. Among the people he has sold dogs to is a resident of Ol Kalou town who woke up one morning to find all his chicken stolen. The thieves walked into the compound and lifted away from the chicken together with the cage they were in.

Ngugi said as people seek to improve their security, owning a dog has become a priority.

Because he travels very much during his outside catering work, Ngugi is able to source the dogs from those places he visits.

“When I come across a good puppy while I am out doing catering at weddings, funeral gatherings and holidays, I buy and bring it home,” he said.

He has no challenge of feeding the animals since he collects food leftovers from eateries in Ol Kalou town and also from his catering business.

Unlike chicken which had to be fed twice or three times a day, Ngugi says a dog can survive with one meal a day.

The challenges he is facing in this dog business are taking care to avoid conflict between the canines and neighbours and also lacking a space big enough to train the dogs.

He plans to liaise with the County government to be allowed to use the nearby public stadium for training sessions for the dogs. He also needs to undergo lessons on how to train dogs himself.