Blue peafowl farming paves a beautiful road to prosperity

In Azhe Dazhai Group, Mopi Village, Pingdian Township, Xinping County, Yuxi City, there is a large-scale blue peafowl farmer named Yu Guangzong. After 8 years of painstaking exploration and practice, he mastered a set of techniques for farming peafowl, set up his own breeding base, gradually expanded its scale, and achieved good economic returns.

Yu Guangzong's blue peafowl breeding base is located on a small hill opposite Azhe Dazhai in Mopi Village. The author saw that the base, covering more than 1000 sq m, is divided into 6 peafowl sheds. The blue peafowl stroll leisurely, or perch on wooden frames, or spread their wings and dance, their colorful feathers gleaming in the sunlight, truly beautiful.

"I now have more than 400 blue peafowl here." Yu Guangzong explained that peafowl are divided into two kinds, green peafowl and blue peafowl. The green peafowl is a national first-class protected animal, and artificial breeding and sale are prohibited. What he raises is the blue peafowl, a special breeding project promoted by the forestry department.

In 2008, Yu Guangzong bought more than 10 blue peafowl in Kunming and began farming them. At first, the villagers all found it strange, and almost no one believed he could succeed. Yu Guangzong said that both his family and the people around him were opposed, because this kind of special breeding is not like raising pigs or chickens; it carries certain risks in both technology and sales.

At the beginning of farming, due to lack of experience, some peafowl died. Later, through seeking advice from many sources and studying, Yu Guangzong gradually grasped the peafowl's living habits, feeding patterns and epidemic prevention techniques, and the peafowl grew healthier day by day. As his breeding techniques gradually matured, Yu Guangzong also upgraded from a layman to a breeding expert.

Yu Guangzong said that each female peafowl lays about 30 eggs per year, and the eggs are mainly used as breeding eggs to hatch young peafowl. To ensure the survival rate, Yu Guangzong also deliberately spent a large sum of money to buy an intelligent incubator so as to control temperature and humidity at any time. Peafowl eggs are much larger than chicken eggs, and their incubation period is 27 to 28 days, after which they are transferred to a brooding room for brooding.

Speaking of future development, Yu Guangzong said confidently: "In 2016, the economic income from peafowl farming reached more than 100,000 yuan, but I think there is still room for development. Next, relying on the strong support of the Pingdian Township Party Committee and Government and the ecological, beautiful scenery of Azhe Dazhai in Mopi Village, I plan to double the farming area, increase the number of peafowl to more than 1000, and achieve an annual income of more than 200,000 yuan."