Chicken farming with Mamane

Many Malians are trying to get into the 'Poulet de Chair' business. That means the raising of chickens for their meat, rather than the eggs. The 'Poulets de Chair' are quite different from the chickens called 'Poulets de Bicyclette', so named since they are often seen  hanging in multiple pairs from the handlebars of bicycles as the owners cycle around try and sell them. The 'bicycle chickens' are rather stringy, scrawny and chewy- but normally quite tasty. They are happy chickens that have run around the village freely and have now reached the conclusion to their days as they hang on the handlebars. 

The 'poulets de chair ' on the other hand have never enjoyed any happy village days. However, they are not battery chicken, and as is shown in the picture above, behind Mamane, they are able to enjoy a certain amount of scratching around freely amongst their peers...

And those ones, above, are the type that everyone are trying to 'get into' as a business proposal. It is true, it is possible to make money raising chickens in Mali especially in the Bamako area, for the Toubab hotels and guest houses as well as for the ever increasing affluent Malian city population.

When Keita was alive we tried it. Keita wanted to make some money on the side of his hospital employment and invested in chicken farming in Segou- it was an unmitigated disaster. The first lot arrived on the bus and were all dead on arrival- the hardships of the road had killed them. The second lot arrived alive, but were dead by the morning- they had been put into their pen which had been disinfected rather too enthusiastically and the fumes from the bleach killed the chicks  during the night. And so it went on. If you want to deal in chickens, you need to know what you are doing. 

This is exactly what Maman thinks he knows- or rather he knows someone who knows what to do. He will keep  his job at the Sleeping Camel of course, but he wanted to invest in a venture run by a nice old Malian chap that I met when I was there last March. He has been raising 'Poulets de Chair ' for many years and has an excellent track record. Maman's brother-in-law has just done three 'cycles' with him-that is to say: one cycle is the amount of time from the arrival of the chicks to their sale- about 60 days.

Mamane and I have now gone into business together and I have put up enough money for a 'cycle' of 300 chicks. I did this at first just to help him- but who knows- it may become a proper business? Inchallah it will!