Veteran Carpenter Becomes a "Chicken Commander," Starts a New Career in Poultry Farming

In Shangjiaomen Village, Ganjian Town, Yuhuan, Master Huang Genling, a carpenter with over 30 years of experience, could be considered a first-rate craftsman. Last year, he actually quit his carpentry work and became a "chicken commander."

A few days ago, I visited Huang Genling's guinea fowl farm. On a plot of over 200 sq m, flocks of birds were pecking and frolicking. When someone came slightly close, these little creatures would suddenly take flight with a flapping sound. Up close, these guinea fowl, with gray bodies and regular round white spots, had longer necks than ordinary chickens and cheek flaps on their faces, looking somewhat like peacocks at first glance.

Why did Huang Genling, 52 this year, give up carpentry to become a "chicken commander"? He said carpentry earned him 200 yuan a day, but with fewer than 10 months of work per year, his total income was less than 60,000 yuan. His wife, Qin Lixiu, had injured her foot in a fall and could not work normally, so all the family expenses rested on him alone. He wanted to change careers and raise chickens at home, so he could care for his wife while earning a decent income. So, in March last year, he discussed with his wife and decided to stop doing carpentry. Afterward, he took 30,000 yuan in savings to Fujian and brought back more than 1,200 guinea fowl and 600 Gaolan gray laying hens.

"I introduced guinea fowl mainly because the birds raised here are usually local chickens and Sanhuang chickens. I wanted to raise a breed no one else had raised to increase profits," Huang Genling said. This bird rarely gets sick and is cold-resistant, eating only rice grain and coarse grains. Moreover, guinea fowl meat has relatively low cholesterol but higher nutritional value than ordinary chicken.

After several months of raising, chicks weighing two or three liang grew into finished birds weighing about two kilograms. Looking at the guinea fowl ready for market, Huang Genling felt quite pleased. However, sales were a worry for him.

"After the whole village was relocated from the high mountains, we raised our chickens at our own and my brother's homes. Because the location is remote, and when we took them to market, people didn't know this kind of bird and offered very low prices," Qin Lixiu said. "These birds are raised on rice grain. They can eat 16 buckets of rice grain a day, a full 150 jin. Costs are high, and if the price is too low we can't even recover costs. If we don't sell them soon, every extra day of feeding is another day of loss."

During the day, Huang Genling lets the birds range on the hillside, foraging in the woods, and only drives them into the coop at night. This not only saves money but also improves the meat quality.

Before the Spring Festival, after local media coverage, Huang Genling's chicken sales channels basically opened up. Currently, he has just over 700 guinea fowl left and 420 Gaolan gray laying hens.

That day, Huang Genling and his wife happily did the math for me: raising a chick to market age costs 75 to 80 yuan. If each sells for 150 yuan, there is a profit of nearly 50%. After deducting labor and other expenses, it is much better than carpentry used to be.

Now, these birds have high egg production, especially the Gaolan gray laying hens, each producing about 360 eggs in total, while guinea fowl produce 170-180 eggs each, and local chickens produce only 120-130. In terms of egg prices, Gaolan gray layer eggs sell for 60 yuan per kilogram, also about 20 yuan higher than ordinary eggs. Huang Genling said that for now they plan to use all the money saved from selling eggs for reinvestment, hatching chicks themselves and expanding the flock to several thousand birds.