Sunshine is Here

People had been asking why did we stop the Sunshine Chicken.

It tickles us to think that the name Sunshine Chicken became synonymous to free range colored chickens.  Reality is Sunshine Chicken is our branding, and whatever we produce in our farm is Sunshine Chicken.  When we chose that name, we thought about natural way of raising chickens, so our dressed chickens will always be named Sunshine.  

In our advocacy on pushing natural farming in the Philippines, we are in search of ways of giving cheaper and accessible food for all.  A problem with importation we had before due to bird flu in France, led us to try pasturing the white chickens that always been connoted with commercial raising with chemicals.

We got very good results...plus the great find that by pasturing white chickens that are cheap and easy to find, we are giving cheaper source for all interested to farm them.  Clean, cheap and accessible. The big bonus is that the white chickens have Grand Parent Stocks (GPS) in the Philippines.  The GPS produce the Parent Stocks (PS) who in turn produce the day old chicks we use as broilers.  That secures the supply in the food chain :)  Now, that means, your source of pastured chicks are NOT dependent on one or two suppliers that raise the prices.

How we farmers decide to raise them is what is important.  The health benefits and taste has nothing to do with the color of the feathers of the birds.  Now, our consumers are very aware of the benefits of naturally raised chickens. 

To recap:

1) We are not selling the dayold chicks, as it is cheaper and easy to get in your area.  The bigger poultry supply stores sell retail.  If you need volume, contact the distributor in the area, you may find out from the poultry division of the companies who the persons to contact in your area.

2) We have not stopped teaching people HOW TO pasture chickens.  This is our advocacy.  In a larger picture, we are teaching natural farming, with our expertise in pasturing chickens :)

3) Sunshine Chicken is not gone.  This is our brand and thank you that we are associated and synonymous to free range chicken.  

4) We continue to give you a good alternative for clean food, with a very fair price.  You are cutting out the middlemen by dealing with your farmers directly.

We are planning bigger things for our journey in natural farming.  One of which is educating you to grow your own food.

Please please please...let us all support our natural farmers.  Grow your own food, or buy from farmers in your area practicing safe natural farming.  You have to know to trust your suppliers :)

Support & Trust

Thankful for friends in Agriculture who have stood by, believed and supported us through all these times.

Now that we are refocusing in using the white chickens for our endeavor, they have listened and took the steps with us.  They make us confident in going against norms and bringing  to all ,the benefits of economics and food :)

Others may belittle it, but we appreciate that friends spread the good work around and make it known to all...for others to be guided or to follow.

Philippines for natural farming!  Philippines may raise pastured chickens using the white broilers perceived only for commercial farming.

Read about the WHITE PASTURED CHICKENS here.

IFEX Philippines 2010

Right after we set up on opening day, good that I decided to take a picture, as there will be hardly time after as we got busy. Talk talk talk....time to rest a little, then a flurry of activities again. Thank you to CITEM's Doris, Luz and Pia for promoting IFEX 2010 well.

Co-branding, co-ordinating, co-marketing....Alaminos Goat Farm and I met in IFEX 2008, since then we had been helping and supporting each other. Great decision to show side by side. Without borders :) We have the same market profile and it suited us well to be associated.

I won't push a product that I don't believe in. Doc Rey and I consume 20lts of milk a week. Alaminos Goat Farm supplies us with 10lts while I get my other 10lts of milk from Philippine Carabao Center. The best milks I can say. The Carabao milk gives me the cream I live for, the Goats give me the best milk, closest to mothers' :)

Best opportunity to bring out our Sunshine Sausages for intro to the general public. Did pretty well. People who had bought from us had already reordered them, just a few days after. I can't say what sold best. All sold equally well. Salve of APDC, the developers of Sunshine Sausages was there the last day. She saw how the response to the product was, and will be scheduling processing dates again.

Totie and company of Alaminos Goat Farm assisted us from ingress to egress.

Rocky helped during Summer schedule breaks...must be the two good looking men that attracted and brought in the sales? It may have helped, but it is really the healthy goat and chicken products that pulled them in :)

Full support is important from suppliers to media partners and co brands. BTW, Louis Perrault of SASSO was behind us too.

I tell you.....am not yet done posting this and we got a lot of calls from institution accounts already for Sunshine Sausages. I love IFEX :)

Make Way

Went to the farm after office. I was just left in the car, as Doc Rey was viewing the concrete posts buried on the new area we were developing.

Still caught the last rays of the Sun, excitedly took out my camera to practice. It was after I was downloading to my "practice" album, that limited spaces and drought may have been captured subjects in some photos I took. Looking through the lens, the aim then was to get comfortable with my camera. The pictures taken, showed me a different focus :)

In this dry season, when you can't plant rice due to the fact that your water is dependent on irrigation that they cut off...you should have planned or at the very worst, be planning what to do. Problems are no reason to stop moving and working :)

We are based in Isabela, where I will say 90% of farming is Rice and Corn. So I will talk from my vantage point.

You know the passages in rice paddies? Pilapil...am not sure how they are called in English. It doesn't have to be just that...a passage or border. Put it into good use. Widen it and you can use it to plant vegetables, fruit trees...and yes, even use for ranging of Sunshines.

Want to raise Sunshine but no space?

If you have a fishpond, you may set part or the whole house on top of the pond, on stilts. The Sunshine's waste will go to the pond and the fishes may feed on them.

Okey, no fishpond...then just build the housing on the widened pilapil. Let them range there too. Of course, don't forget to plant fast shading trees. We did plant a lot of Sugarcane, Bamboo, Aratiles, Papaya etc.

Kabuhayang Swak na Swak Goes Sunshine Chicken

I still have to get my copy from the producers of Kabuhayang Swak na Swak, so thank you to Enri who was able to record this from TFC and uploaded it to youtube.

Because of editing, there are misleading points, as the thoughts were cut and joined at logical sequences but distorted some facts. But, overall, it was good. Shown for the Easter Sunday episode, April 4.

Or this:


Anyway, you are here at our website...get the correct info here as you read through, for free range chicken in the Philippines.

As For Dressed Chickens...

....which means the ready to cook :)

The deliveries continue to most areas of Metro Manila, until Alabang to the South and Fairview area in the North. Come to think of it now, that is like a bus route :)

For a minimum of 5kgs order for dressed Sunshines, we can deliver to you the frozen and vacuum packed meat, together with eggs if you require them too.

We have varied sizes for the different market needs. Normally, deliveries are made on a weekend. If there are impromptu needs, we try to serve you. If not, you may pick up at our QC outlet with advance notice.

Slowly developed the market...for consumer awareness. The people have to know what is available in the market and easy to be found. It creates then the market and encourages the small farmers to raise them.

Because of the land requirements and the expectations of profit, the big farmers are not really lured into doing the colored free range market. The farmer's capital is secondary to the passion and advocacy to go into raising Sunshines. So we pave the way for the smaller , colored free range chicken farmers in the Philippines :)

Help us in this vision. Buy dressed Sunshine Chickens! Share the info with your friends please.

Email info@solraya.com or text us (0917) 847-2639.

New Set Of Breeders

Our production of colored free range Sunshine F1 Chicks are up and there will be no more long waiting time for booking orders. The Certified Breeders from SASSO of France arrived in September 2009, day before Ondoy.

Also, logistics have been more cooperative and our network for Northern Luzon is getting back on the road. The South Luzon will follow shortly.

Thank you for the trust and support, that the colored free range industry in the Philippines, has shown. The Government and private sector made us go farther each year.

Natural Farming In The Philippines

1st year anniversary for this yahoo e-group.

Aside from the regular get together that anniversaries are celebrated with, a whole day seminar of natural farming should and obviously in order.

August 01, 2009 Saturday, 9am-5pm, Cancio Calma Compound in Pasong Tamo Extension.

Seminar fee of PHP1,000 per person, includes lunch and snacks. Speaker will be Andry Lim, tackling more on livestock natural farming.

See you there :)

Philippine Free Range Chicken

Been very busy that we didn't notice our 2nd year passed by :)

Some people have commented that in such a short time, we had made a name for Sunshine Chicken in the Philippine free range chicken industry. Competitors have even been telling some of our friends that they have no need to pay for advertising....they just ride on our work! How they ride on us, is pretty obvious :)

Advertising, marketing all stems from hard work. And that is really where we credit the branding that Sunshine Chicken is now.

What may point to hard work?

1) You have to change automobile tires every year
2) There is a vehicle in maintenance check up mode in car dealers' service centers all the time
3) There is a need for a 3rd vehicle for your use as one is always on maintenance or coding...and vehicles have to rest too
4) You forget what day of the week it is
5) Need like 24 uniforms....as you don't get home to wash clothes
6) Two sets of luggage as one is unpacked and the other is on standby
7) Faces and names get harder and harder to match together
8) Plane tickets are like booklet passes
9) Phone bills that run to +++
10) When you phone a hotel, the frontdesk knows what room to give you :)

I can go on and on...but what's best after all that?

1) Everyone knows you wehehehehehhe...it can be fun as you instantly are not alone in a room full of people
2) Plane, bus and car rides are best times to catch on sleep
3) Camaraderie formed with others on the road are nice to look forward to. Friends have been made because of Sunshine!
4) Work on consumer awareness to eating healthy food has gained a lot of mileage since we started
5) We get average of 600+ pages read on this blog DAILY....visitors are about 150 average DAILY
6) Marketing is my main work....and it allows me to be on the internet :)

Because we enjoy what we are doing, I will not really call it hard work...but more like focused and honest deeds.

Let us help you, so we can all grow together.

Lasang Native

I had been getting email and calls..."Is your Sunshines native chickens"?

That is the reason we used the tagline "LASANG NATIVE"...

Although the Sunshines taste like our native chickens, manok tagalog, bisaya manok, or whatever regional term we have for the Filipino native chickens....we don't, won't, nor claim that the Sunshines are OUR native chickens.

Why? Because, much as they really do taste like the natives, our Certified F1 Sunshine Chicks are from the Certified Parent Stocks that we import are from SASSO of France. We will not claim to the fame of OUR native chickens, nor will we disclaim the research and development of SASSO of France. SASSO is known in the free range chicken industry as the leader, and develops and maintains the strains of pure colored chicken farm breeds. They go through a natural selection for taste and preferences of the different regions in France and clients' requirements. We are proud to be carrying SASSO.

We studied and continue to study our Philippine conditions and market preferences and decided on which strains to bring in to comeup with what we offer to you as Sunshine Chicken. First we brought in the a heavy pure farm breed, that gives us the colorful Sunshines. We next reintroduced the Naked Necks that are sturdier under tropical conditions and have a thinner skin that gourmets prefer. We are now thinking of a new strain to add to our existing line :) All those, to satisfy the different growers' and farmers' needs and wants.

THE_start

When Zac Sarian, Doc Rey and I made the Feb trip to Davao for the PVMA, it was primarily for Doc Rey and his seminar. Zac and I knew we were going to enjoy Durian and whatever comes our way after. I asked Tere of Earthkeepers to set us up with the infamous Andry and Jojie Lim, and of course a farm visit with her co-author Dante Delima.

That trip was enjoyable and educational. Doc Rey was only with the group for the lastday, so what we saw was just heresay for him :) When he saw Andry's and Jojie's naturally farmed pigs....he had a lot of questions. Very normal for a veterinarian. We would take that he didn't know his craft, if he accepted the natural farming practice without resistance. That is granting that he is a veterinarian of the 80s.

Things happen and get delayed for reasons....

1) We are working on a book for "Raising Sunshines". Busy schedules have sidelined it, but it is all ready to be edited, illustrated and printed.

2) While brainstorming for Kaunlaran sa Agrikultura over DWWW, an idea flashed for a nice segment. We will keep quiet on this first :)

3) Jojie got different batches of free range chicks and was able to compare growth. She wanting to be more conclusive, she got a 2nd batch.

4) Our seminar in Davao coincided with a time that Andry and Jojie were also in Davao and had the time to go visit farms and showed us their Sunshine chicks.

5) Those visits were eye openers to both parties. Doc Rey was now asking Andry and Jojie a lot of questions. We now had all the time, no rush, to rationalize and put perspective to why science and natural farming should work together and learn from one another. The Lims also saw the logic to what a veterinarian's experience, knowledge and steadfast science has to offer in terms of team play.

They were discussing beddings, feeds, length of intestines, fermented juices etc....

Doc Rey was so awed and renewed after seeing how Tibaw is able to sustain his farm. Seeing the fishes happy and swimming in the dikes...from where he was eating freshly caught fish and really good vegetables in his tinolang manok.

You can see the excitement in his voice, questions and voice! No doubt, everyone's never ending thirst for knowledge will work in sharing. One must study new things, to take care of what's old.

6) Lightbulb!!!! My initial concept for the radio segment may now be translated "in writing", in series and will be for distribution nationwide. Verbal agreements made and final discussion over cafe latte, decaf, green tea and frapuccino....four (4) people, four (4) different drinks. Diverse personalities that blend and meet. Four of us, Andry, Jojie, Doc Rey and I. There is incidentally a 5th person involved for a cameo role.

See for yourself the baby steps....things happened so fast that I missed the most symbolic...when Andry, from below, was throwing the sacks of rice straws to Doc Rey at street level. Doc Rey catching it and Jojie was lugging it to the trunk. As usual, I was comfortably seated under a shade....taking pictures as a disguise for being so tamad.


Symbolic also is how you see Andry and Doc Rey in pictures? Jojie is behind, below or simply taking pictures. Same with me.

Teasers? Let's hope the ones in the background work faster....as we have the "TO DO" assignments.

Easers to be done....to ease the mind of farmers :) Options will be offered to you...you choose what is a workable blend for you. Team play dictates no right nor wrong. Let us come up with our own "3in1" for you.

If we didn't tickle your mind to what we are up to....then we have to reinvent ourselves.

Naked Necks, TJ Of Baliuag Bulacan

I asked TJ 2weeks ago how his Sunshine naked necks were doing. "Maganda, kasi pangit sila" Brought a smile to my lips. Can't blame the description, because true, the naked necks are not the cutest chickens to see. As bald, day old chicks, maybe....but as adults...well look at it this way , they seem easier to slaughter :)

Louis of SASSO of France says that it is sturdier and will do better under our Philippine conditions. The skin of this strain is thin, and the trained tounges will know that it is better.

We have alloted our Naked Necks to our growers, who have seen the benefits over our regular full feathered ones. Sometimes we have some left and our Solraya stores carry it on retail.

Today, Zac Sarian revisits Baliuag, Bulacan. He had featured TJ several times in the past in the Agriculture Magazine of April2008, Manila Bulletin, Bannawag and Panorama. Time to listen to what TJ has to say. He has good comparisons as before he loaded with the naked necks, he was just through harvesting his full feathered ones. Also, he fostered some 300 chicks for a friend taken from another stock. So he was able to compare three batches.

Look at TJ's Feb22 batch of the new line of Sunshines. They were just supplemented with unmedicated feeds, left free to range on living grass...no antibiotics nor hormones. Not even vitamins nor probiotics.


TJ got a lot of interest going for the naked necks. Yes, true, the strain is sturdier...BUT then, TJ has always proven to do well with his wards.

Today at 6weeks...he is thinking about loading the same bald ones soon.

Seminars In Key Cities

Now that we are pacing with our schedules and workloads better. Jobs have been delegated and may be supervised through online data transfers and cameras...

We will be scheduling seminars nationwide, starting with the key cities. Minimal fee will have to be charged to cover venues. Don't worry, it will be very fair, granting that we did the travelling for you.

If your company, LGUs, organization, groups etc are interested to set up a livelihood seminar on raising Sunshine Chicken, please feel free to contact us.

Please check schedules we will be posting here.

Maraming salamat :)

1

100%=1

The previous posts may seem negligible to some, but it is the small steps that mean a lot to us...it got us to our present location and will navigate us to our destination. Hmmm...seems I am relying on my GPS too much? weheehheeh

Where we are now...merits thanking everyone and everything in our midst. Everyone means customers, growers, friends and media partners. Some media partners have transcended and became friends :)

Blessings come mostly masked as hurdles. But we work hard and strive too, and together with support from everyone around, we get to chirp at the end of the day.

Thank you for 2008. We will be working harder for 2009.

Getting Stuffed Inside The Trunk

We were following this car, with a sticker of a life size bloody hand that got caught by the door of the car's trunk. Eerie humor :) Gives you the picture of a lifeless body inside that dark, stuffy, and airless trunk.

Reminded me about a topic that was agreed upon, for those short radio segments. We decided to warn you not to put your Sunshine Chicks inside your car's trunk!

Saturday past, when I got to AANI Herbal Garden and Livelihood Center, the AANI Boy incharge of the Sunshine booth was on the phone with someone and talking about dead chicks. There must have been a great deal of misinterpretation and misunderstanding! Jeffrey must have said you can set it at the back (seat or whatever) surely, you can't let it sit inside the trunk, without fresh air :(

Anyway, things have been settled....

Bottomline....place yourself in your Sunshines' position. What you feel, they will too. Hot, need water? They too will :)

Our 3rd Batch Of Parent Stocks Have Been Booked

Yes, not waiting for the 6th month from our date of importation of our 2nd batch of Parent Stocks, we have now booked our 3rd batch for June arrival. And YES, it is from SASSO of France that we brand as Sunshine Chicken :)

After educating growers and trust built, they have realized that the naked necks will perform better. Consulting with them, we are bringing in the naked necks primarily for the serious Sunshine raisers and again, the accepted full feathered reds.

We are working on making our products offer the best results to growers and more distinct, so others may not pass their products as same as "Sunshines".

SASSOlraya tayo!

We sure are glad we made the decision to go with SASSO.

Caponizing Sets

Our first batch of caponizing sets have arrived.

Selling at PHP5,000 per set. Available at AANI Quezon Memorial Circle. Limited stocks, so please phone ahead. We can send your orders by courier.

For those just wanting their Sunshines in its capon glory already, ready to roast....Joey Rigor will have his Sunshine Capons available at the Bonsai Show, May 3-11, Araneta Gateway Center and at IFEX, SM Exhibit, May 16-18.

FEEDPRO

We are often asked what brand of feeds do we suggest? We don't name brands because we suggest what is convenient for you to get.

We always suggest go with premium feeds.

The growth during the brooding stage is very important. What should be met?
1) Good genetics for your chicks, very important
2) Premium feeds, they need the proper nutrition to armor them for the ranging period
3) Proper poultry management.

When further asked to go into specifics about feeds....you can go with what's readily available in your area, as long as make sure you are getting premium feeds. When we say premium, it doesn't necessarily mean what is most famous nor expensive. Premium means good quality and fresh.

More questions leads to, how about unmedicated feeds? You may ask your local feedmill in your area to mix unmedicated feed for you. The animal nutritionist of the feedmill company will be able to help you, just say you want no antibiotics nor animal protein...depending on your requirements.

Is there a commercial brand that makes unmedicated feeds? Yes, FEEDPRO. We carry it, but then our growers are encouraged to get from the distributors in their areas for freshness.

For areas where you don't have it yet....look for the signs or suppliers of TATEH and PET ONE....ask the distributors/dealers to get FEEDPRO for you...say you want to feed unmedicated feeds to your Sunshines.

Suggest retail prices as of 15 October 2008:

PHP735 25kilos Broiler 100 (chick booster) Suggested 1-21days
PHP1240 50kilos Broiler 200 (broiler starter) Suggested 22days to harvest or 22-35days
PHP1205 50kilos Broiler 300 (broiler finisher) Suggested 36days to harvest

For Meat And Egg Production

We can never tire of answering when questioned "Can Sunshines be used for breeding"?

The Sunshines you are getting from us and our bonafide dealers, are F1, meaning first generation free ranging colored chicks. They are bred from Certified Parent Stocks, imported from France. The product here, we branded as Sunshine Chicken.

F1 chicks are not meant to be bred together. In layman's terms..they are related, siblings and cousins...not meant to procreate. You will produce chicks with abnormalities, low livablity, sickly and slow growth even with proper management.

The Sunshines are not also advised to be crossbred with the Philippine native chickens. You will still not be getting the characteristics of the F1 Sunshines...the same characteristics that interested you to reproduce them. Besides, let's keep our native chickens in its pure form. It may be the only one left that we can call "OURS".

Many have tried and failed. Is there anyone successful in this type of inbreeding on a commercial quantity?

If it was that simple to inbreed and crossbreed, why are we still importing Certified Parent Stocks to give you F1 Sunshines?

You spend a lot of time waiting to produce chicks. Labor on the growth of your F1s and breeding. You spend a lot more, ending up with a few chicks that survived. You can't go on a commercial scale with unpredictable results.

It doesn't cost much to get the real F1 Sunshines. Don't gamble with your time, effort and money.