On January 5, 1967 Kim Jong Il was inspecting a poultry farm in Pyongyang.
As dusk fell, chickens were sleeping on the roost, paying little heed to the plentiful feed on the crib.
He asked why they had not taken it.
A technician of the farm said, “When it gets dark, they sit on the roost without taking the feed.”
Kim Jong Il asked again:
Then why don’t you turn on the lights at the coop?
The technician was perplexed.
Kim Jong Il explained: On summer nights farmers usually hang the lights under the eaves of their houses and make a smudge in the yard to keep off mosquitoes. All family members sit together, chatting and making a straw rope. Chickens roam about the brightly lit yard, taking the feed far into the night. If you take advantage of this habit, you can raise the fattening rate of chickens quickly.
Then he continued:
If you hang the lights at the coop at night and give chickens feed, they will not sit on the roost early in the evening but continue to take the feed. Then they will grow fast. This does not take much effort, so you can do so if you are a little concerned about it.
Later, the technician followed this advice, observing the fattening rate of chickens. He was glad to notice that the weight of a 63-day-old chicken increased by 0.6-0.8kg on average.
