Bounty Fresh Free-range chicken will be crashing the 20th Hog Farmer's Convention in Baguio City!

Bounty Fresh Free-range chicken will be crashing the National Hog Convention at Baguio Country Club this coming April 14-15. We will be at the outdoor booth of the convention. We will have a live chicken exhibit and we will be selling limited number of day-old chicks at the site. See you there! :)

The difference between dressed bounty fresh free-range chicken and white industrial broiler physically

Bounty Fresh free-range chicken carcass has elongated shape, yellow skin, yellow shanks, narrower breast muscles (pitso), and bigger thigh and leg ratio in relation to the body

White industrial broiler has a rounder appearance, white skin, white shanks, breast muscles really developed,  and thigh and leg muscles ratio to body is somewhat smaller

Based on the physical appearance of the dressed free-range chicken, it is almost comparable to the carcass of a dressed native chicken which also has yellow skin, elongated body, and narrow breast. The difference between Bounty Fresh free-range chicken and our native chicken is the obvious size and weight difference of the carcass. Bounty Fresh free-range chicken also has a higher meat yield than the Philippine native chicken. Most people would find Bounty Fresh free-range chicken more appealing because of it's physical appearance.

What Really is SASSO? Kabir?: Breaking the Wrong Information

What really is SASSO? Most of us when we hear the word Sasso, we relate it to a big chicken that has more or less the same color as our native chicken. Or a big chicken that has no feathers on it's neckor what we call "cobra". We think of Sasso as a distinct breed of chicken that came from France. The same goes with Kabir which we say came from Israel.  Some of this information are true, but very misleading. The truth is, Sasso and Kabir are just company names rather than breeds of chickens. Us Pinoys have a very unique way of embracing brand/company names and using them to identify a product for our own convenience. A classic example would be: we want to buy toothpaste at a sari-sari store. Instead of saying to the owner we want to buy toothpaste, we say "can i buy colgate? The owner then hands us a tube of close-up, we pay the amount and walk away. Since when did colgate mean toothpaste? Sometimes advertisements become too effective and us Pinoys are sometimes too brand conscious. This is especially true in the provinces where they measure rock salts by "caltik" which is derived from a plastic container from "caltex" that previously contained oil or lubricant. We say "cooks" when we mean Coke and the owner hands us a Pepsi and we're fine (I come from mindanao and these are the examples of what I have encountered). Another classic one would be: can I have this article xeroxed? Xerox is the brand of the machine. Other examples:

Kodakan tayo! -Kodak ( a brand of camera/film) when we mean we want to take pictures

Prigeder-Frigidaire (a brand of refrigerator) when we mean refrigerator

Pahiram ng Crayola- Crayola (a brand of crayons) when we mean crayons

Band-aid -when we mean adhesive wound strips

These are examples of our mistakes to name a few when it comes to too much brand recognition. I included these in this article because Sasso and Kabir exactly belong to this type of errors. Sasso is actually an acronym that stands for Selection Avicole Sud et Sud Oest or poultry selection south and southwest. It is time for us to set things right and correct the wrong notion of our free-range stocks here in the Philippines. As of now, there are only two (2) breeding companies that produce MEAT-TYPE birds that have their strains present here in the Philippines and these are Hubbard and Sasso. Kabir has been long gone in the Philippines so technically, we don't have any Kabir chickens here in the Philippines anymore. The name just got stuck in us because it was one of the first big chicken strains that got here. As for Bounty Fresh, we get our stocks from Hubbard which is a company of Groupe Grimaud from France. Just like Sasso and Kabir, Hubbard has different strains/products under their name. If you compare it to big companies like Coca-Cola, which has diet coke, coke light, coke zero, sprite, Royal, etc., Hubbard and Sasso has the same. They have fast-grow, medium-grow, slow-grow, naked neck, barred, red, black, etc. strains of chickens to cater to different market conditions. So, it is wrong for us to associate a big colored bird immediately as Sasso, Kabir, or Hubbard. For us, we are only selling two types of product from Hubbard. This is the Redbro and the Redbro naked neck males that we crossed to the JA57Ki females that would give us RedJA and RedJA naked neck or what we sell bounty fresh free-range chicken and bounty fresh free-range naked neck chicken. So the next time around, when you see or somebody sees a big colored chicken, you would think twice about calling them Sasso or Kabir right then and there. It is time for us to correct the damage brought about by the wrong information campaign from the past for the benefit of the free-range chicken industry here in our country.

The importance of good day-old chick (DOC) quality

Very important...day-old chick quality is a very important factor in determining the success of your grow. Having poor chick quality at the start would derail your chances of having a good grow. For poultry production systems, irregardless of small or large scale farming, chick quality is an absolute necessity. In general, good chick quality correlates to good production. You could never expect a good grow from a flock of bad quality chicks. There is no exact measurements or established standards in determining chick quality but chick appearance, vitality, alertness, weight, and length are the more common parameters being considered when assessing chick quality. Poor quality chicks are more prone to diseases, have poor feed conversion performance leading to poor growth, runting, higher mortalities, and eventually higher cost to produce.

APPEARANCE

a video of good quality chicks. notice that the chicks immediately look for food. activity is good as you can see them darting around. chicks chirping loudly indicates alertness.

Chicks should be uniform in size, alert, with good activity, and with properly healed navel. At Bounty Fresh, you are assured you are getting high quality day-old chicks from our certified breeders all the time. You are not only assured that you are getting good quality chicks from us but at the same time you are getting the right genetics from our certified f1 chicks! We ship our chicks as far as Ilocos Norte, Tuguegarao, Bicol region and the whole of Luzon by bus. We ship chicks to Visayas and Mindanao by plane and we haven't had a major problem about mortalities from weak chicks! it just shows how sturdy and hardy our chicks are! Always remember that good quality chicks is a good and solid foundation for the success of your grow.

Featured customer: Raul Mijares of Jarbee Farms

Mr. Raul Mijares with his flock

bounty fresh free-range day-old chicks in the brooding area

Mr.Raul Mijares of Lipa City, Batangas started raising our chickens last June 22, 2010. Since then, he had followed it up with several batches every month. He raises his flock in converted pig pens during the brooding stage and ranges them in the adjacent areas during the growing stage. He grows the chickens for consumption and for selling to friends and people interested to taste free-range chickens. He is a very satisfied customer when it comes to our day-old chick quality and the  taste and quality of the meat of the final product. He says that he enjoys watching the chickens just roam around the farm looking for food and the satisfaction he gets seeing that his chickens are growing well.

bumblefoot (tibak): one of the more common foot problems in free-range chickens

Bumblefoot ("tibak"/plantar pododeratitis) is a bacterial infection that causes inflammation of the foot (especially foot pads) leading to limping and lameness. if left unchecked, bacterial infection can further travel up the bird's leg/s and cause inflammation of the joints. it usually starts when there are breaks in the skin where bacteria can enter and start the inflammation process. it starts as a hard scab at the bottom of the foot pad and further progresses if left unchecked to form cheesy exudates inside the foot pads causing disfigurement of the foot. this is more common among free-range chickens since they have access to ranging areas that has more foot hazards compared to controlled-environment houses that have adequate litter. it is also more common in older birds because they are heavier and puts more pressure on the foot pads.

hard, dark scab at the bottom of the foot pad

CAUSES

breaks in the skin can be caused by a variety of reasons namely:

-the bird is too heavy causing too much pressure on the foot pads 

-the flooring/litter is inappropriate (hard floorings like cement increases the incidence of bumblefoot)

-perch are too narrow (pressure is focused on one small area of the pad), too smooth (foot always slipping causing friction between the pad and the perch), or set too high from the ground (a lot of pressure is put on the foot pad every time the bird goes down the perch)

-mechanical injuries caused by protruding nails or any other sharp objects on the flooring/range/litter area

-foot are always in contact with wet/damp litter and especially if there would be a lot of manure mixed with the wet litter

TREATMENT

bumblefoot can be easily treated in the early stage. leaving the condition untreated would almost always lead to aggravation of the problem since the bird's foot has less blood circulation than other areas bringing less anti-inflammatory cells via blood that would combat/control the infection. physical intervention is the treatment of choice. here is the more common practice when treating bumblefoot in birds:

1.) clean the birds foot with warm, soapy water to soften and remove the dirt and soften the scab

2.) remove the scab to expose the pus-filled cavity. wash the cavity with hydrogen peroxide or iodine to clean the wound and remove the debris.
3.) after cleaning the wound, apply topical antibiotic and bandage affected foot to protect wound from dirt and provide soft litter to lessen stress on the foot. apply antiseptic at least every other day until wound has healed.
4.) you could also use gentian violet by dipping the bird's foot or applying gentian violet in the cavity at least once a day.