A
week ago I wrote on this blog that through the gifts of some brothers in
Christ, the present food crisis for the orphans of the Log Church in Kenya had
been averted. Not only that, God has blessed to the point where the 24 orphans
were able to be enrolled in the primary and secondary schools. This ability for
the children to attend school has been an answer to the prayers of many months
and even years.
We
are glad for the answers for these present needs, but of course to have lasting
change for the orphans, there needs to be an ongoing and more permanent
improvements made in the lives of all of these people. One matter that is
important is new sleeping quarters for the girls. We have a start on purchasing
building materials for this, but I will write about that another time. Tonight
I have something else in mind.
I
have been corresponding with Pastor Joel about the possibilities in raising more
food on their small property, and we have been going through some ideas
together. The plot that the church has is very small—only one half of an acre.
It is actually the pastor’s own tiny farm. The mouths that need to be fed from
this land are thirty or more.
My
suggestion to Pastor Joel was that since the acreage is small, perhaps they might think about
raising chickens on a larger scale. This would provide eggs to sell to help in
the payment of their schooling in the future, and also for food. I like the
idea since it is also something that the orphans can be involved with, as far
caring for the chickens and raising their own food.
It
seems that this may be a good project, but there is much yet to determine. They
already do raise chickens on a small scale on the church property, so they are
accustomed to some of the good and the bad of having chickens.
Some
people that I know think there is no down side to having chickens—just all good
things. But I have other opinions. One of these Vivian and I are experiencing
here on our own farm with our ten chickens.
One
of our chickens (we do not know which one) has decided that we people have a
good idea about eating eggs for breakfast. She apparently also decided to also try
a breakfast egg. She seems to have really taken to it. This morning, when I
went to collect the eggs, one of the eggs was lying on its side like an open
bowl, and the inside of the egg was neatly cleaned out.
I
like my egg fried medium-over, but this hen must like hers sunny-side (and all
other sides) up.
For
Vivian and I, this is an annoyance. But if the people of the Log Church of
Kenya are going to raise chickens to sell the eggs, this can be costly. I know
that you can buy egg laying nests where the eggs roll out so that the chickens
cannot peck at them, but these are expensive and I am not even sure if they
would be available there.
So
I am asking you—if anyone knows of a good plan on constructing nests like this,
I would really like to hear your ideas. It needs to be something that can be
constructed out of boards, or even (preferably) from sticks.
If
you see a good plan online, you can paste the URL link in the comments below.
Thanks!
Also,
if you have questions concerning any aspect of this work that has unexpectedly
and suddenly come to me at this late season of my life, please ask. Ideas and
suggestions?—these are also welcome.
This is the chicken coop that they have now. It was empty when I was there. The chickens were running around the grounds. |
Dear Uncle,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your invitation to share designs. During the last couple of years I worked on several small farms around Hastings and Hugo, MN that had different models of organic egg production. However, for greater production I saw a low-tech model last year @ Growing Power (am posting the picture on my FB) and is similar to this design: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpqZM2K9F0U and protecting eggs from their mothers see this customized adaptation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBFnOy-q63c
with Joy and love from Greece-- for the Rhody's and the Log Churches,
PSG
I watched that video with the painting pans. That seemed like a great idea to me. I wish I had more experience to know of the practicalities, but unless something better comes along, I am going to try that
DeleteHi Don, moving a little slow so just got to looking at this. I see the advantage of the paint pans but agree with you that finding something like that very readably could be a problem. A person or group could easily make up a bunch of these and ship them without being to costly. Depending what is available the laying boxes could be made several ways. Have one other concern, and it may be nothing, but with such a small area even if the chickens are "free range" would there be enough feed for them and how would they contain the chickens? I'm confined to quarters for a while but if you would get down this way I'm sure I could find a cup of coffee to put our heads together and inhale the fumes. Who knows we may "brew up" and idea. Talk to you soon, Jim
ReplyDelete