Methods and Techniques for Free-Range Native Chickens in Mountainous Areas
In hilly, low-mountain and grassy slope areas with good ecological conditions, native chickens are raised mainly by free-range grazing supplemented with feed. This method requires little investment, commands a high selling price, and meets the requirements for green, pollution-free food, making it very popular with consumers. It is a practical, pollution-free chicken-raising technique well worth promoting on a large scale.
I. Choosing the Mountain Area
Choose a pollution-free site far from residential areas, industrial and mining areas and main roads, with a quiet environment and clean air, ideally mountain woodland with shrub thickets, thorny scrub or broadleaf forest, and preferably hilly or mountainous terrain whose slope is not too steep.
????II. Building the Coop
In the free-range area, find a flat, wind-sheltered, sunny spot and use bamboo, bark, color steel, felt or canvas to build a simple chicken coop facing south by making use of the terrain; a plastic greenhouse can also be built. The coop only needs to keep in warmth, block wind, keep out rain and not accumulate water.
????III. Free-Range Scale
The seasonal free-range scale is best kept at 500-1000 birds per flock; too large a flock is hard to manage, while too small a flock yields low returns. About 100 birds per mu of mountain land is suitable, and an "all-in, all-out" system should be used at marketing. The free-range density depends on the conditions of the mountain woodland; where there is plenty of shrub and grass, the stocking density can be increased appropriately.
The suitable season for free-ranging is from late spring to mid-autumn; at other times, free-ranging should be stopped because of low temperatures and fewer insects and grasses.
????IV. Free-Range Methods
For native chicken breeds, choose breeds such as the Three-Yellow chicken, the native Silkie, the Jiuyuan Black chicken and the Daheng series broilers. Before 3-4 weeks of age, rear the chicks artificially just as with ordinary brooding, choosing a room with good insulation; after they are off heat, move them to the mountain woodland for free-ranging. To help the chicks develop the habit of going up the hill to forage as early as possible, carry out guiding training up the hill every morning. Generally two people are needed: one goes ahead blowing a whistle to clear the way and scattering pelleted feed so the chickens follow and scramble for it, while the other drives them from behind with a bamboo pole until all of them have gone up the hill. To reinforce the effect, at noon each day you can blow the whistle on the hill to give one supplementary feeding, and the keeper should also persist in promptly driving back to the coop any chickens that return early, and control the range of the flock's activity, until in the evening the same method is used for training them to return to the coop. After about a week of such training, the flock will establish the conditioned reflex of "whistle - feeding," and afterwards they will come as soon as the whistle is blown.
????V. Free-Range Management
For the first few days of free-ranging, to prevent stress, a certain amount of electrolyte multivitamins or compound vitamins can be added to the feed or drinking water. To ensure the quality and safety of the free-range chickens, antibiotics and deworming drugs are prohibited in the month before sale.