Billionaire Bill Gates says people should have chickens

[Rod-T]

Actually, you could make a decent living with five chickens, if you are living in Venezuela. It is really sad to see how bad their economy is.

Really? On eggs?

 

[ejcrist]

sorry.. i quoted your post

but my comment was intended as a general reply


personally, i think the goal is become self sufficient

but unless he is giving the poor.. chickens, housing, supplies and 1 year supply of feed.. so they can start out

i don't see the point of this beside trying to get some attention out of it

i think i can give poor people bags of seeds.. so they can grow their own garden.. but again it's a pointless

starting your own garden is not cheap either..

for example.. can you imagine giving chickens or garden seeds for a homeless person.. so he/she can be self sufficient?

if you are going to help. .then provide enough support for the purpose of help.. if not just buy them lunch.. rather then giving them something that i'll cost them even more in the long run

i think this is nothing more than some media attention from the gates again..

I see what you're saying now Bruce which makes a lot of sense. I agree that if he wanted to do it right he'd provide enough funds for each individual to be successful and not just supply the raw material without the tools. I helped my niece get started by giving her money for chickens, feed, water fount, etc., enough to raise the first flock of broilers until she could get paid for selling them and then she took it from there. Now she has a full blown farm going with a variety of animals and is doing well on her own. But she wouldn't have made it if I only gave her the chicks in the beginning. So yeah, I see where you're coming from.

 

[orpington13]

Really? On eggs?

Anything, that is cheap, can be sold. One article I read said that a hamburger costs $170. If someone sold eggs, say for $5 a piece, that person will have a decent amount of money. $5 dollars for anything is rare in Venezuela.

 

[Rod-T]

Actually, you could make a decent living with five chickens, if you are living in Venezuela. It is really sad to see how bad their economy is.

I'm really not trying to argue. . This is just interesting. . And I'm trying to figure out how they could? 5 hens. 3 eggs a,day? Average.
Maybe 900 eggs a year?.. I guess if you hatched the eggs.. 700 hatch?
People that only make a 1000 a year what could they pay for those chicks? 25cents?.. I have no clue how things work in there country..

 

[orpington13]

I'm really not trying to argue. . This is just interesting. . And I'm trying to figure out how they could? 5 hens. 3 eggs a,day? Average.
Maybe 900 eggs a year?.. I guess if you hatched the eggs.. 700 hatch?
People that only make a 1000 a year what could they pay for those chicks? 25cents?.. I have no clue how things work in there country..

That is the thing. Prices down there are so high because of a market crash, that if you are selling eggs for $5,two things will happen: either 1, you are stampeded by a mob; or two 2, you make a huge success.

 

[Rod-T]

So they would market to the rich or middle class

 

[ejcrist]

I'm really not trying to argue. . This is just interesting. . And I'm trying to figure out how they could? 5 hens. 3 eggs a,day? Average.
Maybe 900 eggs a year?.. I guess if you hatched the eggs.. 700 hatch?
People that only make a 1000 a year what could they pay for those chicks? 25cents?.. I have no clue how things work in there country..

It's true that people may not have cash money to exchange for say eggs, but they may have other things such as goods or services to barter. For example, a lot of older people in rural areas in the Philippines have no income whatsoever and depend on relatives to help them get by. But they're not at all idle. Many of them make different kind of brooms out of various local materials growing wild, or make hats, or whatever else they have the skills to do. They then sell or barter the goods to help themselves and the family taking care of them. So in the case of eggs they might trade and be able to get them even though they have no money. The farmer raising the chickens is too busy to make his own hats and brooms so he might gladly accept the trade. This is just an example of course but money isn't always the only currency. When I think of someone earning a certain amount per year in an undeveloped country I think they're making x amount in value of cash and other goods.

 

[orpington13]

So they would market to the rich or middle class

Whoever actually has enough money. The situation down there is extremely sad.

 

[Birdbrain Farms]

Having grown up on National Geographic, Are people not aware that a lot of times the families share housing with their animals. I wish I could afford to feed high end Organic chicken feed. I think those of us not living in a third world country forget that our way of spoiling our animals is not the norm. How did the poor chickens survive before humans came along? Shelter can be as simple as under the house,water in a bucket and feed scattered on the ground. Sorry I just keep watching the divide widening between the haves and have nots. Whatever happened to a chicken in every pot? We have starving people in this country. Why not here?

 

[Adalida]

Ejcrist, your post about the low cost of keeping chickens in other countries was very well worded. I have contributed several times to a charity that provides people in third-world countries with chickens. The idea is to give people a resource that they can use to better themselves, rather than just giving them a handout. The people who receive the chickens agree to give one of their fellow villagers a certain amount (I think 5?) of chicks once they get their flock established. Then that person does the same thing down the road, and eventually you have a whole village with chickens.