HA NOI – Ms. Nguyễn Thị Dung, 32 years old, is considered a “superstar” in the chicken village thanks to her ability to classify newly hatched roosters and hens with near absolute accuracy.
On the morning of May 28, the incubator of Ms. Dung’s family in Duc Giang commune, Hoai Duc received a new batch of chickens. Nearly tens of thousands of chickens have just come out of the oven, rattle and squeak mixed with fan buzzing. Nha Dung specializes in supplying broiler breeds for meat but also needs to separate males for farms in need. That is Dung’s mission. Today she only has to classify 4,000 children.
Gently holding a chicks to her right hand, squeezing the stool in her left hand and looking at the acupuncture hole in the anus under the light bulb, it only took her 2 seconds to see whether this was a male or a male. When determining that the chicken in his hand was a female, Dung dropped it to the basket on his right. At the same time, her left hand immediately took its place under the incandescent bulb. Still squeezing feces, taking anus view, this chicken was dropped to the left basket where the rooster is located. The whole process is as quick as the blink of an eye.
“The simplest distinguishing basis is based on the hole of the chicken hole. The male will have mating spikes, it is a round, shiny, red, and the hen does not”, Dung revealed. Starting at 7:00 am, after about an hour, she classified 1,200 animals.
Sitting a bit from Dung is Nguyen Thi Thuy, 25 years old, a girl who used to learn Dung’s hole-piercing apprenticeship, now hired by her family to deliver chickens to the province in time. New to the job, Thuy’s speed is slower. An hour passed, she separated 700 children.
According to this job, Dung separates an average of 4,000 children per session, earning an income of 60-100 million VND per month.
Entering the profession in 2009, at that time Nguyen Thi Dung did not think she would “make money” like that. “That day just gave birth to two children, no goose job. We have an incubator, our parents-in-law told me to go to school, but I don’t like it,” Dung honestly.
With a slim figure, Dung was quick with his hands and eyes. The long slender hands hold the newly hatched chicken gently but decisively. After 3 months, Dung mastered the scanning technique. Since then, in addition to working for the house, she was also invited to work part time in other incubators.
However, in the first stage, Dung’s skill is not high, so sometimes the chickens die and the accuracy is not high. “I was discouraged from losing points to clients, many times even planning to quit,” she said.
Then she determined to study again. Dung asked questions and observed the ways of those who went before. Along with that, she watched and learned manipulation through videos from Korea, China, thereby creating her own method.
“Previously, the teacher taught me to use 3 fingers to do it, the accuracy rate is not high, causing many deaths. I created using 2 fingers, which is faster and convenient to manipulate”, the hand smoothly over the chickens weighing about 30 grams, Dung spoke as well.
At that time, the number of people who knew how to sexually distinguish chickens through the acupuncture hole did not count enough for one hand, so Dung was invited by the incubators in Hoai Duc district and Dong Anh. In 2013, a hamlet in Yen Phong, Bac Ninh invited Dung to return. At first they did not believe so they asked: “How much exactly can I do?”. “I do not know what your family is asking for, but on the market I am getting the correct classification from 97-99%”, replied Dung.
They set the conditions to follow the chickens, then sign a long-term contract. After a month and a half, out of 1,000 hens of this farm mixed only 5 roosters. This means that Dung correctly distinguished 99.5%.
Since then, Dung has been considered as a “superstar” in the chicken classification village. Many camps won her to get home. Dung does not do all the work. There were times when the chickens hatched a lot, and she had to do it from early morning to night. At the peak of one day, she separated up to 18,000 children and received about 5 million dong of wages.
At first glance, it can be thought that this job is light, high-paying, but in fact not everyone can follow. Dr. Tran Ngoc Tien, Thuy Phuong Poultry Research Center (Institute of Livestock Production) said, for day-old chickens, there are two methods of sexing.
The first is the acupressure method, giving high accuracy, but difficult to do, requiring professional expertise. Because to squeeze a chicken, help the chicken to excrete without hurting it needs to be well trained. The second is the machine sexism method, prevalent in western countries. “Dung is famous in the chicken sexist village for many years. At the Institute we also only have a few teachers who know this method”, Mr. Tien said.
On May, June, when the temperature in the incubator was up to 40 degrees, Nguyen Thi Dung still had to work in a crowded space with a stench of stench and sweat. Or like the cut, cold winter days, she still has to travel a few tens of kilometers to work. “The hardest part of this job is that the worker depends on the chicken, but the chicken hatches according to the weather,” Dung said.
The best time to sex a chick is 2-3 hours after hatching. At this time, the anus of the chicken is “still fresh”, so it is easy to distinguish. When the chickens hatched early, Dung was forced to leave earlier and go home later to work. If past this “zodiac” time frame, the anus of the chicken is already dry. With no more distinctive signs, it will take longer, with her eyes strained to see, and at the same time have to use a combination of other techniques to see the sex of the chicken. At such times, she can only make 700-800 animals per hour.
Currently, in addition to working for a family farm, Dung also works for three other chicken farms in Dong Anh, Bac Tu Liem and Bac Ninh. Every 4 days, a camp comes out of the oven, so Dung hardly has a day off.
“I have been working since my child did not wake up, coming home when the child is asleep. There are times that are not allowed to say a word to him for up to 3 days. side, “Dung said. Up to now, the two children have grown up and understood their mother’s work, but they are still forced to leave their work to stay with their children. Every morning they ask: “Do you have to go to work now?”
Good reputation spread, many people came to Dung to learn the job. In September 2019, Nguyen Tan Giang, 24 years old, waded from Tien Giang to “worship”. The man, who studied Livestock – Veterinary Medicine, Can Tho University and is working for a shared hatchery, tried many different ways to distinguish the sex of chickens, but the exact rate was not high.
He followed Ms. Dung’s Facebook for 3 years to gradually believe in this method. After 3 months of apprenticeship, with the tuition fee of 30 million VND, Giang has mastered the method of acupuncture to determine the male / female drum. In the southern market, the wage to distinguish a chicken ranges from 400-500 VND / chicken. In addition to working for his own camp, Giang started to work part-time jobs for other camps.
In addition to Giang, Thuy, and Ms. Dung, she also teaches jobs to more than 20 other people and still wishes to be able to transfer the profession to more people. “I only accept people aged 18-28, to make sure they are quick and alert. Nearsighted people cannot do this job,” she said.
Luu Xa village, Duc Giang, for many years is famous for its agricultural business, the people’s life is quite good. Dung’s family went in a completely different direction, but also prospered.
“Before I started working as a career, I just thought I wanted to earn money for my baby’s diaper, I didn’t expect it to help me have food to eat,” said the 32-year-old woman.