Small free-range chickens pave a road to prosperity
"After these few free-range chickens at home are sold, I'll go get new chicks. This year's goal is to raise 2,000, doubling last year's sales." Watching the hens running in the fields and thinking that in 7 months 2,000 free-range chickens would be gathered around his feet, a slight smile tugged at the corner of Dai Weizhong's mouth. He told reporters that 2015 was a bumper year for his business, as the 1,000 free-range chickens he raised brought him a considerable income of 200,000.
Dai Weizhong, 30 this year, is a villager of Dongjia Village, Fuchun Town, Wuyuan County. He previously worked at a car wash in Yiwu, Zhejiang. In early June 2014, by a chance opportunity, he discovered that free-range chickens were very popular in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang market. A self-described man of action, he resolutely resigned from his position as manager of the car wash and returned home to raise free-range chickens, selling them back to Yiwu, Dongyang, Shanghai and other places.
A valley three li from the village, a low single-story house, a patch of flat land overgrown with wild grass, and a ditch clear to the bottom - this is Dai Weizhong's free-range chicken farm. "Chickens don't cling to the coop, they cling to the woods and hills; chickens raised free in nature are of better quality." He has always firmly believed this. The first batch of chicks arrived, 400 in total. Dai Weizhong, usually generous by nature, became especially stingy when feeding the chickens, giving them only a tiny bit of corn or rice a day. His second sister reminded him that giving the chickens so little feed every day would make them thinner and thinner. He patiently explained: "Chickens should diligently go into the fields to find insects and pick up rice ears. Free-range chickens that eat insects and grass taste more delicious."
When relatives and friends heard that Dai Weizhong was raising chickens in the mountains, they called one after another to buy some, and he turned them all down one by one, with no room for negotiation. "Chickens must be fully 7 months old before they can be sold. I run chicken farming as a career, quality must come first, and I absolutely cannot ruin my reputation for a bit of petty profit." The free-range chickens could not be sold for the time being, and orders already numbered more than 300. Neighbor Grandma Wang was the first to taste "Weizhong brand" free-range chicken. Mentioning the taste of that first sip of chicken soup, she praised it repeatedly: "It tastes good and is nutritious. My son and daughter-in-law both love drinking it. Our family buys several from him every year."
Last December, Shanghai resident Wu Peng learned the story of Dai Weizhong raising chickens and made a special trip to Dongjia Village to visit his free-range chicken farm. Wu Peng was very satisfied with the pristine ecological environment before his eyes and bought more than 20 chickens at once to take back to Shanghai. As the free-range chickens' fame outside grew and sales channels expanded, Dai Weizhong's confidence doubled: "This year I need to hire more hands to share the work of the chicken farm. On one hand, I can expand the scale of the farm; on the other hand, I can also lead the villagers to get rich together."