Chicken Project Update….

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It has been a long process, but we are stoked to announce that the Chicken/Egg project at Christian Community School Ruai is finally off the ground.  The chickens started laying eggs this month.  As of yesterday 80% of the 500 chickens are laying.  The production starts slowly but it is already enough to generate income to support the project as well as provide the school with an additional 18,000KES ($220) per month to purchase the monthly food supply for the students!  In the coming months we are expecting the production to increase to the point that the school will be able to earn between 30,000-45,000KES per month which will assist the school in building projects, needed school supplies, as well as fund the feeding program.  We really feel that God’s favor is on the project as the eggs are currently able to sell at 30 shillings per tray higher than a few months ago.   This doesn’t sound like much, but over the course of weeks and months it makes a huge difference.  The reason for this is because of the drought that badly affected Kenya this last year.  Food costs skyrocketed as a result of the drought, and unfortunately many chicken farmers were unable to keep up with the costs of feeding their chickens and abandoned their projects.  It also hit us hard and we found it much more costly to feed the 500 chickens than we had expected, but the silver lining is that now the demand for eggs is very high and our project is producing plenty!  We do not mean to sound insensitive concerning the plight of many farmers….please remember the many people in Kenya that were affected by this drought, please pray for them….but we are grateful that the project is finding it so easy to sell the eggs and especially at such a great rate.

Our role in support of the school will know begin to shift.  We have provided the food for the feeding program for over 3 years but the school is now equipped to provide for themselves.  We will still visit monthly and seek to find ways assist the project.  The next few months we will continue to provide partial food for the feeding project, slowly decreasing the amount as they adjust to purchasing for themselves.  We do realize that in order for the project to remain successful, we must constantly be looking to the future.  The 500 layers that we now have will generate income consistently, but only for 10-14 months.  This means that we need to be planning ahead for when that time comes.  Because chicks take 5 months to mature before they start laying, we know that in the next 5-7 months we will need to look into purchasing 500 more chicks….thankfully the project will generate enough income to handle this when the time comes. 

What we do need to plan for is for an additional structure to house the 500 chickens during the months that they will be maturing.  Our plan is to raise funds to cover the cost of this additional structure.  If you have been following our blog then you may remember that we have already constructed two chicken sheds.  The original structure had a caretaker room attached.  Due to the inability of finding a reliable person to care for the chickens, Eunice and Joseph have been spending late hours and early mornings at the project on top of their many other responsibilities.  This has pulled them away from their family even more.  Since the original structure has a deep foundation and already one completed room they requested permission to complete the structure and add on to make a residence for their family.  This would allow them to be close by for the chickens and also on the property of the school and church which would help with overall management.  This is a project that they are personally investing in, however we would like to assist by trying to build an additional structure for the next round of chickens.

If you are interested in supporting we would greatly appreciate.  As always your prayers are greatly welcomed.  God Bless!

Up close with the chickens…

Our little money makers..

Joseph with a tray of eggs…