Chickens get slaughtered

Of the 3000 chickens the model farmers had, 2860 got slaughtered today. 11 chickens were dead on arrival in the cages. The average weight of the chicken was 2.11kg which is good and the chickens reached this weight in 40 days. 40 days......the same amount of time Noah was in the Ark and Jesus fasted for 40 days.......Nice to bring in a spiritual angle to all this.

The food conversion ration was 1.97 – in other words it took 1.97kg of food to grow the chicken by 1kg. This is good but not great! The reason for high mortality last week (46 chickens died and the 11 that died on arrival) was the high protein in the chicken feed. The chickens grew too fast and died of “overheating”. It is hard for chickens to digest protein.

In the meantime, the model farmers are smiling all the way to the bank – no, not quite the bank, but they are smiling because each received $280.00. The four graduate boys have been so inspired that they too want to do chickens.

The model farmers kept 83 and will bless Stephen Manhanga and Augustine Nyamayaro for their efforts in helping to load them, they’ll sell 10 to the Ebenezer Kitchen and the rest will be sold to other apprentices as well as the community. The chickens should sell pretty fast as they are only $5.00. I can already imagine chicken being the main dish this Easter in many households!

Well done to the guys. A great first attempt!

By Molly Manhanga