Farming Rainbow Pheasants Opens the Door to Prosperity in Hecheng, Hunan

"Look, the pretty ones are the males, and the ones next to them are the females. People are already coming to buy them one after another now, 300 yuan for a pair." On November 1, Zhang Baiyu of the Liujiaping Special Breeding Farm in Yuanlong Village, Huangjinao Town, Hecheng District, said this with a face full of joy as she talked about the Rainbow Pheasants she raises.

Rainbow Pheasants not only have delicious meat and rich nutrition, but also have medicinal value in tonifying the middle and boosting qi, and strengthening the spleen to stop diarrhea. When it comes to raising Rainbow Pheasants, Zhang Baiyu really put in a lot of effort. By a chance opportunity, she learned from watching TV news that Rainbow Pheasants could be raised at home, so she discussed it with her family, and after further consulting materials, Zhang Baiyu made up her mind to give it a try. Zhang Baiyu said: "After a period of investigation, I found that no one in Huangjinao Town, Hecheng District was raising Rainbow Pheasants. I went home and discussed it with my husband and children, and felt this could be done." Once you have an idea, you must put it into action. In order to learn more about the market conditions for Rainbow Pheasants, Zhang Baiyu sent her eldest son Han Tongqing to study for half a month at a breeding company in another place. In March 2016, Zhang Baiyu's 1,000 chicks were transported home. Because Rainbow Pheasant chicks need an indoor temperature of about 35 degrees, at the beginning, Zhang Baiyu could not control it accurately, which caused some chicks to die. Zhang Baiyu said: "At the beginning this year I had no experience, and of the 1,000 chicks only more than 900 survived. The chicks survived, but as for the technical aspects, Zhang Baiyu was still 'in the dark.' She said: "When the chicks should be vaccinated, what should be noted when feeding them, I did not know. Before, I could only call the company that sold the chicks, or check online." Now it is better. He Guobai, a breeding expert from the Hecheng District Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Bureau, often comes here to guide epidemic prevention."

Figure 1: Zhang Baiyu feeding the Rainbow Pheasants

Watching the chicks grow day by day, Zhang Baiyu had indescribable joy. She said: "These are all 'children' I carefully nurtured. I remember once several chickens caught colds. During the day it was hard to find them and hard to distinguish them, so at night my children and I took flashlights and checked them one by one, separating out the sick chickens." After 7 months of raising, these chickens were all ready for market, but not many people knew about Rainbow Pheasants, so Zhang Baiyu posted some advertisements on the street or brought the chickens to the market. So far she has sold 50. Zhang Baiyu said: "In order to let these chickens better retain their wild nature, I did not clip their wings. I built a net canopy to let them fly freely; and in terms of feeding, I only feed them some corn or vegetable leaves." Zhang Baiyu calculated an account for the reporter: one chick costs 10 yuan, and these chickens now eat about 2,500 yuan worth of corn a month. If they can all be sold, she can earn about 35,000 yuan. Zhang Baiyu said: "If I cannot sell them all, I will keep them to lay eggs next year, and then hatch chicks to reduce costs."

Figure 2: Rainbow Pheasants enjoying a sand bath

As for her future plans, Zhang Baiyu said: "I plan to increase the number and variety of Rainbow Pheasants a bit more, and build a bigger shed. Through special breeding, I want to live a happy life."