Backyard Poultry: A Good Start To Rise From Beneath

Greetings to everyone! I hope you are all feeling great. Your cup-bearer will serve you another interesting story about risking getting up from being knocked down in life. But how long will it take? Let's find out.

Our life was like a roller-coaster ride journey. There are lots of ups and downs. There are times we can't understand why it is happening to us. We did our best to share with others what we have but life gets more complicated. But suddenly a lot of situations were compiled and brought us some realizations.

It was more than a year we suffered poor concentration due to worries. Tormented situations led us to feel hopeless and restless. We were full of pain when we went home away from home. The time that we can't just control our tears from falling. It was the moment that I stood still, showing that I'm strong though already weak just for the sake of my wife and children.

My wife and I faced crushing debts from several banks due to our will to achieve our dreams while our kids were still young. So that when they grow up, we can focus on their educational needs. We took a lot of risks as I mentioned in my intro blog. We also had several plans to overcome the consequences of risk. But it goes beyond our control.

My wife was inspired by her eldest sister to start a small business. A backyard poultry farm intended to produce eggs. At first, I was hesitant to do it because poultry could smell so bad and it would affect our neighbor's daily living. It will attract a lot of flies which could bring diseases into our area. But my wife insisted on realizing her plan.

She promised to do the daily cleaning to avoid those things I worried about. I supported her and yes, we started the journey of having a small backyard poultry.

My wife got so excited to start her small farm. Before the delivery of the Ready to Lay Chickens comes, she immediately prepares everything needed. She processed the Barangay permit which is important in getting a Municipal permit in the future. She also managed the installation of cages up to the installation of the water system. We started from 48 RTL chickens since we don't have any experience in this field. We want to learn and explore more ways of producing chicken eggs.

The RTL chickens were delivered early in the morning to avoid the scorching heat of the sun that could cause them stress. Stressed chickens will not lay fully developed eggs. It will become a loss instead of gaining profit. We purchased vitamins to be given daily, to make sure our flocks would be healthy and strong.

The co-teacher of my wife suggested using sawdust to be spread under the cages where the chicken dungs fall. It will help avoid bad smells and the gathering of flies. And yes, it was effective but I still cleaned it almost every day to make the area clean. Some of my friends and neighbors visited to see our chickens. They commended the cleanliness of the place. I told them that we also observe proper sanitation so that the chickens will not get sick.

They need proper ventilation and a functional water system to prevent heat stress. When the area is not properly ventilated, their egg reproduction will not be normal. It is also needed to have fresh and clean water to regulate their body temperature which is also vital in producing developed and healthy eggs.

We were amused by how chickens laid their eggs. It was our first time to witness the amazing egg production. After 3 weeks they have started laying peewee and small-sized eggs. When we harvested a tray of them, my mother-in-law bought it and displayed it in her store for retail selling.

Our first harvested peewee and small-sized eggs.

There are times when the eggs get dirt due to chicken dung or blood. We used vinegar to clean it. Next to cleaning is the weighing of eggs to make sure they belong to the exact group of sizes. We referred it to the Philippine Standard Size for eggs.

As the days passed by, we felt the advantage of having this small business. Our salaries were intended only to pay our bank debts, so our daily income from our small farm supported our daily needs. Along the way, we decided to have an expansion of our small backyard farm. We planned to add a hundred RTL chickens to sustain our daily needs. We took the risk to renew our bank loans and used its net proceeds as our capital in the purchase of additional cages and chickens.

The plan went well. Building the new poultry house started. We ordered galvanized iron cages and were delivered right away upon the completion of the poultry house. We positively thought that it would help us rise from being knocked down in life. We hope for the best that someday we could also help those people in need.

After several weeks, the 100 RTL chickens were delivered. A few days after the delivery, some of them have laid their eggs. After two weeks we harvested more than a tray of peewee and small-sized eggs. We had several stocks in its first month. But when I posted it on Facebook. We've got an order of 40 trays. We delivered the order within 2 weeks since we were only depending on the daily harvested eggs.

The 2nd batch of our layer chickens. We made it to the next level.

Our plan was smoothly implemented. We even made it to the next level of expansion. We ordered another 100 RTL chickens to have a total of 248. But there were uncontrolled instances. When we arrived home after work, there were dead chickens due to vent gleet. But we considered it as part of our farming journey.

It's nice to see the fruit of our labor. But there are unexpected circumstances that need to be prioritized.

As of the moment, we are in the 2nd year of our poultry farming, we sold the first batch of our chickens who were in their culling period. Last month, we were supposed to purchase 112 pcs to load the vacant cages but due to many circumstances, we failed.

We are now experiencing a lot of challenges. We can no longer move forward to what we expect. We planned to let go of what we had started. It hurt us but I guess we have to accept the reality that we are in a bad situation right now. We just hope that suffering passes and will be replaced with a good one. We thought of this dealing as a step toward becoming debt-free individuals. But maybe it's not yet our time.

When I contacted our friend Dawn. She undoubtedly lends help to us. The one call-away friend who supports us by all means. Our farm remained but the question is, how long could it take to survive? Well, I trusted the giver of life. The fountain of all Holiness. May He give us the resources that could help us rise from the difficulties of life.

Despite these happenings, I just recall the words of Nightbirde during her America's Got Talent Audition, "you can't wait until life isn't hard anymore before you decide to be happy". This is truly a good start to rise from beneath, but we need to make it happen even if we are beaten by time. Our life has a purpose. Let us seek for it. Let us continue to be a blessing to others. Adios!

I hope you'll pray that we can overcome all the trials and challenges.

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🫶🫶🫶cup-bearer🫶🫶🫶

Thank you for your time.

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