Free-Range Native Chicken Experience: How to Raise High-Quality Native Chickens

1. Select good breeds. Choose to raise well-known local breeds with thin skin and fine bones, plump muscles, tender meat, strong stress resistance, and small to medium body size.

2. Focus on grazing. Brood chicks indoors for 30-40 days, then move them to a shed for rearing. Generally, start grazing at 30 days of age in summer, 45 days of age in spring, and 65 days of age in cold winter. Grazing sites should preferably be orchards, tea gardens, bamboo or woodlands, or corn fields with dry terrain, shelter from wind and sun, a quiet environment, convenient drinking water, no pollution, and no wild animal hazards, so that the chickens can eat insects and grass in the garden and also provide organic fertilizer to the crops. In addition, rain shelters, sand baths, and similar facilities should be built at the grazing site so the chickens can rest and take dust baths. The size of each flock should preferably be 600-1,000 birds. For ease of centralized management, the pasture should be enclosed with nylon netting. In this way, the chickens can scratch for food in the field without restraint, and only need feed scattered in the field once a day, then be driven into the shed at night.

3. Feed skillfully. During the brooding period, native chickens should be fed a complete formula feed, using the method of small meals more frequently to keep the chicks in a strong appetite state at all times, so as to promote chick growth and development. During the growing and grazing periods, feed more green fodder, coarse grains, and agricultural by-products. In the middle and later stages, an appropriate amount of sprouted grain can be fed daily to increase nutrition, improve meat quality, and reduce feed costs.

4. Strict disease prevention and deworming. Pay attention to preventing coccidiosis. Generally, it is best to prevent it once each at 15 days of age and 35 days of age. To expel coccidia, use 300 grams each of water pepper, purslane, and garlic, chop them, mix with feed, or boil in water and feed to the chickens. Usually, add an appropriate amount of Chinese herbal medicines such as isatis root, Andrographis paniculata, honeysuckle, wild chrysanthemum, and forsythia to the feed, and try to control the amount of Western medicines to reduce drug residues.