More Than Chickens: A Small Flock, A Bigger Opportunity
Sometimes the most important changes in a community project are the ones that are hardest to measure.
You can count chickens. You can record eggs, income and expenses. But how do you measure a woman becoming more confident in managing an opportunity, or beginning to see a small poultry project as something she can build into a livelihood?
That is part of what we are seeing in our poultry work with women in Kilifi.
Recent visits on 23 and 30 September gave the Rare Vrienden team an opportunity to see how the different poultry units are progressing. The flocks are still relatively small, with most households keeping between 4 and 12 chickens.
But the way the women are keeping them is evolving too. Participants have adopted a hybrid indoor and free-range approach, allowing the birds to benefit from both the protection of their housing and the opportunity to roam and forage.
At one of the more developed units, 12 young chicks are currently being housed on the “second floor” of the poultry structure, while four hens are sitting on eggs. Around half of the units visited had hens sitting on eggs — an encouraging sign of natural breeding.
More than a poultry project
The chickens are also contributing in another way that is easy to overlook.
Their manure is proving immensely useful in the women’s home gardens.
This means the value of the project is not limited to the poultry itself. Chickens can provide eggs, meat and eventually income, while their manure can help support vegetable production around the home.
It creates a simple cycle: poultry supports the garden, and the garden supports the household.
And perhaps the most encouraging change is one that does not appear in the numbers at all: the women’s attitude and approach are changing.
They are becoming more engaged with the birds, asking questions, responding to challenges and taking greater ownership of the activity.
There are challenges — and lessons
The project has also faced setbacks.
Some eggs previously taken to the incubator produced chicks, but unfortunately none survived. Chick mortality has also been experienced at the individual farms and at Rare Vrienden headquarters.
Disease, cock-fighting and possible genetic weaknesses within the existing flock are among the issues identified during monitoring.
Rather than simply adding more chickens, the next phase will address these problems directly.
Existing cocks will be replaced with new ones from outside the current flock, while each unit will work toward having at least five female birds. Farmers who previously contributed eggs to the incubator will receive five grown hens as compensation.
Further guidance will also be provided on the “second floor” housing system, particularly as more chicks begin to hatch.
Building something that can last
The next stage will put greater emphasis on measuring whether these poultry units can become genuinely productive household enterprises.
The women will begin recording income and expenditure, allowing us to track profitability rather than simply counting birds. Monthly monitoring will continue through 2027.
This will help us understand what is working, what needs to change and where further support can have the greatest impact.
The poultry project is still small.
But small is not the same as insignificant.
A few chickens can become eggs, food, manure, a garden, income — and, with the right support, a growing sense of ownership and opportunity.
That is the potential we are working to build.
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