How to Raise Five-Black Chickens? A Detailed Guide to Breeding Techniques and Precautions
Speaking of the Five-Black chicken, many people may not be particularly familiar with it. The Five-Black chicken looks similar to the silkie, with a completely black body and black meat as well, but it is a rare and precious poultry breed in our country, with extremely rich nutritional value, even hailed as the “treasure of chickens”. So do you know how to raise and manage Five-Black chickens? Let's learn about it together with the editor below!
How to Raise Five-Black Chickens
The growing period generally refers to from 7 weeks of age to before the start of laying. The main task of this stage is to rear physically robust young chickens with normal, uniform growth and development, and the growth rate at each week of age should reach or approach the body weight standard. Chickens at this stage have strong digestive capacity and a vigorous appetite; if improperly fed, they are prone to becoming overweight and maturing early, so in terms of management, feeding should be restricted and body weight controlled to avoid overly fast growth, premature maturity, and excessive body weight that would affect the later laying rate.
1. Control body weight: randomly sample and weigh 3-5% of the flock every week. If they exceed the standard body weight, adjust the feed by increasing the crude fiber content or lowering the energy and protein levels in the daily ration; if they are below the standard body weight, increase feeding and raise the nutritional level of the feed.
Methods for controlling body weight: one is to limit quality but not quantity; the other is to maintain the nutritional balance of the feed while restricting the feeding quantity.
2. Control lighting: lighting has a great effect on growing chickens, directly relating to their growth and development and the timing of sexual maturity. The effect of lighting on sexual maturity does not lie in the intensity of light, but mainly depends on the duration of lighting. If growing hens live under long hours of lighting, sexual maturity comes earlier; otherwise it is delayed. If a pullet matures sexually early, although it starts laying early, the eggs are small and the peak laying period is short. Therefore, during the growing period, lighting should be shortened, and the method of increasing lighting must never be used to stimulate early laying in hens.
3. Pasture raising: growing chickens have already been taken off heat, and their adaptability to the external environment is enhanced at this time. At this rearing stage, bamboo groves, orchards, and wasteland can be used for pasture raising according to local conditions. Pasture raising can make use of natural feed resources, save expenses, and also strengthen the physique and improve disease resistance through exercise.
Five-Black Chicken Breeding Techniques and Precautions
1. Nutritional control: the Five-Black chicken is a high-quality chicken with a relatively slow growth rate, so the required nutritional level should not be too high. Protein sources should use plant proteins such as soybean meal and peanut meal; animal proteins (such as fish meal, shrimp meal, meat-and-bone meal, etc.) and additives containing growth promoters are strictly prohibited.
2. Feed requirements: in the nutritional level of the daily ration for adult chickens, 50-70% rice grain should be added according to growth conditions, or green and coarse feeds such as corn kernels, rice bran, wheat bran, sweet potato, and green vegetables, and corresponding free-range activity areas are required.
3. Rearing method: the pasture exercise area can use orchard land in mountainous areas, bamboo and forest land, barren hill land, or idle land after crop harvest for free-range raising, requiring a sufficiently large activity area, and it is best to have more than two free-range sites for rotational grazing.
4. Time to market: after Five-Black chickens reach sexual maturity, their muscles contain more fat, mostly unsaturated fatty acids. Many studies show that the fatty acid content of muscle is positively correlated with meat flavor, so appropriately extending the time to market can effectively improve chicken meat flavor.
5. Precautions: before brooding, prepare the brooding room, which must be warm, airtight, and rainproof. One week before the chicks arrive, the brooding house should be cleaned and washed, and fumigated with formalin and potassium permanganate or disinfected by spraying with Xiaoteling water.
What Are the Benefits of Raising Five-Black Chickens
Five-Black chickens are gentle in temperament, like living in groups, and have strong disease resistance, and can be raised all over the country. These chickens grow fast, have excellent meat quality, high yield, save feed, and are efficient; raised for 70 days from hatching they can reach 1 kg, requiring only 5.76 yuan in feed costs (even lower in grain-producing areas). Adult roosters weigh 1.5-2 kg, and hens 1.2-1.5 kg. They can start laying after being raised for more than 5 months, and the fertilization rate, hatching rate, and survival rate can reach 85%-95%.
Benefit Analysis of Five-Black Chickens
Under good feeding and management, raising 50 groups (each group 1 rooster and 5 hens) produces 45,000 eggs per year, yielding at least 65,000 yuan in profit. If breeding commercial chickens, at the most conservative estimate about 20,000 can be bred; calculated at 30 yuan each like ordinary domestic chickens, the annual output value can reach 480,000 yuan, and after deducting all costs, at least 250,000 yuan in profit can still be obtained. Its benefit is 10-20 times that of pig farming and dozens of times that of ordinary crop farming. For reference.
The above is the Five-Black chicken breeding and management technique summarized by the editor for everyone, and I hope it can be of some help to you! Although the Five-Black chicken is a famous rare poultry breed, it is also very easy to raise, with strong disease resistance and delicious, nutritious meat, and is deeply loved by everyone. Raising Five-Black chickens is a relatively good breeding project!