Chicken Dealings

The hen

You know what they say, “When life deals you chickens, make lots of omelets!” We were given a surprise gift of three chickens a few weeks ago, and so had to scramble to figure out how to take care of them here, and what to do to make a shelter for them. Our guard and friends pitched in to help us build a lean-to with cut branches, dried out thatch, and one wall of chicken wire. But before we got it finished, one of the chickens died from a sickness and the other two seemed to be moving the same way fast, so we gave them to neighbors to cook.

The neighbors helping

Now we are all ready to have chickens though, so we decided to buy five of a type that are specially raised for producing good eggs (unlike the local variety apparently). Our neighbors definitely think we’re strange for buying such big birds not for eating, but I think they will warm to the idea once we start sharing eggs with them. Several people have mentioned to us that people here don’t eat many eggs, even though they seem to be good protein that would be easier to produce. Soon we will either understand more why people don’t do it, or be able to recommend it to others. The exciting news is that we got our first 3 eggs already!