chickens

Chickens have been called the gateway drug. A quick search online will show you it’s a popular opinion. There is even a song on Spotify by Benny Lee called, “Chicken’s are the gateway drug to farming.” Those cute baby fluff balls, those delicious orange yolked eggs and, of course, Sunday dinner from your yard – it’s a delectable slippery slope.

Now, “real” farmers might disagree that 3, then 10, then 50 chickens has anything to do with their 1000’s of acres of monocropping and they would probably be right. But for some of the rest of us, chickens are truly the start of a better life. And why did I choose to use the progression of 3 chickens, 10 chickens, 50 chickens? – yep, you guessed it, experience – my own personal gateway. Chickens fit nicely in town and may even convince you to buy more acres. Again, experience, my own personal gateway.

And now that I have completely buried the lead, I would like to announce that Mahala Love has expanded our offerings in South Africa! We are bringing chickens to Musawenkosi Christian Academy, (MCA) and to our newest partners Royal Diamond Academy (RDA), both in KwaMhalnga, South Africa. Chickens and rabbits are being brought to the school and introduced to the garden system. They will be cared for by Grade 7 students at MCA and by 6-10th graders at RDA. We are super excited and we aren’t the only ones!

You may remember last April we introduced chickens and helped to expand the area for rabbits at Jacaranda Gardens in KwaMhlanga, with our chicken/rabbit/catfish conglomeration that we have never given a proper name. Stephen and Brenda have done a phenomenal job of expanding the 4 chickens we left them with and now have over 30. The rabbits are also doing well and doing what rabbits are known to do. Mahala Love was able to purchase 1 rooster and 3 hens for each of our school partners, as well as 3 rabbits. These flocks will allow the students to learn about taking care of the animals and then we will help them expand, if all goes well. The students were all eager to know if they would be able to raise enough to take home, so we will just say “you’re welcome,” to the parents now. ha!

Look for PART 2 of ” It’s all about the Chickens” to see how this fits into the 9 Day course Mahala Love Leaders just completed in George, South Africa. Thank you for reading this, sharing this, and thank you all so much for those of you that continue to donate to make all of this possible. We LOVE you for sharing your LOVE and allowing us to spread that with the world!

Where to begin updating you on Herban Renewal – After a pretty productive lock-down period of installing gardens, trying a few hugelculture beds, testing aquaponics, setting up the vermiculture, getting our chickens set up and starting to lay, we did the next logical thing and decided to sell the Herban Renewal property in town! Yep.

However, after finding Buyers, then finding another property, things just didn’t go as planned. The house was packed into boxes, utilities were set to switch, many, many plans were made. Also, there were the way-too-many plants and seeds ordered and hatching eggs set to deliver, the sketches of raised beds and food forests, all in anticipation of a few acres and a couple of awesome out buildings, and then, on the final day, –(cue dramatic music) things…fell … apart.

You could say I was a bit shook, but I am a big believer that things work as they should. What has been unsettling is my lack of ability to decide if I wanted to stay put or move. The plants and hatching eggs arrived because I couldnt bring myself to cancel them. The plants made lovely gifts and egg hatching is always fun, even though I was not planning to have 30 plus chickens in my laundry room. But we hatched them because, well, because we could. There is nothing as fun as the anticipation and hearing those little eggs when they begin to peep. And the chicks are also delightful for about the first week. They continue to be delightful, but their odor inside your home – not so much.

Now here we are at the beginning of fall and we continue to live in our home and it’s still not for sale. So I am publicly declaring – I’m going to stay put!! Let fall planting begin.