AGuide

‘Raising Chickens in Your Community’

This is a Carelinks Kosovo initiative that will help guide you, your friends and family to raise chickens for profit in your community. The sufficiency that this project can deliver is designed to give you an opportunity to develop a little business that is simple and that can provide ongoing support for your future.

How does this Carelinks Kosovo Program work?

The Carelinks Kosovo Chickens Program helps all the brothers and sisters around the world who care about their friends in need to be able to contribute in a meaningful way to the welfare of others. The program educates, finds start-up funds, helps you begin and offers ongoing support so long as you need it.

We show you the principles of running a simple business and help you get it started. We make recommendations for how you can continue to make this work in a way that gives you control of its success. This guide should have most of the information for you.

Why raise chickens?

There are several good reasons and that is why Carelinks Kosovo offers this Program, here are a few:

1. Financial independence
2. Eggs
3. Meat
4. Garden (chickens reduce garden pests and their manure enriches the soil)

The Program encourages you to initially raise big healthy chickens that you can sell quickly. But as the program progresses you can enjoy these other benefits.

How long does it work for?

The basis of the Program is that you get a certain number of chicks and look after them for about 12 weeks – then you sell them and start again. The proceeds of your sales of chickens go into the next cycle of 12 weeks and then you are on your way. Later you can use other sources of income, like eggs, to expand your project.

We make firm recommendations about how to manage the finances of your Program – if you follow these you should be able to continue as long as you want to.

Can I start with the Program?

Anyone can – but there are three very important rules we have to follow if this can work for you.

1. You must be able to sell the chickens.

    You must have a network of contacts in your local area who can buy the chickens     from you. Carelinks Kosovo cannot do this for you. You can sell the chickens to friends, markets, communities, butchers, restaurants anywhere you like but you need to do     this part of the program.

2. You must have a reliable place to look after the chickens while they grow.

    The young chicks are fragile and cannot be left out in the elements, you should have     access to shelter and electricity. A shed with a power cable is a good start.

3. You must be allowed to keep the chickens where you want to.

    Some local authorities will not allow you to keep chickens where you want to, you     must have a place that does not cause any local problems for you.

I don’t know anything about chickens.

This guide will show you most of what you need to know. If you can meet the three requirements for starting, keep reading, you will soon be an interested expert.

What about the costs?

Carelinks will meet the costs to help you start but it’s up to you to sell the chickens and responsibly manage the proceeds to keep the Program working for your community. If you do not look after the future of the Program it will not help you in the future.

Do I need other people to help me?

No, you should be able to do this independently. The most important thing is that you are able to provide food and water daily, and that you can check the chickens at least twice a day. If you can be there to provide this all the time you don’t need other people. If you cannot then it would be good to have someone help you.

You will need contacts to be able to sell your chickens, you will definitely need other people as customers. You should be working on this part of the project as soon as you can – it is ideal to have all the chickens sold before they are ready to sell. Don’t take any money from anyone until you have delivered but have a firm list of where to sell your chickens as soon as you can.

What if I try and fail?

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Carelinks Kosovo cannot guarantee that you will succeed – but we do want you to. This Program is designed to make it as easy as possible. You will not disappoint anyone if you make a serious effort to make this work for you – that is what the Program is for. You will have help all the way through, if it can work we will help you make it work.

Ok, I can meet the starting requirements, I can commit my time to the Program, I’m certain that I have enough customers, what do I do next?

This page will give you more information about how an idea becomes a reality.

Supply.

The success of the Program depends on Supply and Demand. You have already established Demand because you know who your customers are and that you can adequately sell them chickens at or just below an acceptable price and that your customers can afford to pay you when you deliver.

Carelinks Kosovo will help you with Supply. The program mainly deals with being able to buy a lot of chicks locally and sell them after 12 weeks. To do this we need access to a ‘hatchery’ in your country. A hatchery is a place that produces eggs that contain chicks. Ideally, you should find a hatchery as close to you as possible. You should know how much the hatchery is asking for chicks and think about how we can get the chicks from the hatchery to where you will keep them.

The Program is designed to get chicks, raise them and sell them in a short time, 12 weeks. This is based on the idea that you are to raise the chickens and sell them for food, as people always need food you should always have a market or demand for your work.

But… where there is a problem with supply Carelinks Kosovo may decide that it is better for you to raise chickens not for meat but for eggs and manure. This can still be a reliable source of income for you and you will benefit from the produce yourself too.

It is very helpful if you can know the details about supply in your area because it makes it easier for Carelinks Kosovo to get you started. But don’t worry, if you can’t find supply we will help you.

Just remember Supply means chicks but also food, water, shelter, transport and heating. Don’t worry about all the costs of these just yet, concern yourself with ‘availability’.

Your Plan.

You will have read all this guide by the time you arrive at the next action required. It’s all about little actions, you can see that. Some by you, some by Carelinks Kosovo to help you.

You will know that you meet starting requirements and that you have read this guide and that you are now forming a plan about how you will receive, raise and sell the chickens. This is where the Program becomes really interesting – you get to tell Carelinks your plan. And they are really excited about hearing your plan because it means that something important is about to happen for you and another prayer has been answered.

By whatever is the easiest way for you - letter, email, telephone explain your plan for raising chickens to Carelinks Kosovo, we are really interested in this, we want to know about customers, facilities, supply, feed, water, shelter, heating and all the things that you have thought about after reading this guide.

When Carelinks Kosovo understands your plan we can then put the puzzle together with the information that we have and when the pieces of your plan fit the pieces of our plan for you – the product is an action.

We just work together on that action and the next action will follow, with prayer and support this soon leads to you seeing your plan in reality.

You Get Stuck.

You have almost everything to form a clear vision of your plan but you are missing one thing. Perhaps you have everything, food, shelter, heating worked out but you are missing Supply and you just can’t find it. What do you do next? Can you still talk about your plan?

Absolutely! Of course you can. The unusual thing is that experience shows that the thing that may be the hardest for you turns out to be the easiest for someone else! Because Carelinks is a lot of someones, the chances of us finding the one thing that you need are very high. This is the work that God gifts to us all when we pray. So present your plan, the worst thing that can happen is that we all come up with a better idea.

Little step = big step.

What is happening now is that you have read this guide, have thought about how you do this Program and what it will mean for you and your future and you have contacted Carelinks Kosovo to help you start. It was only a little step that you took to share your plan with Carelinks Kosovo but in reality it was a really big step because they are quickly and quietly moving the pieces into position to make your plan a reality.

Yes, it can work but what can I do now?

Having started Carelinks Kosovo on the project of putting your plan into action for you, you are probably excited and want to think more about how to improve your plan and what else can affect how you will succeed.

The important thing to think about at this time is exactly what things are under your control and how they will influence success. While you are waiting, and importantly, for focus let’s go back to those things that ‘you need’ – they are the things that you can do the most about.

You must be able to sell the chickens.
You must have a reliable place to look after the chickens while they grow.
You must be allowed to keep the chickens where you want to.

Let’s have another look at these three in relation to what you can do now.

Selling Chickens.

This is where we give you extra advice that can really turn your plan into a success. These ideas are very useful information for how to make a simple idea a real working model of achievement for you.

Now is a good time for you to learn some selling secrets that can make a noticeable difference to you plan.

Here are ten selling ideas that will make you make the most of your plan.

1. Number 1! It’s fun to sell. Enjoy showing someone what they can ‘gain’ from buying from you. When you approach selling this way you create an environment that makes you important to their future – draw mind pictures for them.
2. Always sell the result – not the product! You don’t sell chickens, you sell food or satisfaction.
3. Up-Sell – this means sell more. You may have someone say, ‘yes, I will buy one chicken from you’. One may be all they can afford. But what about next week? Will they afford another one then? You won’t know if you don’t ask and they may only commit to one because they could think that is all you have for them. Up-sell, say, ‘Ok, I can give you a chicken by Friday but would you like to buy one every Friday for a month?’ See? That’s up-sell.
4. On-Sell – this means selling beyond the person you sell to. Traditionally on-sell means you sell to them and then they sell to someone else. But the problem is that because your product does not have the margin (extra profit) to allow this (food seldom does) then you have to do this differently. To on-sell chickens you need to ‘through’-sell. This means that once you have a buyer you need to ask them, ‘Do you know anyone else who would be interested in my chickens?’ You will get many more contacts and sales this way! If you know ten people and you ask each of them this question how many customers could you have?
5. Cross-Sell – this means a sideways shift between what you can offer. If you have a customer who wants to buy a chicken but also has a wonderful garden, cross-sell. Tell them about how good for the soil chicken manure is. The manure may be ‘waste’ for you but gold for them. Make a little more by offering.
6. A good name – Wise King Solomon said, ‘a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches’. That is true for you. Yes, always do the right and honest thing but realise that a name is a ‘brand’. Whenever you can allow and promote ‘your’ brand. Be known as the seller, the provider, the source of good product and people will return to you.
7. Be visual. Learn to create pictures for people. Unless you can afford to carry a lot of chickens around – get good at giving people images of what you have and how it can help them.
8. Keep it simple – people are naturally lazy, it is easier in fact to present a whole cost than confusing part costs that equal a whole. Here’s an example, first the wrong way, ‘Ok, so you want 4 chickens over 4 weeks, 4 delivery costs, and 8 payments?’ That is just too hard for lazy minds. Better to say, ‘Ok, simple, I’ll be here each Friday with one chicken and you give me (x) money.’ They can understand that.
9. Specialise – Make the buyer feel different. They are not just a name on your list – tell them how long and hard you laboured to bring them exactly what they want. If they have the opportunity to tell someone else how specially they were provided for it will work in your favour.
10. Offer something extra because it’s already included – learn to package needs and sales in one. If you know there is a need for quality manure then put it in the offer. 4 Chickens + one bag of manure may equal a certain amount – but it is better to up the price and then give the manure free. Someone who cares about their vegetables will appreciate this much more. What other inclusions can you think of?

It is very important that you understand these ideals and master them. Yes, you can ignore them and you can become lazy or distracted but it will not be good for you or your community in the long run. Be an improver.

Looking after chickens.

This is a really important section for you to consider. In the last section we looked at selling – that helps you to be a good ‘manager’ of your affairs – in this section you will think about how to be a good ‘operator’ of your affairs.

The most important thing to remember is that all operations, which means business activities or the things that you ‘produce’ require ‘specialist’ or ‘expert’ knowledge. There is no mystery to this or unobtainable qualifications – it simply means that you have the right information and that your will do the right things with it.

In this case the right information is ‘how to correctly raise chickens for profit’ – simple!

As an expert chicken raiser you will focus on three areas:

Health
Hygiene
Quarantine

Health

Health means the welfare and growth of the birds in your care. You are responsible for knowing that they are growing their best while you are doing your best to give them every opportunity to improve.

A healthy chick requires:

Security
Food
Water
Light
Touch
Ventilation
Warmth

Let’s learn a little more about each aspect of a chick’s health.

1. Security – Just like you and me the chicks need to have a secure environment where they are free of stress and worry. In the wild animals develop mechanisms that contribute to their survival skills. The more energy they have to donate to surviving the less they have to give to growing. When we provide a secure and stable environment the chicks spend more energy growing than defending. Make sure that there are no animals or risks that the chicks are exposed to. Even yourself, when you need to handle them be slow and deliberate in your actions, sudden movements and loud voices do not help them.
2. Food – Just as the quality of your nutrition is important to you, you must allow for the needs of the chicks too. There is a special diet that the little chicks need. If you are nurturing them for sale you must concentrate on providing food that will make them as big and healthy as possible before sale. If the chicks are to be kept for a longer time, possibly for egg production then additional arrangements need to be made for their diet. Here’s something that will give you a good idea – have you heard the saying, ‘something is as rare and hen’s teeth’, funny isn’t it. Hen’s don’t have teeth but as a part of food and diet – if we wish to keep chickens for a long time – for egg production for example – then we actually have to feed them ‘stones’. You didn’t know that? Well that’s just the sort of information that Carelinks helps you with. You see, because the chickens don’t have teeth they eat ‘grit’, little stones, which they store in their stomachs – this helps them to break-down food and process it faster. When a chick is young it does not need this so much and when we are raising them over short periods just for meat it is not necessary. But when we work together on alternative projects these are ‘food’ thought that we need to talk about.
3. Water - Nothing lives long without water. An efficient and clean water system will serve your chicks well. The thing is that they are so small they often have to get into the water system just to drink. Some chicks can die doing this because they are very small and very inexperienced. Make provision for the little chicks who need to fill their beaks and tip their head back to drink. Make water accessible and safe. Also make sure that it is as clean as possible. For some areas that will mean boiling water and cooling it before giving the chicks safe drinking water.
4. Light – this is an important thing for chicks. They need light to grow and safe darkness to rest in. We cannot keep them in the warm light for too long but where it is cold they will rest in light just so long as it is warm. Light is more of a routine for them. A bit like us, we don’t sleep when it is day so the chicks don’t like sleeping when it is light.
5. Touch – This is a very important lesson for you as well as for chicks. There is a need for touch. As an aside here I want you to think about this very practically, this is because there is a need to grow the chicks so that you can grow. It is important that you do not get too attached to them. Understand them but take a practical attitude to the world around you. Chicks need touch. In an open and wild environment (one less safe too though) the chicks would be in constant contact with their mother. When you keep chicks in an environment that is beyond a mother constant one, be careful not to give them ‘too much’ space. Where they can touch another bird they are most at home. If they can disappear into some quiet corner somewhere they will die. Keep them in touch. As we say, an important lesson from nature for us too.
6. Ventilation – together with heat this is the trickiest balance of chick health. Here is the problem. As they grow the chicks excrete, their deposits are enriched with ammonia, this is a common smell you will recognise if you have been in an area where animals have deposited. An excess of ammonia generates gases that, if concentrated can kill the chicks. You have to remember that such natural gases accumulate in low areas, because the chicks themselves are ‘low’ - it is very important that they are not trapped in poisonous, warm areas. However, totally free ventilation looses the heat that the chicks need to warm themselves. This is not extraordinary, many big corporations have spent millions of dollars trying to reach a balance where heat and ventilation are in balance. The best solutions so far are common sense, Carelinks will walk you through these but you need to be aware that this is important.
7. Warmth – you will notice that chicks are ‘fluffy’. this may make them look cute but that fluff serves an important purpose. The chick’s fluff traps moving body heat and warms them generally. We use the term ‘moving’ because the heat is transitory – that means it moves on. It is important that the chicks are given enough heat to let them pass that heat through their fluff. Intense or direct heat will not make them warm, they need recurring, regular heat to pass through that fluff if they are to survive. As the chicks turn the fluff into feathers their needs change. Feathers regulate a more active bird’s heating system and so the need becomes less and the the fluff increasingly less important.

Hygiene

Hygiene is something that you must always be aware of. It is a real cornerstone of successful animal husbandry. It is really important for managing birds. Chickens are a really good example of this because they are mainly earthbound, always exist or live together and show signs of hygiene failure very quickly.

It is an important part of the Carelinks Kosovo  chicken program that the emphasis is on raising the chicks and then selling them quickly. This significantly reduces the chances of cross contamination or transfer of disease. In Programs where the birds are kept for longer periods of time we have to show more care in management.

However, hygiene at all levels should always be present in your mind. Is there too much manure? Remove it! It can provide breeding place for parasites, germs, diseases. Is the water improvable? Improve it! It can harbour bacteria that can kill every chick you have. Is neighbouring water drainage seeping in? Do you know what that water was used for? Divert it!

A little exposure to a world of bacteria will not kill the chicks but they will get more than their fair share with you being vigilant – if you are not, if you do not consider their hygiene then you expose your plan to a whole lot of problems you do not need.

Quarantine.

Quarantine means keeping any other animal or carrier of disease away from the chicks. For example never let the chicks run in an enclosure that another animal, particularly a bird can deposit in or encroach on. Where this is possible you will have a breach of quarantine and the chick’s health will be compromised.

This is a strict observation but it is important if you are serious about your plan succeeding.

So, you have considered and provided for these health needs, what happens next?

Having done all that is in your control to do, Carelinks in the meantime has found the most suitable method for you.

It is important at this time that you follow instructions carefully because Carelinks Kosovo want to make the best of your opportunity. These instruction may involve recommendations about areas that you need to improve on. They do not make judgements about the quality of your preparation but they have made a special effort to make sure that everything you can do will work best for you.

Starting out.

On the day that you receive the chicks you will need to pay attention to your check-list.

Here is your starting check-list:

1. The place is secure
2. The place is quarantined, no other animals have accessed it
3. It is clean
4. It is ventilated
5. It is warm
6. It is not too big but can be expanded
7. There is clean and adequate water
8. There is enough food

With these things in place you can be confident that things will go as you have planned.

As they grow.

This is a time in which, having provided for the present, you plan the future.

This means that you are ‘doing’ and ‘preparing’.

For ‘doing’ you already have a good program of how to provide for the chicks on a routine basis. They are safe, secure, healthy and growing.

For ‘preparing’ you are making final preparations and decisions about how to sell the chickens and you are deliberately managing your selling and delivering activities.

You have 12 weeks to put these plans in place. That is more than enough time, but be prepared to re-look at all you have done and improve it wherever you can. This is a good and rewarding management practice.

Progress.

During this exciting time Carelinks Kosovo encourages you to tell everyone about your experiences. This is a fun and interactive way to share with the whole world how you are progressing. Learn to manage averages. This is fun because you can compare your feeding and management techniques with the standards that exists. A scale can help you weigh the chicks and understand their progress at set intervals.

‘D’ Day

‘D’ stands for delivery. It is the day you have planned and worked for. You are armed with a list of qualified buyers for your produce and this is the day you will deliver.

You are very aware that every dollar counts toward your next success, you have done the best you can to ensure that you sell all your goods in the smallest amount of time. Well done. Collect.

As each new reward for your work is placed in your hand remember your promise to yourself. ‘It goes forward’ – that means that what you get goes into doing again what made your life so rewarding to God with His provision for you.

Next we show you a number of ideas that make this sustainable and rewarding to you and your community.

Done ‘1’ – how to do ‘3’.

As you notice the title of this section skips over ‘2’. Why is that? It’s because you need to have a long-term mentality. Yes, the Carelinks Kosovo program will work for one or two cycles but only good management on our guidelines will help you into the future.

What is really important? Well, you will have a series of ideas that this program means to you. It’s very important to Carelinks Kosovo that you have this opportunity, but think big…

Ask God to expand your area of influence…

Could you become so proficient in this Program that you could ‘teach’ it? Share it?

Don’t worry about step ‘2’, that will just happen because you will follow learned and trusted techniques for winning with friends and with expertise. But can you share God’s blessing as some have shared it with you?

Ok, I’ve got a whole lot of information…

Great, we believe in you. What you have here is the beginnings that you need. Don’t worry, just step out and take an opportunity for God if you can. Carelinks is full of brethren and sisters who know how to take a leap of faith – really they will help you all the way.

Money matters.

In this little section we detail how you should manage your income for future Programs.

The raising chickens program should return a profit of at least 30%. What does that mean. It means that if we put in Euro 100 you should be able to sell the chickens for Euro 130.

Now, the Euro 100 was your friend’s start-up support for you – a gift. But they want you to manage the gift forward in to the future.

So if that’s how you got the assistance, here’s how you should manage it.

Euro 100 becomes Euro 130 after expenses

Euro 30 goes to repeating the gift

Euro 60 goes to sustaining it

That leaves  Euro 40

Save half of that - Euro 20 goes in a safe place

Spend half of that - Euro 20 is spent as wisely as you know how.

Now, the numbers will be different for everyone – and the chicken raising numbers are greater than this – but it is really important that you commit to manage your new finances on this scale. Can you? Do you want to? Would it be good for you if you did?

If you can make a commitment of time and effort you have a whole lot of friends that love you and really want to help you with this new program.

Conclusion

Thinking, planning, learning, living and understanding under the mighty hand of God, we can share a program of change for the benefit of everyone involved. We hope that you can one day share this program too and make it again possible to give to another.

Remain in faith and keep looking to the return of Jesus Christ which is surely very near.

“And there ye shall eat before the LORD your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the LORD thy God hath blessed thee.”

Your Friends in fellowship and love.

                                www.carelinkskosovo.org     info@carelinkskosovo.org