Lol, it is not shrine but a cool environment and a water lodged area.

Some snails Hibernate. Some species of snails actually hibernate during the colder months of the year. They cover their bodies with a thin layer of mucus, which prevents them from drying out. Sometimes snails are also able to hibernate in the summer to survive if they are faced with a severe drought. They live off of the stored up fat during this time of year. This process is one of the many reasons why they have been able to survive for million years. 2. Snails can have a long life. The life span for snails depends on their habitat and the species. Some of them only live for about 5 years. However, others in the wild are believed to be up to 25 years old in unusual occasions. 3. There are huge snails. The largest land snail recorded was 12 inches long and weighed near 2 pounds. It belonged to the Giant African Land Snail species. Other species are extremely small being only a few centimeters long when they are adults and weighing just a couple of ounces. 4. Snail Moving. While moving, snails they leave behind a trail of mucus. This mucus acts as a powerful lubricant to reduce friction against the surface. This is why they are able to move upside down, around corners, and other situations. 5. Snail Mucus. It is a myth that this mucus is going to make humans ill. Many people worry that snails being in their garden will ruin the foods grown there and make them unfit for consumption but that is all false.

Wow!!! You have really researched about this animals ooo....nice one...

Hey farmers, why do leave your farm produce get spoilt when there are ready markets for it.... You can contact Ayo on 07069023802 or royalty.resources @gmail.com

.
Royalty Resources

How to Start Snail Farming in Nigeria
Snail farming can be very profitable in Ghana,
Kenya, Cameroon, South Africa, and Nigeria. Yet,
it is one of the most neglected animal rearing
business in these countries. Snail farming
provides one of the finest opportunity to make
money within a short period of time. But why are
Africans not yet fully engaged in this money
making animal rearing? The reason is ignorance.
In Australia and USA, snail rearing is big
business, providing opportunities to many
farmers. In Uk, snails can be seen in many
supermarkets and stores. meaning it's a big dea
over there.

Most people in Nigeria and Ghana still have the
believe that snail can only be picked in the bush
The culture of going to the bush to pick snails i
the villages during raining time has been there f
generations. So, it has been difficult for people t
come to term that snail can actually be kept an
grown at home.

The good new: After reading this article, you will
be on your way to starting your own snail
business in easy and simple steps. And we are
backing it up with a Practical Snail Farming
eBook for those who can afford it.
Making ₦5,000,000 annually in snail rearing is a
done deal if you do it well and get it right.
I will try to be as comprehensive as possible wit
this article so that you can get going after
reading it, and as people starts commenting -
asking questions and adding what they know
about snail farming, the information here would
be more enriched for everyone's benefit.
What is Snail: Land snails belongs to the class
Molluscan, Gastropod. The one popularly known
as ' Congo Meat ' in many parts of Africa. Nigeria
- Eju , Igbin , etc... There are so many species of
snails but the types we are looking at here are
the ones that are suitable for commercial Snail
Farming in Africa.
1. Achatina fulica - The East African land snail,
or giant African land snail, scientific name
Achatina fulica, is a species of large, air-breathi
land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod
mollusk in the family Achatinidae. It is the
smallest in size among all the desirable species
for rearing in Africa.
Achatina fulica has a narrow, conical shell, which
is twice as long as it is wide and contains 7 to
whorls when fully grown. The shell is generally
reddish-brown in colour with weak yellowish
vertical markings but colouration varies with
environmental conditions and diet. A light coffee
colour is common. Adults of the species may
exceed 20cm in shell length but generally averag
about 5 to 10cm. The average weight of the snai
is approximately 32 grams (Cooling 2005).

2. Achatina Achatina - Achatina achatina,
common name the giant Ghana snail, also know
as the giant tiger land snail, is a species of very
large, air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial
pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family
Achatinidae. Giant African land snails are
hemraphrodites, meaining they possess both the
female and male reproductive organs. Two snail
are still needed for breeding, but they are very
prolific breeders.
Similar to the other species in the genus,
Achatina achatina's shell can attain a length of
200 mm and a maximum diameter of 100 mm.
They may possess between 7-8 whorls and the
shell is often broadly ovate. The body of the
animal is silver-brown in color although albino
morphs may exist.

3. Archachatina Marginata - Archachatina
marginata, common name the giant West Africa
snail, is a species of air-breathing tropical land
snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk
the family Achatinidae. They can grow up to 20c
long, and live up to 10 years.
Among these three species, Achatina Achatina is
the most desirable for farmers because it grows
so big to become the biggest snail species in th
world. Achatina Achaina has it's origin from
Nigeria, get to Liberia from Nigeria and then
Ghana
Another reason is due to it’s high yield capacity.
The other species are very good too but I will
focus on Achatina Achatina and Archachatina
Marginata in this blog post because, they are
easy to find in Nigeria.
Achatina-Achatina is very good for
commercialization as well, because of its
profitability. This is because of the volume of
eggs it lays at once. Each achatina lays 300 to
500 eggs at a time in clutches, three times a
year. Therefore, if you start a farm with about
1000 snails, in one year you would be getting
about 1.5 million snails going by the number of
eggs they produces.

Having decided on the specie, let’s take you
through the step by step how to setup your snai
farm in a small scale level and starts rearing you
snail towards harvest.

1. Snail Farming Environment - Snails are easily
dehydrated, and wind increase the rate of
moisture loose in snail which in turn, leads to th
dryness of the animal. To prevent snails from
losing water so quickly, your snaileries (the snai
house) must be located in environment that is
protected from wind.
A low plain, downhill site surrounded with enough
trees is perfect for snail farming. You may plant
plantains and bananas around your snail farm to
prevent the impact of wind.

2. Type of Soil For Snail Farm – Snail’s major
habitat is the soil, and soil contains some of the
components and chemical substances that it
needed to survive. However, not all soils are
suitable for snail rearing. The shell of the snail is
mainly calcium and it derive most of them from
the soil. Snail also lay it’s eggs on the soil and
drink water out of the soil.
Hence, the suitable soil for snail farming must
contain these elements. Must be balanced, not
waterlogged, not too dry, and must not be acidic
The most desirable soil for snail is sandy-loamy
soil with low water holding capacity. Clayey soil
and acidic soil must be avoided.

3. Getting The Sails For Farming – To start up
snail farm, it is advisable to get snails directly
from the forest instead of buying from the market
after they have been exposed to sunlight and
have dehydrated. This is because snails drink a
lot of water, so are easily dehydrated and this
stresses them out, and reduce their fertility
capacity.NOTE DYOUNG FORESTER GOT ALL HIS SNAILS FROM A SUITABLE AND IDEAL ENVIRONMENT.
The intending snail farmer could pick the snails
from the bush with a very simple technique; clear
a little portion of land during rainy season and
sprinkle spicy fruits like pineapple, pawpaw,
plantain, banana etc at about 5o’clock in the
evening, when you go back there about 7pm or
8pm, you will pick up snails suitable for rearing.
Repeat the procedure until you get enough
quantity.
Another way could be to pick up snail eggs
littered in the market place where it is sold and
through a technique, check the fertility of the
eggs, because some of them must have lost
fertility due to the exposure to sunlight. The egg
are later put inside a container containing wet
sand and covered with cocoyam leaf. Between 2
to 28 days, the eggs would hatch into baby
snails. You start feeding them and gradually you
raise a snail farm.”

4. The Snail House (Snailery) - Snaileries can
vary from a patch of fence-protected ground,
sheltered from the wind to a covered box if you
are breeding in small scale.
For larger population of snails, you can dug a
trench or make a concrete pen with soil deep of
about 10 inches, and cover it with screen or wire
all around to prevent the snails from escaping.
Remember that snails can reproduce fast and
become pests when their breeding is uncontrolled
Snails love dark and cold places, but make sure
the humidity does not drop to levels harmful to
the snails. You can use fresh leaves and cloth
that is regularly wet to regulate the temperature
Also, the wire is useful in keeping away rats and
snakes or other predators from eating the snails
in your snail farm. But aside from these bigger
predators, you should be wary about smaller one
like ants and termites. Your construction must
have these predators in mind.

5. Snails Foods and Feeding – Snails especially
Achatina mainly feeds on green leaves and fruits
though they can utilize other ranges of foods.
Feed your snails leaves, fruits, or even formula
from the feed store. Aside from food to grow
tissues, snails need calcium to grow shells.

Leaves : Cocoyam leaves, pawpaw leaves, okra
leaves, cassava leaves, eggplant leaves, cabbage
and lettuce leave.

Fruits : Mango, eggplant, pawpaw, banana,
tomatoes, oil palm fruits, pears. and cucumber.
Once they start growing, separate the big ones
from the small ones.

One hundred thousand snails after a year or two
sold at the rate of N50 each (highly reduced
price) will give you about N5 million! Isn’t that a
good investment?

Harvesting - It is not economically wise to
harvest your snails before it's maturity, it has to
be matured before harvesting. To know if your
snails are already matured enough, check the
brim of the shell. If it is matured enough, the brim
should be thicker and harder than other parts of
the shell.
Do not harvest all the matured snails at once for
the market. It is important to keep few for
breeding and to serve as base stock for your
farm.
Drop your comment below.
How to Start Snail Farming in Nigeria
Snail farming can be very profitable in Ghana,
Kenya, Cameroon, South Africa, and Nigeria. Yet,
it is one of the most neglected animal rearing
business in these countries. Snail farming
provides one of the finest opportunity to make
money within a short period of time. But why are
Africans not yet fully engaged in this money
making animal rearing? The reason is ignorance.
In Australia and USA, snail rearing is big
business, providing opportunities to many
farmers. In Uk, snails can be seen in many
supermarkets and stores. meaning it's a big dea
over there.

Most people in Nigeria and Ghana still have the
believe that snail can only be picked in the bush
The culture of going to the bush to pick snails i
the villages during raining time has been there f
generations. So, it has been difficult for people t
come to term that snail can actually be kept an
grown at home.

The good new: After reading this article, you will
be on your way to starting your own snail
business in easy and simple steps. And we are
backing it up with a Practical Snail Farming
eBook for those who can afford it.
Making ₦5,000,000 annually in snail rearing is a
done deal if you do it well and get it right.
I will try to be as comprehensive as possible wit
this article so that you can get going after
reading it, and as people starts commenting -
asking questions and adding what they know
about snail farming, the information here would
be more enriched for everyone's benefit.
What is Snail: Land snails belongs to the class
Molluscan, Gastropod. The one popularly known
as ' Congo Meat ' in many parts of Africa. Nigeria
- Eju , Igbin , etc... There are so many species of
snails but the types we are looking at here are
the ones that are suitable for commercial Snail
Farming in Africa.
1. Achatina fulica - The East African land snail,
or giant African land snail, scientific name
Achatina fulica, is a species of large, air-breathi
land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod
mollusk in the family Achatinidae. It is the
smallest in size among all the desirable species
for rearing in Africa.
Achatina fulica has a narrow, conical shell, which
is twice as long as it is wide and contains 7 to
whorls when fully grown. The shell is generally
reddish-brown in colour with weak yellowish
vertical markings but colouration varies with
environmental conditions and diet. A light coffee
colour is common. Adults of the species may
exceed 20cm in shell length but generally averag
about 5 to 10cm. The average weight of the snai
is approximately 32 grams (Cooling 2005).

2. Achatina Achatina - Achatina achatina,
common name the giant Ghana snail, also know
as the giant tiger land snail, is a species of very
large, air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial
pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family
Achatinidae. Giant African land snails are
hemraphrodites, meaining they possess both the
female and male reproductive organs. Two snail
are still needed for breeding, but they are very
prolific breeders.
Similar to the other species in the genus,
Achatina achatina's shell can attain a length of
200 mm and a maximum diameter of 100 mm.
They may possess between 7-8 whorls and the
shell is often broadly ovate. The body of the
animal is silver-brown in color although albino
morphs may exist.

3. Archachatina Marginata - Archachatina
marginata, common name the giant West Africa
snail, is a species of air-breathing tropical land
snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk
the family Achatinidae. They can grow up to 20c
long, and live up to 10 years.
Among these three species, Achatina Achatina is
the most desirable for farmers because it grows
so big to become the biggest snail species in th
world. Achatina Achaina has it's origin from
Nigeria, get to Liberia from Nigeria and then
Ghana
Another reason is due to it’s high yield capacity.
The other species are very good too but I will
focus on Achatina Achatina and Archachatina
Marginata in this blog post because, they are
easy to find in Nigeria.
Achatina-Achatina is very good for
commercialization as well, because of its
profitability. This is because of the volume of
eggs it lays at once. Each achatina lays 300 to
500 eggs at a time in clutches, three times a
year. Therefore, if you start a farm with about
1000 snails, in one year you would be getting
about 1.5 million snails going by the number of
eggs they produces.

Having decided on the specie, let’s take you
through the step by step how to setup your snai
farm in a small scale level and starts rearing you
snail towards harvest.

1. Snail Farming Environment - Snails are easily
dehydrated, and wind increase the rate of
moisture loose in snail which in turn, leads to th
dryness of the animal. To prevent snails from
losing water so quickly, your snaileries (the snai
house) must be located in environment that is
protected from wind.
A low plain, downhill site surrounded with enough
trees is perfect for snail farming. You may plant
plantains and bananas around your snail farm to
prevent the impact of wind.

2. Type of Soil For Snail Farm – Snail’s major
habitat is the soil, and soil contains some of the
components and chemical substances that it
needed to survive. However, not all soils are
suitable for snail rearing. The shell of the snail is
mainly calcium and it derive most of them from
the soil. Snail also lay it’s eggs on the soil and
drink water out of the soil.
Hence, the suitable soil for snail farming must
contain these elements. Must be balanced, not
waterlogged, not too dry, and must not be acidic
The most desirable soil for snail is sandy-loamy
soil with low water holding capacity. Clayey soil
and acidic soil must be avoided.

3. Getting The Sails For Farming – To start up
snail farm, it is advisable to get snails directly
from the forest instead of buying from the market
after they have been exposed to sunlight and
have dehydrated. This is because snails drink a
lot of water, so are easily dehydrated and this
stresses them out, and reduce their fertility
capacity.NOTE DYOUNG FORESTER GOT ALL HIS SNAILS FROM A SUITABLE AND IDEAL ENVIRONMENT.
The intending snail farmer could pick the snails
from the bush with a very simple technique; clear
a little portion of land during rainy season and
sprinkle spicy fruits like pineapple, pawpaw,
plantain, banana etc at about 5o’clock in the
evening, when you go back there about 7pm or
8pm, you will pick up snails suitable for rearing.
Repeat the procedure until you get enough
quantity.
Another way could be to pick up snail eggs
littered in the market place where it is sold and
through a technique, check the fertility of the
eggs, because some of them must have lost
fertility due to the exposure to sunlight. The egg
are later put inside a container containing wet
sand and covered with cocoyam leaf. Between 2
to 28 days, the eggs would hatch into baby
snails. You start feeding them and gradually you
raise a snail farm.”

4. The Snail House (Snailery) - Snaileries can
vary from a patch of fence-protected ground,
sheltered from the wind to a covered box if you
are breeding in small scale.
For larger population of snails, you can dug a
trench or make a concrete pen with soil deep of
about 10 inches, and cover it with screen or wire
all around to prevent the snails from escaping.
Remember that snails can reproduce fast and
become pests when their breeding is uncontrolled
Snails love dark and cold places, but make sure
the humidity does not drop to levels harmful to
the snails. You can use fresh leaves and cloth
that is regularly wet to regulate the temperature
Also, the wire is useful in keeping away rats and
snakes or other predators from eating the snails
in your snail farm. But aside from these bigger
predators, you should be wary about smaller one
like ants and termites. Your construction must
have these predators in mind.

5. Snails Foods and Feeding – Snails especially
Achatina mainly feeds on green leaves and fruits
though they can utilize other ranges of foods.
Feed your snails leaves, fruits, or even formula
from the feed store. Aside from food to grow
tissues, snails need calcium to grow shells.

Leaves : Cocoyam leaves, pawpaw leaves, okra
leaves, cassava leaves, eggplant leaves, cabbage
and lettuce leave.

Fruits : Mango, eggplant, pawpaw, banana,
tomatoes, oil palm fruits, pears. and cucumber.
Once they start growing, separate the big ones
from the small ones.

One hundred thousand snails after a year or two
sold at the rate of N50 each (highly reduced
price) will give you about N5 million! Isn’t that a
good investment?

Harvesting - It is not economically wise to
harvest your snails before it's maturity, it has to
be matured before harvesting. To know if your
snails are already matured enough, check the
brim of the shell. If it is matured enough, the brim
should be thicker and harder than other parts of
the shell.
Do not harvest all the matured snails at once for
the market. It is important to keep few for
breeding and to serve as base stock for your
farm.
Drop your comment below.

kunlesufyan:
Lol...aswear,e be like shrine oooo...seem like a cool place tho....I'm seeing water behind the tire ..is it a water lodged area?

Lolz... E really be like real shrine ooh but it's very cool and so lovely. Looks so much like a place snails would love to hide in their heads.

Kudos OP

Op ,iv come to learn that there are feeds that give snails fast growth ...iv researched and still couldn't find anything ...do you have an idea what that feed is?

E be like say na where I dey go I don reach so oo! Am about to start mine and I would need a lot of assistance from this group as I procced.
Would get dyoungforester on whatsapp tho!

Do you know that you can artificially incubate your snails' egg and it will hatch within 28- 32 days.
Process and procedures
First and foremost, it dependent on how you want it, you can construct wooden incubator, or you can use a bucket filled with loamy soil
Steps in constructing a wooden incubator
Note: The wood should be semi- hard wood or completely hard wood, Dimensions it depends on the number of your stocks, the construction ls like of that of chicken cage or rabbit cage but the ground of the cages must be drill and perforated into holes in other to allowed water to pass through it while doing partial wetting and the roof must be made with net I.e window and chicken net... Note do not place it under direct sunlight.

Bucket method
Just make or drill holes enough to the base of the bucket and cover it with the stated net
process
fill inside the incubator with loamy soil and place the eggs on the surface of the soil and cover it with partial soil and use banana leaf to cover it as well .After all these carryout continuous partial wetting starting from day 1 to 28 or 32 days.Thanks Dyoung forester.

Owwk nice ...rearing snails for market purpose ,whc specie would be best to rear?

It is Archachatina maginata, because of it huge size sir.

Do you know that snails can cannibalise one another? Image 1,plastic basket for snails' house

dyoungforester:
Do you know that snails can cannibalise one another?
Image 1,plastic basket for snails' house

I checked my snails the other day when the small and big where still together. I noticed that three snails were dead, as in something ate them. I felt it must be the bigger snails. That was why I separated them sharp sharp.

plastic

Can you believe D young forester is now an expert in artificial snails hatchery

I can now hatch thousands of snails egg artificially with the grace of God, it is the best news for me this morning
If you wish to know how to hatch snails' egg artificially let me know.

my newly constructed pen for snails

my hutch

more pics

more

I now feed my snails with rabbit feeds plus other greens

Since you are an expert in this field, you can also be a consultant and make even more money.
Let's have the breakdown for rearing from egg to maturity, how many months, preferable species, cost and every thing. Also cost per one.
You can either paste here or send to my mail on my signature. Some of us might not be chanced to rear ourselves.
I believe in you

thanks @ Gadgetmobil, I will try my best in making the snail business as easy to everyone of us because snails are economical and easy to rear.

Thank you for the explanation, I like the tyre housing method. Please explain the cleaning method or how to keep the housing unit clean, do you unpack the tyres and clean them individually or u make the unit short enough so your hand can reach down the housing unit without unpacking the tyres? How important is cleaning and hygiene in a snailery and how often should one clean the housing unit.

The most economical amongst the three species of west Africa giant snails is Archachatina maginata because it is the biggest among the snails, it command more price because people appreciate it size but it maturity point is long I.e 10-12 months and it lay big eggs from 6-8 while others lay massive eggs (50-300) and the maturity is short (6months).
Note their growth can be hasten with best feeds. Then I will find out more about their prices thanks one love.
Dyoung forester.

Do you know that snails can also eat garri, grounded beans and groundnut it is good for them and you can also improve and hasten the growth of the newly hatched snail by given them loyal milk( rich in calcium) and boiled eggs....
multiplicity In snails production goes like this
For Archachatina maginata
maturity age (10-12) months
Eggs per lay (6- eggs per clutch
And each matured ones can lay up to 4-5 times in a year.
Assumption of number of stocks
50 snails (6*4)=24eggs per year
Total newly hatched snails is 50*24=1200 hatchlings
1200+50=1250 snails.. ..........For just 50 stocks and used this methods to calculate the number of stocks you want to start with. NOTE:- Dyoung forester had seen small snail of Archachatina maginata laying eggs up to Eight(.

Achatina achatina and Achatina fulica
Number of matured stocks 50 snail
Maturity 6 months
Number of eggs per lay 50-300
Number of time they can lay 4-5 times
Assumption of hatchlings to be gotten after 28-32 days
50*4= 200eggs for 4 times
Total number of hatchlings per months 50 *200=10,0000+50 (10,0050) per year.
NOTE:- Dyoung forester had seen small snail of Achatina fulica laying eggs per clutch.
Thanks Estimate the rest by yourself and say yes u're now a millionaire through snailery but remember it requires time and dedication for it successfulness, we urge Nigerian to come back to Agriculture. Thanks from your son Dyoung forester.
Price tags for snails
For the matured of that of Archachatina maginata(the biggest and price Commander (20 pieces) =4500 in Lagos (Latest research). PH 250, before I forget during the dry season each one can goes for up to 400 to 500 naira. and note price varies with different location
Achatina achatina and Achatina fulica matured ones goes for100 -150 or more because they are some of that species which is also big like that of magies.

Good Job. Now how much would it cost to set up for 1000 snails. What's the best housing method as well.
In fact do a sound proposal

@earni2007,
Advantage of Tyre housing system
Easy to Get,
cheap of labour,
coolest of the tyre during d raining season.

Disadvantage of using the tyre system
It confined most of the snails together which is not that Good,
Any small mistake you can lose most if not all your snail at a go.
To pack and clean d tyre might be tiring sometimes depending on the number of your stock and it will be stinky with bad odour.
The snail can easily cannibalise themselves and there might be mortality.
It allows some predator to get access into the tyre mostly insect
Hard access to pack your just layed snails eggs And some will be broken and while some you won't see it nor know
It consume time and so on. but it all depends on the number of your tyre because each can contain 30-50 big snails.

Procedures on how to use tyre housing system
Get a serene environment for them, Partly dig up the soil like a ridge to the size of the tyre or pack loamy soil to your desire point then place the tyre on it and ensure that their is no holes and use soil to plaster the base of the first tyre following the number of tyre you intends to use.
How to cover your tyre housing system
Place a net(chicken net 1st+ window net or mosquito net) on the last tyre then place big broken blocks like the one I used for my tyre system then. Note this one can get your snails lose because if any of the broken blocks got slipped away it is that part most of your snails will pass to escape. New correction because 60 snails amongst my Achatina fulica got escaped due to that mistake twice now place a old motor tyre on the net which you first use as a protector and get your snail secure.
Routine times
You can clean them every week or every other week.
How to clean
you offload the tyre one by one and ensure to remove the snails within and outside the tyre then follows cleaning of the tyre
In conclusion you should put little amount of soil inside the tyre so that they can eat it or lay eggs inside.Thanks Dyoung forester@ earnir2007 I read your message late.

semi intensive system cage

semi intensive snail's pen

intensive system housing

intensive system

intensive housing