Native chickens were the latest additions to our livestock of pigs and goats in our bangus farm in Binmaley, Pangasinan, in northern Philippines.
See my previous blog on our farm animals, pls. click this.
Last July 2018, we received a gift hen to be butchered for lunch. The hen didn’t reach the cooking pot at all. A few days passed, still no chicken “tinola” (a popular soup-based chicken dish with papaya and chili pepper leaves spiced with ginger, onions and fish sauce). Apparently, Lyn, my farm head, changed her mind and decided to keep the lucky hen alive.
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| Original hen (middle left) |
Three days later, Noli, my farm assistant, and his wife brought a cock to join the hen.
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| Original rooster |
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| Another gift hen |
That was five months ago.
Now my overseer has a flock of nine hens and three cocks and quite a number of young chicks. Still way below the average flock size of a typical backyard poultry grower. But it was a pretty good start.
Advantages of Native Chickens
Why native chickens and why did we decide to keep them?
1. Raising native (free-range) chickens is relatively easy to do as a backyard project. Capital needed to start the flock is low (in Lyn’s case, it was free). No need to spend for chicken houses or brooders, unlike those for broilers or layers. Only a small wooden cage and a crude bamboo shed were built to keep the young chicks safe at night.
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| Wooden chick cage |
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| A crude roofed shed with four posts |
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| Wooden chick cage under the roofed shed |
Minimal labor is needed to care for them. The native chickens roam around scrounging for food on their own. The keeper just gives the chickens corn three times a day (see below), tucks in the young chicks at night with their mother hen at the wooden cage (see photo above), and refills water containers (below).
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| Cock, hen, and chicks feeding on corn on the ground |
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| Other chickens feeding on corn |
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| Keeper with corn feeds on her palm ready to broadcast them near the chicken house |
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| Woven nest ("ubong") |
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| Plastic water bowl for the wood cage being refilled |
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| Water bowl being refilled |
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| Cock and hen drinking water |
2. Locals sell them at a higher price in the public market. Discerning buyers look for them. Their meat taste much better, and are ideally suited to the cooking of “tinola”, with its flavorful broth and unique taste.
3. Our fish farm is ideal to raising free range chickens. It’s way off the main road, bounded by other ponds, with no nearby houses. It has long and wide earth dikes (“talugtog” in Pangasinense) planted to large trees. The farm dikes have wide foraging areas for our native chickens.
Providing shade, rain cover, and breeze are the mango, guava, kamias, acacia, gmelina, and other trees where the chickens fly up to roost at night. The branches serve as safe perch away from predators - dogs, cats, rats, snakes, or the common water monitor lizards (“bayawak” in Tagalog, “banyas” in Ilokano).
4. It’s been our practice to adopt only natural materials and safe farm methods in our bangus farm. This applies to our plants, trees, fish, prawns, and livestock. For example, we avoid synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, GMOs (our corn is locally grown), antibiotics, growth hormones.
Other examples: absolutely no use of formalin (a known carcinogen) in preserving our harvested fish - we use ice instead. No sodium cyanide during pond preparation to kill predators - use organic tea seed instead. Maximize use of chicken or goat manure as fertilizers for the pond. Apply compost with goat manure to our plants.
That’s why native chickens are more than welcome in our farm. They are a hardy bunch, self-supporting, and organically grown so to speak. Natural and healthy with less cholesterol than commercial chicken.
Types of Philippine Native Chickens
From quick research, I learned that we have the following common types of native chickens in the Philippines: Banaba (from Batangas, Calabarzon area), Basilan (from Basilan area), Boholano (from Bohol province), Bolinao (from Pangasinan, Ilocos region), Camarines (from Bicol region), Darag (from Panay, Visayas region), Joloanon (from Jolo), Paraoakan (from Palawan and Mimaropa region as well as Maguindanao and Lanao), and Zampen (from Zamboanga Peninsula).
What type do we have in the farm? They’re probably mongrels. We honestly don’t know. I asked Noli, my assistant, but he has no idea. I can only describe their appearance.
(a) The cock (see photo below) has similarity to a typical “black breasted red” rooster. It has red hackles (erectile hair in the neck area), red comb (fleshy growth atop the head) which is normally erect but our cock’s comb flops down over his eyes, red wattles (oblong flesh hanging below the chin), black body feathers, and greenish black tail, with red cape, red saddle feathers with a narrow band of white (in front of tail), and red and black wings.
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| Original rooster |
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| Original hen (middle left) |
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| Another original hen |
Recently I heard about the Paraoakan native chicken from my wife. I learned they’re one of the biggest types. It would be nice to have a pair (they’re sold in Metro Manila) to upgrade the native chickens we now have at the farm.
Stages of Development of Our Own Native Chicken
Following are what we observed in our chickens as they developed:
1. A mature hen lay the eggs (around one a day) in a nest (a woven natural fiber nest called “ubong” in Pangasinense or an improvised carton box).
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| Woven nests ("ubong") sitting high up the roofed bamboo shed for use by the hens |
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| 15 eggs laid by hen |
2. The hen incubates the eggs for three weeks, after which the eggs hatch.
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| A hen warming her eggs |
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| Newly hatched chicks |
Then for another week, the mother hen allows her chicks to go down to the ground but keeps a close guard (see photo below).
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| Young chicks feeding on the ground, with their mother hen close by |
At this time, the Lyn tucks the chicks in before evening with the mother hen at the wooden cage, or a small wire cage, or the regular nest ("ubong"). This is to protect them from predators, usually rats and monitor lizards, while the chicks are still undeveloped and have not fully grown their wings.
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| Chick cage with mother hen and chicks inside |
4. After brooding, the grown chicks undergo a hardening phase for another 3 weeks. They are let out by their mother hen to experience the natural surroundings, including hazards from predators and how to avoid them, and how to look for food. In other words, they learn to survive the natural, rugged, free-range conditions in the farm.
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| Two older chicks already on their own, with a third chick (right) near the water edge |
5. After a total of 6 weeks from being hatched, the toughened chicks are let go by their mother hen and begin to range freely for another month.
6. They mature at 2.5 months and ready for butchering (we have not done so for hens, but yes for a cock or two). For hens, it takes three months until they mature and are ready to mate. When not ready, the hen shrieks loudly.
7. After its third month, the hen mates everyday. The hen’s eggs are therefore fertilized by the cock before they are formed inside the hen. Otherwise they become unfertilized (“bugok” in Pangasinense and Tagalog) and are taken out and cooked as boiled egg similar to the unfertilized duck egg (“penoy”). My overseer decides which are fertilized and unfertilized by shaking them after about 10 days. The unfertilized egg produces a sloshing sound of liquid when shaken.
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| Two eggs, one fertilized, another unfertilized |
9. When ready to lay, the hen’s face turns red, as if “blooming”, her feathers shiny and attractive.
10. When the eggs have grown and ready to be laid, the fluffy feathers covering the hen’s posterior turn downwards, instead of up – that is you’ll be able to see the hen’s cloaca (anal opening).
11. Hen normally lays one egg a day. At around 6 a.m, the hen goes to her “ubong” (nest). The egg comes out after about 2 hours “labor” from 6 a.m.
Note: When we notice our hen laying around lunch or 1 pm, the following day, the hen won’t lay an egg. The hen is “balasang” (grouchy maiden chicken) and she’s letting a day pass because she wasn’t mated that day.
12, After hen has laid her egg, she comes down from her perch (nest) and cackles loudly (cak-ca-cak-ca-cak).
14. The hen then roams around looking for food, including ground corn which the keeper broadcast around the nesting area.
15. Daily routine is repeated until an average of 15 eggs come out.
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| Nest ("ubong") showing 15 eggs laid by hen |
16. Before a hen stops laying and is ready to incubate her eggs (“limlim” in Pangasinense), look for this sign – she will leave a few feathers in the nest two days before the egg laying is completed.
17. The hen then checks out her eggs with her claws, as if counting them.
18, Sometimes, some hens (not all), before incubating their eggs, crack one of the eggs to eat the egg white and yolk, as if tasting them.
19. After all eggs have been laid, the hen will start incubation (“limlim’) by sitting on her eggs at the nest (“ubong”) and through her body keep the temperature at around 100 degrees Farenheit. This is done for 21 days.
Note: The keeper, Lyn, makes sure that all the eggs in the nest before incubation are all fertile. She takes out the unfertilized ones and boils them for eating.
20. Usually a hen comes down from her nest to feed. The keeper should spread corn on the ground near the nest and call out to the chickens (including the incubating hen) (making the sound “krok-krok-krok”).
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| A hen (left ) which has just laid eggs came down from the nest to feed on corn |
To ensure effective incubation, always have ground corn available for the hen and avoid letting the hen forage around, as it takes more time.
21. Sometimes, the hen continuously sits on her eggs at the nest without coming down (about 3 days before hatching). When you observe this, put the ground corn near the nest itself where the hen can feed. She may even relieve herself on the nest but never mind. Clean up everything after the chicks are hatched.
For a complete list of Fish Pond Buddy blog posts on fish farm-related topics, please click the Index page.
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