A skilled chicken farmer who gained wealth has initially built a small family chicken farm
Rao Bingzhu, a farmer from Liuling Village, Daxingzhou, Xingan County, took the road out of poverty to wealth through scientific chicken farming. Since last year, he has raised more than 8,000 partridge chickens, with an average profit of 6 yuan per chicken, and income from chicken farming reached more than 48,000 yuan,goose farmingmore than 3,000 geese, with a profit of 10 yuan per goose,goose farmingincome of more than 30,000 yuan, and he was selected by local people as the "Chicken Farming Champion."
Raising chickens in rice paddies requires little investment, has low costs, simple equipment, and low demands for chicken coops; in addition, the chickens grow quickly, have a high egg production rate, show results quickly, and bring large returns. So he raised funds from all sides, traveled to Xi County and bought more than 2,000 chicks, preparing to make a big effort. However, due to a lack of scientific feeding techniques, an outbreak of chicken plague killed half the chicks at once. Facing this sudden blow, Rao Bingzhu wanted to cry but had no tears. After all, Rao Bingzhu was a tough man, and he quickly freed himself from the pain. Through calm reflection, he realized that his failure was due to suffering losses from not understanding science and technology. Wherever he fell, he would get up from there. Afterward, Rao Bingzhu actively participated in the chicken farming training class for cross-century young farmers held by the Agricultural Broadcasting and Television School of the County Agriculture Bureau, and systematically studied and mastered practical techniques such as raising chickens in rice paddies, feed formulas, rapid fattening, improving egg production rates, chick disease prevention, and disease prevention for adult chickens.
He raised the chickens strictly according to the chicken farming techniques he had learned, and regularly carried out disease vaccination for the chicks. Every day he followed the flock, checking the color, thickness, and smell of the chicken droppings, analyzing the causes of chicken illness, and promptly using medicine for treatment. From long-term observation and practice, Rao Bingzhu developed a set of disease prevention methods for diagnosing conditions based on the droppings of partridge chickens, promptly carrying out disease prevention and treatment for the flock, and ensuring the normal growth of the young chickens. As the young chickens grew day by day and their food intake increased, Rao Bingzhu adopted the method of feeding scientifically formulated feed, carrying out mixed feeding with a combination of coarse, fine, and green feed, feeding high-protein cornmeal along with wheat bran, soybean cake, green feed, additives, deworming and health-care agents, and so on, to promote rapid fattening of the adult chickens.
To save feed, he also combined natural free-range raising with feed feeding, driving the flock into the rice paddies to eat green grass and aquatic larvae, which helped the chickens take in trace elements from nature, accumulate nutrition, and promote early egg laying by the hens. In this way, by raising chickens in rice paddies, Rao Bingzhu could not only prevent public harm caused by the application of pesticides, but also lower the production cost of rice and supplement the chickens' feed. At the same time, using the chickens for intertillage weeding and insect catching and fertilization was also not harmful to the growth of rice.
It is reported that under Rao Bingzhu's careful raising, 6,700 of the 7,000 chicks survived, and 80% of the hens laid eggs that same year, with income of more than 50,000 yuan that year. After the beginning of spring in 2012, while raising chickens, Rao Bingzhu also hatched more than 2,000 chicks, then bought another 6,000, reaching a chicken farming scale of 8,000 chickens, and initially built a small family chicken farm, thus embarking on the road to wealth.