The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas’ largest poultry producer has no interest in the 7,000 layer birds being purchased by the Ministry of Agriculture because they cannot be placed together with meat producing chickens.

Lance Pinder, Abaco Big Bird Poultry Farm’s operations manager, told Tribune Business he had no interest in acquiring any of these birds. He explained: “You can’t have layer chickens around boiler chickens and meat-producing chickens grown for meat production.

“Because meat chickens are very young, they are not fully developed, and egg-laying chickens live for two or three years - just like an adult person. You have all of the diseases that you are immune to, so you can infect the young boiler chickens which are getting brought in all the time.

“They are only six weeks old when they go to production. So that would be a source of infection if they are too close together. I think the recommendation is about ten miles apart.”

Mr Pinder was responding to Michael Pintard, minister for agriculture and marine resources, who said in Parliament on Monday: “Two thousand layer birds have been purchased from a local producer to be distributed throughout the Family Islands this week.

“The goal is to upgrade egg production. We know that we have the capacity in less than three years to be self-sufficient in egg production, and we wish to empower those already in the business.

“We also commenced the purchase of 5,000 additional birds, and we wish when they arrive in the next three weeks that we will distribute those to those farmers here in New Providence. Shortly thereafter we intend to ramp up production by another 5,000 to 7,000 layers, and we have already commenced the paperwork to have those birds brought in.”

Mr Pinder, meanwhile, said: “I had wanted to do a small egg operation with a friend of mine right before Hurricane Dorian as a side venture, because obviously I can’t do it here at Big Bird property.

“That is way down on the totem pole right now because that person was displaced by the storm, so they were gone for the last few months and arrived back here last month. They are planning to leave again, so that’s really been put on the backburner. I don’t want to go into egg-laying production, not here at Abaco Big Bird. We can’t have it here.

Mr Pinder added: “We’re trying our best. This whole COVID-19 thing has slowed things down because the factory that was making our equipment had to close. So that has put a real wrench in everything, but I am trying to get some separate stuff to get things going from a different source right now. In the long run I will end up with double materials because I know we need to get something going.”