First Sales Of Our Free Range Kampung Chicken (Malay Village Chicken)

Malay Chicken Breed fowl.
After 15 months, of letting our Village chicken to free range at our rubber plantation, we had exceed our 1st target of 50 chickens. It took us a little longer that expected, but yes, we achieved.

We are now ready for our phase 2, which we hope to achieve a colony of 200 chickens. Our present colony is only about 70 chicken strong, after our 1st sales.

Recalling our initial stage, our mortality rate was very high. Our chicken were dying off due to in-fighting (aggressive breed). This was due to our starting stage where we got our stocks from different source. The cockerels where fighting as they are very intolerant of each other. When the hens started to lay, we found that our coop wasn't suitable. We also had to deal with predators for the eggs. We also lost lots of day old chicks, due to predators and hash condition. Credit goes to our present helper and my partner, whom is putting passion into this project.

We started phase 2 by dismantling an old shed used by our ex-helper in our little farm, whom had left. We shall be re-using / recycling these materials, mostly woods & zinc sheets. Took us 3 trips to transfer all these material to our site.

 These shall help us to built more coop. Some of our existing stock of chicken resting in our 1st coop. We kept them in so that we can select which we want to retain. We shall be selling off some cockerels and some hens.

Our helper prepared and select those that we want to send to the market at night. We have a wire cage which we fabricated ourselves for use to transport. It fits perfectly into our truck. We took the opportunity of sending our chicken to our local village (very small village) just before the Hari Raya Festive season. We sold retail as our chicken isn't many, managed to sell 17 our our chicken. Those unsold were sent back to our farm. These are the smaller ones. Shall raise they longer. We had also people coming to our farm and had just sold a cockerel. We are also looking into value added.

Off they go, after we are done with our selection. Most of our chickens are good mothers. Teaching survival skill to their chicks. Since our colony had gotten used to each other, they work in groups, warning each other when they sense danger and calling their chicks when there is food. I really love to watch the mother hen taking their chicks out.

Since our chickens is free ranging, we only supplement them some food such as corn, chicken feeds and fruits.

Lunch time, when everyone joins in. We had plants in our farm, such as papaya, banana, chilli padi, tapioca which give them a good variety of food source. We also bring in fruits form our little farm for them. These guys are heavy eaters.

Some of our teen cockerels.

 They are rather fierce looking.

Let's hope that our second target of 200 chickens can be reach after another 15 months, that shall be November 2014.

Free Range Kampung Chicken (Malay Village Chicken)

We are trying to restart our stalled Chicken Project @ Parcel 1. Used to have a couple of chickens at Parcel 1, but when we pull out our helpers from staying at Parcel 1, our project was stopped. Those chicken was given off to our ex-partner.

Building material was taken from the abandoned goat project. 

Our short term target is to start off and create a 50 strong colony.

Dismantled the half of the abandon goat pen that we had been using as our store house. As we are building a small chicken coop, these material shall be more than enough.

Our almost completed new chicken coop.

Our almost completed chicken coop. We still need to cover up the exposed sides to prevent strong wind, rain and let the chickens feel safe. Our chickens had starting laying eggs at the boxes that that were left for them. Would like to built some racks with cubicles so that more hens could lay and hatch eggs. Note the piece of zinc across the door. This is a special magic door devised by my partner, to keep out the dogs, yet letting the chicken free to move in & out.

Having 1 cock and 7 hens at the moment. They get to roam freely happily everyday. They are exploring their new home, in the farm and mostly like to rest between the banana trees to escape from the hot afternoon heat. Scratching the soil at the banana trees to catch insects. Happy chickens grow faster.

Some of the hens doing their sand bathing.

The chicken love to do sand bathing and is digging a shallow pen to do these, unfortunately they are doing it at our "five foot way" in front of our shed. We are feeding them with corn, pumpkins and long beans. Thinking of what else we could feed them. Let's hope we get plenty chicks in the next 2 months.