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Why I Would Raise Chickens

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Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens

#41

Post by brianwawok »

Grue3 wrote: post #32
CuriouslyC wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chickens can eat bugs, plants and food waste that people wouldn't touch. This would work fine assuming at least a temperate climate (ideally tropical) and small villages with a fairly low density.

If chicken can freely walk around, there immediately occurs the problem of people stealing others' chicken. I grew up in a Soviet village and it happened a lot, so I'd imagine it would be even worse in poorer countries.

Don't worry, the next charity can donate guns to protect your chickens. /s

So Charity is really hard to do right. Bill Gates seems to try to do it right. Hopefully he has thought of this already?

Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens

#44

Post by tomjen3 »

crpatino wrote: post #12
bko wrote: post #3

> If you read this article, watch the video above, and answer one question below, I will donate—on your behalf via Heifer—a flock of chickens to a family in poverty. Giving a flock of chickens to desperately poor families sounds like a great idea that will pay dividends for many years. However, I can't help but be reminded of the many charitable programs that sound great but end up having very unusual unintended cons…

In order of severity: 1. Family ends up homeless because there is no legal framework to raise small anymals in urban environments, and the flock is framed as "unruly pets" by abusive landlord/neighbours. Family ends up worse than how they started without help. 2. Family receives the flock, but not any training/resources to tend them properly. Chickens die of illness, malnourishment, or get killed by urban predators (…

My family has raised chickens in the backyard for decades.

Getting them killed by predators isn't difficult but I wouldn't worry too much about a cat - it is unlikely to take more than one or two adults and the young chickens would likely be more secure/with an adult hen and they are quite good at keeping their young safe. Regarding malnurisment, you can literally just let the chickens walk around and eat grass, insects and whatever you throw in your compost - chickens have been eating that for centuries.

Chickens are some of the easiest animals to raise and they provide both eggs and meat. I think this is a great idea.

Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens

#45

Post by pitt1980 »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #16
lumberjack wrote: post #9

It is not specified what they mean by "chicken" (age and breed and sex) but $5 seems like really expensive. I know that you can buy baby chicks from an incubator for egg laying purposes for like 3 euro or less in rural western Europe. Breeds meant to be harvested for their meat cost even less.

I get the impression that's for a fully grown chicken sold for meat. I have no idea how big those chickens are. In North America live chickens sell for between 30 and 50 cents a pound. The chickens in the video look like small roasters, definitely under 10 pounds.

how am I able to buy a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store for $5?

seems like I've getting pretty much everything that's economically viable from the chicken, plus a fair amount of labor put into the chicken

Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens

#46

Post by ktRolster »

shostack wrote: post #35
crpatino wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In order of severity: 1. Family ends up homeless because there is no legal framework to raise small anymals in urban environments, and the flock is framed as "unruly pets" by abusive landlord/neighbours. Family ends up worse than how they started without help. 2. Family receives the flock, but not any training/resources to tend them properly. Chickens die of illness, malnourishment, or get killed by urban predators (…

You forgot risk of salmonella and other diseases from not properly handling chicken products (meat, eggs, cleaning up after handling them, etc.), and subsequent lack of medical help because of lack of money and/or lack of insurance. That said, you have to break some eggs to make an omelette (ok, I guess the pun was intended). These are things you can help educate about in the process and shouldn't stop something like…

Especially a problem if chickens are kept (or allowed) inside the house.

Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens

#47

Post by bko »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #25
fiatmoney wrote: post #22

I don't get it. As mentioned in the article, chickens are incredibly easy to bootstrap (ie, it's not like they require a huge capital outlay to get started, and they literally pay dividends in further chickens), and have been present in the area for centuries. What has been the obstacle that has kept them from already being common enough to drive the expected benefit of further investment to ~0? And how is that obsta…

They're giving away vaccinated chicks. I suspect that the vaccines are the main problem they're addressing. It's certainly possible that it's easier and cheaper to give away vaccinated chicks than it is to give away vaccinations.

The author mentioned the low cost of vaccines (the one that prevents the deadly Newcastle disease costs less than 20 cents). I suspect the reason that this is not already being done by the locals is that there are some other costs or factors that are specific to the local market that outsiders have no way of assessing.

Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens

#48

Post by mooreds »

ensignavenger wrote: post #21

I know a older couple that have spent the last year or so traveling around Africa doing 'chicken projects' where they help build chicken coops and teach poor families how to raise chickens (pretty simple to do, actually, but there are little strategies one can use to increase profits- hardest part is keeping predators from eating them!) Cool stuff, glad to see Bill Gates onboard!

Sounds cool! Do they have a webpage/fb page where they are sharing their journey?

Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens

#49

Post by sailfast »

shostack wrote: post #35
crpatino wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In order of severity: 1. Family ends up homeless because there is no legal framework to raise small anymals in urban environments, and the flock is framed as "unruly pets" by abusive landlord/neighbours. Family ends up worse than how they started without help. 2. Family receives the flock, but not any training/resources to tend them properly. Chickens die of illness, malnourishment, or get killed by urban predators (…

You forgot risk of salmonella and other diseases from not properly handling chicken products (meat, eggs, cleaning up after handling them, etc.), and subsequent lack of medical help because of lack of money and/or lack of insurance. That said, you have to break some eggs to make an omelette (ok, I guess the pun was intended). These are things you can help educate about in the process and shouldn't stop something like…

Based on watching the video chickens being everywhere is not really going to cause bigger problems here.

If anything, if this program is wildly successful you see the price of a chicken drop to something lower than $5 instead which lowers the overall value of chickens in the market.

Let's just get these people some dang chickens. Heiffer Project has been doing amazing for a long time and it's awesome to see this kind of backing go into it.

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