Ba Che District, Quang Ninh is a locality with many precious medicinal herbs such as purple Morinda officinalis, yellow tea flower, Cau Sam, Dang Sam, Cat Sam... famous in and outside the province. Taking advantage of these medicinal herbs, Mr. Nguyen Van Cuong (Ward 3A, Ba Che Town, Ba Che District) decided to invest in the field of raising chickens in the direction of natural grazing and using feed mixed with locally available medicinal herbs to build the medicinal hill chicken brand.

In November 2021, Ba Che district piloted the model of "biosafe poultry farming under the canopy of planted forests", Mr. Cuong was the pioneer in participating in the implementation.

When he started working, Mr. Cuong was supported by the district with 300 chickens, food, medicine to prevent and treat initial diseases for the chickens. In addition, he also boldly borrowed 150 million VND from the preferential loan source of the Social Policy Bank.

He invested in building barns, buying a medicinal herb cutting machine, a food cutting machine, a pellet press and 600 local chickens to graze on his family's 4ha of forest and hills.

His family has been growing yellow tea flowers on this hill for 6 years. He also grows medicinal plants such as perilla, lemongrass, honeysuckle, ginseng, and polyscias fruticosa to mix into chicken feed.

According to Mr. Cuong, this is an effective farming model, the quality of the chicken flock is very good. Because the disease situation in livestock and poultry is complicated, the rate of drug-resistant poultry is very high.

Raising chickens using new methods helps reduce the cost of using veterinary antibiotics, reduce the mortality rate of chickens, feed costs, and open up a new direction in accessing the market for clean chicken products.

In order for the chickens to grow well, in addition to technical support from the staff of the district's agricultural technical service center, Mr. Cuong also learned through books, newspapers, the Internet and went to many places that also raised chickens with medicinal herbs to consult and learn how to do it.

In addition to letting the chickens graze naturally to eat available medicinal plants, Mr. Cuong also cooks yellow tea leaves for the chickens to drink and mixes some other medicinal plants into the chicken feed.

Once a month, he fumigates the chicken coop with medicinal leaves to prevent respiratory diseases and increase the chickens' resistance.

"The most difficult step is mixing medicinal herbs in the feed with the right ratio so that the chickens grow evenly, are disease-free, have low loss, grow quickly, and especially have better meat quality than normally raised chickens," said Mr. Cuong.

Another difficulty in raising medicinal chickens is disease prevention and hygiene. For the chickens to grow well, the coop floor and garden must always be dry and the food and water troughs must be clean.

Mr. Cuong also combines some local folk remedies such as honeysuckle, perilla, licorice, ginger, and galangal to prevent and treat dry cough, sore throat, and asthma in chickens.

Thanks to research and strict adherence to the steps, Mr. Cuong initially implemented the chicken farming model very smoothly. Chickens fed with mixed medicinal feed are healthier and have fewer diseases.

After 7 months of natural grazing combined with feed mixed with medicinal herbs, Mr. Cuong's family's chickens reached a weight of 1.8 - 3.2 kg/chicken, with fragrant, sweet meat and beautiful, yellow skin. After deducting expenses, the first batch of chickens brought in more than 100 million VND in profit for Mr. Cuong's family.

From this success, Mr. Cuong's family expanded the grazing area on the hill garden to 7 hectares. Currently, he raises chickens in a herd-style, with 4 to 5 batches per year, each batch having 1,500 to 2,000 chickens. The raising time is about 4-6 months before they can be sold.

With the price of nearly 200,000 VND/kg of live chicken, each year Mr. Cuong earns a profit of over 150 million VND.

In addition to expanding the chicken flock, Mr. Cuong's family also carries out the preliminary processing, slaughtering and packaging processes according to standards, ensuring food hygiene and safety.

Director of the Ba Che District Agricultural Technical Service Center, Ms. Pham Thi Chinh, said that through monitoring, supervising, guiding, and helping to implement a number of pilot models of raising chickens combined with supplementing medicinal herbs, the models have developed very favorably.

The medicinal hill chicken product of Ba Che is considered a specialty with high economic value. In particular, the model that Mr. Cuong’s family registered to implement has had very positive results.

Raising chickens with medicinal herbs also reduces the odor in the coop, the chickens hardly get sick, and have better resistance. The chickens do not have to use veterinary antibiotics, saving on investment costs while the quality of the meat is sweet, fragrant and chewy.

"From the success of this model, we will replicate and guide people to raise and raise medicinal hill chickens according to the correct procedures and regulations. The unit is actively coordinating with the Center for Research and Development of Agricultural Systems to complete the application for certification of the Ba Che medicinal hill chicken trademark with the Intellectual Property Office," Ms. Chinh informed.