Family Approach – Multiplying Native Chickens, Multiplying Benefits

The above image is upper part of the cover of the book I edited titled Philippine Native Animalsand subtitled "Source Of Pride & Wealth Worth Conserving & Utilizing," published by the National Swine & Poultry Research & Development Center, NSPRDC, based in Tiaong, Quezon Province, and authored by Rene C Santiago, Angel L Lambio and Karen C Dimaranan; Mr Santiago is Director of the NSPRDC, Ms Karen is a research assistant of the Center. Prof Lambio is a consultant to the Center from UP Los Baños, a common friend. I did much of the Internet search for current practices, so now I know much more than you think I know!

Is the native chicken a good investment in my hometown Asingan, Pangasinan? The Philippine Statistics Authority says ("2018 Livestock and Poultry Performance of Ilocos Region," 14 June 2019, Philippine Statistics Authority, 124.106.85.37) the Region had an 8% increase in chicken population to 10 million in 2017, 53% native chickens. The native birds are making good business in the Ilocos Region.

Of course, native birds are more delicious and healthier than the imported ones, no exceptions! So now the Nagkaisa Multi-Purpose Cooperative would like to pursue a project called:

Family Approach To Raising Native Chickens.

With material inputs provided by the Department of Agriculture, DA, Region 1 courtesy of Executive Director Lucrecio R Alviar, Nagkaisa is packaging a proposal, with my primary inputs, plus the much-needed technical inputs of Dr Jovita Datuin, Research Manager of the DA Regional Field Office based in Bacnotan, La Union.

The name is new but the technique is old. We Filipinos have always been raising native birds as family:

(1)   Our family members take turns feeding them, watching over them as they roost for the evening, or looking for them when missing.

(2)   There is always a rooster raised with the hens, why? To provide the fertility – no cock, no fertile eggs, no next generation of chickens. That's not how important the roosters are – that's how important the parents are!

Danish proverb: "The hen flies not far unless the cock flies with her." They are a pair, and will always be.

French proverb: "The hen's eyes are with her chicks." You don't need to buy or set up a brooder with the incandescent bulb to heat up the place for the very young birds – the mother hen is the best natural brooder of them all, and she is the most inexpensive one at that! She was made for family.

Irish proverb: "It is a bad hen that does not scratch for itself." That's "self-supporting." Good for the environment too, because the number of insects goes down, also of worms.

So, how will Nagkaisa promote The Family Approach?

First, it will choose one family to raise the birds until they become layers (with 1 or 2 roosters). Grown with locally available foods, including kitchen refuse. With a proper poultry house and an incubator, because this first stage is supposed to produce the next generation of chickens to be distributed to other families of Nagkaisa, after training.@517