(Ram Bahadur Thapa)

It is just the fourth month, a chicken grew so fast and so large that it weighed 14 kg. The rooster waddles and swallows feed lazily. It is nearing the slaughter days, as its owner says.

Owner of Arpana Poultry Farm at Baglung municipality-3, Bijay Sharma, informed that monitoring of the weight and counting of days began since September 28. It weighed 12.2 kg one and half months back. As it is fattening with 50 gram every day, it is expected that the rooster may gain as much as 16 kg weight.

"It is reared for experiment," Sharma said, adding he wanted to know about its lifespan and weight. So, he did not sell it for long. The muscular rooster has swallowed more than six kgs of grains. With much care, it is healthy till date. Sharma however said, "Now, I may not keep it for long. Many people are asking for this fleshy fowl. When a group like that of picnickers come for it, it sell it to them."

The overweight rooster is a center of attraction. Some people visiting the Farm at Ratmata of Baglung municipality-3 try to ‘pick it up’. The market price for this heavyweight is Rs 3,200.

There are two hens reared together with the rooster. Each hen weighs eight kg.

A longtime poultry entrepreneur Sharma said generally a chicken reaches the slaughter weight from five to eight weeks. A broiler survives for 24 to 32 weeks. It plumps by 50 gram every day after 35 days.

Sharma viewed that rearing the chicken to the overweight was not good for business but he did it for learning.

There are 1,000 chicken in his farm. Sharma has been able to afford children’s schooling and manage other daily needs of family with the poultry farming done for 16 years.