How ’bout Eggs?
I mentioned in the last blog post more details on some of our Buriram projects… and then I promptly fell off the face of the planet. A quick follow-up to that.
My Father’s House is a children’s home for abandoned children and orphans in Buriram province. The home is led by Pastor Narin Torbprakon and his wife, Kraneung, who have a heart to help at-risk boys and girls further their education in order to increase employment options outside of prostitution. Pastor Narin and his wife have a compelling story and emulate creativity and innovation in how they run the home and desire to move toward self-sufficiency.
I spend a fair amount of my time in Buriram learning from and partnering with Pastor Narin and his family. He’s a key partner in putting together a replicable model of self-sufficiency agriculture and spiritual formation that can be used in other villages and, hopefully, other provinces.
Our first formal partnership was in the building of an egg-laying chicken house. (Add it to the growing list of innovative projects he has in the works, including aquaculture, hogs, vegetables, specialty rice, frogs, meat-chickens and I’m sure I’m forgetting more. Not to mention starting the district’s only church.) Thanks to the financial support of so many donors, I was able to partner in up-front capital costs for the chickens and start-up feed while they covered the cost of the building and materials. The result? Check it out.
A group of youth from the children’s home will manage the new chicken house, developing skills and responsibility and also helping move the home toward self-sufficiency as they consume and sell eggs.
PS… because I’m an agriculture geek I have to share. In case you’re wondering why the chicken house is built over the pond? (I’m sure you were wondering…) The feed boxes are situated in a way that the chicken feed that naturally drops from the boxes during feeding will fall into the fish pond below and help reduce the feed costs associated with the fish operation. Cool, eh?
Looking forward to reporting back after the next visit how the chickens (and kids!) are faring!
cultivate 
Way cool Cori! I was wondering if the pond had something to do with sustainability or washing away chicken poo. Such a smart cookie. We have been planting fruit trees and are looking to maybe build a water tower that doubles as a climbing wall. I’m psyched! Keep being a blessing over there!
Now that’s efficiency!
not gonna lie, situating the feed over the pond was a pretty flippin sweet idea 🙂 good work!!
You can take the kid out of the country (literally), but you can’t take the country out of the kid. Looks like you and Mom finally got your “dream chicken house”…too bad it’s too far away to help gather the eggs!
I lived on my father’s farm for nearly 40 years. So I find this very interesting. I’ve seen chickens and fish farming in Thailand. But I never saw such double cropping! However as a certified water treatment plant operator, I see lots of coliform bacteria (and other species) going into the fish pond via chicken manure. And I also know that city water in Thailand is not considered fit for drinking as it is piped to the consumers.