Farmer dispirited after floods washed away her chickens

Poultry farmer Thando Magane feels defeated after she lost her stock of 20,500 chickens during the recent KwaZulu-Natal flood which wrecked her two farms.

Magane, 36, who lives in Durban and is the founder and owner of Fresh Nest Farming, said she is going to need R1,9m to rebuild her two farms, R1,2m to buy new chickens and R350,000 to buy feed for her chickens.

Magane has two farming properties in Camperdown and Hillcrest in KZN, which got destroyed by the floods.

The mother of one had 22,000 chickens and now she is left with a meagre 1,500 after the wreck caused by the floods.

The broiler farm in Camperdown has nine chicken houses for 12,000 chickens which died during the floods as water came in through the open spaces. The houses experienced cracks on the roofs and walls.

The farm also has a storage facility which is used to keep feed and tools. The storage facility had water come inside it and experienced cracks in the walls as well.

The layer farm in Hillcrest had the roofs and walls of the two chicken houses being destroyed to the ground, losing 8,500 chickens out of the 10,000 she had on the property. The solar system at the facility which was used as a source of electricity on the farm was also destroyed.

Magane said she is disheartened about the loss.

“I feel defeated. I do not where I am going to start picking up the pieces. I am aware that a business has hiccups but this was just too much for one person to handle. The business was at its peak period, we were doing well and a lot of people were looking up to me,” said Magane.

“The floods affected us on the evening of April 11. I was at my place when my employees who live on the farm called me and told me that the situation [flooding] is getting worse. It is difficult to feed the chickens that are left. I do not have the energy to take care of them,” said Magane.

Magane started her business in March 2014 after resigning from her service consultant job that she had at Standard Bank. She worked at the bank from 2008 to 2014.

“I took short courses in farming and in 2013 the father of my child and myself purchased a piece of land so that we can start the farm [layer farm]. I have always loved farming. I grew up in a rural area in Limpopo with my grandmother. My grandmother would not eat anything from the shop that she could plant. I drew inspiration from her,” said Magane.

Magane is renting the broiler farm at a cost of R7,500 a month as the property belongs to a community in the area. She has five employees in the facility.

She had to pay out R980,000 in 2013 to build the two chicken houses on her layer farm. She has four employees on the farm.

“We have not received any emergency aid so far. My employees who live at the residential area on the farms are not able to go to shops because the bridges that connect them to the shops and towns are destroyed. I have to go to the farms myself and deliver to them what they need such as bread and other supplies from my own pocket,” said Magane.