Hello Hivers,
I’m going to share with you how I started my journey in chicken keeping.
After college graduation I was excited to look for a job aligned with the degree I finished. In less than a year of working in an eight-hour corporate setting I got exhausted so I switched to sales, suddenly pandemic era came and everyone was shocked. I wasn’t able to hit the quotas’ then I lost the job.
Staying at home and without doing anything was quiet boring, so to prevent myself to the threat of developing anxiety I started to plant on our roof top. I started with the stems of sweet potato and some seeds of green chili and tomato. While waiting for them to sprout I took an opportunity to research more online about chickens, with my almost a week of seeking new knowledge, I became familiar with different types of chickens their special characteristics.
I discovered that in just a little space, somebody could still produce non-stop eggs with the right breed of chicken and the cost for rearing them was just minimal. To know more about it I tried to look for related communities online, and I was surprised the communities were very active in promoting and helping others too to start their own backyard free-range chickens. The most productive egg layer that’s best suit in tropical country like Philippines, were Rhode Island Red, and Dekalb brown based on their testimonials.
I wanted to test it also on my own, but the supply of those chicks in our area was still limited, so I opted to start from five matured hens and a rooster sold online for a low price. Full of curiosity and interest I took cake of them and studied them until I they gave me fertile eggs. I gathered all of eggs and after a week, with the help of my husband we were able to make a DIY incubator at home. We tested it with patience while enjoying the process and after several attempts of incubation we successfully hatched the eggs in the 2nd month.
We mastered the process and we also share it with our family members. After seven months of patience and feeding the chickens that we hatched from eggs, finally we were able to enjoy the precious healthy brown eggs every day, since 2021 until now.
When we had the opportunity to visit my mother in the Visayas, we also introduced our learnings to her and we provided all the needed tools and materials for her mini-chicken farm. Guess what? In just six months she was able to sell more eggs, she was very happy. We also helped her in incubation and she was able to sell more chicks also.
We were so happy about what we imparted to my parent and to the people around the community. It provides them new source of income.
Now, my mother cannot manage the mini chicken farm anymore because of her age and she decided to sell all the flock to her friends…
Furthermore, my house here in Luzon I still have few and I don’t have plans to stop rearing free-range chickens because it doesn’t just give me nutritious eggs every day, they also gave me natural and organic fertilizers which keeps my plants healthy. Aside from that, they also serve as pest control, plus they attract positive vibes around.
With Gods plan, I’m still looking forward to build my own Free-range Chicken farm if my financial capacity permits me to do so. My heart still belongs to farming.