I have always been fascinated by videos showing hundreds of chicken running around the yard, mating and laying eggs with unlimited access to green grass and sunlight.
This is the most ideal set up in breeding free-range backyard chicken and this was done by many other chicken farmers in the rural areas before me.
When I started breeding Manok Pinoy, this was the breeding system which I wanted to implement but I was faced with several problems.
One, there were predators which affected the program like dogs which killed the chicken and the crows which poached the nests for eggs.
Also, I found it hard to monitor the health condition of the chicken since they ran loose in the yard.
So, I designed a new breeding system, the enclosed breeding where I built pens which could accommodate at least 20 hens with 3 roosters.
The dogs and crows were no longer a problem but the set up was far from ideal.
The egg production dropped from about 50% of the population to only about 30% meaning I only gathered 30 eggs daily from 100 hens, which is quite low.
Since the chicken did not have access to green grass which is a source of protein and sunlight, they started feather pecking.
That was when I came up with the idea of making a combination of the two breeding systems which essentially would protect the chicken from predators but still allow them access to green grass and sunlight.
This is now what I call the Paddocks-Style Breeding System.
It has one breeding hut where feeds and water are provided with nests and roosting area.
An area of about 500 square meters was divided into two paddocks with separate doors leading to each of the division.
I allowed the chicken to go out to one of the paddocks at daytime so they could eat grass and enjoy the sunshine but at nighttime, they are led back to the breeding hut enclosed with cyclone wires and nets to protect them from predators.
After one month, when they had eaten all of the green grass, I closed the first paddock to allow the grass to grow again for a period of one month.
The second paddock was opened to the chicken while the boys in the farm planted Mulberry cuttings in the first paddock.
I also intend to sow seeds of Rensonii, a high protein legume which we also feed to the goats, to add more greens.
During the first month of the system, there was a marked improvement in the laying rate with about 40 to 50 eggs harvested everyday from 100 hens.
I believe this Hybrid Breeding Yard is most ideal for farms with limited space as a farmer could raise as much as 200 hens in just 1/10 of an hectare.
#FarmIsTheBestClassroom!
(This video production was prepared by the media staff of the Mindanao Development Authority as part of MinDA's advocacy to promote backyard chicken farming in Mindanao.)
8 авг 2024
