Let’s Talk Farming
REARING AND RAISING FREE-RANGE CHICKEN
(First of a Series)
By Manny Pinol
What I will share here are results of the years of actual farm experiments in the Braveheart Farms and Nursery at the foot of Mt. Apo in Kidapawan City, North Cotabato.
I gained these experiences because I was directly involved with the breeding of my gamefowls and the Manok Pnoy with the help of my cousin, Marvin Magbanua, who, modesty aside, I believe is one of the best in rearing and caring for chicks in this part of the country.
Today, I will write about our experiences in the rearing and raising of chicks in the farm or backyard and to an extent in conditions simulating the actual situation of a farmer in the remote areas where his funds are limited and there is no brooder equipped with an electric bulb for heating.
Hens may be the best brooders but electric incubators are the best hatchers, especially if the farmer intends to produce a huge number of free-range chicken.
It is always easier to take care of 100 chicks born on the same day than 100 chicks hatched by 20 hens during a period of one month.
The first step in ensuring that you will have healthy and vigorous chicks is to make sure that only good eggs are placed in the incubator. Well shaped and clean eggs must be selected. Small or overly large eggs should be eliminated.
It is recommended that the farmer must have a hatching incubator, separate from the setting incubator. The setting incubator is where you will place the eggs for up to 18 days and the hatching incubator is where the chicks will crack the eggs.
During hatching, do not play the role of Mother Nature. Let the chick crack the shell and never attempt to help those who could not get out of their shells by peeling off the shells.
Chicks who could not break their own shells are weak. They will die just the same. You are just wasting your time.
If your eggs were produced from different yards, make sure the chicks are marked by punching their toes so that you will be guided later on if you want to use them for breeding.
Allow your chicks to dry their feathers inside the hatching incubator for about 24 hours. Do not worry, they will not die because they have reserved food in their belly.
We do not use brooders in the Braveheart Farms. We put our chicks on the ground in an open area starting day 1. Initially, we lay down old newspapers on the ground and place a little amount of fine feeds for chicks.
Water with a little table sugar dissolved in it should be placed in a small water container should be made accessible to the chicks.
The backyard raiser must keenly observe which of the chicks are weak and abnormal. Those with deformed legs or beaks and whose bodies are short with their wings hanging, must be eliminated.
This is not being heartless. This is just being practical. Believe me, the farmer will spend more saving a weak chick than the income he will make in selling it in the market, that is if the chick survives at all.
Placing your chicks on the ground right on Day 1, however, is fraught with risks and dangers if you are not prepared for it.
First, the ground must be clean or better still disinfected. Second, no diseased chicken must be allowed near the area where you will place your chicks.
It is always a wise farm practice to eliminate chicken with recurring respiratory illness. The problem which always besets a backyard chicken raiser is the “sayang” attitude where he tries to pump every known anti-biotic into the diseased chicken to save it.
If only the farmer has the time to think deeply how much the anti-biotics cost in comparison to the value of the chicken which he is trying to save, I am sure he will understand that it is more practical to cull than to save.
In our next installment, we will discuss the techniques in rearing and raising chicks outside of the brooders and the advantages and disadvantages of placing your chicks on the ground starting Day 1.
(Photo caption: One day-old chicks of Manok PNoy on the ground in the Braveheart Farms in Kidapawan City.)
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