In the heart of Engcobo, Eastern Cape, Thule Mbono is proving that an employment gap can be the perfect opening for a lifelong calling. While studying his honours in psychological counselling, Mbono turned an old family home into Bountiful Acres, a poultry venture born from necessity and fuelled by ancestral inspiration.
Mbono’s journey toward agriculture wasn’t a straight line. After attending Zwelidumile Junior Secondary and Nyanga Senior Secondary School, he moved on to the University of South Africa (Unisa) in 2017.
Between 2022 and 2024, he supported his studies by working as a shutter hand for East Coast Irrigation. When that contract ended, Mbono found himself without an income but with modest savings and a lingering family story.
His uncle, Mnyande, often spoke of his own grandparents, who once ran an egg-selling business that eventually folded due to local challenges. The dream of reviving that business had stayed with the family, and with no job on the horizon, Mbono seized his moment.
“I said to myself, while the time has not come for [my uncle] to start it, I might as well start, and that is when I fell in love with it immediately,” Mbono reflects.
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Building from the ground up
Lacking the capital to buy ready-to-lay hens that could provide an immediate income, Mbono had to start from scratch. Using his savings, he built a structure in an old family house for the birds to live in and initially purchased 100 chicks to grow for egg production.
However, he soon realised that the high costs of feed and medicine for these layers were too expensive to maintain while he was no longer working. To keep his vision afloat, he decided to deplete the rest of his savings to buy 100 dual-breed chicks.
These birds allowed him to pivot his business model; instead of waiting for eggs, he began growing broiler chicks to sell to the local community when they were between three and five weeks old. This change provided the immediate cash flow needed to sustain his main layer production.
To formalise his efforts and prepare for potential funding from the department of agriculture, he registered his business as Bountiful Acres.
“I love the poultry business a lot; I have so much passion for it,” he says. “Besides making a lot of money when the business is well established, I just love it. Ever since I started, I have never stopped.”
Lessons in the field
This passion has translated into community impact, allowing Mbono to hire one person to assist with production. However, this growth has brought both progress and pain, as the scale of the business remains capped by financial constraints. Due to limited space and the high price of inputs, his maximum intake is restricted to 300 chickens at a time.
These limitations became even more evident around 2025, when industry risks hit home. Mbono had built his flock up to 150 chickens and 300 chicks when he suffered a sudden, devastating loss of most of his birds. Lacking professional diagnostics, the exact cause remains unknown, though Mbono suspects a combination of an unidentified illness and environmental stress from overcrowding and heat.
Due to this heavy loss, Mbono has had to pause his egg-selling operations to focus on rebuilding his flock.
Today, the struggle to rebuild and scale remains a daily reality.
“I am trying to escalate to a higher level, but it is not easy due to feed and vaccines. Sometimes I want to grow chickens that come in at a few weeks old, but because of the pricy feed, I can’t grow them properly, which hinders my growth.”
Focus and patience
Despite these agricultural hurdles, Mbono remains a dedicated student. He manages a strict schedule to ensure neither his birds nor his books are neglected. “For farming, I use the daytime, then I use the evening for my studies – unless there are classes in the afternoon,” he says.
Even after he qualifies as a psychological counsellor, Mbono does not see himself leaving the land. His long-term vision is to secure a professional poultry structure and finally establish the high-capacity layer operation his family envisioned decades ago.
For those looking to enter the poultry world, Mbono’s advice is rooted in the hard lessons he has learned in the old family house.
“It is important to do your research first,” he warns. “Poultry has many sides to it, so it is very important to know and understand the side you want to focus on the most. Trying to do all things at once becomes a huge problem in the long run.
“You also need to love it and have patience; even though it might take time to make money, you need to hang in there and hang on to your dream, for a dream does not die while the dreamer is still alive.”
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