Open direction from raising French pigeons by farmer Anh Son

The large-scale, industrial model of raising French pigeons by Mr. Phan Kim Hao in Linh Son commune (Anh Son). Photo: Thanh Phuc

After 5 years of bidding for the commune's barren land to develop a chicken farm, in 2020, Mr. Pham Kim Hao in Linh Son commune (Anh Son) handed it over to his brother and moved to live near his elderly parents. The hilly garden is large, but if he raises chickens and pigs at a time when animal feed prices are skyrocketing, consumption will be difficult, so Mr. Hao is very worried.

After carefully researching the market and the effectiveness ofFrench pigeon farming modelIn many places, Mr. Hao decided to experiment. Mr. Hao bought 14 pairs of French pigeons to test raise to monitor the development process as well as the birds' adaptation to the environment and food. Through the trial raising process, he found that French pigeons are easy to raise, have few diseases, simple food, mainly rice and corn, high market demand, and do not require too much care. Therefore, he self-bred and expanded the scale.

Pigeons' main food is rice and corn, so they are not under pressure from skyrocketing animal feed prices. Photo: Thanh Phuc

To raise birds effectively, he invested in cages, built solid barns, had an automatic watering system for the birds, had ventilation fans to ensure the barn was always cool and used biological bedding to ensure the environment. To limit the initial investment capital, Mr. Hao proactively breeds with a creative method of dividing the parent birds into 2 teams: One team specializes in laying eggs and one team specializes in incubating eggs. For the parent birds specializing in breeding, Mr. Hao will let the birds lay eggs, then the eggs are incubated in an electric incubator, when there are no more eggs, the parent birds do not have to spend time incubating eggs anymore, shortening the egg-laying time from 45 days to 22 - 23 days/clutch. With this method, in the same time and investment cost, efficiency will be increased.commercial pigeon productionup 1.5 - 1.8 times compared to traditional methods.

Mr. Hao invested in an electric incubator to increase productivity and output. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Realizing that French pigeons grow quickly and have a large weight but the quality of their meat is poor, while Vietnamese pigeons have delicious meat but are small and slow to grow, Mr. Hao is experimenting with raising a hybrid pigeon between Vietnamese pigeons and French pigeons to have delicious, fragrant meat and standard weight.

Currently, his family has more than 200 pairs of pigeons, mainly supplying breeding birds to the market, earning a profit of 60-80 million VND per year. In the near future, Mr. Hao plans to expand to 400-500 pairs of French and French-cross pigeons.

To increase meat quality and weight, Mr. Hao is currently experimenting with raising hybrid pigeons of French and Vietnamese origin. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Mr. Pham Kim Hao said: “Pigeons are easy to raise, with simple cages. In particular, the food uses agricultural by-products such as rice bran and corn, so it saves costs and avoids risks. On the other hand,The market is also easy to consume.than other poultry.

For purely agricultural households with difficult economic conditions, this is an effective economic direction to escape poverty. However, it is necessary to have a market orientation, technical advice on barns and care for the model to develop sustainably, for the highest economic efficiency.