Nesting in the savannah, attracting peacocks to fly northeast
Zhou Haiyan: Chairman of Inner Mongolia Ulanhot Mengfinch Breeding Professional Cooperative, national rural tourism leader, advanced individual in poverty alleviation in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, selected as the first batch of national rural artisan masters
Zhou Haiyan breeds peacocks in Inner Mongolia, which not only attracts a large number of tourists, but also produces and sells peacock specimens and feather products, driving villagers to increase their income and become rich.
Have you ever seen a wedding dress made of peacock feathers? The wide skirt is fluffy and soft, and the long dark green feathers are dotted with royal blue feathers, which give a dreamy sheen in the light. This wedding dress on display at the Mengqi Exhibition Hall in Ulanhot, Inner Mongolia is eye-catching.
Mengque Exhibition Hall was opened to the public for the first time on May 18, the International Exhibition Center Day, Zhou Haiyan stood in a corner of the exhibition hall with a smile, she said, showing peacock culture is her original intention to build this exhibition hall, hoping that more people will take this opportunity to understand peacocks, get close to peacocks, and drive their peacock products to upgrade!
Defeated and defeated again and again, the lonely brave
When I heard that Zhou Haiyan wanted to raise peacocks, relatives and friends "fried the pot": "It's just whimsical!" Since ancient times, peacocks have flown southeast, how can anyone fly northeast? But in Zhou Haiyan's eyes, "The peacock is so beautiful, everyone wants to see it more, and there must be business opportunities for things that everyone is interested in!" In 2010, she secretly took her sister to Yunnan for an investigation, bought ten peacocks, rented a car, and brought the peacocks home day and night.
Unfortunately, the good times did not last long, as the weather became colder, the peacocks accustomed to the warm hometown could not withstand the severe cold of Inner Mongolia, and all died in the first winter. Watching these beautiful elves die one by one, Zhou Haiyan was very distressed, and her family felt that she had planted a "heel", and she would not "toss" it again in the future.
Zhou Haiyan did "stop" for a while, and during that time she no longer mentioned peacocks, but lay in front of the computer every day. One day, she and her sister traveled to Qiqihar, and took her sister to the countryside - it turned out that she searched for a peacock farm on the Internet, and quietly contacted the owner to buy back a batch of peacocks.
Learning from the lessons of the last time, this time Zhou Haiyan not only updated the finch house, but also added heating equipment for the peacock. With a warm "home" and the close climate between Qiqihar and Ulanhot, the second batch of peacocks spent the winter here. In the next year, the Zhou sisters happily ushered in the peacock hatching season, but they did not expect that the hatched chicks were either deformed or stillborn, and none of them survived.
Zhou Haiyan couldn't figure it out, she didn't eat or drink for three days, but her brain kept "spinning", thinking about it, thinking that there might be a problem with the feed. So she began to visit everywhere, consulted experienced breeding experts, read a lot of books, found information, spent half a year, and finally found a set of scientific peacock feed formula, and hatched a batch of healthy peacock chicks in the third year. But just after a month of raising, the accident happened again: more than 100 peacock chicks were bitten to death by rats overnight!
Three years have passed, empty-handed, and the investment of 300,000 yuan has been wasted. Zhou Haiyan, who has been defeated repeatedly, actually became more and more courageous: "Who can do what has not been done at once?" When I encounter difficulties, I find a way to solve them, and 'don't give up' is my character! Anyway, I have taken the road of raising peacocks! ”
Use specimens to retain the beauty of peacocks
Zhou Haiyan stepped on the pit again and again and jumped out again and again, paid the tuition, and accumulated experience, and gradually touched the doorway of peacock breeding technology. The first three years were regarded as "minesweeping", and after passing the minefield, her peacock breeding embarked on the "highway". Compared with the southern peacock, the northern peacock is more solid, does not like to get sick, and the feathers are fuller, because the cold climate promotes the growth of feathers. Zhou Haiyan took advantage of the situation to expand the scale of breeding, established a Mengque breeding professional cooperative, and provided chicks and technology for the farmers who joined them, and took everyone to work together.
There are inevitably losses in breeding, and every time there is a natural loss, she is reluctant to throw away the dead peacocks, but to leave the fur and learn to be a specimen, "one to turn waste into treasure, and the other to retain the beauty of peacocks." Making specimens requires professional skills, so Zhou Haiyan learned from animal husbandry experts and doctors who make specimens in hospitals. First learn to make a skeleton, and then learn to fill, there are a variety of filling methods, such as straw filling, cotton wool filling, prosthesis filling, etc., each filling method presents a different effect, according to the shape of the peacock to take different filling methods. It is also necessary to be embalmed, if it is not embalmed, the inner skin will be eaten by insects in a year, and the hair will fall off. In the past, formalin was used for preservatives, which had a strong chemical smell and was not environmentally friendly, but later switched to food preservatives, which were safe and environmentally friendly and did not shed hair. As for the various wonderful postures presented by the specimens, it is all up to the usual careful observation, find the beauty of this shape, quickly take pictures, and then think about how to restore the specimen.
The lifelike peacock specimens meet the viewing needs of tourists, and some people want to customize them, and the peacock garden has since had an extra way to get rich. With the foundation for making specimens, Zhou Haiyan collected the peacock feathers that fell off normally, and glued the feathers together to make another peacock specimen. She also uses scattered feathers to make small products such as hairpins and headwear. "At first, it was tentative, parents brought their children, and some little girls liked hairpins made of feathers and hair flowers." Later, more and more exquisite, according to the needs of tourists, brooches, fans and other series of feather products have been launched one after another, "anyway, follow the market, what the market wants to do."
There was a lot of work, but she couldn't be busy, so Zhou Haiyan mobilized the masses to train the surrounding farmers for free, provide raw materials, do handicrafts at home, and then recycle them by piece. Originally, this was a good thing, she thought that it was sure to be "a hundred responses", who knew that there were few responders, it turned out that everyone was not afraid of not making money, but afraid that they would not be able to learn, "we will pick up the car and send it, and teach people with aura to learn first." drove the first batch of people, and then went to the village for training, no need to shout, the people who learned first helped to say hello, and a large number of hula came.
Teach people to fish and achieve each other
Specimens, ornaments, handicrafts, feather paintings...... Today, there are dozens of varieties of feather products, "all of which we have developed ourselves". Zhou Haiyan pointed to a feather fan: "The princess of the iron fan of "Journey to the West" has a banana fan, and this fan is the design inspiration from there. She pointed to a group fan and said: "Suzhou embroidery uses silk thread to embroider auspicious patterns on the group fan, and we use peacock feather silk to embroider, which is pure natural and will never fade." Mengque became an Mongolia brand, and Zhou Haiyan wanted to reflect the elements of the grassland, and used patterns such as trumpet flowers and Gesang flowers that are common on the grassland when designing headdresses and brooches.
Zhou Haiyan also has a video of a painting of a horse in her phone. The red steed soars into the air, its mane is flying, its tail is flowing, and even the hair on its body is distinct, which is breathtaking. "Isn't it beautiful to embroider it with silk threads of red-bellied pheasant feathers, pheasant feathers, and peacock feathers?" Zhou Haiyan asked with a smile, her tone full of pride.
As the number of products increases, it is natural to broaden the market. Relying on the reputation of previous regular merchants and old customers, Mengque has accumulated certain customer resources over the years, but Zhou Haiyan is not satisfied and is still actively looking for new partners. Not long ago, she went to Yiwu, Zhejiang Province to discuss cooperation with the merchants, and the two sides agreed: the merchants are responsible for providing trinket accessories and product sales, and Mengque is responsible for product production. went offline and online, and at the same time, there were Taobao merchants and Internet celebrities who cooperated with Mengque.
The booming peacock breeding and sales of feather products not only made Zhou Haiyan successful, but also drove local farmers to increase employment and income. Liu Zhanyong is a second-class disabled person, unable to do heavy work, unable to find a job, Mengque Cooperative sent him an invitation, and now he can earn two or three thousand yuan a month; Gu Chunfang's husband has been sick and bedridden for many years, and there are children who go to school at home, so she makes earrings, brooches and other feather jewelry at home, which not only takes care of her family, but also guarantees her daily expenses; Zhang Meng suffers from uremia and undergoes dialysis three days a week, and works in the cooperative the rest of the time, without delaying medical treatment or earning money......
When recruiting employees, enterprises hope that employees are in good health, free of illness and disaster, so that the enterprise has less pressure and less burden, but Zhou Haiyan's original intention of establishing the cooperative is to go to those vulnerable groups who need help, so her employees have more or less "things", but she never feels pressured, but is very grateful to them. "They cherish their existing work very much, they are attentive, loyal, and their skills are getting better and better, if I wanted to help them at the beginning, now we are mutually successful - win-win!"
Zhou Haiyan's peacock breeding is becoming more and more sophisticated, and recently the bird house has been completely renovated, "The top floor is all sunshine boards, and there is also an air interlayer on it, which is warm in winter and cool in summer." In the next step, she plans to change captivity to free-range, "Originally, tourists could only interact with the peacock through the net, but after the transformation and upgrading, they can have zero contact with the peacock, and even hold it, take pictures with it, and feed it." The newly opened exhibition hall is also a new position: "We are preparing to open a live broadcast room in the exhibition hall, so that more people can see our peacocks, and enterprises can go longer and further!" Speaking of Zhou Haiyan in the future, there is light flashing in her eyes.