Winning his youth: Teenager who discovered chicken breeding at six now supports own education by selling fancy chickens

By BENJAMIN SARONDO

Most children used to spend their time on the playground, watching cartoons on television, or playing with their toys. But Vash Lillo had a significant childhood, which impacted what he is doing now. Instead of driving his own toy car or playing with a stuffed toy, he played with a chicken—a real one.

When Lillo was still young, he saw his father and uncles raising broiler chickens, and he claimed that they had influenced his interest in fowl. “When I was six years old, I was already taking care of my own bantam chicken,” he said in Tagalog. “Since then, my passion for chickens grew, and I decided to start my own chicken breeding business.”

He added that back then, he was clueless about the different breeds of chicken that exist. But growing up, he became interested in fancy chickens and decided to focus on breeding them. Lillo resides in Paranaque City, but his fancy chicken farm is located in Candelaria, Quezon.

Lillo is currently enrolled as a veterinary student, and he said that he took this course because of his interest in animals. “At the age of 17, I already take care of different animals such as ostriches, snakes, spiders, crocodiles, and many more.”

During the pandemic, Lillo said he got the opportunity to pursue his passion for fancy chickens and bought himself a quality, purebred Modern Game Bantam chicken. “I asked my mother for 500 pesos before as my capital to purchase my own fancy chicken. Then it started to reproduce through breeding with other fancy chickens.”

He added that, aside from his past experiences, being a veterinary student helped him with his business and raising fancy chickens. Now, he supports his own education by selling fancy chickens.

Understanding fancy chickens

Lillo shared that entering the fancy chicken breeding business requires commitment; you need to understand each breed and provide them with their different needs. “Aside from researching the ways to raise fancy chickens, what I did was communicate with different professional fancy chicken breeders I know to ask my questions and identify the standards they implement on their farm.”

“The next step I took was to identify and target my market and get in contact with other people who also have an interest in fancy chickens.” He shared that one of the perks of entering this business is meeting a lot of people who share the same interests as him.

“When I started my business, I already had a target market, which is those who want to have fancy chickens. And what I did and continue to do is establish booths at pet conventions to introduce my fancy chickens to potential customers,” Lillo said.

“I have participated in some of the known pet conventions in the country, in the World Trade Center and SMX Convention Center, where I meet most of my customers.” But he said that he is not limited to big conventions; he also attends small conventions in the country such as AnimalCon and BKP.

Struggling but not stopping

Lillo said that sometimes he has a hard time marketing his fancy chickens, especially when there are no available pet conventions. But Lillo always has in mind that he should have fancy chicken stocks available to sustain his business. “When a customer is interested in buying, I ensure that I always have fancy chickens to offer and that they have choices.”

Currently, he has Bulik Cornsih, White Gull, Stag Polish, Modern Game Bantam, and many more. In total, he has 200 heads on his 2,000 square-meter farm.

But Lillo said that he struggled to meet the demands of his customers before. “It happened when a typhoon affected our farm; my fancy chickens got wet in the rain, and most of them died.”

Another problem he encountered was the environment, since open farms are vulnerable to viruses. He said that to provide high quality chickens, he completes the vaccination of each fancy chicken and gives them sufficient vitamins.

Costly but worth it

Lillo said that before entering a fancy chicken breeding business, an individual must have enough capital to purchase not just the chickens but also their needs, such as feed products, vaccines, cages, and vitamins.

“I enjoy taking care of my fancy chickens, and the good thing there is it serves me income as well.” But for those who are starting, he shared what his expenses were before his business was established.

“If you want to start big, you can expect fancy chickens to consume at least 10 sacks of maintenance feed products per month, which will cost 15,000 pesos.” Lillo said that he feeds his fancy chickens twice a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

“Also, you need to invest in the vitamins and vaccines of the fancy chickens to ensure that they will grow healthy so you can market high-quality fancy chickens,” Lillo said. The vaccines he injects on his fancy chickens are coryza, la sota, mycoplasma, mareks, B1B1, and NCD to prevent them from acquiring viruses. The vitamins he provides his fancy chickens are mostly water soluble such as VitminPro, Selectroge, and Electrogen, while others are injectable, like Bullyboy, Horken, Super Vitamina, B Comples, and many more.

Aside from the expenses that fancy chickens need to grow healthy, they must also have space. Lillo said that he also invested in the cages of his fancy chickens, which will depend on the number of heads.

Since he is juggling his studies and business, Lillo also allocates money for the manpower. He hired a caretaker to monitor his chickens in Candelaria, Quezon, while he was in Paranaque. But Lillo said that after his school hours, he dedicates his time to his business.

Maintaining fanciness

Lillo stated that achieving the perfect condition of a fancy chicken starts when it is still a chick and requires hands-on care and patience. “You need to take care of their feathers even when they are not adults yet,” he said. “I need to trim my fancy chickens’ nails regularly and bathe them frequently.”

Also, fancy chickens that will be showcased in pet exhibitions must get used to the cages they will be placed in during shows. He added that it is important to monitor the chickens daily because some have their faces covered with feathers, and it will be hard to identify if they are sick or not.

To identify the high quality fancy chickens, Lillo said that he only refers to books about the standard of perfection of each breed since there is no formal training for fancy chicken breeding in the Philippines aside from talks during pet conventions.

“For Modern Game Bantams, you will know that they have high quality if their head and feet are proportioned and when they have long legs. And for Polish chicken, when it has thick feathers on its chest and head, then it can be classified as high quality,” Lillo said.

Bringing home the bacon

Another avenue for Lillo to market his fancy chickens is through competitions where the quality of the chickens is showcased. He said that he participated in some shows and was awarded champion status for some of them. Some of them are in Tatak Tarlac, where he got first place for Best in Wyandotte, first place for best in Cochin, and fourth place overall champion.

In Cabanatunan, he garnered the first place for best in Cornish Standard and the third place for best in Cochin Ball. In addition, at the SMX Convention Center, he bagged first place for best in Modern Game Bantam.

Aside from showcasing his fancy chickens to attract more customers, through these competitions, he also takes home cash prizes that add to his income.

High value, high price

Lillo said that most people are not aware that the price of fancy chickens is high, especially when he participates in pet conventions.

“Per month, my income is around 50,000 pesos, and I sell fancy chickens for 2,000 to 3,000 pesos each.” He added that there are times where a single fancy chicken can cost around 15,000 to 30,000 pesos. And when he attended pet conventions, his income increased by 20 to 30 percent.

Growing up, Lillo said that he discovered that there are different kinds of chickens, which made him more interested, passionate, and dedicated to starting his own chicken breeding business. It was one of his dreams when he was a kid, and now he wants to fulfill his greater dream to expand his business and be known to the country through his fancy chickens.

Photos by Vash Lillo

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