When you have a large flock of chicken just like mine, the biggest challenge is always the cost of feeding and rearing the fowls.
For feeds, we still use commercially formulated feeds, although I intend to develop my own organic feeds by next year.
In the meantime, to cut down on the cost, we plant corn and sorghum or we buy direct from farmers in the province.
In the farm, I have a hammer mill and a mixer which we use in processing the corn and sorghum added to the commercial feeds.
For dewormers, we use young Betel Nuts which we just harvest from an old man’s farm in Magpet town.
Dinadalhan lang sya ng kape at pandesal kapag nanghihingi kami ng Bunga.
We have already started planting Betel Nuts in the farm though as we prepare for the increased Manok Pinoy population.
Betel Nut is more effective than commercial dewormers and inexpensive too. In our case, kape lang ang kapalit.
Ito yong ginagamit sa pag nga-nga o ma-ma na nagkukulay pula ang ngipin ng matatanda pero tumitibay.
The farm boys slice one young Betel Nut into four parts and individually sinusubo sa mga manok on an empty crop at night.
We do this every 45 days, especially so since naka free-range ang mga manok.
For the biddies, however, we still use the water soluble dewormers kasi di nila kaya ang Betel Nut.
Actually, if you give more than 1/4 of the Betel Nut to your chicken, they could die.
Puede din gamitin ang Betel Nut sa deworming ng small ruminants.
(First two photos show the Betel Nuts while the last photo shows Manok Pinoy hens in the range.)
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