Farming Techniques and Management Methods for Free-Range Chickens Under Mountain Forest
Many people who work in cities do not achieve a promising future, which leads some enterprising people to return to their hometowns and start farming and planting businesses. When it comes to farming startups, free-range chicken farming is currently a hot entrepreneurial farming project, so how should free-range chickens in mountain areas be raised and managed? Let's learn about it together with the editor below!
Techniques and Methods for Free-Range Chickens in Mountain Areas
1. Site Selection
Whether the site selection for free-range chickens in mountain areas is appropriate affects sanitation and epidemic prevention, the growth of the chickens, and the work efficiency of the keepers, and is related to the success and profitability of chicken farming. Site selection should follow the following principles:
1. It should be conducive to epidemic prevention and also have convenient transportation.
2. The site should be chosen in a high, dry, and well-drained place.
3. There should be shade facilities within the site to prevent heatstroke from exposure to the sun or colds from getting rained on.
4. The site should have a water source and a power source, and be enclosed so as to prevent the chickens from getting lost and bringing in pathogens. Choose a grassy slope that is sheltered from the wind and faces the sun, with relatively flat terrain and no water accumulation. It is best if there are trees, so that the chickens can cool off in the shade.
2. Methods for Building the Shelter
The requirements for the chicken coop design are: ventilated, dry, warm in winter, and cool in summer, and the orientation should preferably face south with its back to the north. Generally, the shelter is 4-5 m wide, 7-9 m long, 1.7-1.8 m high in the middle, and 0.8-0.9 m high on both sides. Usually, three layers of asphalt felt, straw, and plastic film are used to cover the roof from the inside out, to waterproof and insulate it. On both sides and one end of the roof, sand, earth, bricks, and stones are used to press down the plastic film and asphalt felt, and an entrance and exit are left at the other end to facilitate the entry and exit of the keepers and the flock. The main supports of the shelter are secured with wire in four directions to prevent storms from overturning the shelter.
3. Cleaning the Shelter and Disinfection
After each batch of chickens is sold, the chicken shelter should be thoroughly cleaned, the surface soil of the ground should be replaced, and the tools should be washed. The ground and tools inside the shelter should first be sprayed and soaked for disinfection with a 3%-5% Lysol aqueous solution, and then fumigation disinfection should be carried out, using 25 ml of formalin plus 12.5 g of potassium permanganate per cubic meter of space. For grassy hillsides and slopes where chickens have been raised before, a layer of slaked lime should first be spread on the ground, and then spraying disinfection should be carried out.
Management Methods for Free-Range Chickens Under the Forest
1. Determine a Reasonable Stocking Density and Stocking Time
According to the growth of understory vegetation, 20-50 chickens can be stocked per mu of land. If the density is too high, the underground vegetation will be severely damaged and difficult to restore. Generally, about 2 h after natural light begins, the flock is released into the woodland to be raised. If low-temperature weather occurs, the release time needs to be delayed, and during high summer temperatures, the chickens can be released earlier.
2. Signal Training for Stocking in the Site
Signal training begins after the brooding period ends. After 2-3 weeks of training, the flock develops a conditioned reflex. In order for the flock to form a stable conditioned reflex, this signal must be given at a relatively fixed time or when supplementary feeding is carried out. The training signal is mainly used for feeding and gathering the flock, and is generally used in the evening. When stocking in a small woodland, methods such as tapping wooden boards or making calls can be used. When the woodland is relatively large, a whistle is usually used; its sound is sharp and travels relatively far, which is beneficial for management.
3. Partitioned Stocking
Divide the understory into 4-6 small plots, and let the flock graze in one plot for 3-4 d, then move to the next plot for grazing, that is, using the method of rotational grazing, which is beneficial for vegetation recovery and disease control.
4. Feed Supplementation
During the stocking stage, the chickens should make full use of wild feed resources such as green grass, insects, and grass seeds. To ensure sufficient green forage during the stocking stage, each year select part of the site to plant forage grasses or crops such as winter forage grass, alfalfa, and clover, and after harvesting, provide them for the flock to eat. Wild feed is an important food for the stocked flock, but because its nutrition is not comprehensive, it easily causes nutritional deficiencies, so a certain amount of compound feed must be used for supplementation. To ensure that the growth of the flock meets the requirements of pollution-free green food, do not use ingredients other than nutritional additives when preparing the supplementary feed. When wild feed resources are abundant, supplement 30-50 g/d per chicken; when wild feed resources are insufficient, the supplement amount is 50-80 g/d per chicken. The supplementation time is generally in the evening when the flock enters the chicken coop. Determine the number of feed boxes at a ratio of one feed box per 30 chickens, and place them on the ground in front of the chicken coop.
Overview of Raising Chickens Under the Forest
Raising chickens under the forest is also called woodland chicken farming, which is a farming method in which chicks are raised indoors for a period of time and then, after they are weaned off heat, released into the woodland to be raised. It is basically similar to the traditional chicken farming model in the vast rural areas of our county, only it is more scientific and more standardized in terms of feeding and management.
Raising chickens under the forest has three major advantages: first, the woodland space is large and the air is good, which is conducive to health and results in fewer diseases; second, the woodland has abundant wild grass and insects, which supplement some food for the chickens and can reduce feed costs; third, the chickens have a large amount of activity in the woodland, which increases muscle toughness, reduces moisture, and makes the meat delicious and highly palatable.
As demand in the poultry product market increases day by day, people are no longer interested in cage-raised or confined improved-breed broiler products, and the mainstream of consumption has shifted to free-range local native-breed chickens. Judging from sales in markets across the country, the sales prospects for free-range native chickens look promising.
Our county has large mountains and few people, very rich woodland resources, and no industrial pollution at all, making it a natural treasure land for producing “green” food, with superior conditions for developing under-forest chicken farming. After two years, when the “Xihan” expressway is completed, it will provide convenient conditions for the transport of livestock and poultry products. Therefore, developing under-forest chicken farming will become a major industry in our county in the future.
Nutritional Value of Free-Range Chickens
1. Compared with the broiler chickens we raise, the meat of woodland free-range chickens is firmer, and the meat structure and nutritional proportions are more reasonable. The meat of woodland free-range chickens is rich in protein, trace elements, and various nutrients, and has a relatively low fat content. It has important value for our health care, is a meat product that we Chinese people relatively like, and belongs to high-protein meat.
2. Woodland free-range chickens are rich in amino acids. Amino acids play a very important role in the human body. They are the most basic substances that make up our body proteins and are related to life activities, are the basic units that make up protein molecules in organisms, are the basic substances of our life, and are closely related to human life activities. They are indispensable nutrients in our human body. These nutrients in the meat of woodland free-range chickens are of great significance to our human growth and development.
As stated above, I believe everyone has gained a certain understanding of under-forest free-range chicken techniques. In fact, if free-range chickens are managed well, the profits can be higher than those of confined chickens, because confined chickens greatly save on feed costs, and at the same time free-range chickens are more popular with everyone than confined chickens.