By Austin Bowden-Kerby | Project Director
So much has been happening with the workshops and at the Happy Chicken farm. The new hatchery was finally completed and new incubators arriving earlier this month to replace the old broken machines, thanks to grants from other organizations. Five new chicken breeding houses were also completed, increasing the capacity of the farm to produce about seven thosuand chicks per year. Ten small 40 watt incubators also arrived, and will used to establish small hatcheries at community level, to build self sufficiency into the project. Up to 900 chicks are possible per machine per year, if they are utilized to capacity.
Last week the farm hosted eleven people from six villages on Moala Island for an intensive Happy Chicken traing worshop. The training included two US Peace Corps volunteers, a young couple who facilitated the community participation and transport. These volunteers are comitted to devoting much of their time to the project on this remote island in the Lau group. The improved follow-up and internet communcation will greatly increase the impact of the project.
Master Luke, a teacher from the boarding school among the attendees, was trained to operate the 84-egg capacity incubator,which will run on the school's solar power. Seven dozen fertile eggs will be sent along with the incubator on the next boat, and the hatchery will then begin operation, producing chicks on site, with a new hatch possible every three weeks,.
Twenty-seven dozen 3-4 week old chicks have been raised up at the farm and will be sent with the participants who return to Moala on the once-monthly boat on the 21st. Raising up that many chicks to that larger size has been a challenge at the farm, and has stretched the capacity of the staff.
With the foundation now laid, the goal is to first establish the project with the trainees in the six villages, the school, and the women's group, and then to assist other farmers to join the project, including the two villages who did not send participants to the workshop.
I am writing this report from Vanuatu, an island nation about two hours away by plane from Fiji. I arrived just yesterday and was able to carry two of the small incubators with me, one of which will be deliered this mornng to Tanna Island, while the other will be set up on Efate Island. The two ni-Vanuatu men who were trained as resource people at the farm in Fiji for six weeks last December-January, Joel and Iopil, have now established breeding flocks in their home commmunities, and fertile egs are now available for this major breakthrough. Biosecurity officials have not allowed us permits to bring in eggs or chicks from Fiji, so the process of developing an improved breeding flock over time has commenced on Vanuatu. A major ''Hapi Jicken'' workshop took place on Tanna Island in July, using the handbook recently translated into pigin language, facilitated by our local counterparts.
These achievements and blessings contiue to flow, thanks to our donors, and so a warm thanks goes out to you all.
By Austin Bowden-Kerby | Project Leader
By Austin Bowden-Kerby | Program Director
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