Chickens!

We have started our chicken project. We started by buying the local breed of chickens from neighbors and local friends. I actually had to carry chickens about 2 miles to get them to our home. That was across multiple fields, crossing fences and traversing through the mud. But so worth it to be home with our chickens!

 

The local breed of chickens lay eggs that are bright orange and have great flavor. And their meat is more tasty than the broilers that some people raise. Also, they are supposed to be easier to raise.  It's really fun and rewarding to watch the chickens grow and raise your own food! If you have a back yard this would be a great project to have with your kids!

It is a bit surprising how much I/we Americans don't know about chickens despite all of the chicken and eggs we eat. I was researching about them before I came here and was asking my coworkers some questions. I asked my them how often can a chicken lay an egg and the response I received was- "how long is a chicken pregnant?" which was followed by "do you need a rooster to make that happen?". Ha! But I too had little knowledge of chickens and am constantly being laughed at and corrected on how to take care of them. I nearly poisoned them on the first day. I was told to go get weeds from the shamba/garden. I figured the chickens wouldn't eat something if was poisonous, but apparently chickens are always that smart and thankfully someone was watching me and pulled out the bad weeds.

These are the laying boxes where the hens lay their eggs.

The big black one is one of our roosters, or as they call it here, the cock. The locals love to say how we have such a big cock- lol! The chicken sitting up on the bar is where the chickens sleep. They all line up on the bars and sleep up there.

As far as the questions about how many eggs a chicken can lay, if they are fed properly (which is another lesson) they can lay about 6 eggs a week. If there is a rooster in the area with them it will most likely be fertile but you don't have to have a rooster to have eggs. Fertile eggs can be eaten or you can keep them for hatching.  Not all hens like to sit on their eggs for hatching. So you find the one that is brooding (wanting to sit on eggs) which can apparently be determined by the way they cluck and you can put up to 12-14 eggs under that chicken. The eggs can be from other chickens they don't have to be from the brooding chicken. Then that hen sits on the eggs for 21 days. After 21 days they hatch. We have one hen sitting on 12 eggs that are scheduled to hatch on Friday. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Update

The house is almost finished! Only a couple more days of "finishings". However, the carpenter and I have different definitions of "finishings". He doesn't notice when paint isn't in a straight line, when there is brown paint from baseboards on the cream walls or when the door handles and hinges are covered in paint. So it gets quite interesting. He wants me to pay more for the "finishings" but I insist this is part of building a brand new house. Should a new house also come with faucets and toilets that don't leak?? Almost finished..!

As we finish the house, our next project has begun. We have started construction of the chicken house, cow shed and sheep house.  Only 6 months behind my original estimate but as they say here "slowly by slowly".

The rain and foggy weather has come. This is good for the shamba/garden but not for construction. Our driveway is impassable again meaning we can't get the remaining materials for the animal houses to our house. So we wait. We might wait a month or two. Usually the month of July is the cold (in the 50's), wet and foggy (visibility about 100feet) month. However, July has come early. Who would think that in Kenya, on the equator it could be so cold? I could see my breath in the house yesterday. And interestingly, when it's foggy I don't have internet access....

Despite the challenges, things are going well. Two German volunteers stayed with us at the house for about four days. They have been in Kenya volunteering on multiple projects including St. Gerald. We had a great time and made a lot of European/American food which Mama Mwangi enjoyed! Also, the schools have a four day midterm break coming up and some of the students will be staying at our house. We don't have enough furniture/beds for all of them yet so we will only have a few. But the different schools are on varing schedules so we will have students with us over two different weekends. Then in August is the long one month break and we will have many more students staying with us then. I'm really looking forward to having the kids with us!

I promise to post more pictures soon!

You Know You Are Riding in Africa if.....

I just heard an advertisement for tires which is funny and very realistic:
"You know you are riding in Africa if: 

• You are driving on the shoulder or made a new lane because there are too many pot holes.
• When you go to visit grandma you have to park 2km away because the muddy roads are impassable.
• When you have a flat at midnight you cringe as the spare you are carrying is completely bald."

 And I thought I'd add a few of my own

• You are passing/overtaking and your car runs out of gas in the oncoming lane.
• The 14 passenger vehicle you are in has 27 passengers.
• The smell of fumes is so bad in the vehicle that you have to hang your head out the window like a dog for fresh air and the hope that if the car does explode you might have a chance of surviving.

 If you have been to Africa share some of your experiences!

My Typical Day

I start waking up around 6am with the sun, the birds and the chickens. Although I wake around 6, I try not to get up until 8. The mornings are cool (in the 50’s-60's) so I stay under my covers and watch the sun come up behind Mt. Kenya.  Then I pray, read and meditate until 8. 

By 8 Mama Mwungi has already walked to the neighbors to get fresh milk and has made our chai. In Kenya chai is a key diet staple. They drink chai (tea, water, milk and a lot of sugar) for breakfast, 10 am break, after lunch, in the afternoon and then again after dinner. Any house you visit insist that visitors have some chai. The amount of milk and sugar depends on resources available.

So I make eggs (fresh eggs from our neighbors until we have our own chickens), toast and have that with my chai. Then I meet with the carpenter and to discuss progress on the house, task for the day and see what additional materials he might need. After that I check in with the guys that are helping in our garden. They have been clearing /digging away bushes, digging trenches and planting cabbages, carrots, spinach/greens and napier grass. 

By this time it’s about 10am and the temperature has warmed up, probably in the low 70's and is warm enough to bathe. So I heat water on the gas burner and then pour it in my small wash basin and take a “bucket bath”. We do have showers at the house but until we have electricity (we’ve already been waiting for it for a year and a half….) they only produce cold water. Unless it’s over 90 degrees I just can’t seem to make myself take a cold shower….

After bathing I either make the day long trip to Nyeri town to get supplies for the house construction, visit the kids at St. Gerald, attend parent teacher conferences at the high schools, attend celebrations or stay at the house and help with getting things completed. Regardless where I go for the day it’s a must to be home before dark (7pm) for multiple reasons. First, just like anywhere it’s just not a good idea to be walking alone at dark. Second, it gets so dark that you can’t see anything. Third, there are stories of leopards around here that come out after dark. The last thing I need is an encounter with a leopard, I’m scared of house cats!

Once I get home I check on all of the progress for the day on the house and the garden. Then I sit out on the porch and enjoy the sunset. If I have power and network on my smart phone, I catch up with news and messages. Then either Mama Mwungi or I will light the jiko (small tin container that we put charcoal in for heating water and keeping the kitchen warm). Once the jiko is burning we head inside to start dinner. Right now we are still cooking in our temporary kitchen, Mama Mwungi’s bedroom. Mama Mwungi does all of the cooking for now. Once we move to the kitchen where there is more room then I’ll get to join the fun.

Our favorite dinner is ugali, which is white corn that is milled into flour and boiled in water. It turns into something between rice and mashed potatoes. We eat that with cooked cabbages, carrots and tomatoes.

After dinner we use the warm water to wash our feet. After walking in sandals on the dusty roads and in the garden, you can imagine how dirty our feet get….so we wash and soak them in warm water.  We listen to some music on the radio (a lot of US 80’s  love songs) and catch up on stories of the day. By now it’s between 9 and 10 and time for bed. Nights are cold so I beeline straight under the covers. I thank God for another day then read for about 15 minutes before I fall asleep. Ready for another day!