chicken tornado

This video/pictures is/are sometimes what city dwellers, people who are surrounded by an endless forest of concrete structures every single day, pay for to experience or dream about after retiring. The lush greens of mountain sides, the unadultered fresh air, the cool river waters teeming with fish, and the animals and plants they grow with their own hands. I don't know about other people, but for me, it is always a good feeling the moment i hit the outskirts of a big city like Manila. When concrete skyscrapers slowly give way to grasslands and eventually surrender to mountains and seas. When cramped urban spaces open up to the rural plains and sweltering heat succumb to the cool wisps of countryside air. Growing up in Mindanao for all of my childhood has given me the need for a dose of rural setting every now and then and has implanted in me the goal that someday I will be a humble farmer feeding thousands of our countrymen.

Going back to the video, it is such a joy when you see the animals you have been taking care of are healthy and growing nicely. For free-range chickens, it is such a nice feeling to see them foraging around, dust bathing, and running after insects or from their brothers and sisters who also wants the food dangling from their beaks. Although it is a treat to see them with a good appetite for their food, this video also shows a flock management mistake that can ruin your chickens in the long run. Very hungry chickens scramble for food, and they literally are focused on getting to that food source no matter what. This scrambling for food can lead to mechanical problems like lameness, skin abrasions due to trampling that can further lead to infection, or at the worse, death due to trampling. These situations can be very stressful to your birds and can deteriorate their health. These can be caused by:
                    -underfeeding (giving less than their physiological needs)
                    -too long interval between feeding
Underfeeding can be due to low feed allocation compared to what they really need. Feed wastage can also contribute by lowering the actual feed consumption of the chickens. This scrambling behavior is very favorable for feed wastage as they fight for space, a lot of the feeds can fall out of the feeders and through the flooring where they cannot access it.

To prevent this situation, make sure that you feed them the right amount of feeds for their age. Keep in mind that you have to increase feed allocation as the bird grows. Give ample feeder space to prevent feed wastage and also use the appropriate feeder. You can do twice a day feeding or once a day but make sure feed  allocation per bird is appropriate to prevent competition for food. Remember that you should have a good feeding management for a successful free-range chicken production.

Check the labels!

Check on the packaging that it is grown for at least 56 days

There is a reason why Bounty Fresh, PAFPAI, Pamora Farm, or every serious free-range chicken farmer wants to grow free-range chicken for at least 56 days and spend a sizable amount of time in the ranging area. Slow-growing and free-ranging your chickens will add flavor to it's  meat because you are giving more time for the chicken to assimilate the flavors it has eaten in the ranging area.

The grasses, leaves, stems, grubs, insects, and minerals it has ingested from the ranging area will all contribute to the taste of the free-range chicken's meat. The running, flying, scratching, dust bathing, and foraging will also develop the meat quality of free-range chickens by giving them a more stringy and chewy texture. Growing your free-range chickens for at least 56 days will also give time for the naturally occurring hormones (particularly sexual hormones that influence secondary sexual characteristics) to kick in and influence the flavors of it's meat and the shape of its body. You do not get this in white industrial broilers because they are slaughtered at a tender age of 35 days or earlier. For free-range chicken flocks, you can distinctly differentiate the male from the females because the sexual dimorphism is clearly evident.

All of this are the reasons why our native chicken has such a "native"chicken taste and because it is slow growing, it has around 120 days to develop it's meat taste. With access to the ranging area for a very long period of time, it's meat develops the distinctive taste of native chicken...so make sure that the free-range chickens you are buying has been grown for at least 56 days for you to get the best value for your money.

Gawad Kalinga Enchanted Farm free-range meat-type flock

My second visit to check on Gawad Kalinga's free-range flock turned out to be a pleasant one. There are still no mortalities (all 102 of them) and the rice hull litter i requested to be placed inside the brooder was dry and doing its job to keep the chicks warm and absorb moisture from their droppings. One thing i noticed though was the chicks were a bit not uniformed in size, i immediately checked the feeders and found out the number of feeders were insufficient for the size of the flock. Also checked their crops or "butse" and expectedly found out that some have feeds while others have none. Insufficient feeder space will lead to chicks scrambling for food and competing for feeder space. Eventually, uneven feed distribution among the flock will lead to some chicks not able to feed causing runting and obvious disparity in size. If feeding space is not corrected, size difference will further be more pronounced as bigger chicks will continue to "outbox" smaller chicks leading them to grow larger while the smaller chicks who gets deprived of feed, will continue to have a stunted growth. 

litter and chicks both dry and doing good!

I will be visiting the farm again next week and hopefully feeder space has already been corrected and addressed. Gawad Kalinga is also constructing new ranging buildings and ranging areas for their additional flocks and I will be looking forward to continue to assist them and provide technical information about raising their free-range chickens! Will just keep you posted for updates on their flock :)

two-week old chicks curious about their outside environment. They will be  feeling  the outdoors in a weeks time!

very alert and healthy chicks :)

curious about the camera that's why they are straining their necks for a better view

one of the additional ranging houses built by the farm

existing ranging house for their current native chicken flocks

Guest speaker at Sir Nelson Lubao's radio program SikaPinoy!

Yesterday, I was guest speaker of DZMM's SikaPinoy hosted by Mr. Nelson Lubao. It is an entrepreneural show that gives ideas to Filipinos who wants to engage in small to medium-sized businesses. The radio program was aired from 8-9AM every Sunday and was also broadcasted live in DZMM's teleradyo. I got a taste of what it is to be like to be "celebrity" when a make up artist came to me and applied powdery stuff on my face before the show. It was just too rare of an opportunity to pass up for a photo so i asked my companion to take a photo of me while make up was applied on my face :) I was a bit uneasy at first since it was my first time to do an interview one-on-one. But Sir Nelson immediately put me at ease and I was off and away discussing free-range chickens with him and all of the listeners. This part of our company's responsibility to raise awareness among Filipinos about the presence, advantages, and benefits of free-range chicken.

I was very happy to know that a lot of our countrymen were interested in free-range chicken production as i was peppered with text messages after i announced my mobile number on air. Inquiries came in as far as tawi-tawi in the south and Ilocos Norte in the north. We will hopefully do more of these kind of interviews to educate and raise awareness among us, Filipinos about the basics of free-range chicken production.

Bounty Fresh Food Inc. is a proud partner of Gawad Kalinga!

Last Sunday, October 2, 2011, Gawad Kalinga together with Bounty Fresh Food Inc, other corporations, LGU's, governement officials, visitors, and volunteers officially launched the Gawad Kalinga Enchanted Farm at Brgy Encanto Angat, Bulacan. The day was truly blessed as fair weather prevailed despite typhoon Quiel showering the area the day before the event. Headed by our president, Mr. Tennyson Chen, we will be working with Gawad Kalinga on several projects like production of free-range chicken meat and eggs and production of honey as well. We will be providing them the initial stocks and provide technical assistance for the production of meat, eggs, and honey.

This is part of Bounty Fresh's commitment to give back something to the community following it's success in the industry. Bounty Fresh donated a flock of free-range chickens to be grown by the staff of Gawad Kalinga for whatever purpose it may serve them. I will personally visit the farm to check on the growth of the chicks. Bounty Fresh will be looking forward to a long and productive partnership with Gawad Kalinga in helping eradicate poverty in the Philippines!