What are the precautions for free-range native chickens in large areas of mountain forest?
When native chickens are free-ranged in large areas of mountain forest, the chickens can effectively control forest pests, and their droppings can provide high-quality organic fertilizer for the growth of the trees, saving feed costs, fertilizer costs and pest and disease control costs, forming a good ecological cycle. The precautions for free-range native chickens in large areas of mountain forest are as follows:
1. The trees should not be too dense and lush. Too much shade is not good for the coloring of the chickens' combs (because the appearance quality of native chickens is the most important thing when they are marketed). You should choose a place where the trees are relatively sparse, or thin out some trees to artificially improve the rearing environment.
2. When the mountain forest area is large, the vegetation inside is generally relatively lush and the ecological environment is relatively intact, so it is inevitable that there will be some predatory wild animals and birds of prey in the woods, such as wild cats, foxes, weasels, wild dogs and hawks. Preventive measures must be taken in this regard, and the pens should be built more solidly. Having a few chickens eaten by these things is still a small matter; especially at night, if such a creature suddenly breaks into the chicken pen, the flock will be startled, leading to many chickens being trampled and crushed to death or injury, causing unnecessary losses.
3. Do not assume that because the free-range forest land is large, you can ignore the damage the flock does to the mountain forest ecological environment. In fact, when the flock is too large or the rearing period is long, the damage the flock does to the surrounding ecological environment cannot be ignored, especially in areas where the ecological environment has a poor self-regulating ability. After each batch of chickens is marketed, the site should be allowed to rest for a period of time before the next batch of chickens is brought in, practicing rotational grazing. Of course, this requires building several more pens for rotational rearing. This not only reduces the damage the flock does to the forest ecology, giving the damaged ground surface time to grow small grasses and wild vegetables so that the vegetation can briefly recover and the ecological balance can self-regulate, but also provides a certain amount of green forage for the next batch of chickens.
4. At the same time, attention must also be paid to chicken immunization and site disinfection. Do not assume that because the site is large you can ignore these most fundamental preventive measures. Once any one link is not done properly, the consequences that follow will cause you heavy losses and you will lose your entire capital.