Bamboo Grove Free-Range Chickens Fulfill Laid-Off Workers' Dream of Prosperity

Along the Cizhang Highway in Jiulichong, Shichuan Village, Jinzibai Town, Qimen County, the sign for "Bamboo Grove Free-Range Chickens" is very eye-catching, with flocks of free-range chickens chasing, foraging and playing in the Lei bamboo grove. This is the under-forest free-range chicken breeding base of the couple Huang Qisong and Liu Liqin, and also the place where they fulfilled their dream of prosperity.

In 2003, due to enterprise restructuring, Huang Qisong and his wife were both laid off, and their life suddenly fell into hardship. In order to make a living, they contracted a Lei bamboo grove in Shichuan Village, Jinzibai Town, with an area of 24 mu. Due to poor management in the early stage, the Lei bamboo grove grew poorly and basically had no economic benefits. After contracting it, they worked from early morning to late at night, adopting measures such as ditching, weeding, fertilizing, and covering with straw in winter. After careful management, three years later the Lei bamboo grove became closed and formed a forest, with gratifying growth, and could obtain a net income of 30,000 yuan per year. The couple's life improved.

Huang Qisong and his wife realized that fertilizing the Lei bamboo grove every year was a considerable expense, so they tried raising chickens in the bamboo grove and using chicken manure to increase the fertility of the bamboo grove. In 2013, they bought 500 chickens and raised them free-range in the bamboo forest. After raising chickens, they found that the weeds and insects in the bamboo forest were gone, the Lei bamboo grew better, and the amount of bamboo shoots produced also increased. Moreover, because it was beside the Cizhang Highway, passersby often stopped to take a look and buy some free-range chickens and free-range eggs, which quickly sold out. That year alone, the net income from free-range chickens was more than 20,000 yuan. Having tasted the benefits, they learned from experienced teachers while raising funds to expand the breeding scale, and the next year they released 3,000 chickens. Because the free-range chickens and free-range eggs raised in the bamboo grove were delicious, green and ecological, and highly nutritious, customers all came to buy them on site or place orders in advance, and there was no worry about sales at all. In the past two years, the net income of Huang Qisong and his wife from raising free-range chickens and operating the bamboo grove has exceeded 100,000 yuan every year.

Just after this year's Spring Festival, Huang Qisong and his wife became busy again, cleaning the bamboo grove and chicken coops, preparing to release another 5,000 chickens this year. Liu Liqin said that national policies are now good, and the county is also vigorously developing under-forest economy, so it seems there is great promise in this line of work. She is full of confidence in their future life.