Reptile and Chicken Farm Tour

A group of missionaries went to a chicken farm about 30 minutes outside of Kitwe for a tour. There is a reptile farm on the same property. It was an interesting combination. They catch rats in the chicken barns to feed to the snakes. The snake collection included both venomous and non-venomous ones. Of course, we were only allowed to handle the safe ones. Caleb held a brown snake. It was good to see the venomous snakes, though. The black mamba is greatly feared here and for good reason. This place had an adult and a baby one. Now that we have seen the real thing, we are pretty sure that the snakes we have encountered so far at home were not black mambas, but probably just brown snakes or house snakes, both non-venomous.

The older boys held a huge python! It was losing its skin, so they had snake on their hands after it went back into its cage. John wasn't too thrilled about getting the head end.

Joshua held a baby crocodile. There were a couple medium sized crocs in the swimming pool. The man tried to feed one of them some chicken while we were there, but it wasn't hungry.

There was also a baby bushbuck in an enclosure. The man said they found it in the woods after it had been attacked by dogs. Caleb was able to get fairly close to it and Joshua actually touched its head, but it was pretty skiddish with lots of kids around.

The children were amazed at the size of the chicken barns. There were a handful of long barns with rows and rows of chicken cages. The kids went down row after row looking for and collecting eggs. All the kids found eggs and helped the workers by placing them in trays at one end of the barn. It was interesting when someone found an egg without a shell. It just had the thin membrane holding it together.

Becky is definitely a girl. Even in a smelly chicken barn Becky wouldn't pass up a photo shoot opportunity. Yes, it was smelly - we smelled it all the way home on everyone's shoes.

I thought it was amusing contrasting these two forms of transportation. These cattle are HUGE and can pull quite the load. The Beamans truck is pretty big too, but maybe not as powerful.

Speaking of the way home - that's another story for another post. As soon as these picts upload, I'll start working on that one.