Is raising free-range chickens to get rich a pipe dream or a viable path?

Sitting on the sofa right now, thinking back on last year's experience raising free-range chickens, I can't say I lost everything, but at the very least it left me utterly discouraged! At the beginning of last year, full of great enthusiasm and dreams, I set up a chicken coop in my own orchard, improved the fencing, and prepared to make free-range chicken farming a new focus of my work.

After a month of preliminary preparation, all the infrastructure was ready. I personally went to a poultry company to select chicks, about 3000 in total across all the breeds. Looking at these little lives, I began to envision all kinds of wonderful futures. I raised them carefully every day, feeding them entirely on pure grain and never adding any commercial feed, all because I wanted to build an authentic free-range chicken brand. As time went on, I went through all kinds of difficulties such as natural disasters and diseases, and watched the little chicks grow into big roosters, eagerly looking forward to the harvest season that was about to arrive.

At this point I started looking for sales channels. I tried taking some chickens to the vegetable market to sell, but once I looked into it I found that the market price was only about 15 yuan per jin, while my selling price was 25 per jin. People would ask the price and just walk away, not even giving you a chance to haggle. Later I thought of selling through the internet. Through promotion on WeChat, Weibo and various other self-media, free-range chicken sales made some breakthroughs, orders increased quite a bit, and the retail price was guaranteed. But my free-range chickens had all grown up at the same time, and more than 2000 finished chickens had to be sold in a concentrated period in the short term, which was extremely stressful. If I kept raising them, the daily grain cost alone would be several hundred yuan; if I sold them cheap, it wouldn't be worth it. I was truly caught in a dilemma.

After weighing my options, I still sold off all these free-range chickens at a discount. My relatives all thought that raising so many chickens must have made money, but only I knew the bitterness of it. After a hard year, I didn't make any money and was worn out to boot. I just want to say one thing: "Free-range chickens, it's not easy to say I love you."

I also dedicate this article to those friends who are preparing to go back to the countryside to develop their careers. Agricultural products may be good, but selling them is enormously difficult, so be sure to think it over carefully before acting.

Friends engaged in agriculture are welcome to get in touch. WeChat: 18323090644