I used to spend majority of my Summer each year (when I was a pre-teen) in a very poor South Indian village where my extended family lived. Our family owned a large flock of chicken. I enjoyed feeding the chicken, feed like rice, maize, wheat, etc., though for the most part, the chicken did not expect to be fed anything. They would just graze on whatever they found. Now that I look back, interestingly, every family (even the poorest) in that village owned a flock of chicken. It was as though the flock of chicken was one common thread that ran through every household in the village. At the time though I didn't have the sagacity to realize the economic incentives of owning a flock of chicken.
Why I Would Raise Chickens
141–150 of 272 posts
Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens
#142My parents live in a village in Eastern Europe with less than $2 a day (I also chip in to financially help them), and they do indeed raise chickens, they've being doing that for the last 15 years or so, since they moved out to the countryside. Bill Gates is correct in his assessment, it's way more profitable to raise chickens than, say, cows. You need to have a bigger barn for cows, you need to do all the hay thing,…
> it's way more profitable to raise chickens than, say, cows. You need to have a bigger barn for cows, you need to do all the hay thing, which is very time consuming and demands a lot of extra work just for feeding said cows, you need to pay someone to take care of the cows when they go out to eat in the summer on the communal field. This is surprising to me. Of course a cow should be more work to raise than a chicke…
I'm going to provide an entirely uneducated guess regarding cows. I would bet that the average person without any training or resources is capable of raising chickens, whereas the average person would have their cows die before maturing. I'm not commenting on the "average African". I'm talking about my own first-world Caucasian self. I bet you I could raise chickens with very few resources. I also bet I couldn't do the same with cows, which seem to be resource hogs and in need of more maintenance.
It's like having a dog vs. a cat as a pet. A cat just needs to be fed and given a box where they can place their waste. A dog needs to be walked, socialized with other dogs, etc. Do you need to travel for a 2-day weekend? With a cat, while not ideal, you can get away with leaving behind plenty of food and water along with an extra litter box. You simply cannot abandon a dog on its own for 2 days.
Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please read the article written by Bill. One of the first lines is that chickens are easy to feed because they can make do with stuff they naturally find on the ground. Given grain will help them grow faster, but it's not imperative.
Yes, as I mentioned in my edit to GP, I have now read the article. It still sounds strange to me. I mean, how is it that 3rd country rural people cannot not know about chickens? I assumed this would be about giving flocks to urban poor, where there is precious little area not covered by concrete and the chickens would likely forrage on half poisoned cockroaches or something like that.
You are assuming a few things here.
1. they are giving to urban poor
2. urban areas are covered in concrete.
From the article and the video it seems like chicken farming is already quite prevalent (they state a figure of 5% of the population of Burkina Faso have chickens) and they are hoping to increase that to 30%. I imagine a great charity like the Gates Foundation have done their due diligence and determined that the local charity they are working with knows what they are doing.
Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
Option B is liable to cause inflation if not executed extremely carefully.
If you are handing out USD, there won't be any inflation. And I don't think there is anywhere in the developing world that USD isn't seen as good as local currency (if not better in many countries)
What would prevent an influx of USD from causing (localized) inflation?
Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens
#145Earlier 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…
Read modernist cuisine. You have to try really hard to be able to get salmonella in home conditions. Chances are 1/10000 for the eggs. And cooking off the meat properly is not hard.
http://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/magazine-archive1/february...
Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens
#146Earlier 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…
Salmonella grows best in places that are kept very close to sterilized, like in fully stainless steel kitchens. The environment in many of these third world locations would be hostile to the salmonella or e. coli that kills us.
Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
Option B is liable to cause inflation if not executed extremely carefully.
If you are handing out USD, there won't be any inflation. And I don't think there is anywhere in the developing world that USD isn't seen as good as local currency (if not better in many countries)
How is the currency handed out gonna not cause inflation, no matter what it's denominated in?
If you give out hundred dollar bills, local prices will rise for goods, which is the definition of inflation.
Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens
#148Earlier 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.
In a larger, more populated village, this is definitely a potential concern. In the smaller, less dense villages where this program is likely targeted, everyone knows everyone, and chickens usually have sufficiently distinct markings that if you have a small flock you could probably identify your stolen bird without too much trouble.
Just for reference, I've seen roaming chickens in small villages in the Philippines/Caribbean, it is very common. I even saw it in some decently sized towns, though it was less common. In cities everyone kept their chickens in pens, so I never saw them (though they woke me up every damned day, so I know there were plenty of them).
Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens
#149What is the ratio of female hens to male roosters? Quick googling tells me 10 to 1 but I'm not sure if that is correct. Is there any other species that has a similar extremely lopsided number of one sex?
The natural sex ratio of chickens is 50/50. Chicks are sexed when a few days old and excess males are disposed of. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick_sexing There is strong evolutionary pressure that keep sex ratios at close to 50/50 in the vast majority of species. Some species (e.g. clown fish) have environments and traits which push this equilibrium away from 50/50. Fisher's explanation for this phenomenon is wid…
Obviously the natural ratio is 50/50. I was wondering more if it s bad that we skew it so much unnaturally to one side.
Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens
#150Raising chicken is a recession-proof investment which made robust by 'cloning' I plant kangkong. Initial capital is 1usd, about 300 stems. harvesting biweekly, i get 2600% roi. That's divident part.
I can clone the kangkong by cutting and replant cut stems. It's multiplying the capital part.
Similarly with chicken, one can eat dividend (eggs) and multiplying base (breeding/'cloning')
with cash only, i cannot get good dividend (say, by buying bond); much less luck with cloning cash legally.
Extrapolating to basic income, observe that poverty is lifted fast if the cash is invested in high roi activities (like entrepreneurship) that grow and scale fast.
It's the type of activity that matters more than the cash.