Ever seen a chicken lay an egg, but have you ever seen it lay an "Easter egg"? You've heard "clucking" in the chicken coop, but have you heard Peking Opera and rock music there?
Dazhangjia Village, Yuhuangmiao Town, located in Shanghe County, Jinan, Shandong, looks like an ordinary small village from a distance, but driving along the winding mountain road, it gradually discovers that it is unusual.
Photo by Zhao Xiao
There are more than 200 sheds of different sizes scattered in the wheat fields, and what is hidden in this shed is not vegetables, but more than 600,000 "magical" chickens, called "colorful pheasants".
Why is it magical?
Unlike the usual domestic chickens, the pheasants here can lay at least 7 different colors of "Easter eggs". Pure white, light brown, dark brown, light gray, turquoise... I saw villager Zhang Yujun walk out of a chicken coop, holding several mountain eggs of different colors in his hand, smaller than ordinary eggs.
Courtesy of respondents
"Not only is the color of each chicken's egg different, but the same chicken will also change the color of the egg in the early stage, peak period, and elimination period." As one of the earliest people in the village to breed colorful pheasants, Zhang Yujun said that this is related to the improvement of the breed of colorful pheasant, which belongs to the pheasant in terms of categories. After the improvement, the egg production is increased, the disease resistance is better, and the original wild nature is also domesticated.
But it is not easy to really raise colorful pheasants. One of the eye-opening breeding experiences is that when raising chicken seedlings, farmers will play music for them, most often rock music.
Let the pheasant listen to music, and the egg production will be higher?
"To be precise, it can improve their survival rate." Zhang Yujun explained that although the breed of colorful pheasant has been improved, there is still a certain degree of wildness. In the process of artificial breeding, once there is movement around the chicken coop or the living people are close, the pheasant is prone to stress response, and the cage is frightened, resulting in a low survival rate.
In order to help colorful pheasants "practice their guts" from an early age, when raising chicken seedlings, the villagers let them listen to music, or excitement, or sonorous, so that the chickens can adapt to and get used to the noisy sounds of the outside world, so as to avoid being frightened by sudden noises.
Zhang Yujun said that from feed feeding, drinking water rules, to lighting, daily epidemic prevention, he constantly explored the habits of colorful pheasants in the process of breeding, and gradually mastered effective methods.
When he first joined the chicken breeding team in 2008, Zhang Yujun only raised more than 500 chickens at home, and now he has built greenhouses and grown to more than 8,000 chickens.
According to him, unlike ordinary eggs, Colorful Mountain eggs are rich in organic calcium, the eggshell is hard and not fragile, the yolk is full, the density is high, and the hand is not scattered. A chicken has an egg laying period of about 8 months in its lifetime, and can produce up to 150-160 eggs, which also makes the "colorful eggs" more expensive, selling at a high price and making considerable profits.
However, this year, due to the impact of the epidemic, poor logistics, coupled with the suspension of supermarkets and restaurants, etc., led to the slow sale of "colorful eggs" in the village.
Courtesy of respondents
Zhang Yuwen, the village secretary of Dazhangjia Village, said that there are about 500 households in the village, and 148 households are mainly engaged in breeding colorful pheasants, which is a well-known "Easter egg village". In the past three years, the number of pheasants has reached more than 600,000, laying more than 200,000 layer chickens, and laying about 150,000 eggs per day. "In previous years, sales were not a problem, mainly sold to Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and other big cities, two or three pieces a piece." Trapped by the epidemic this year, the unit price has dropped even below the cost price, becoming five or six cents. ”
Government and enterprise cooperation, live streaming with goods, e-commerce sales... Dazhangjia Village has continuously helped villagers tide over the epidemic, and Zhang Yujun's son Zhang Zhiwu has also participated. "Post-90s", he has been engaged in e-commerce sales in Beijing since graduating from university, until he returned to his hometown last year to help his father and fellow villagers sell mountain eggs online.
In the three months when the epidemic situation was more severe this year, Zhang Zhiwu helped villagers sell more than 2 million eggs through e-commerce platform promotion to alleviate the pressure of slow sales.
"Now that the epidemic situation has improved, we have also registered local brands on the platform, so that the place of origin and consumers can directly dock, which not only allows customers to get benefits, but also allows farmers to sell at a good price." Zhang Zhiwu said that he and several young people in the village plan to sell "colorful eggs" through the e-commerce platform first, and after the sales channels and popularity are opened, they will expand to the agricultural products around Shanghe County, so that local high-quality specialties can go directly to the consumer's table.
The epidemic is both a challenge and a new opportunity for the "Easter Egg Village". Surviving in danger, the village gradually opened up online sales channels and explored live streaming with goods. 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 mentioning "colorful pheasant", more people will think of this magical "Easter egg village"!
Author: Zhao Xiao