Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens

When my sisters and I were growing up, we’d plead with our mother to sing the little chicken song and Mama would sing her heart out:

Had a little chicken, wouldn’t lay an egg,
I poured hot water on the little chicken’s leg.
The little chicken cried, the little chicken begged,
The little chicken laid a hard-boiled egg.

My Granny always had chickens running free in her yard in Lumber City, Georgia. They’d nest under the house and in the oily-smelling storage room at the back of Pappy’s filling station next door. We loved crawling under the house and navigating car parts to collect the brown eggs. When we chased the chickens between the house and the filling station, Granny would yell out the back door, 'Stop chasin’ those chickens, you youngins. They won’t lay eggs!'

East African chickens also lay brown eggs with pale, pale yellow yolks—almost white. The director of TICH, Dan, has chickens in his yard next door to the institute. The turquoise-painted, wooden gate between his yard and TICH is occasionally left open so the chickens roam freely on our campus. In addition to a smart-looking sheep, Dan has several red hens and an especially handsome white rooster sporting dark blue tail feathers. The rooster is rumored to crow on the hour and we never know which window he’ll be under when he lets loose with a very loud and authoritative cuckoooooo. I like the guy.

There’s an old song sung by chickens. It goes:

Aint’ nobody here but us chickens, ain’t nobody here at all.
We chickens trying’ to sleep and you walk in,
A jabber, jabber, jabber, jabber with your chin.
Well, tomorrow’s a busy day, we got things to do, eggs to lay, ground to scratch…

That’s all I remember, so send the lyrics and the artist if you know them.

Chickens have been a source of tension at TICH recently. Part of the student’s learning program provides practical experience in the field, doing research and building projects to assist communities. TICH may get into the chicken business by training women who raise chickens about vaccination and feeding best practices. If fed properly, the birds will grow most optimally, lay more eggs and will actually lie on the eggs to hatch more chicks.

TICH wants to go one step farther and create a chicken-raising cooperative within communities to generate revenue for the locals. Micro-financiers are hesitant to loan money in Western Kenya, the poorest part of the country and the area most impacted by HIV/AIDS. What if the community dies, who will repay the debt? So TICH would act as guarantor for the communities to get their loans, a risky proposition. Of course, chickens are just one agri-product option for the new program. There could be cooperatives aimed at improving growing methods for vegetables and other crops. The community will determine their true needs in partnership with TICH experts.

Two donor orgs from Holland are here this week, checking on field projects and assessing if they’ll continue to donate to TICH. When they hear about the new Enterprise Department being organized to create chicken cooperatives in communities (and with plans to help village women get their chickens to market), the donors immediately advise TICH to stick to their core business of being an academic institute. Orgs that branch out beyond their expertise, the donors warn, often experience failure, which negatively impacts their core business.

It’s clear the folks in the Enterprise Department are passionate about their chickens. They believe women can easily increase the number of chickens they raise simply by giving the 3-step vaccinations. For 3 Ksh per bird’s 4-month lifecycle, they can guard against the chickens dying when disease sweeps through the community. Usually disease arrives and kills every bird in the village.

While TICH politely and graciously thanked the donors for their input, I won’t be surprised to see TICH’s leaders in Enterprise Department push through with their chicken plans. Hopefully, they won’t count their chickens before they hatch.