backyard chicken in the philippines

hi, i'm manny pinol, a new byc member from the philippines. i am now involved in the development of a new strain, called "manok pnoy" which is a cross of western and eastern breeds. this is intended to produce meat and eggs. "manok" means chicken while "pnoy" is a slang for filipino. it is also the nickname of the current president of the philippines.

Hello, Manny, and ! Happy you joined us! Good luck to you and your chickens!

Welcome from Indiana in the US! Good luck to you.

thank you drumstick diva. this is a wonderful page. i'm starting to learn a lot.

thank you happy houdan. i am breeding quite a number of chicken actually. right now, i have the philippine asils which are huge and resilient birds but poor egg layers. they are also resistant to tropical poultry diseases. what i did was to cross them with two american poultry breeds - the rhode island red and the plymouth barred rock - and i came up with a strain whose meat tastes like our native chicken but lays more eggs. i raise them in the range.

thanks a lot webechickens. i've never been to your part of the US but i hope to one of these days as i try to discover what other american breeds i could use to cross with our endemic chicken breeds in the orient to improve our farmers' earnings from raising backyard chicken.

thank you red sox. happy to join this new group.

BREEDING 'MANOK PNOY,' A POULTRY STRAIN
FOR FILIPINOS WHO LOVE 'NATIVE' CHICKEN
By Manny Pinol
www.mannypinol.com

Ask any Filipino who loves to eat chicken and he will always tell you that he prefers "native" chicken over the 45-day (now reduced to 30 days) broiler.

The "native" chicken may either be called "Manok Tagalog," "Manok Bisaya" or simply "Manok" to Filipinos in the Southern Philippines.

But whatever they are called, they are preferred for barbecue or "tinolang" manok because of their distinct taste and firmer meat.

In fact, in the Kidapawan City market, a kilo of broiler is sold for P130 while native chicken sells for up to P190 per kilo.

In spite of the huge demand for the native chicken, however, Filipino farmers could not produce enough to satisfy the market and the reason is simply they cannot breed more.

When I was Governor of North Cotabato, I saw this problem and realized the huge window of opportunity for the farmer who could breed and produce "native" chicken.

There were problems though.

First, aside from the Philippine Asils, known in Mindanao as "pauwakan," "Basilan," or "Jolo" or Manok sa Muslim because they are raised in the Muslim areas, there is no distinct local breed with common phenotype and genotype.

Second, the Asils, while huge, hardy and disease-resistant, have very tough meat and it would take about 6 to 8 months before they would reach 1.5 to 2 kilos.

Third, the Asils are not prolific egg-layers thus preventing the backyard chicken farmer from producing a lot for the market.

Having been involved with the breeding and raising of gamefowls, I thought of cross-breeding the Philippine Asils with two American poultry breeds known as prolific egg layers with good tasting and tender meat.

With the help of my friend, Oregon chicken-breeder (now also goat breeder) Jim Clem, I brought in two dozens of two distinct American poultry chicken and crossed these with the Philippine Asils and a Shamo rooster which I got from my brother, former Congressman Jun Pinol.

The result was outstanding. The weight gain was 1 to 1.2 kilos in less than 3 months and the meat was thicker than the Philippine native chicken but just as tasty as Manok Tagalog or Manok Bisaya.

My breeding program for this new breed of meat and egg chicken was disrupted by the elections and I was not able to continue the production.

With the elections over, I went back to the pens where I kept my breeding stocks today and a quick look made me realize how much they have been neglected.

They were thin and they have been pecking on their own eggs.

Today, I asked my farm workers to give them a bath to delouse them. After that they will be given deworming tablets to expel the internal parasites.

After the moulting season, they should be ready for breeding again and my quest to produce the breeding materials for a new line which I call "Manok PNoy" will be pursued.

Hopefully, by next year, I will have enough breeding materials to share with other farmers and help them take advantage of the huge market awaiting the "nitib" chicken.

(Photo caption: Picture shows the pure imported hens with the hybrid "Manok PNoy" roosters. Photo by Joshua Casimina)