Thanks for your presentation sir,but wish to ask where there tress that provides shade especially where u want to install your green house is the shade net necessary or we can just use our normal mosquito net for the top
If you have enough trees that provide the level of shade comfortable for the snails, then a shade net may not be necessary..especially at the top. The trick is making sure nothing happens to these trees (pest infestation, snails eating the leaves and reducing their density over time, tree leaves falling out during harmattan which will increase the intensity of light reaching the snails etc)..as long as these things won't be a problem then perhaps u can do without it and use a normal greenhouse net. Not sure Moquito nets are durable when compared to the normal (shade UV treated) greenhouse net
Thanks so much for ur presentation. Pls how do u deal with ants especially the dark red ants that come from underground even with d gutter around d greenhouse.
Personally, I don't do anything about them. However, if you insists on cracking down on them you can dig a small hole in different places around your greenhouse where they are prevalent, pour red oil in there, leave it for a few hours so that the ants will gravitate to it, then you pour boiling water in there to kill them This will help reduce their number. That being said, its important you realise ants can number in the millions (if not billions) living underground and its extremely difficult to completely eradicate them - especially in the greenhouse setup. Killing thousands of them with this strategy may not make a significant dent I focus more on occasional clean up to ensure I don't have things that'll attract them in the first place. Like I mentioned in one of my videos, ants are nature's cleaners..if there's dead animal stuff littered around the place or snail feed on tray thats easily accessible, it'll attract them and (possibly) encourage them to set up shop in that vicinity. Doing clean up from time to time will help keep this in check and using the snail feeder will help protect your snail food from ants
Another excellent video insight. Thank you again. You are appreciated . Could you shed some light into the cost of hiring a welder, shade net vendor to join and install the nets.. it would be really appreciated.. thank you
Great video presentation! Your videos are very insightful and helpful. You really planned out the different stages of your farm and what you decided to do at each stage made sense. It's freaking expensive. I know because I am still fencing a 100 feet by 200 feet land which is being planned solely for snail rearing around Benin City. Fencing alone is milking me dry. I also have a small 22 feet by 25 feet snail farm in my family compound established since March 2022. Some quick questions: 1) After filling and leveling up with the clay soil, won't it have been easier to just place a significant amount of top soil, say, 1.5 feet to 2.0 feet on top of the clay soil? That would have eliminated needing to build the modules and giving you more surface area for snail rearing? 2) a. What are the sizes of the galvanized steel pipes you used? 1 inch or 1.5 inches, b. how many did you get for your land size, c. what was your spacing, and d.what was the cost as at the time of purchase? 3) Did you get the rolls of nets woven together by the seller or you contracted it out to the installers? 4) Assuming you are about to, or have already started selling your snails, what is your estimated projected time for your break even point and your average annual Return-On-Investment or sales (gross or net)?
Oh, I forgot to ask if it's not cheaper to add a concrete walkway with screened drain pipes at the ends to allow water drainage during heavy downpours?
Thanks bro Yeah, I can imagine how expensive it'll be for you to fence the land. That being said, its an investment that'll reward you for years to come With regards to your questions 1. I needed to have a walkway so I can move around easily without fear of crushing eggs buried below the soil. Furthermore, I researched how much top soil thickness I needed for excellent root development of plants and I realised I needed atleast 18 inches of top soil (about 2 coaches of block). Filling just the modules with this thickness cost me almost half a million..much less filling the entire lower point of the greenhouse which was all clay 2. For the GI pipes, I used 2 inch and 1.5 inch. As at Jan 2022 it cost N7500 and N6200 per pipe respectively. I used 12ft spacing for the vertical 2 inch pipes. In total I used about 84 GI pipes 3. The person I contracted for the shade net was responsible for sowing it together and also installing it for me. I purchased 12 rolls of the net for about N312,000. Sewing 30k, waybill N15k, Installation material 10k, workmanship/transportation/accomodation/feeding 150k 4. Its difficult to make projections at this stage because I started with only 1000 snails..Once I get to my 2 or 3rd generation of snails, reach full capacity for my farm (GH plus Pen House ~ 50,000), establish regular recurring customers both home and abroad...my target is netting atleast N500k to N1m a month
@@MichaelO2 using this or PVC perforated drain pipes is definitely another option to explore. I'm not sure if it would hv been cheaper..aesthetically speaking, I probably would still hv preferred the interlocks
@@zenaksnailfarm Thank you so for your patience and prompt response! I sincerely do appreciate it. Wishing you the very best in future sales, as I am sure your target is absolutely achievable. Lots of pain and struggles along the way but the future is very bright and your attention to details and overall persistence will certainly pay off.
@@zenaksnailfarm One final thing; I was thinking that installing an automated'misting' system in the snail pen during the Harmattan season, especially during the day, will help increase the humidity of the pen and thus help with aestivation.
Hello Zenak. Pls what quantity of loamy soil should be enough for 50/100 plot, ie. tipper load. Thanks for all d great info u share. It is indispensable. Thanks a lot
It depends on your module design. For my module..which is 3 coaches above ground and 45ft by 8ft in dimension..and there's 8 of them in total, I purchased 32 trips of top soil (24 trips supplied initially and 8 trips supplied later when I realised 24 wasn't enough). I still have about 4 trips left over so 28 trips eventually did it for me. Remember that when it rains and the top soil absorbs water to saturation, it will settle (drop) by about 6 inches or more..thats why I filled each module to the brim. Each trip cost me around N15k then. Eventually, I'll use the leftover trips of topsoil to fill all the pens in the snail pen house. If you used my module dimensions to build your greenhouse, probably go for 25 trips for a start and see how that goes. Also, remember this was not to fill the entire greenhouse..but just the modules where things will be planted. The rest is walkway so I used clay that was dug up when I was sinking my well and water reservoir to fill those, compact and interlock. If you intend to fill the entire 50ft by 100ft greenhouse floor to bring it level, compact it for stability and then subsequently proceed to build and fill the modules themselves, then that will cost you a lot more..assuming you don't have free clay to use for those (dug up from digging septic tank, well or reservoir) To fill my greenhouse floor I used clay entirely..clay that was dug up so I can't really estimate how many trips it will equate to...but what was dug up was a LOT. imagine sinking a 100ft well and a 20,000 gallon volume underground water reservoir...thats a mountain of soil
Hrllo Bro.. Just wondering how much you paid the welders to install the GI pipe greenhouse structure or what pricing approah did you use to determine labour cost for installation ? Thanks in advance 👍🏾👍🏾
It was a back and forth negotiation. Got in touch with a few welders to get a quote and eventually settled on the one that gave me a resonable price and I felt was honest in their dealings. I paid him N30k for all the welding work plus a few other welding work that needed to be done on the farm (not just the greenhouse)
A separate welder built my tank stand...I paid him 50k for his labour but the entire tank stand cost me over N500k The welder that built the greenhouse with me was the second welder I worked with and my first time working with him so he wanted to be generous with price as he saw there was a lot of future work to be done Now he's my permanent welder...the guy I call for any welding work I have 70k is very reasonable considering inflation
@@zenaksnailfarm thanks bro.. . I am assuming that cost included the price for the actual tank itself too, otherwise that would be one expensive tank stand.. by the way, where did you acquire your planted crops /seedlings from ?
@@raphaelekugum1160 lol it doesn't include the labour cost o. The tank stand is able to carry two 750 gallon tanks. 1500 gallon total..thats a lot of weight. So it was important it was built to be very solid. I purchased the materials myself and the way it was built there is a LOT of reinforcements This is because the tank stand is situated between my reservoir and solar system power house..things that are very expensive and I can't afford to be damaged if the tank stand were to fall or anything considering how much weight its carrying
