Billionaire Bill Gates says people should have chickens

Thought everyone would like to read and share this article.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ates-donate-100-000-chicks-fight-poverty.html

IslandGuy said:

Thought everyone would like to read and share this article.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ates-donate-100-000-chicks-fight-poverty.html

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Thanks for sharing. . Kinda shocking that they don't already have chickens. .

On another note it be nice to make 1000 a year on chickens. .. usally we lose money..

they probably own a few factory farms ??

i can't imagine them spending time on raising backyard chickens..

filthy rich people often don't really care for these things

BruceAZ said:

they probably own a few factory farms ??

i can't imagine them spending time on raising backyard chickens..

filthy rich people often don't really care for these things

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He's not going to raise them. . He's giving them to poor people

Rod-T said:

He's not going to raise them. . He's giving them to poor people

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poor people ? so they can eat the chickens or raise them ?

raising chickens is not exactly cheap .. so i don't see how giving chickens to poor people will help their situation

what's wrong with writing them a check or provide a house (free of mortgage) or some other methods that these rich people can do

i doubt people who can barely feed themselves would want to raise chickens.. more mouths to feed?

the chickens will be going on the table pretty quick

Actually I agree with Bill on this one. I have relatives in the rural Philippines that raise chickens among other things, and when I think about it every house I ever visited there had chickens and ducks. Anyway their methods are much more utilitarian than ours. They don't have any persistent predators like coons and coyotes to speak of except for the two-legged kind, so things like hardware cloth, etc. aren't as much necessary. Coops are usually made out of scrap bamboo or plywood laying around, and probably 1/2 the birds' diets are bugs, vegetation, and leftovers. Feed isn't cheap by local standards but it isn't prohibitively expensive either. Selling eggs isn't big business in the area I'm familiar with because most everyone has their own. All chicks are born to brooding mothers and no one maintains pure breeds except for the Red Jungle Fowl, and even some of them are cross bred. So I think if you do it that way chickens can certainly be a producing asset. I'm only talking about one particular area and I know this probably doesn't apply everywhere, but I think in a lot of cases chickens in less developed countries are the gift that keeps on giving.

If on the other hand they operated a chicken operation like me they'd all probably be in a lot worse shape. I think I spent more building my coop than most spend on their houses. They're still "farm animals" to me but I'm sure I do a lot more for my birds than is necessary. If resources were scarce I would certainly change up some of my methods but I'd still raise chickens for eggs and food.

BruceAZ said:

poor people ?  so they can eat the chickens  or raise them ?

 raising chickens is not exactly cheap .. so i don't see how giving chickens to poor people will help their situation

what's wrong with writing them a check or provide  a house (free of mortgage) or some other methods that these rich people can do

i doubt people who can barely feed themselves would want to raise chickens.. more mouths to feed?

the chickens will be going on the table pretty quick

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Did you read the article?

ejcrist said:

Actually I agree with Bill on this one. I have relatives in the rural Philippines that raise chickens among other things, and when I think about it every house I ever visited there had chickens and ducks. Anyway their methods are much more utilitarian than ours. They don't have any persistent predators like coons and coyotes to speak of except for the two-legged kind, so things like hardware cloth, etc. aren't as much necessary. Coops are usually made out of scrap bamboo or plywood laying around, and probably 1/2 the birds' diets are bugs, vegetation, and leftovers. Feed isn't cheap by local standards but it isn't prohibitively expensive either. Selling eggs isn't big business in the area I'm familiar with because most everyone has their own. All chicks are born to brooding mothers and no one maintains pure breeds except for the Red Jungle Fowl, and even some of them are cross bred. So I think if you do it that way chickens can certainly be a producing asset. I'm only talking about one particular area and I know this probably doesn't apply everywhere, but I think in a lot of cases chickens in less developed countries are the gift that keeps on giving. 

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This will be in Africa I think..
I wonder if the have enough freerange that won't have to feed much..

Rod-T said:

Did you read the article?

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Yep. If I remember correctly the article referred to Africa but I thought he was applying the notion to all under-developed countries.