Ordinary grass chickens hatch "living beads" that make money
On December 5, 2004, Nanjing Liuhe District held an agricultural and sideline products exhibition in Baima Park. Among them, there was a kind that looked like an egg. But something that is not eggs attracts many Nanjing citizens to taste and buy.
Nanjing citizens: “It’s delicious, delicious, very delicious.”
Nanjing citizens: “Its juice is very good and nutritious.”
Jiangsu TV reporter: "Although the price is much more expensive than other products, there are still quite a lot of people selling it."
This popular food among Nanjing citizens is called "living beads." At the exhibition, it is not bought by the pound, but by the piece. The selling price of each piece is 1.2 yuan.
Nanjing Citizen: "This should be considered a graded selling price. It has high nutritional content."
It turns out that this kind of live beads, which are three times more expensive than ordinary eggs, is , a living chicken embryo formed after 13 days of incubation from grass eggs.
In order to inquire about the production of live beads, we drove to Liuhe, Nanjing, where live beads are produced, on December 6. The locals told us that live beads are a pillar industry for them. In 2003 With an output value of more than 80 million yuan, the reason for hatching live beads must start with the story of a local kangfang master who secretly ate eggs.
Liuhe farmers have a tradition of breeding young birds. One day in 1998, a master who hatched chicks for others secretly took two eggs that had been hatched for 13 days and cooked them because he was hungry. After eating it, I thought it tasted particularly delicious. From then on, it was passed down from ten to ten, and it became a secret known to the whole village.
Qiu Yuanmou, a chicken farmer in Hengliang Town: "After this spread, people took it to the market to sell it, and the results were really good after selling it. It was said that live beads contain a variety of nutrients for the human body. From then on, it spread "
The popularity of live beads among the people has attracted the attention of the local government. They sent the live beads to the Jiangsu Provincial Institute of Microbiology for testing. The results showed that they were hatched from fertilized grass eggs. Compared with ordinary eggs, the live beads contain significantly more tungsten, phosphorus, calcium, and vitamins, but the fat and cholesterol are reduced several times. Seeing the business opportunity, they immediately went to the industrial and commercial department to register the country's first "Shen Gong Pai" live beads trademark, and encouraged farmers to hatch live beads.
Huan Lin, a live bead incubator in Zhuzhen Town: “One is the temperature, another is the humidity, and the third is the freshness of the eggs. These factors determine the taste of the live beads. After the live beads leave the kang, they will be stored at normal temperature. It can be stored for 3 to 5 days."
Huan Lin and his wife are the first farmers to hatch live beads in Zhuzhen Town. The survival rate of the live beads they hatch can reach more than 98%, and the nutrition of the live beads mainly comes from living organisms. Embryos, so what is sold is also a movable type. If the embryo dies, it is worthless.
Huan Lin’s wife Ye Lixin: “We have an egg camera that can identify live beads swimming inside. We can show it to you. Take the egg photo and you will see that the little black ones inside are small embryos. The head, the red bits and pieces are blood vessels. If there are no blood vessels, it is dead. If there is no egg camera, we want to prove to customers that our things are alive, that is to open an egg laying hen on the spot. I will show you. Look, open one on the spot. You can see that the fresh blood is bright red, and every trace of it is fresh. This one is less old. Look, look carefully, the lower leg is moving inside.
To hatch eggs into living beads, the key issue is that the eggs must be fertilized. In order to ensure the quality of the eggs and to reduce production costs, Huan Lin adopted the method of raising chickens and hatching them by himself. He was careful and told us to forget it. An account.
Huan Lin, a live bead incubator in Zhuzhen Town: "Because there is a price difference between the price of selling grass eggs and the price of selling live beads. After the live beads are hatched, their added value is higher. We are currently Live beads delivered to restaurants cost 1 yuan each, while grass eggs can only be sold for 60 cents at most. Our sales are very good now.
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By 2004, the number of farmers hatching live beads in Liuhe District had grown to more than 300. The more live beads were hatched, the greater the demand for grass eggs. In 2001, Qiu Yuanmou spotted this business opportunity. He invested more than 1 million yuan to raise grass chickens in a forest clearing.
Qiu Yuanmou, a chicken farmer in Hengliang Town: "I saw that the economic benefits of live beads on the market were very good because of the source of live beads. Grass-fed eggs must be used, so if you want to start this industry, you must start by raising grass-fed chickens. In this way, I established an ecological garden to raise chickens and started selling grass-fed eggs. ”
In the first year, Qiu Yuanmou tried to raise 10,000 chickens. However, before they could be sold during the egg-laying season, incubation farmers came to buy them all. Seeing that Qiu Yuan’s business was booming, Local people have raised chickens one after another, and the number of free-range chickens has soared from 500,000 to 8 million.
Zhan Shunlong, president of the Liuhe District Live Pearl Association: "8 million free-range chickens lay more than 4 million eggs every year. We produced more than 16 million kilograms of pasture eggs. We calculated that the pasture eggs alone increased farmers' income by more than 20 million yuan. ”
His name is Zheng Yongfu, and he is the one with the largest sales volume among the more than 200 professional live bead brokers in Liuhe. In 2003, one-third of the 25 million live beads hatched by local farmers passed through his hands. Sold out.
Live bead incubator: “We are responsible for production and quality inspection, and they do the sales. ”
Zheng Yongfu, a live bead broker: “Our sales department sells about 1 million pieces a year. During the Spring Festival, some units sell about 10,000 pieces a day. We Nanjing citizens originally liked it. This is one place to eat, and the second place is for people from other places who come to Nanjing to travel. ”
In addition, Zheng Yongfu has also set his sights on some high-end hotels and restaurants in Nanjing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and other places. At least 2,000 live beads are sold there every day.
Xiao Ting, the restaurant foreman of Nanjing Hanfu Hotel: "Let me teach you how to eat it. First, crack the big end of the egg into a small opening, then peel off the small film on the shell, and then insert the straw into it. Go in and suck up the water, and then eat the egg yolk and placenta inside. ”
Singapore tourist: “The one I had had no bones, so it was quite delicious, and it was soft, like jelly, and very sweet.” ”
Singapore tourist: “I didn’t get used to it at first. If it really has that value, I believe we will still accept it.” ”
Singapore tourist: “It’s because its taste is different from other eggs. It feels different, more fragrant and more elastic.” ”
Xu Baoan, catering manager of Nanjing Hanfu Hotel: “People who order dishes also order this dish. Especially when there are banquets, we basically serve 300 to 500 of this dish on each table. ”
At present, Liuhe’s live beads are mainly sold in some large and medium-sized cities such as Jiangsu, Shanghai, and Zhejiang. The annual demand is about 30 million pieces. Due to restrictions on transportation, storage and other conditions, live beads The market has not yet been fully opened. Currently, more than 30 farmer incubators from Liuhe are setting up shop in Shandong, Hunan and other provinces and cities, preparing to set up incubation factories in other places to expand the live bead industry nationwide.
Liuhe. Jin Anfan, deputy director of the District People's Government: "Live beads are one of the main agricultural and sideline products of our grass-fed livestock and poultry industry. Live beads are also a deep-processed product of our grass-fed eggs. At present, they have played a very important role in making our farmers rich and increasing their income in our district." promotion effect. "(CCTV International)