Have you seen a chicken laying eggs, but have you ever seen it lay eggs? I heard the sound of "clucking" in the chicken coop, but have you heard Peking opera and rock music there?
Da Zhangjia Village, Yuhuangmiao Town, Shanghe County, Jinan, Shandong Province, from a distance, is just an ordinary small village, but when driving along a winding mountain road, it is gradually found that it is unusual.
Zhao Xiaoshe
There are more than 200 sheds of different sizes scattered in the wheat field. The sheds are not vegetables, but more than 600,000 "magic" chickens called "Colorful Pheasants".
Why is it magical?
Unlike ordinary domestic chickens, pheasants here can lay at least 7 different colors of "eggs". Pure white, light brown, dark brown, light gray, turquoise ... I saw villager Zhang Yujun walking out of a chicken coop, holding several mountain eggs of different colors in his hand, smaller than ordinary eggs.
Photo courtesy of interviewees
"Not only does each chicken have a different color for laying eggs, but the color of the same chicken will also change during the early, peak, and elimination phases of the same chicken." As the first batch of colorful pheasants in the village, Zhang Yujun said This is related to the improvement of the colorful pheasant breeds. In general, it belongs to the pheasant. After the improvement, the egg production is improved, the disease resistance is better, and the original wildness is also domesticated.
But it is not easy to really raise colorful pheasants. This has an eye-opening breeding experience, that is, when raising chicks, farmers will give them music, the most common is rock music.
Let the pheasant listen to music, the egg production will be higher?
"Accurately speaking, it can improve their survival rate." Zhang Yujun explained that although the variety of colorful pheasant has been improved, there is still some wildness. In the process of artificial breeding, once there is movement around the chicken cage or when a stranger is close to it, the pheasant is easy to produce a stress response and be shocked by the cage, resulting in a low survival rate.
Zhao Xiaoshe
In order to help colorful pheasants "practice gallbladder" from an early age, villagers let them listen to music when they are free-range chickens, or they are excited, or clang, so that the chickens can adapt and get used to the noisy sounds of the outside world, so as to avoid being frightened by sudden sounds. To.
Zhao Xiaoshe
Zhang Yujun said that from feed feeding and drinking water rules to lighting and daily epidemic prevention, he constantly explored the habits of colorful pheasants in the breeding process and gradually mastered effective methods.
Zhao Xiaoshe
When he first joined the chicken farm in 2008, Zhang Yujun only raised more than 500 at home, and now he has built a greenhouse and developed to more than 8,000.
According to him, unlike ordinary eggs, the colorful mountain eggs are rich in organic calcium, the egg shell is hard and not brittle, the egg yolk is full, the density is high, and the hand is not scattered. A chicken has a laying period of about 8 months in its life, and can produce 150-160 eggs at most. This also makes the "seven eggs" more expensive, with a high selling price and considerable profits.
However, due to the impact of the epidemic this year, poor logistics, and the suspension of operations in supermarkets, restaurants, etc., led to the slow sales of the "seven eggs" in the village.
Photo courtesy of interviewees
Zhang Yuwen, the village branch secretary of Dazhangjia Village, said that there are more than 500 households in the village, and 148 households are mainly engaged in breeding colorful pheasants. In the past three years, more than 600,000 pheasants have been slaughtered, more than 200,000 laying hens, and about 150,000 eggs are laid each day. "Sales in previous years were not a problem, and they were mainly sold to big cities such as Beijing, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. One or two or three. One was trapped by the epidemic this year, and the unit price dropped even lower than the cost price.
Photo courtesy of interviewees
Joint government, enterprise, live streaming, and e-commerce sales ... Da Zhangjia Village has continuously taken measures to help the villagers through the epidemic, and Zhang Yujun's son Zhang Zhiwu also participated. "Post-90s", he has been engaged in e-commerce sales in Beijing after graduating from college, until he returned to his hometown last year to help his father and mother sell mountain eggs online.
In the more severe three-month epidemic situation this year, Zhang Zhiwu helped villagers sell more than 2 million eggs through an e-commerce platform to ease the pressure of slow sales.
"Now the epidemic situation is getting better. We have also registered local brands on the platform to allow the origin to directly connect with consumers, which will not only benefit customers, but also allow farmers to sell good prices." Zhang Zhiwu said that he and several young people in the village People plan to first sell the "Seven Eggs" through the e-commerce platform. After the sales and popularity are opened, they will expand to the agricultural products around Shanghe County, so that local high-quality specialty products can reach the consumer's table directly.
Photo courtesy of interviewees
For the "Egg Village", this epidemic is both a challenge and a new opportunity. Surviving in danger, the village gradually opened up online sales channels and explored live streaming. In the past, few people knew that Dazhangjia Village was the largest colorful pheasant breeding base in Jiangbei, but I believe that in the future, when people mention "colorful pheasant", more people will think of this magical "egg village"!
Zhao Xiaoshe
Author: Zhao