How to Free-Range Native Chickens: Methods for Building a Chicken Coop for Free-Range Native Chickens

Although everyone's standard of living has improved nowadays, many foods are available on the market, and the prices are not expensive, so there is no need to go through the trouble of raising and growing things yourself. However, people in rural areas prefer to grow some green vegetables and raise poultry themselves, among which native chickens are the most commonly raised. There are many ways to raise chickens, so do you know how to free-range native chickens?

How to Free-Range Native Chickens

1. Choose a site, build a chicken coop, and buy chicks

First, we need to choose a good breeding site, that is, the place where the chickens will be raised. The editor suggests that it is best to raise them in a garden. Of course, if conditions do not allow, there is no other way. It is best to have a garden at home. Raising them in a garden provides a natural environment, so it is very suitable. If this is your first time raising chickens, it is best to build a smaller coop. Wait until you have experience and are skilled before expanding the scale. Of course, experienced breeders can ignore this. This is done only to reduce losses. When buying chicks, it is best to buy high-quality chicks in the first year.

2. Drinking water and diet

After the chicken coop is built, it is time for daily diet management. The staple food can be corn kernels, paddy rice, or rice grains. Usually, they can be left to range outside; they will forage on their own. Add water to the water container on time so that the water supply is sufficient. You can also give them some vegetable leaves and other foods to eat, to supplement the balance and comprehensiveness of nutrition and meet their growth and development needs.

3. Vaccination

Vaccinating chickens is very important. Chicken plague and chicken diseases are very likely to break out on breeding farms, so every chicken must be vaccinated on schedule. The cost is calculated according to the number of chickens, generally priced at 20 yuan per dose. In addition, native chickens must be dewormed regularly to ensure their smooth growth.

4. Daily life

Usually, just let the chickens live and grow naturally. In autumn and winter, they can stay in the coop more. At other times, try to let them come out for activity, moving freely in the garden or breeding site. Let them live as comfortably as they like. Regularly disinfect and sterilize the chicken coop and breeding site, and take preventive measures against nearby threats such as weasels to ensure the safety of the chickens' lives.

Methods for Building a Chicken Coop for Free-Range Native Chickens

1. The ground height inside the chicken coop should be 25--35 cm higher than the ground outside the coop. Otherwise, the coop floor and bedding will become damp, leading to the occurrence of diseases in the flock. In addition, during heavy rain, rainwater will backflow into the chicken coop.

2. For the color of the roll-up plastic windows of the chicken coop, on the south and north sides, the lower roll-up sections should preferably be dark, and the upper sections should preferably be transparent, and the transparent upper part should occupy no more than one third of the window area. The lower parts of the upper and lower roll-up sections should be fitted with devices to prevent them from bulging in the wind, so as to help with insulation and prevent drafts from entering.

3. The roof of the chicken coop should be covered with straw for heat insulation and warmth retention.

4. The door for people to enter and exit the chicken coop should be sturdy and lockable. Eaves should be made above the door and windows to prevent rainwater from drifting in.

5. Windows should be set in the east and west walls of the chicken coop to facilitate ventilation and cooling in summer.

6. Each small chicken coop compartment should have a ground window for chickens to enter and exit, and adjacent ground windows should not face the same side.

7. Dig a well in a suitable place between two new chicken coops, for the flock's drinking water and washing the chicken coops, etc. When necessary, set up netting between the two coops to separate them.

8. On the north side of the chicken coop, in the middle, starting from a distance of 10 m, build simple rain and sun shelters along the north direction, each 2--2.5 m wide and extending toward the far end, with a height of 1.5 m, for the flock to shade from the sun and avoid heavy rain. Also set up water pipes and automatic drinkers in the shelters, or build independent rain and sun shelters above each automatic drinker. The area of each shelter depends on the situation (according to fruit tree density), and each drinker should be 10--12 m apart.

9. The land outside the chicken coop should be properly leveled, and large ditches should be covered, so that chickens can conveniently enter and exit the door and walk outside the coop.

10. Inside the chicken coop, 30 automatic drinkers need to be purchased, and 20 outside the chicken coop, 50 in total. Inside the chicken coop, 60 large feed buckets and 2 sprayers need to be purchased.

Selection of Native Chicken Breeds

Native chicken breeding should select breeds according to market demand and production needs. Generally, meat-type chicken breeds, dual-purpose chicken breeds, male chicks of layer-type chicken breeds, and rural grass chickens can all be used as ecological meat chicken breeds. They can be selected according to local conditions, and usually dual-purpose chicken breeds are the best.

What Risks Are There in Raising Native Chickens

1. Disease risk: Native chickens actually do not have the high disease resistance that is often claimed. Many diseases, such as Newcastle disease and infectious bronchitis, are hidden threats to native chicken breeding. If you want to make a profit from native chicken breeding, you must do a good job in the prevention and treatment of native chicken diseases.

2. Market risk: The price of native chickens fluctuates, and for breeders there are both profits and losses, so one must learn to play the price war. In addition, the most important thing is sales channels. Sales channels are the intuitive factor restricting whether breeders can develop. Without sales channels, there is no profit to speak of.

As mentioned above, chicken is an indispensable meat in our daily diet. Eating it often may supplement some of the nutrients the human body needs, but some confined chickens may be fed hormones because of a single food source, so everyone prefers to eat native chickens. Compared with confined chickens, free-range native chickens have broader prospects.