Visit to the chicken farm

Today we took one of the classes from Zion Mission School to the nearby chicken farm.

We learned many things about raising chickens – the meat only chickens and the egg laying chickens.  Interesting that we have NEVER seen a white egg here in Namibia.  And, the chickens they sell for meat are white but the egg layers are brown. 

      

They use saw dust for the floor to keep it soft and dry.  When the chicks are little they can eat from a pan on the ground but as they get a bit bigger, they hang the food and water from the ceiling so they can eat upright which is better for them.  They must also be accurate with giving the vaccinations.  They get 3 in the fist month and then they get vitamin water to help them to be strong after the vaccination.  Chickens do like wind so most of the pen is covered in thick plastic which they can roll different sides up and down depending on the weather. 

     

They also have a slaughter house and here (which is a rather new place) they had 2 pens with meat chickens, two with egg laying chickens and 2 with babies.  There are about 1000 chickens per pen.  The egg layers are only productive for 1.6 months but they lay one egg every day.  Then they are sold for eating. 

All I can say is this is a hard a dirty job and everything must be precise or the chickens will die and you could loose a whole pen of 1000 at a time.  Thank God for the people who do this because most all of us enjoy chicken and eggs!!