Experience and Techniques for Raising Native Chickens in Mountain Greenhouse Farming
In recent years, farmers in mountainous areas have built chicken coops according to their own different conditions and local circumstances, raising different types of native chickens, and have achieved good social, ecological and economic benefits. The relevant techniques for raising native chickens in mountain greenhouses are introduced as follows:
Site selection
The chicken farm should preferably be sited far from villages yet with convenient transportation, facing south, sheltered from wind and exposed to sun, with abundant water resources, easy to manage, in a shape like a jug mouth (narrow at the entrance, broad in the interior), and on a hillside with a slope below 25 degrees. Such a place facilitates epidemic prevention for chicken diseases as well as the transport of materials and products, and gives the chickens sufficient range of activity and food sources, which is beneficial to their growth.
Construction of greenhouse chicken coops
The construction of greenhouse chicken coops should follow the principles of being economical and practical, convenient and flexible, and using local materials. Bamboo, wooden strips (offcuts from sawing boards), plastic film, shade netting, reflective paper, etc. are used as the main building materials. Farmers raising native chickens in mountain free-range systems generally build a two-tier chicken coop occupying 132 sq m. The coop is 22 m long, 6 m wide, and 2.3-2.5 m high; the internal structure uses bamboo made into support frames, with wooden strips from sawing board offcuts as flooring boards, constructing a middle tier 0.6 m above the ground and an upper tier 0.6 m above the middle tier, thus forming a multi-tiered, dry and clean habitat for native chickens. A two-tier chicken greenhouse with a total area of about 260 sq m (the middle and upper tiers combined) can raise 3000-3500 native chickens per batch.
Requirements for chicks
1. Chick seedlings must be purchased from regular hatcheries with production licenses. Select healthy chicks that move nimbly, have loud calls, glossy bright feathers, no navel buttons, and do not huddle together. After hatching, they should be vaccinated against Marek's disease and transported to the coop within 24 hours. After the chicks enter the brooding room, insulation work must be done well, raising 40-50 chicks per sq m (density gradually reduced thereafter), maintaining the room temperature in the range of 32 degrees C to 30 degrees C, then lowering it by 2 degrees C each week; after 25-30 days, they are taken off heat and released to the hills, and brought into the greenhouse at night for rearing. 2. Chicks should drink water before being fed. Add antibiotics and vitamins to the drinking water and let them drink for 3 consecutive days to strengthen the native chickens' constitution and improve disease resistance. 3. Chicks should be fed complete pellet feed.
Management
Free-range native chickens aged 30-50 days are raised and managed according to their growth stage. Based on the characteristics of free-range native chickens at this stage, such as wide food intake, tolerance of coarse feed, and fast growth, various agricultural by-products can be fed in larger amounts, such as okara, bran and wheat, paddy rice, corn, soybean cake, rapeseed cake, soybean powder and other coarse and concentrated feeds, with appropriate additional feeding of trace elements. Feed proportions: grains 55%-65%, plant legumes 15%-25%, brans 5%-10%, plus other feeds. Do not feed animal-based feed.
Disease prevention and control
In mountain greenhouse rearing of native chickens, although diseases occur relatively rarely, the principle of comprehensive prevention and control with prevention as the priority must still be implemented. According to the immunization program for native chickens, chicks must be subcutaneously injected with Marek's disease vaccine within 24 hours; at 7 days of age, perform nasal drops or drinking water administration of Newcastle disease virus TV strain vaccine and infectious bronchitis H120 vaccine; at 14 days of age, subcutaneously inject avian influenza vaccine; at 21 days of age, administer drinking water with attenuated infectious bursal disease vaccine and Newcastle disease virus TV strain vaccine; at 30 days of age, perform wing-web stab vaccination against fowl pox; at 35 days of age, administer infectious bronchitis H52 vaccine via drinking water; at 45 days of age, subcutaneously inject avian influenza vaccine; at 60 days of age, intramuscularly inject Newcastle disease strain I vaccine or inactivated vaccine; for native laying hens, 2 weeks before laying, subcutaneously inject avian influenza vaccine and combined vaccines against egg drop syndrome, Newcastle disease, infectious bronchitis, etc. In addition, according to the actual situation of free-range native chickens in the mountains, during 15-60 days of age, alternate the use of anticoccidial drugs or traditional Chinese medicine to prevent and treat coccidiosis; before release and at 15-20 days after release and every month thereafter, deworming drugs should be administered to prevent and treat the occurrence of nematode disease in native chickens.