Billionaire from Lang Son is a farmer who raises a special breed of chicken, the 6-toed chicken, on the top of Mau Son mountain.

"Capital" of raising specialty chickens - Mau Son 6-toed chicken breed

From Lang Son city, we traveled more than 40km to reach Tu Mich commune, Loc Binh district (a border commune with China).

The farm entrance under the pine forest is as beautiful as a tourist area.

Next is a 7km winding, bumpy concrete and dirt road running through pine forests to Ban Phai village to meet Mr. Ly Minh Hieu, the person who turned Mau Son 6-toed chicken breed into a commercial product and helped many farmers have food and savings.

It is not difficult to ask for directions to Mr. Hieu's farm, because everyone knows that Mr. Hieu is the pioneer in developing the specialty 6-toed Mau Son chicken.

After nearly 2 hours of traveling, we arrived at Mr. Hieu's chicken farm, located under the pine forest canopy, which was invested in and built on a very large and modern scale.

If you don't know in advance, you will think this is an eco-tourism area, because the farm is designed with a large water surface, surrounded by large pine trees that are decades old, and under the pine forest canopy are thousands of colorful Mau Son 6-toed chickens.

Billionaire farmer in Lang Son gets rich by raising 6-toed chickens

Born in 1990, passionate about agriculture, after graduating from high school, Hieu took the entrance exam to the Vietnam Agricultural Academy. After graduating, Hieu applied for a job at an animal feed company in Lang Son.

Standard chickens have 6 toes.

During his work, having access to a lot of information, Mr. Hieu realized that Mau Son 6-toed chicken is a rare breed of chicken in Mau Son mountain. The chicken has a prominent feature that from the moment it hatches, it has toes growing in clusters at the ankles (in total, both legs have 6 more toes).

Mau Son 6-fingered chickens are raised naturally, so the meat quality is very delicious, but farmers here only raise them to increase production, improve their family, to entertain guests or on holidays, Tet...

Due to small-scale farming, many consumers want to enjoy Mau Son 6-fingered chicken products but it is very difficult to access.

Passionate about agriculture and understanding market demand, Mr. Hieu planned to develop Mau Son 6-toed chicken into a commodity product.

Mr. Hieu said: To find the standard 6-toed Mau Son chicken breed, I had to personally go to households in Mau Son mountain, ask about the chicken breed, experience in raising chickens and order the breed to try raising. There were flocks of chickens that had to be ordered for a whole month before people could get them.

Free range commercial chickens have very impressive colors

With the experience he learned at the Vietnam Agricultural Academy, Mr. Hieu understands very well that to have a good flock of commercial chickens to create large quantities of goods, there must be a flock of standard parent chickens.

Therefore, the chickens chosen for breeding have been carefully selected from: feather color, body condition, legs...

Earning billions from raising 6-toed chickens in Mau Son

At first, Mr. Hieu also raised chickens and let them hatch naturally like other households, but the hatching rate was low. Therefore, Mr. Hieu went to chicken farms to learn about artificial insemination.

Mr. Ly Minh Hieu (standing 4th from left)

Using artificial insemination method, the 6-toed Mau Son parent chickens were raised separately, each chicken in its own cage and 1 rooster can ensure fertilization for 70 hens... From there, the hatching rate of chicken eggs has reached over 90%.

In 2018, Mr. Hieu built the first chicken farm in Thong Nhat commune, Loc Binh district. In 2020, he established Thanh Loc Cooperative with 7 members, to help people develop the Mau Son 6-toed chicken farming profession, with a scale of 1,500 parent chickens.

To develop sustainable products and gain consumer trust, Thanh Loc Cooperative has built a chicken farming process according to VietGap standards.

"Commercial chickens are raised for about 6 months, while capons are raised for 9 months (mainly during Tet). The main food for chickens is corn. In addition, the chickens are all released under the canopy of pine and anise forests. The chickens will find more food in the wild, so the chicken meat is very firm," said Mr. Hieu.

With a complete breeding process, the breeding chickens and commercial chickens all grew healthily, it seemed like the "sweet fruit" was in hand. But the historic flood in April 2022 swept away the breeding chicken farm of Thanh Loc Cooperative, causing a loss of more than 2 billion VND.

The breeding chickens are kept separately to facilitate artificial insemination.

Mr. Hieu shared more: After the flood, I also wanted to give up, but with the encouragement of my family and the leaders of Loc Binh district, local authorities supported generators, incubators... so "wherever we fall, we stand up there" and I and the members of the cooperative continued to look for a favorable location to reinvest in the farm.

Up to now, after 2 years of redeveloping the chicken breeding farm of Thanh Loc Cooperative in Ban Phai village, Tu Mich commune, there are up to 4,000 parent chickens, with an average of over 30,000 chicks produced each month.

Ms. Duong Thi Thu Hang - Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Loc Binh district said: Hieu's economic development model has actively contributed to the conservation of the local rare chicken breed. Therefore, implementing the district's agricultural development projects, we have supported the model and the breeders of Mau Son 6-toed chicken to develop.

Currently, Thanh Loc Cooperative is also cooperating with 20 households in the area and 4 other cooperatives in Loc Binh district to raise commercial chickens.

As a household raising 6-toed chickens in Mau Son, Mr. Nong Van Thao in Yen Khoi commune said: For many years, my family has cooperated with Mr. Hieu to raise chickens. Every March, my family brings in 1,000 chickens.

Naturally raised 6-toed chickens make use of corn, rice... so the cost of raising them is only about 100,000/chicken. Every year, after deducting expenses, my family earns 60 million VND.

Currently, Thanh Loc Cooperative is supplying Mau Son 6-finger chicken products to the markets of Lang Son, Hanoi... about 100 tons of chicken meat per year and on average sells 35,000 breeding chickens per month. In 2024, the cooperative's revenue will reach over 9 billion VND, after deducting expenses, it will still have a profit of 2 billion VND.

Source: https://danviet.vn/ty-phu-lang-son-la-nong-dan-nuoi-thu-ga-dac-san-giong-ga-6-ngon-tren-dinh-nui-mau-son-20250327204432416.htm