Learn the step by step guide on how to start a snail farm in Nigeria and all you need to know.
Heliciculture, or the cultivation of snails, is a lucrative industry that is popular in many countries. Snails are consumed in dishes like escargot and sold for their meat.
You must choose the appropriate kind of snails, establish a suitable habitat, and take care of your snails’ health to start and maintain a successful snail farm. You can turn your snail farm from a side project into a successful small scale business in with time and effort.
Let’s look into the 3 parts of Heliciculture
Step by Step Guide On How To Start A Snail Farm
The step by step guide on how to start a snail farm is:
- Getting the snail: This includes
- Building a snail pen
- Farm maintenance
Part 1: Getting the Snails
- Choose the snail species you want to raise.
You can only utilize one type of snail while building a snail farm. The tiny helix pomatia and helix aspersa may thrive in seasonal conditions and lay hundreds of eggs. Only warm regions with a consistent year-round temperature are suitable for the bigger achatina achatina and Archachatina Marginata.
Choose the type of snail you want to grow after researching prevalent varieties in your area.
In Nigeria, African Land Giant Snail (Archachatina Marginata) is the preferred species).
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- You can either find snails in your garden or buy them online.
You’ll need to acquire snails if you wish to create a snail farm. Search online for a nearby snail farm where you can buy adult snails.
You can search the bushes and shrubs. You can look around lakes, ponds, and other bodies of water.
When the sun has slightly set, try to look for them because it is cooler.
- To ensure that the snails are healthy, it is best to be able to inspect them before purchasing.
- Select mature snails.
Get healthy, mature snails that will lay eggs and assist populate your farm when you initially start your snail farm. Examine the snail’s shell.
They are mature if they have a lip. Near the shell’s entrance, the lip will resemble a rolled or coiled shell.
Select snails that can fit inside their shells because this shows that they are healthy.
- Get as many snails as your farm can accommodate.
There can only be six snails per square meter if you are cultivating tiny snails. You will want at least 1 square meter for each snail if you are raising larger snails.
Obtaining more snails than this will result in an unhealthy and overpopulated snail population. More snails will result in more eggs being laid.
Part 2: Building a Snail Pen
- Choose a damp, wind-free area for your pen.
Snails do not thrive in areas that are exposed to strong winds or where the soil does not drain well after rain.
Choose a spot with lots of room and protection from the elements.
- A trench is an ideal place for a snail pen because it is protected from strong winds.
- Your farm will also be protected if it is situated at the foot of a hill or is surrounded by trees.
- Select a material for the fence.
Materials for snail pen fences are available online and at most hardware stores. Corrugated metal or plastic, chicken wire, or woven materials are common choices for fencing.
The pen’s main function is to contain the snails. Pick a material that won’t break the bank, and buy enough of it to make a 5×5 meter (16.4×16.4) pen.
If you want to accommodate more snails, you can expand the fence’s perimeter.
From 1000 square meters (3280.84 square feet) to 10,000 square meters (32808.4 square feet), larger snail farms can range in size.
- Posts should be driven into the earth to form the snail pen’s perimeter.
The same place where you got your fencing is where you may buy wooden fence posts. Make sure there are five posts on each side of your enclosure by spacing them out 1.25 meters (four feet) apart from one another.
The fencing material will be wrapped around this perimeter, which will serve as the snail pen.
- Around the posts, create a trench that is .4 meters (1.3 feet) deep.
Dig the trench outside of each of the wooden posts surrounding your snail farm using a shovel. The bottom of your fencing material will be stored here.
- Wrap your posts in the wire mesh and secure it with staples.
Apply your fencing material to the wooden posts and tightly wrap them. In the trench, you already dug, placing the bottom of the fence.
This will prevent the snails from escaping and prevent larger predators from digging under the pen.
- Fill in the trench with soil.
Put soil into the trench with a shovel. Make sure to smooth up the soil in the area after covering the trench to ensure that the fence stays buried. You can now use your snail pen.
- Put down some spongy, damp soil.
Snails favour moist, loamy soil that is rich in organic matter and has a low pH.
Get one with a pH of 7 or lower from a local garden store to promote the health of your snails.
Give the snails plenty of room to roam around as you pour the soil into their habitat.
Clay is not a good material for snails since it gets too hard when it gets wet.
Due to its poor ability to retain water, sand is also not the best material for snails.
- If starting a small, private farm, pick a container with good ventilation.
The ideal containers are not cardboard boxes since snails can chew right through them. Create a habitat inside a glass or plastic container instead.
A fish tank will also do. Make sure the snails’ habitat is covered so they can’t scurry away.
Additionally, make sure the habitat’s cover has air holes so that the snails may breathe.
Part 3: Farm Maintenance
- Fill your environment with snail food.
Snails consume a range of foods. You can give your snails stuff like fruit slices, weeds, lettuce, cabbage, and vegetable peelings to eat. Once the food begins to rot or develop mold, remove it from the habitat. A tray of distilled water should also be left out for your snails to drink.
To feed your snails, you can also produce leafy vegetables on your snail farm.
Snails also appreciate turnips, hybrid turnips, and dandelion clover.
Sometimes contaminants found in tap water would hurt the snails, So if you opt to utilize water from your tap, don’t forget to boil and cool the water first.
- Every three months, replace the dirt.
Your soil’s chemical makeup will evolve. Additionally, your soil most likely has a deposit of snail mucus and faeces. To maintain the health of your snails, you must completely replenish the soil every three months.
Remove the snails from their environment and move them to a temporary habitat before removing the old soil and adding new, loamy soil using a shovel.
- If it doesn’t rain, water your snail farm.
Spray the ground and leaves of your snail farm using a spray bottle. When it’s chilly outside, water your farm in the evening or early in the morning.
Watering them When it’s hot outside could cause them to be drawn to the water and perish from the sun.
You will need to add water to your snail farm if you are raising snails outdoors and it hasn’t rained in a few days.
- Water your farm every day if it’s extremely dry.
- Keep your snail farm from flooding.
- Weeds that grow in your pen should be pulled.
The growth of leafy greens that you may have planted on your snail farm can be hampered by weeds and wild grass. Remove the grass and weeds from the pen’s interior and perimeter with care.
Hope you enjoyed the read on the step by step guide on how to start a snail farm and scale it. If you need more explanations , leave your question on the comment section.
Conclusion
Additional things to know about your snail:
- You can feed your Snails once or twice a day, how quickly they eat and what you feed them both play a role. If they are given a substantial amount of food, it should be enough to keep them full for at least one day and possibly two.
- After Disinfecting your snail pen, wait for at least a few days, possibly even a week or two. The snails can suffer significant harm from insecticides.
- Pineapples and tomatoes can be too acidic for snails.
- Snails’ natural predators are cats, birds, flies, mites, beetles and their larvae, flies, squirrels, rats, mice, weasels, toads, turtles, wild turkeys, and many more.
