Bill Gates found that raising chickens is a poverty alleviation cause that can get good returns, especially for rural women. Women are not suitable for going out to raise cattle and horses on a large scale because of their small physical strength and limited range of activities, but she can raise chickens. The cost of raising chickens is also relatively low, only some materials for building chicken nests and the money for raising chickens for vaccination are needed. Free-range chickens can be fed by themselves, and farmers don't need to spend money to buy feed themselves. In addition, chickens can lay eggs, and children can eat an egg every day, which also improves their physique and is conducive to healthy growth. In addition to their own consumption, extra eggs can be easily turned into cash, improving the family's economic situation.

Gates built a henhouse in the foundation office on the land-scarce island of Manhattan. Through the experiment of raising chickens by himself, he got his own set of investment experience: if a farmer keeps three hens and a rooster, it only takes three months to give birth to 12 chickens, and it can breed 250 chickens a year, with a return rate of nearly 62 times.

In Africa, the price of a chicken is about 5 dollars. If you keep 16 chickens, you can produce chickens worth 1.250 dollars a year, which is twice the minimum income standard of the United Nations. Raising chickens alone can help him get rid of poverty. Because of its low cost, considerable income and high enforceability, this project is very easy to spread on a large scale in Africa. He and his wife's foundation decided to open a chicken farm in West Africa to provide chickens for local farmers and help them raise chickens to get rid of poverty.