How Kano ostrich farmer manufactured 5000-capacity incubators

Sunusi Ali Musa is a young entrepreneur in his late 30s. He is engaged in ostrich farming and poultry incubator fabrication. He is a diploma certificate holder in Welding and Fabrication from the School of Technology, Kano State Polytechnic. The young fabricator said he developed interest in innovations at the age of 10 as his father was an agricultural engineer who dealt in tractor repairs.

While growing up, young Sunusi had his eyes on building on what his father is known for. He devoted his time learning from different entrepreneurs involved in the fabrication of agro-machines, among others. He revealed that from what he learnt from his father, to other things he learnt from other fabricators, he started nursing the idea of developing a locally made automated solar-powered incubator that can be operated with ease in Nigeria.

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Gradually, Sunusi built a small farm and a fabrication factory in his house at Shagari Quarters in the Kano Municipal Local Government Area. It is in his house that he keeps all sorts of foreign and indigenous birds, which he hatches using the incubators he developed and sells to the public. According to him, most of the birds he hatches are domestic poultry birds and what he termed as exotic birds, such as ostriches, peacocks and quail birds, among other foreign species.  

Sunusi explained that he started with quail eggs incubation, then graduated to chicken, using local methods of incubation. He added that with growing demand he started to develop incubators for 500 eggs that suit the Nigerian atmosphere, and with the additional experience he used to gather from the conferences and seminars he attended, he was able to develop more sophisticated automated solar- powered incubators. 

He explained that with the development so far achieved in his workshop, he had also ventured into ostrich eggs incubation, which he described as a very rewarding investment. “I have incubated quite a number of ostriches. As you can see, I have two female ostriches and a male. The ostriches have a specific period that they lay eggs. 

During this period, the two female ones lay close to 60 eggs. In this farm, a pair of ostriches is sold between N200,000 and N250,000. And if we are to hatch it for you, it costs N5,000 each,” he revealed.   

Interestingly, the young Sunusi was able to fabricate a poultry incubator with the capacity of 5,000 eggs using solar and cylinder gas. With the latest development, his fabrication became a hot cake for many poultry farms within and outside Kano State.

“It will interest you to note that my fabricated incubators are virtually everywhere in the country. I have fabricated for some farmers in Niger Republic as well. And as you can see, I am working on about five incubators that are waiting to be completed for the owners to take home. So far, we have fabricated over 250 solar-powered automated incubators for our customers, and we are still counting,” he said.

He further revealed that what made his fabricated incubator acceptable is that it is solar-powered and has a higher capacity than the electricity-powered imported incubator.

Sunusi said he had more than seven people working in his small workshop, and some apprentices. He said his great ambition was to have a bigger workshop and a good capital that would allow him to fabricate more agro-machines and others.

“My dream is to have a good capital that would allow me create more innovations and fabricate more things that would enhance agricultural development and other related sectors,” he said.