Jia Weijie Makes His Fortune by Raising Royal Chickens
On Danao Mountain in Beiyangjiazhuang Village, Yangjiazhuang Township, Yangquan Suburbs, there is a breeding base. From a distance it looks no different from other chicken farms, but the chickens raised here are rather special: they have three combs, five toes, and black-and-white mottled feathers. These are Royal Chickens introduced from elsewhere.
"The Royal Chicken originated in England. It has good meat quality and high egg production, and in recent years it has become quite popular." Speaking of Royal Chickens, 26-year-old Jia Weijie talked on without stopping. This farm, covering more than 120 mu and currently home to more than 4,000 Royal Chickens, was founded by him 3 years ago.
In 2012, Jia Weijie, who had just graduated from school, gave up the opportunity to work elsewhere and returned to his hometown to start a business. Previously, Jia Weijie had spent some time in the south and learned about raising Royal Chickens. Taking into account the local climate and soil conditions, he believed Yangquan was very suitable for raising Royal Chickens, so he made the Royal Chicken hisbusiness venture。
With his family's help, Jia Weijie chose a site, built the chicken farm, and at one go bought back more than 2,000 Royal Chicken chicks from the south. Full of confidence, he began his business, only to run into setbacks. "Perhaps because our construction of the coops had not been very thorough, the chicks were attacked and quite a few died," Jia Weijie said. At the time, winter was about to set in, but because the heating facilities were inadequate, the chicks died again. Between the two incidents, he lost about 1,700 to 1,800 chickens.
The huge losses were hard for Jia Weijie to accept for a while, but his unyielding personality meant he did not shrink back in the face of difficulty. Instead, he slowly adjusted and carefully summed up the lessons.
Through constant exploration, as well as learning from and consulting other breeders, Jia Weijie gradually figured out the tricks of the trade. After more than 3 years of development, he had gained a certain amount of experience in raising Royal Chickens, and his breeding base had also reached a certain scale.
"Our scale is now considerably larger than 3 years ago, especially in technical reserves and market development," Jia Weijie said. The farm's current annual slaughter rate is between 10,000 and 20,000, its inventory is between 5,000 and 6,000, and its annual sales revenue is around 300,000.
While making the breeding base bigger and stronger, Jia Weijie used his computer skills to keep up with the market and designed an online sales plan for his chicken farm, naming it "Convenient Chicken."
Through the Internet, Jia Weijie shifted his sales model from offline to online. Customers can place orders directly from the WeChat public platform or WeChat mall on their mobile phones, and after receiving orders, the farm will promptly deliver fresh chickens to customers' hands by express delivery. By contacting professional chefs who specialize in chicken dishes, Jia Weijie also worked out a set of cooking methods suited to Royal Chickens. For this reason, when customers receive their goods, he also sends Chinese medicinal herbs for making soup, along with an instruction manual.
In Jia Weijie's heart, raising Royal Chickens is his first career. Having set his mind on this line of work, he only wants to do it as well as possible. "This industry has enormous potential. Judging by our current state of development, marketing and brand awareness may be our weak points. We will put in more effort to ensure product quality and build up the Shancheng brand," Jia Weijie said.