The Six Chix Project is all about increasing the resilience of food production to Tuvalu by introducing better breeds of laying chickens for families to keep in their back yards. Of the 20 billion domestic chickens living on earth (with as much as 50 billion raised each year), not many of them found their way…
Egg-laying chicken breeds all come with stories on the number of eggs the hens will lay in a year – but how well does that reflect reality? Especially on an atoll. In this article, we are going to find out what you can expect from your backyard chickens. The Six Chicks Project started back in…
Chick production has now started and the first few chicks are hatched and getting used to their surroundings. We have 4 incubators on the go and expect to be producing as many chicks as we can each month. For those receiving the chicks, now is the time to get your brooding box ready. Chicks are…
In late December last year we announced that we had successfully managed to bring heritage egg-laying chickens to Tuvalu as part of our Six Chix Project. Well, as hoped all 18 chicks grew up and although we lost one young roo just as he matured, all the rest are alive and well. We managed to…
After trying for a year we have finally cracked it ! We now have heritage chicken breeds in Tuvalu ! Tuvalu has lots of chickens, but most of them are ‘local’ bantam-sized mixed birds of uncertain heritage. They are probably a mix of the original chickens brought to the islands, plus odd injections of project…
The Six Chix Project is now starting to produce some outcomes and increasing interest in Funafuti. In this post we are going to take a quick look at the statistics so far. We currently have 7 Hyline Brown hens producing our eggs, plus an assortment of other chickens. Its the Hyline hens we are focusing…
If something is ‘just chicken feed’ its considered loose change, cheap, no big deal… Well, on an atoll, chicken feed is a big deal. In fact food in general is a big deal. It is hard to grow, hard to import and easily damaged by the climate. The biggest problem facing a would-be chicken keeper…
A landmark decision by the Kiwis sets a precedent that other countries should follow. New Zealand has just set a great example to the world by recognizing what animal lovers have known forever- that our furry [and feathered or scaled] friends are as sentient as we are, and (obviously, dur) they have feelings just like…
(NaturalNews) An ongoing bird flu outbreak that has devastated the U.S. poultry and egg industries seems to be leaving backyard chicken farms mostly untouched in what experts are calling an epidemiological mystery. Bird flu is a highly lethal strain of influenza that can kill a bird or human within days. Fortunately, the disease is not…
When we imported our last lot of eggs from Australia to establish a few egg-layer breeds in Tuvalu as part of the Six Chix Project we set to incubating the eggs, fingers crossed. The eggs were from Poultry Australia who were amazing with helping us meet the biosecurity requirements. That batch of 12 beautiful blue…
Chickens can be tightly confined and still produce a lot of eggs, but productivity is not necessarily a measure of contentment. Have you ever wondered how chickens would live if they could choose? I think the best place to look for an answer is in Asia, where their wild relatives evolved. Genetic studies suggest that…