BROWN EGGS FOR BREAKFAST? RAISE HENS IN YOUR BACKYARD

By Manny Piñol

Two years ago, I and my Klamath Falls-based friend, Jim Clem, visited some poultry farms in Oregon in search of breeding materials for brown egg production.

It was then when I realised just how much income-generating opportunities Filipino farmers are missing.

An old American chicken raiser, James White, told me that he could not produce enough organic brown eggs for the demand of the local market.

James was selling his brown organic eggs at premium price and he had about 200 hens running around his small farm.

Indeed, if an ordinary farming family had 100 hens in his backyard and he could harvest 50 eggs a day, that would already earn him about P500 granting that each organic brown egg only sells for P10.

Even families living in the big cities who have a little space in their backyard could raise at least 10 hens and produce enough eggs for daily consumption.

The hens would survive on grains and left over food which is usually just thrown into the garbage can.

Inspired by what I saw, I acquired breeding materials of brown egg layers and brought them home to the Philippines.

I now have about 500 breeders which are producing high-breed black layers which I will use in producing organic brown eggs for the market.

I am willing to share with other poultry farmers some of these Black Star pullets starting summer of 2016.

These Black Star hybrid layers will produce brown eggs at an average of 180 eggs every year as proven by our tests in the Braveheart Farm here in Kidapawan City.

I expect to produce about 1,000 Black Star pullets by this summer and those who are interested in acquiring these black hybrid layers should now make reservations.

Please contact my farm manager, Joyce Tupas at 0920-4044171. Since there will not be enough pullets to share, we will use the first come, first served policy.

(Photos show a basket full of brown eggs, my grandson Duane Piñol-Solis reaching out for brown eggs in a breeding pen, the Black Star chicks in the brooders and a breeding yard of the brown egg layers in the Braveheart Farm.)