A change in our farming

 A change in our farming.

We started our farming to educate the children on how to care for and raise the animals but we also teach them how to do business and to make changes when necessary.  Originally we started with 2 pigs they began producing well enough we felt that should increase our stock above just training and into reducing our cost of the orphanage.  We did really well the first 2 years.

Then last year the free trade agreements with neighboring countries like Vietnam flooded the market with cheaper stock, drove down prices and increased the diseases with low birth rates for the year.  We took big loses while we hung on to produce our last litters before we sold everything.

 Our litters were great, high numbers with big healthy babies.

We recovered last years losses through our latest sales.

We also did a lot of thought and research into other things we could do.

The answer was chickens.

 With chickens the turn around is a month, cost less per animal and are easier to manage.

So we reduced our goat stock and housed the remaining goats in a empty pig pen.

 We also reduced our other fowl to reduce the risk of disease to the new chickens.

We turned the old goat house into the new chicken pen.

We found a buyer and a supplier.

We bought feeders, waters and 200 cute baby chickens.

 This was a fun day for us.

 In a couple week our chicks weighed two and a half pounds.

We sold out our first load of chickens, average chicken weighed 4.12 pounds and sold at $2.20 a pound.  All said and done we profited about $1.64 a bird in 34 days. 
So we are now looking into if we can increase our holding, by increasing our pen size.

The children are also involved not only in the work but in the investment as well.  41 of the chickens we raised this time belonged to the children.   Needless to say they where thrilled on payday.

Our hopes are that we will continue to produce good numbers with good profits.   Our prayer is that this project might be away to provide for the orphanage and other ideas we have. 

No matter the out comes God is blessing us in many ways through our efforts.  Our stock is always better and always draw a higher price.  We get a lot of compliments when we sell animals and many people say it is because we are Christians.


I'll work on getting more pictures out this month.

Also there is a young lady, her name is Alicia she will be staying with us long term.  She is home trying to tie up lose ends and raise support.  She was a lot of help to us in our efforts to start a school here and will be returning around June. 
If I could ask you all to keep her in Prayer that God would provide for her abundantly.  Bless the people (Family) that she will be leaving to be in the mission field. 

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

Kit, Ream and Kids