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A regular nine-to-five day job that brings home over 200k RMB a year seems like a dream job for most people. A farm job that one has to work in rural southern China dealing with a bunch of smelly animals will seem to be a totally different story.
However, Ms. Lu Juanling who lives in Changsha, China, has different opinions on what a dream job would be; she chose the latter. Back in 2008, Lu quit her high-paid office job in the city and moved back to her hometown, Beishan Ville, to open her own peacock farm. She rented a 20-acre piece of land and built the peacock farm on it.
Lu indeed went through lots of tough times when she first started her farm. First of all, she didn't know anything about raising peacocks. Baby peacocks that are under 50 days old are extremely vulnerable. They can get sick easily.
Unfortunately, the closest veterinarian’s office is hundreds of miles away, and the peacocks won't be able to survive that long trip. Out of the 600 birds, including peacocks, pheasants and guineafowl, about 50 didn't make the first 50 days.
During the summer, more than 600 peacock eggs failed to hatch due to the extremely high temperature. "That was a big loss. I was heartbroken," Lu said.
However, that was all just a learning process for Lu. It wasn’t before long that the smart, quick- learner Lu figured out the fundamentals of peacock farming. Nowadays, Lu's business is expanding fast each year. Last year alone, she sold over 20,000 eggs. Each sold for 120 RMB, making her new business really successful. The farm ran out of stock for a while, thanks to the high market demand. There are over 300 birds currently on Lu's farm.
