Keeping Birds In The Country, Chicken Breeds, Quail

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Is it possible to keep poultry in the country with a profit

Chickens

Many of my acquaintances at the dawn of perestroika dreamed of mass production of eggs both for themselves and for sale. To this end, they purchased decommissioned cage batteries from poultry farms, which they installed in their rotten sheds, and planted the same "decommissioned" cross chickens in them.

The matter ended in mass killings, and no one wanted to buy eggs, which were higher in cost than the factory eggs, but were inferior in quality. In general, the would-be peasants lost the competition to poultry farms.

Why did this happen? First, the higher the livestock, the lower the production cost. Secondly, a part cannot be snatched out of a single technological process. High-performance cross-layer hens need a stable feed, light and heat regime, otherwise they start to hurt and shed eggs. Thirdly, veterinary medicine for private farms in our country simply does not exist.

Probably due to worries about the bird flu impending in the country, one of my friends poultry farmers was admitted to the hospital with an exacerbation of a stomach ulcer. There were many patients in the ward who began to buy fresh eggs from him. True, later he had to change cross layers to breed hens, keep a lot of roosters, since only a fertilized egg is considered healing, he needed to grow his own feed for the bird, because for high quality eggs, the bird must be given protein and vitamin supplements. He also raised quail and guinea fowl, got goats, grows organic vegetables and even made cabbage in a special way. Doctors in the hospital make good advertising for my friend's household, and patients prefer to pay for quality food rather than expensive medicine. That's how he found his niche in the market.

I am often asked if it is profitable to raise broilers. I answer: in the current situation, when not only carcasses are sold at every corner, but also parts of them, I mean chicken legs, breasts, etc., there is no benefit. You should not compete with poultry farms. Modern industrial crosses have such an intensive growth that other energy losses are simply unacceptable. The bird immediately sits on its feet, it develops rickets and dropsy, kidneys and heart fail. Chickens are simply not able to eat and digest as much of even the most complete and balanced feed; they artificially populate the gastrointestinal tract with special bacteria. The private trader cannot afford industrial technologies and cannot afford it.

The French still found a way out of this situation. Firstly, they noticed that if mini-chickens with short legs are used when creating hybrids, then the offspring will be short-footed, which makes it stronger. Second, they bred a broiler with a dark feather skeleton and called it "farm". At the same time, the rights and obligations of manufacturers were clearly defined. Poultry farms grow only poultry with white plumage using industrial technology, and other citizens grow colored ones, but their broilers must walk on the grass, bask in the sun, bathe in the dust, etc. The meat of such a bird is much more expensive, but the French value their health most of all.

We haven’t come to that yet, but we are learning quickly. Perhaps soon in our country there will be a demand for high-quality poultry meat, especially since the "farm broiler" is indeed a wonderful bird. For the sake of curiosity, I once took myself a dozen chickens. As a result, in the fall, I ran nine roosters and one hen. She did not lose a single chicken, the weight of the males reached 8-10 kg, the chicken gained only 4 kg, but began to lay at the age of six months, and the eggs were large - up to 58 grams, which was just great for pullets. The roosters are broad-chested and broad-shouldered, with short but powerful fleshy legs they looked more like stools or dwarf dinosaurs, especially when they ran out into the street in the morning with a roar. It was a pity to cut them, but the hawk helped, who hunted them.

I get asked a lot of questions about breeding. I must immediately note that the tribal business of all peoples in all ages was the lot of the rich, and now it requires investments of sponsorship money. Examples? You are welcome. Oryol chickens were bred on the estate of Count Alexei Orlov, whose wealth is out of the question. The Livensky and Yurlovsky voices were bred in the ancient Russian city of Livny, famous for its artisans, who had enough money for a local "casino", that is. a tavern, where the men did not drink vodka, but argued for money, whose cock would last longer. Time was measured by the clicks of the knuckles. The village of Pavlovo, where the most famous of domestic breeds, Pavlovskaya, is bred, is known for its metalworking masters.

And yet, let's leave the industrial poultry to poultry farms, and we will breed and preserve the breed poultry in private farms. This is the same element of universal human culture as art and science. An unpretentious pedigree bird will lay eggs no less than a cross laying hen, bring out chickens, and its meat is not so "rubber".

Often asked about fighting breeds and about the attitude towards cockfighting. If the roosters do not fight, the breed will not be preserved. The very nature made them fight, it is just that the fights should not be carried out clandestinely, there should be normal refereeing, control by law enforcement agencies, veterinary assistance. I grew up in the Caucasus, where entire family clans were engaged in raising fighting roosters and living on the profits from the sweepstakes. But do not think that it is enough to have fighting chickens, and money will flow to you. The rooster must be properly raised, fed and trained. It is necessary to join the company of "boychatniki" and not lose consciousness at the sight of blood and torn feathers. Not everything is as simple as it seems at first glance.

Feathers from colored chickens, by the way, can also be sold for decent money. In the Lenptitseprom office there is a painting depicting a view of the spit of Vasilievsky Island, made of chicken feathers. To be honest, none of the Hermitage's masterpieces made a greater impression on me. You need to have a sense of color, great imagination and patience to work with this technique.

Pheasants, peacocks, chukots, swans

One of the members of our society, poultry farmer N. V. Lebedev founded his own company for the production of domestic incubators. The design he developed is quite successful, we all use it and are very satisfied. But he had a dream: to populate the famous gardens and parks of Pushkin, Pavlovsk, Petrodvorets, Oranienbaum and Gatchina with a decorative bird. It would, of course, be great if proud peacocks were walking along the emerald grass of the lawns among the marble statues, and golden pheasants were sitting on the branches of the lindens, as is done in the parks of Europe, but, unfortunately, we also need a policeman to each bird …

Of course, there is no need to talk about the mass breeding of decorative and hunting birds. It seems that expensive restaurants are ready to buy carcasses of pheasants, "new Russians" want to decorate their estates with a decorative bird, but in practice nothing serious comes of it. Pampering is all this and nothing more.

Ostriches

In the Leningrad region, near the city of Vyborg, there is a farm where several emu are kept. It was once well advertised on television, in magazines and newspapers. I don’t know how now, but earlier tourist buses regularly took everyone to this farm to look at the outlandish bird from Duma Square. One of the members of our society, Andrey Kvik, also went on an excursion. Subsequently, he said that ostriches, grimy because of the slushy weather, were a pitiful sight. American friends promised to give our farmers also an African ostrich.

It was planned to sell ostrich meat at about $ 20 per kilogram, but something went quiet. I immediately remembered the familiar ostrich breeders from Batumi and Sochi, who sell all their products to Turkey. It is impossible to trade in the local market, two-thirds have to be paid for bribes to the authorities, police, sanitary-epidemiological station, gangster "roof". As a result, the cost of a kilogram of meat rises to $ 50. In our absurd criminal economy, I personally do not see any particular prospects for ostrich farming.

Summing up, I should note that before starting any business, you need to think very well and calculate your capabilities. The main factors for determining the size of the livestock or poultry are: the size of the land plot, the number of workers on the farm and the availability of initial capital. These words are addressed, first of all, to the city dwellers suffering from illusions, who for some reason think that in the village they will be greeted with open arms. It is easier to survive in the city and find a job, if you are not successful in the city as an employee, then you are unlikely to achieve success in the countryside. There is a lot to know and a lot to be able to do with your hands.

Now there is a great variety of literature on agriculture, so I no longer start abstract discussions about poultry, because I am "not a swimming coach", I "swim" myself. Hardly anyone is already interested in reading about how and what to feed a chicken, much more interesting is someone else's experience of survival in difficult conditions. But it will never be easy, our climate is not the same, and agriculture is risky.

I am often asked a provocative question: do I know anyone personally from those who got rich, starting with a couple of chickens? Yes I know. Two girls from our society have united, they not only raise poultry of different species and breeds, but also buy up everything unnecessary from us: an egg, chicks, an adult bird. They have a shop in the farm center, where you can buy not only any agricultural poultry, but also equipment for keeping it, feed, literature.

There are several poultry farmers in our society who keep chickens of rare breeds, very beautiful, decorative, which always attract the attention of visitors at any exhibition, which allows them to be sold at a high price.

The most realistic way to get rich is that of my neighbors in the village. In addition to chickens, they keep a cow, raise gobies and piglets for meat, plant potatoes, in winter they prepare firewood for the entire neighborhood and cut down bathhouses, plow vegetable gardens in spring, huddle and weed potato plantings in summer, help the local agricultural enterprise in haymaking. In short, they take up any village work. They have a huge herd of magnificent Yurlovsky chickens, more like cranes. During the season, my neighbors have a huge queue for chickens, which allows them to earn solid money. But they started out as ordinary summer residents!

In fact, questions about "getting rich" are not for me, but for the builders of "financial pyramids"; for people working on the land, only a reasonable prosperity can be real, which I wish to achieve for all who seek benefits from poultry farming.