Young Life in Freetown: Chickens and Chicken Hierarchies

No one knows how chickens got to Sierra Leone. But a lot of people in Freetown today think breeds from European countries are superior to local fowls.

Unlike Ndama cows, which were domesticated in Fuuta-Jaloo more than 8,000 years ago, and are still loved for their meat all over West Africa, chicken born and bred in Sierra Leone don't do well at all in social comparisons.

But backyard farmers want local breeds and they are spreading knowledge of raising them to others for inspiration.

"People say that the eggs of local fowl do not have the same nutrients as the English fowls and that the local fowls have thick skins," Cecilia Conteh said.

Cecilia thinks it's all down to the feed. She is raising two backyard hens hatched from fowls that she got as a gift from her grandmother who lives in a faraway village.

Isata Kanu's free-range hens are thriving with added grains of rice in the morning and evening.

Tigidankay Koi says her chickens keep her family fed.

"We don't sell the eggs,” Tigidankay said. “We allow the hen to bring the chicks out because we don't want to run out of meat. We eat the chickens when they grow up," she said.

Still, livestock production is a fast growing sector in Sierra Leonean agriculture.

In the east end of Freetown, the Munu Poultry at Yams Farm has over 3,000 chickens.

The manager Joseph Fornah, 28, said that the barn imports its chicks from Holland. Every two years, a new order of baby chicks makes its way from Western Europe to Sierra Leone, as the lifespan of the fowls is only about two years.

Chicken feed at the Munu poultry is a mix of corn, grain, grilled cassava, brown wheat, limestone, grilled or dried fish and soybeans. Some of these items, especially brown wheat, are brought from neighboring Guinea. The fowls eat through six hundred kilos of food per day.  The poultry raises chicken layers in a grow outhouse to protect them from predators.  The chickens produce one egg each day, which can add up to 3,000 eggs per day, Joseph said.

The poultry farm uses antibiotics, sulfur, and vitamins in feed or drinking water, to treat disease or to prevent disease outbreaks More birds are lost in cold weather, up to 10 can die a day, than during the dry season.

A power generator supplies electricity around the clock, and the farm gets water from dugout wells and submersible pipes that are connected to Milla tanks. Milla Group is one of the pioneering local manufacturing industries, striving to promote the “Made In Sierra Leone” image.

The Munu Poultry barn has five male workers and they're paid Le1,000,000 per month. The business is managed by profits earned after selling the eggs. On average, the farm sells six to 10 cartons a day. The fowls are only sold for their meat when they can no longer produce eggs.

"I know, most young people favor greater jobs opportunities,” Fornah said. “Managing a barn doesn't only give me money, it also gives me the greatest feeling in the world, knowing the survival of these animals is made possible by me and my team".

Sierra Akker is a large company dealing with livestock. They have a farm in Songo, where they grow grain, soy, maize, and cassava. The company distributes feed throughout the country to supermarkets and mining companies. A company spokesman said the firm is looking to expand into exporting eggs and chicken meat to neighboring Liberia and Guinea.

For Young Life in Freetown, I'm Inyilla Borteh Conteh reporting.