What should be noted when raising free-range chickens in a woodland?
Add insulation and lighting facilities
Erect windbreaks around the chicken coop, keep the floor inside the coop clean and spread bedding straw, seal the doors and windows properly, and at night lower straw curtains for insulation or light a fire for heating so that the room temperature is always kept above 10°C. If the number of native chickens being raised is small, they can be driven back indoors at night.
Coop facilities and stocking density
There must be a run outside the coop, and resting perches must be set up inside the coop; the stocking density should preferably be 5 birds per sq m. Before letting the chickens out in the morning, pay attention to adjusting the temperature difference between inside and outside the coop; you can first open the coop doors and windows to let the flock go through a process of adapting to the cold outside air, and then let them out into the run to prevent them from catching cold. Normally, feed them with hanging feeders, that is, place feed and vegetables up high to encourage them to move, aid digestion, and make the chickens strong. Keep lighting for 13 to 14 hours every day, and turn on electric lights for lighting when natural light is insufficient.
It is advisable to increase feeding frequency in winter
Increasing the number of feedings can ensure that every chicken eats enough, which both helps them generate their own heat and helps them gain weight. Feeding with baijiu mixed into the feed: add 30 to 40 grams of baijiu of about 60 degrees to each kilogram of feed, mix well and feed, which can increase the laying rate of native chickens by about 18% and also enhance their disease resistance. Diversify the feed: the concentrated feed for native chickens should mainly be corn, sorghum, wheat bran, etc., and the green feed should mainly be carrots, cabbage, spinach, etc. During the laying period, native chickens should also be fed protein and mineral feeds such as soybean cake, cornmeal, shell powder, and fish bone meal, and sufficient drinking water must be guaranteed every day.
Make full use of feed additives: adding 0.05% choline chloride, 0.15% methionine, and an appropriate amount of natural yeast essence to the feed can increase the laying rate by about 3%. Do a good job of disinfection and epidemic prevention: frequently clean manure and debris from the chicken pen, regularly replace the litter in the run or coop, keep the coop dry and hygienic, and usually pay attention to frequently disinfecting with Lysol solution and mixing Chinese herbal medicine into the feed, or use a 0.5% potassium permanganate solution for drinking water.
At present, many farming households still use traditional methods to raise local native chickens. With this method of "a dou of rice to raise a jin of chicken," although the chickens raised are appropriately fat and lean, with firm meat, especially good taste, high price, and easy to sell, the survival rate is low, the raising cycle is long, feed consumption is high, results are slow, and income is low. If the following points are done well in feeding and management, it can not only make the chickens' feathers glossy and ensure the meat quality and taste, but also increase the survival rate, shorten the raising cycle, reduce feed consumption, produce quick results, and increase income.
Structure of the chicken coop
An old house can be renovated, or a separate chicken coop can be built. Inside the chick coop, install elastic plastic netting or bamboo woven netting, with a mesh diameter of 1 cm and a net height of about 100 cm above the ground. If an old house is renovated, lighting windows and ground windows should be opened at the front and back. The lighting windows should be 150 cm above the ground, and the ground windows 20 cm above the ground.
Do a good job of preparation before the chicks arrive
For a coop converted from an old house, whitewash the inner four walls and the top with thick limewater 1-2 times. Whether the coop is renovated or newly built, it must be strictly disinfected, hygiene must be well managed, and the temperature regulation and ventilation facilities in the coop must be verified.
Source of chicks
To reduce pathogens brought in by outside chickens and to achieve pure breeds, it is best to keep breeding chickens oneself and breed chicks oneself.
1. Select breeding chickens that are pure native chickens with glossy feathers, robust health, and fast growth. Hens should weigh about 1.6 kg, and roosters should preferably weigh 1.6-2.25 kg, with a male-to-female ratio of 1:10. Brother-sister chickens should not be used as breeding chickens.
2. When farming households use hens to hatch chicks, in order to make the chicks uniform in age, besides feeding evenly and on time with guaranteed quality, hens that hatch earlier should be made to sit empty (no eggs placed in the nest), but the empty sitting time should not exceed 7 days. For medium- and large-scale raising, incubators should be used to hatch chicks.
Scientific management
1. When chicks enter the brooding room, keep 50 per sq m in the first week, and separate them into groups; spread fresh, clean dry rice straw on the elastic plastic netting or bamboo woven netting. The thickness of the straw should be such that chick manure can fall through the gaps to the ground. In the second week, keep 40 per sq m and remove the straw so that chicken manure falls directly through the mesh to the ground. In the third week, keep 30 per sq m, and afterward 10.
2. Raise chicks in groups according to age in days, strength, size, and sex.
3. The coop temperature should be 32°C in the first week, then decrease by 2.5°C each week, and when it reaches the natural temperature of 21°C, stop supplemental heating.
4. Use an intermittent lighting method with a 4-hour cycle of 1 hour of light and 3 hours of darkness, so that the chickens' activity and rest are moderate, promoting the growth of native chickens and improving feed utilization rate, while also saving electricity. The light intensity should refer to the light intensity of the daylighting windows during the day.
5. Chicks can only be put out to pasture at 25 days of age; this is one of the important factors for ensuring a high survival rate.
Disease prevention measures should focus on prevention
Observe the flock's feeding and drinking conditions every day. Medium and large chickens spend the night on perches, in rows and pairs, each in its place, which makes it easier to regularly check the chicken manure and identify the corresponding sick chickens. In addition, sick chickens cannot fly up onto the perches when entering the coop; when the flock goes out, sick chickens will also not fly off the perches; seriously ill chickens will fall off the perches, and sick chickens can be identified on this basis. Sick chickens found must be isolated immediately. Manure cleaning should be done once a week. Grazing is strictly prohibited in rain or snow to avoid wetting the chickens' feathers and causing them to catch cold. The grazing site should be checked in advance, and any dead animals found should be promptly taken far away and discarded to prevent the flock from being poisoned.