Key Points of Free-Range Chicken Farming Techniques and Daily Feeding Management Methods
are among the more common semi-native chicken breeds on the market today. Why call them semi-native breeds? Because when free-range chickens are raised in large batches, they still need to be fed some commercial feed; otherwise, the chickens will develop poorly due to limited food. Qinong Network is here to walk you through how free-range chickens are raised.
1. Chicken Coop Construction
The chicken coop should be divided into two parts: an outdoor free-range area and an indoor rearing area. Generally speaking, the outdoor free-range area is a large enclosed plot of land, mostly covered with various weeds, allowing the chickens to forage on their own daily so as to preserve their wild nature and the tenderness of their meat. The indoor coop generally requires more careful attention: first, the tiers must be designed to prevent chicken droppings from the upper level from falling to the lower level; second, during the chick stage, weeds should be spread as bedding for warmth and cleaned out every 2 days. The indoor coop especially needs attention to ventilation and sanitation to avoid triggering disease.
2. Chick Management
Chicks are the most sensitive and vulnerable to temperature, and a single misstep can kill them. The most suitable temperature for chicks is around 30°C; any lower can easily cause mass deaths. Before raising chicks in the coop, it must be disinfected in advance, ideally by spraying every part, and then left to dry for 3-4 days. The feeding area must always remain visible so the chicks can easily eat and drink. Generally, lighting should be kept at 12 hours of bright light, 6 hours of dim light, and 6 hours of darkness. At this stage, the feed must be concentrated feed to ensure high nutrition. This provides the chicks with the best living and resting conditions, which is conducive to healthy growth.
3. Adult Chicken Management
Once free-range chickens reach adulthood, they are mainly raised by free-range foraging, supplemented with daily feed. They are generally let out for about 10 hours a day, varying with the season and shorter in winter. In the outdoor free-range area, to maintain the chickens' vitality, they can be driven around at irregular intervals each day to keep them alert, which is even more beneficial for improving meat quality. If there are hens used for egg production, they need to be raised separately, and their daily feed can include more kudzu vine grass, rice hull powder, and other forage that helps increase egg production.
4. Precautions
Once a free-range chicken is found to be listless, it must be isolated promptly to avoid affecting more chickens. Normally, vaccinations should be given on schedule. Chickens are among the poultry with relatively poor disease resistance, and generally require more than two vaccinations. At night, the coop must be kept quiet; sounds in the dark are most likely to startle and frighten free-range chickens. In such situations, the chickens will run around or crowd against one another, causing some of them to be injured or even die.
Free-range chickens are currently a fairly popular poultry breed to raise, and raising them is very promising. However, we also need to manage them carefully. The early stage of raising free-range chickens is quite energy-consuming, but once you get through it, the later stage is like spring.