Quitting a high-paying job, Nghe An engineer returns to his hometown to raise chickens with... spirulina, crickets, and herbs

As a food engineer with a high-paying job, but with a passion for animal husbandry, in early 2014, Mr. Le Van Duong returned to his hometown to ask the local authorities to lease 1 hectare of vacant land in the coastal area, to renovate and build a chicken farm combined with growing clean vegetables.

Mr. Duong's farm has more than 2,000 chickens. Photo: Hong Dien

When he first started his business, he raised chickens for sale but cared for them in the traditional way, using a lot of antibiotics and feeding them industrial feed. Although this method helped the chickens gain weight quickly and bring in high income, he realized that the food source supplied to the market was not clean.

That is why Mr. Duong is struggling to find a new direction for his chicken brand. Through exploration, active research and learning, in 2018, Mr. Duong started to raise chickens experimentally with herbs.

He used ca gai leo, moringa, perilla, lolot leaves, mugwort, perilla leaves, fresh lemongrass... ground and mixed into the chicken feed every day. For food, he collected beef and pork bones from restaurants, dried them, pounded them into powder, then mixed them with soybean powder, fish meal, corn bran, rice bran, crickets, corn, soybeans, fish meal and cooked c... Then, pressed them into pellets with 200 kg of food every day.

Mr. Duong grows herbs himself and feeds them to his chickens every day. Photo: Hong Dien

In particular, he also uses spirulina powder - a food with high nutritional content, combined with the plant and digestive enzymes produced by his family for chickens to feed to benefit the intestines and stimulate good digestion.

Mr. Le Van Duong shared:Industrial feed contains preservatives, growth promoters and antibiotics, so it is not good for food consumers. Besides, raising chickens in the usual way makes them susceptible to diseases and when taking too many antibiotics, they become resistant to the drugs. Therefore, in addition to self-study, I have a relative who is a traditional medicine practitioner, so I have accumulated some knowledge and have boldly raised chickens with herbs and have really reduced the bacteria that cause diseases in chickens significantly, and the chickens grow healthier.

Every time the seasons change, chickens often suffer from respiratory diseases, enteritis necrosis caused by bacteria. He takes lemongrass leaves, bear bile leaves, moringa, artemisia, licorice, and Solanum procumbens that are available in the garden, combined with crushed ginger and garlic, and puts them in 3 electric pots in the farm to steam for the chickens. At the same time, he gives the chickens herbal water to drink. When the chickens develop normally, he steams them twice a week to help them breathe better.

Not stopping there, to meet the food demand and supplement natural protein for chickens, Mr. Duong also built a cricket farm on an area of ​​520 m²Cricket food also requires the breeder to be careful in selecting and ensuring it is clean, because if it is contaminated with chemicals, the crickets will easily die. Therefore, he only feeds crickets with vegetables that his family grows themselves.

Cricket farming model for chicken feed. Photo: Hong Dien

Mr. Duong said that chickens raised with herbs combined with his own food take 4.5 - 5 months to sell, 1 month slower than when fed with industrial food, but in return the quality of eggs and chicken meat is delicious, with a higher omega 3 content than conventional farming methods.

Moreover, by making his own deodorant, Mr. Duong's barn has no foul odor and the environment is clean. Thanks to this new method, his farm with a total of 3,000 laying hens always grows very healthily.

Up to now, Mr. Duong is the first person in Quynh Bang commune to raise chickens with herbs and the model has developed very well, providing clean, safe food and is highly appreciated by the commune. Therefore, the locality has many methods of propaganda, mobilization, and encouragement for other households to learn and apply, and invest in raising livestock in the direction of high technology and biosafety.

Mr. Hoang Quang Dung - Agricultural officer of Quynh Bang commune, Quynh Luu.