Amid the global upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, Nekeisha Graham made a life-altering decision to redirect her educational funds toward entrepreneurial ambitions, establishing Niki’s Yolk poultry operation. The 38-year-old Jamaican entrepreneur has navigated a complex business landscape over five years, transforming challenges into opportunities while building a thriving agricultural enterprise.
Graham’s inspiration emerged from dual sources: a poultry-farming coworker whose daily egg deliveries captured her imagination, and her father’s agricultural background. When pandemic conditions forced educational institutions online and left her tuition unpaid, she strategically repurposed these resources to launch her business with approximately $1 million initial investment.
The venture faced unconventional startup hurdles, with labor shortages and bird sourcing proving more problematic than capital acquisition. Graham established operations in her native St. Ann parish, relying on family support systems when commercial labor proved scarce. Her mother assumed daily management responsibilities while Graham coordinated logistics from Kingston, transporting essential supplies weekly and participating hands-on during visits.
While the pandemic era provided relative stability, subsequent environmental challenges tested the business’s resilience. After relocating operations to Kingston in April 2024, Hurricane Beryl’s July arrival caused production disruptions through bird trauma and laying cessation. The compounding impact of Hurricane Melissa in October 2025 further damaged infrastructure, particularly at the St. Ann location, while power outages crippled egg production cycles dependent on nightly electrical access.
Global market forces introduced additional complexity, with avian flu outbreaks in the United States creating regional bird shortages that constrained restocking efforts. Despite these multidimensional challenges, Graham maintains determined recovery efforts, noting: “We have managed to slowly build back… with the little that we have we are trying to maintain them.”
Although profitable, the business has delayed Graham’s academic ambitions. Rather than resuming graduate studies, she has reinvested earnings into additional business ventures. Holding an undergraduate degree in tourism, hospitality and entertainment management, she now contemplates legal or business administration education to enhance her entrepreneurial capabilities.
As a female industry pioneer, Graham describes overwhelmingly positive reception, crediting social media engagement for expanding her reach to nearly 200,000 TikTok followers (@nekeishagraham/Niki’s Yolk), including substantial African audiences offering encouragement and support. Current priorities include securing land ownership through governmental channels like the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) to transition from leased properties to self-owned operational bases.
Her advice to aspiring poultry farmers emphasizes determined incremental progress: “Don’t let anything stop you. It’s a good business to go in to. Just be focused… You don’t need to start big, start small… Go for it, it will work.”