Starting a chicken farming business deep in the mountains: the story of "Chicken King" Guo Haisong chasing his dream
Surrounded by hillsides, with stretches of green trees and channels running between them, the rich and vast mountain forest resources give Taoyuan Village in Changpu Town, Susong County - a township of agriculture - a beauty, tranquility and serenity like that of a "Shangri-La," and also make it the top choice for young people returning home to start businesses. Guo Haisong, known as the "Chicken King," is one of them.
Before 2012, Guo Haisong, a native of Taoyuan Village in Changpu Town, like many young people born in the 1980s in the area, joined the tide of migrant workers. During 11 years of working away from home, he worked as a painter and a sewing machine operator. With a spirit of hard work and willingness to take on challenges, he quickly lifted his family out of poverty and accumulated savings of tens of thousands of yuan.
In 2011, he saw online that a farmer from elsewhere had persisted for ten consecutive years in free-range egg-laying hen farming in the mountain forests and had now become a local model of prosperity. The stretches of pine forest back home were perfectly suited to free-range egg-laying hens, and the hens raised there and the eggs they produced had low costs, a fresh taste and high nutritional value. Having loved raising animals since childhood, he immediately conceived the idea of returning home to start a business.
In January 2012, carrying his entrepreneurial dream, he resolutely gave up his career outside. When the villagers learned he was going to return home to start a business, they unanimously agreed to provide him, free of charge, with the 1,700-mu pine hill belonging to the group for raising egg-laying hens. In February of the same year, with the blessings and expectations of the villagers, he built a simple free-range egg-laying hen base in this pine forest and purchased 500 egg-laying hens in one go.
Anyone who knows about farming knows that disease prevention is the top priority in the farming process and requires a great deal of effort, otherwise success is difficult. Xiao Guo understood this well. With only a junior high school education, he quickly mastered farming techniques by strengthening his online learning, and through constant practice he figured out the best methods for treating chicken intestinal diseases and respiratory diseases.
With the guarantee of technical know-how, his free-range egg-laying hen operation succeeded in that very year, growing from 500 hens in the first year to 1,500 in the second year and 4,000 in the third year. By 2015 it had grown to 10,700 hens, with egg production reaching 600,000 eggs and annual net income above 200,000 yuan. In 2015, he successfully applied for a registered trademark for his native eggs.
Xiao Guo is especially hardworking. Every February, after buying newly hatched chicks from elsewhere, he personally stays on duty in the chicken shed, adjusting the temperature, clearing the piled-up chicks and preventing the chicks from getting frostbitten or trampled. He kept this up for three consecutive all-nighters.
Vaccinating the chicks is even less something to be careless about. Within two months of the chicks hatching, he gave the chicks vaccinations in turn every seven days, and at the busiest times he injected 3,000 chicks with vaccines in a single day. After that, he gave the chickens avian influenza vaccinations in turn once every two months until the chickens were ready for market. From 2012 to now, at the key stages, he has always done the work himself. He said that vaccinating the chickens himself, first, can lower farming costs; second, helps him fully grasp the health status of the chickens; and third, allows him to accumulate farming experience from it.
The feed Xiao Guo gives his egg-laying hens is all corn, rice and rice bran bought from local villagers' homes, with no contamination whatsoever. Because the egg-laying hens and eggs he raises are of good quality and taste delicious, customers ordering online and ordering at his door keep coming, and the products are in short supply every day. For online orders, he uses new media platforms such as QQ and WeChat to sell the products directly to eight provinces and municipalities including Shanghai, Zhejiang and Guangzhou.
After seeing his success in returning home to start a business, some local young people who had long struggled away from home also wanted to return home to go into poultry farming, but were frustrated by not knowing the techniques and not being able to find sales channels. When he learned of this, he took the initiative to lend a hand. With his help, all 5 returning young people successfully set up their own free-range egg-laying hen bases. In December 2014, he joined with 5 bases to establish a poultry farming professional cooperative; not long ago, he was awarded the title of "Science and Technology Demonstration Household" by the county.
When drinking water, one should not forget those who dug the well. After succeeding in business, he did not forget to give back to society and to the elders and fellow villagers who cared about him. Starting in 2014, he insisted on giving fresh native eggs to several local nursing homes, and last year alone he donated 3,000 native eggs.
In the eyes of the villagers, Guo Haisong is simply a "Chicken King." All year round, he is with the chickens almost every day; every morning, he carries bags full of feed on his shoulder and heads into the dense pine forest. Before a single shout has even faded, flocks of egg-laying hens, like stars surrounding the moon, run over from all directions and surround him...
"Next year I will build a base with a farming scale of up to 50,000 hens, and strive to push annual egg production past 3 million eggs..." Speaking of future development, "Chicken King" Guo Haisong is full of confidence.
(People's Daily Online)