Tag: chickens

Norbert and Tímea – poultry farmers

Place: Csíkszentdomokos or Sândominic

Several times when we went to visit someone, I thought that we had arrived at the wrong place. Having arrived in a village and turned left onto a grassy cul-de-sac, I thought that my driver had made a mistake for a change. Instead, having called someone in Hungarian, he reversed his car and parked it on the opposite road. Next, we walked to where we had just been and entered a gate where a young couple were waiting for us. They were Norbert and Tímea, a married couple in their 30s and their young daughter.

Their house and the chicken farm were located next to each other, and both were fenced in to prevent the hens from running away and hindering foxes from entering the courtyard. The house and the surrounding property originally belonged to Nobert’s parents, and he had inherited it.

They had 5 goats, but they sold them because a male goat was aggressive when Tímea was pregnant, and she was afraid of getting hurt.

They stayed 7 years in the UK, working in hotels as cleaners in Brighton, learning the language and having a good time although they weren’t satisfied with the food they were eating. Both prefer a slow life and not earning a lot of money, meaning that they went back to where they came from, that is to the farm where Norbert grew up.

They don’t throw away food, they want to know where their food comes from, and they buy honey from local beekeepers. They have planted apple trees, which give shade to the chickens, and they also eat the fallen apples. They make their own bread, and they receive leftovers from some restaurants, but they aren’t allowed to do dumpster diving. The parents of Tímea have pigs, from which they can get meat, they buy milk from one of their neighbours.

They started raising chickens as a hobby, then they increased the number of chickens to 400, while now they have about 250. They have been raising chickens for 4 years and they are still learning how to do it. They can’t get advice on raising more than 200 chickens even though they behave very differently from 20. They buy 100 chickens at a time, costing about 1000 euros, but they can’t see which sex they have upon arrival at their farm. Anyway, the male ones are slaughtered and eaten when they are recognized. In fact, Tímea and Norbert kindly invited us into their house where they served us lunch consisting of soup made from the meat of some of their male chickens.

Foxes are trying to attack the chickens and sometimes they kill several at a time. Their three dogs stay with the chickens and that’s why they don’t have traps for the foxes. In addition, they don’t hunt.

Norbert works as an electrician at Csíki Sör brewery , but he doesn’t drink beer, he’s very occupied with fixing the machines, though. Tímea stays home with their daughter.

In addition to cereals, they only give the chickens vitamin D and calcium. A young female veterinarian is very helpful even though she knows very little about chickens, and she can identify what they need. The main diet of the chickens is cereals.

The hens may peck each other, if they see blood, they will keep on pecking. At dusk, everyone goes inside the small house. Next, they close the door to keep foxes outside. They stay inside at night on wooden racks, some of them stay in a corner of the house. The chickens produce about 1000 eggs a week. They have adjacent houses with straw on the floor where the chickens lay eggs and their owners pick the eggs twice a day. They have a separate house for the youngest chickens, that is up to 1 month.

In winter, they give the chickens hot water every 2 hours, while in summer they can drink from tubes with holes.

After lunch, we went to their egg house a few minutes’ walk from their house. It was located next to the food shop.

The egg house was called Szapona, which was a bad nickname of Norbert’s father. The egg house has a fridge with max 10°C and people can pay with cash. The egg house is monitored with 2 cameras. Of course, they can’t compete with commercial chicken farmers and the egg prices of this couple are somewhat higher than the shop prices. Some customers pay too little or too much, but, in general, it’s averaged out over time
Some people just want eggs, and they don’t care about where the eggs come from.

There is a great demand for eggs at Christmas and Easter.

The price of chicken feed has risen substantially after Covid, and they have been thinking about giving up raising chickens, but they keep on doing it. In fact, Norbert wants to be a full-time farmer and both want to raise rabbits for meat production.

They have Indian ducks for fun, and they eat snails, while their eggs and meat are inedible.

11/10/2024
Oilo Bide farm

Web site

Map reference

Photo gallery

Instagram

Going from the town of Orduña towards a place called Lendoño Beiti, which consisted of some scattered houses, we arrived at the Oilo Bide farm in order to visit the owner, Ainhoa Álava. She grew up on a farm and was used to domestic animals like horses, cows, and sheep. However, after having visited an agricultural fair in Barcelona in 2007, she decided to start raising snails.

At first, we followed her to a gigantic shoebox-shaped enclosure consisting of a metal framework covered by a translucent, waterproof, and green mesh. Rows of horizontal metal bars supported hanging file folders made of some kind of fabric, while tall grass was growing everywhere else. The snails, of which there were two types, were mainly residing on the hanging file folders where we could only see their exquisitely made snail shells. However, some of the snails were also residing on horizontal metal bars where they were fed a mixture of organic cereals. Some of the snails’ heads with their characteristic tentacles were outside the shells.

According to Ainhoa, the snails never escape and she doesn’t need to look after them daily. Instead, her hens need daily visits, else the hen-house will be a mess after a short time. In addition to feeding the snails and letting them stay in benign surroundings, they are sprayed with water mist every evening.

At night, the snails exit their shells and Ainhoa sometimes receive calls from families with children who want to see the translucent snails, purportedly a beautiful sight.

Although snails are hermaphrodites, they must mate with another snail of the same species before they can lay eggs. They start laying eggs in March at the start of spring and they are harvested in October, meaning that there were only a few left at our visit.

Like all varieties of raising animals, a lot more can be said. If you want to know more, these sites may be of interest: The living world of Molluscs and Heliciculture (wikipedia). Note that snail farming is called heliciculture because the snail shells have helical shapes.

Having visited the snails, Ainhoa led us the the chicken house where about 3000 Lohmann Brown chickens were staying. These chickens are known for their adaptability to various climates and that they recover more or less quickly if they get ill. All of them were inside a big building during our visit, but they would be let to go outside in a few weeks. She told my guide that they were young and they needed some time to learn where they should lay eggs. actually, the chicken house was built in 2011 and the raising of chickens is done by a combination of maintaining traditions and by means of high technology.

The chickens are growing slowly at their natural pace and they are only given organic feed. Likewise, they are not induced to lay more eggs than what comes natural to them. Only natural light is used such that they can follow natural rhythms of day and night.

The care of the chickens and the quality of the eggs are certified a Basque organization called Eneek.

Ainhoa often goes to fairs to show her products as can be seen on her company’s profile on facebook.

06/10/2014
Pagadizabal mountain farm

Map reference

Photo gallery

We went back to Aia a few days after we had visited Joxean Bollain, the pig farmer. Having passed the village of Aia, we drove in a lovely landscape with meadows, groves, and scattered farms in a hilly terrain. Since there were no signs, it was rather difficult to find the Pagadizabal farm. There, the teenage son Joseba was preparing to make apple juice together with Jose, a man in his sixties. They had already filled the press with apples, remaining only to put a lid on the top and moving it downwards by means of a ratchet. After just a few turns, we were offered fresh, delicious apple juice.

Having arrived at a busy farm, another farmer had arrived while we were watching the apple pressing. He had come to buy two rams in order to spread their genes among his ewes. Having restrained both of them, he put them in his car and went away. The rams had nice, curved horns and, since there are so few of them, it’s important to pass on their genes to maintain diversity. Actually, we followed the farmer with the rams in his car for a part of the way until we arrived at a meadow where there was a flock of sheep. There, Peio, the father of Joseba let out their dog Lantz, a border collie. Letting him enter the meadow, Peio gave him short commands in Basque, which was enough to make him herd the sheep where Peio wanted. Having led them into a tight spot, he could inspect their feet, which are vulnerable, he told my guide.

Having gone back to the farm, we could appreciate the beauty of the surroundings of the Pagadizabal farm. Like the farm of Joxean Bollain, it’s located on the top of a steep hill and surrounded by groves, meadows, and hills. Birds of prey were circling overhead and sheep’s and cows’ bells could be heard in the distance. Again Peio let Lantz herd sheep, first a small flock on the top of a steep hill, then he was ordered to herd another one at the bottom of the hill. Obviously, a shepherd dog like Lantz is indispensable for the Pagadizabal family. Peio also let Lantz guide some geese which he did with ease.

There were also several cows and calves grazing in the steep hillside. Peio told my guide that the cows bear calves unattended, but since it’s so steep, sometimes the calves fall down the hillside. In order to help the calf, they first have to restrain the cow since she’s very protective of her offspring, in particular for the first 48 hours.

The hills around the farm were covered with fresh grass, and since their tractor had broken down, the Pagadizabal family first cut the grass with a scythe. At the same time, one of them prepared two oxen to pull a sled. It was a pleasant, but totally unexpected sight to watch oxen being walked next to each other, then having a wooden device put on their necks and having fastened everything by means of ropes. Being animals of habit, my guide was told that if an ox has been working on the left side once, it has to always work on the left side and vice versa. Having prepared both sled and oxen, the driver made them walk to the meadow where all the family raked the grass together and put it on the sled. Finally, the oxen pulled everything up to a barn where the grass was put in a barn. The oxen were completely docile because they had been castrated. In fact, there were several more oxen at the farm, which were not castrated and since they are so strong, they were getting dangerous. Peio was planning to castrate them too, but he was waiting for a cold day. I imagine they will let the oxen stay outside a whole night in order to make them easier to handle, but I didn’t ask my guide to enquire further.

Before we left, Peio ordered Lantz to herd the sheep inside a barn. Then, it just remained to thank the Pagadizabal family for letting us watch them at work in such lovely surroundings.

05/10/2014
Joxean Bollain, pig farmer

Map reference

Photo gallery

We went to visit Joxean Bollain, a pig farmer who lives near the village of Aia. Having passed steep descents and sharp bends, we arrived at his farmhouse located on the top of a hill. A deciduous forest above, a meadow and a valley below, scattered groves and farmhouses, colourful flowers, songbirds singing, peace and quiet. In short, the area around Aia is beautiful and being from Norway where songbirds stop singing in the beginning of July, it was a pleasant surprise to hear birdsong in October.

Near the farmhouse, there was a shed in which two sows were letting their piglets suckle. As usual, chickens were walking around freely. Then, we went by car up to the main road again, and after a few kilometres, we ascended a gravel road up to a clearing in the forest. Before climbing a fence, which had no gate because Joxean told us that pigs will open any gate, no matter what, we could see two sows lying on the ground surrounded by suckling piglets. However, a strange grunting sound caught my attention first. Inside a shed, a huge sow was lying on the ground, grunting and looking content.

The piglets were very curious, some more than others as shown in the photo above. In fact, Joxean prefers to control the parentage of the piglets, but in this case a wild boar had jumped the fence and made one of the sows pregnant. Anyway, the piglets stay with their mothers until they are 8-9 months old when most of them will be turned into various types of meat products.

Having paid the piglets a visit, Joxean led us up a steep hillside, he running and we walking. On the top of the hill he soon located a flock of pigs searching for food in an oak forest. That is, they were digging in the ground using their snouts. Obviously, he was fond of of his animals, giving them acorns, letting them bite his hands gently, and caressing them. Being curious animals, they also used their muddy snouts to feel my trousers and one of them started biting my shoe.

The pigs could enter a shed if they wanted to and they were also fed cereals since the food they find is insufficient to feed them properly. On our way back, we also passed a water tank from which they could drink. All in all, it seemed like he took good care of his animals.

On our way back, he asked to be let off the car on the main road, probably to descend a very steep path back to his house.

02/10/2014
Luciaren Etxea farm

Map reference

Photo gallery

Miguel Gotzone originally worked as a mechanical engineer at a nearby plane factory when he and his family started raising chickens near their house. Now, 10 years later, he has quit his job and become a full-time chicken farmer.

He agreeably received us at his house before leading us to the place where he’s raising about 300 chickens together with a neighbour. In fact, they have a large space in which to roam, both inside and outside. Inside the chicken coop, there are boxes where they can lay eggs together with a rack of bars on which they can stand, besides entering and exiting as they want. The chicken coop is insulated such that the interior temperature ranges from 15 to 25 degrees C since the chickens won’t lay eggs if it’s too cold or too hot. Having entered the chicken coop, the chickens started pecking my feet instead of the ground, and the only remedy was to leave the building. Outside, some of them rolled around in the soil, which is good for their health, according to Miguel. Others stayed close together even though they had lots of space.

The chickens had to share space with a large, friendly dog which served to protect them against foxes, besides two Basque sheep which were eating leaves from a tree.

Outside, they can walk within a large garden divided in pens because two types of chicken are raised at this farm: brown Marraduna, which are Basque chickens, and ISA brown, which is a hybrid chicken.

Chicks are bought from another farm where the pedigree of the chicks are taken well care of. The eggs of the chickens are put in a hatching machine and live chicks are brought to this farm.

Feeding their animals high quality food only, the eggs which are laid by the chickens are also of high quality such that they are sold to top-of-the-range restaurants together with shops which sell organic products only. Miguel cracked a couple of eggs for us, holding the yolk in his hands and pinching it, while the yolk remained intact. Obviously, his eggs are out of the ordinary.

Before leaving, we visited a small house where Miguel’s wife Irene and the wife Gotzone of the neighbour Mikel were packing eggs. Miguel kindly gave each of us a package of eggs. Having brought it back to the hotel, a cook prepared a delicious omelette of them.

The daughter of Miguel and Irene, Lucia, and the daughter of Gotzone and Mikel, Lorena, followed us at a distance. They were able to speak English, but they didn’t want to practise during our visit.

This is an organic farm, and in case of illness, Miguel is only allowed to serve his chickens vinegar.

After about 3 years, the chickens are finished off and the meat is sold to restaurants which serve dishes from first-rate producers only.

29/09/2014
Holte farm
Web site

Map reference

Photo gallery

Halvor Olsen and his family are breeding chickens, geese and ducks at their farm in Drangedal, located in the county of Telemark. They started with Norwegian white goose in 1984, buying eggs from goose breeders in Norway, expanding to ducks in 1989 and chickens some years later. Unlike most poultry farmers in Norway, this farm is totally independent of any country-wide cooperatives, giving the Olsen family the opportunity to concentrate on quality instead of quantity. This entails letting their animals have lots of space, about 7 chickens per square metre against a common number of 23-25, feeding the animals organically grown cereals from their own farm mixed with maize, letting them live longer and grow slower, never feeding them antibiotics, ample amount of daylight, letting them sleep for 9 hours a night, letting them roam inside enclosures weather permitting,and keeping all floors dry by sprinkling them daily with straw. Last, but not least, slaughtering all their animals on the farm, letting a person they are familiar with bring them to the slaughterhouse where they are rendered unconscious by means of high voltage, then finished off by hanging them upside down and chopping off their heads. Then, the bodies are emptied of blood, scalded and all feathers and down are removed. Finally, they are refrigerated or frozen.

A wide selection of poultry products are sold at the farm shop and in well-assorted food stores. A partial list includes:
- Whole duck
- Whole goose
- Gourmet chicken
- Organic chicken
- Organic eggs
- Chicken wings
- Duck fat – made by heating duck meat carefully such that the fat will melt. The fat is separated, poured into ceramic jars and cooled.
- Duck crop confit – the crop of the duck is cooked in duck fat and stored in ceramic jars.
- Duck sylte – sylte (a Norwegian word) is made from duck meat and fat together with oregano.
- Spicy chicken sausage
When we visited Holte farm, Halvor Olsen willingly showed us around his farm, letting us see his hens in one building and chickens in another one. While the hens were high and low, the chickens were walking around on the floor of a large, light room seemingly staying in small groups and making low, squeaky sounds. The mature ducks were staying in another room, made slightly nervous by our presence, quacking and walking back and forth continuously. Unfortunately, it was a quite cold day and Halvor wouldn’t let his animals walk outside.

We also visited their farm shop where customers came and went frequently. Besides selling their own products, they also offer products like apple juice, goat cheese, flat bread, herbs, tea, cheese, and sausages from other small-scale producers.
10/05/2013
Sørli farm

Web site

Map reference

Photo gallery

From Soil To Table went to Sørli farm, located southeast of Sarpsborg in the commune of Skjeberg, in order to have a look at organic production of eggs. When we arrived at the farm, we were received by Runar Sørli and Hanne Fjeldbraaten.

We were invited to join them for lunch in a nice, ochre-coloured timber house, which looked it was built at least 100 years ago. How wrong we were! I built this house 4 years ago, Runar told us. Then, we entered a pleasant and roomy kitchen where Hanne was cooking lunch. She was cooking chicken stew, making the room filled with a lovely flavour of sauce and vegetables in addition to stimulating the taste buds.

Hot food for lunch was commonly served at the farm, we were told. I started at 5 in the morning and a decent meal is required around noon, Runar said, between mouthfuls of meat, sauce and vegetables. We were also offered cold, fresh and organic milk straight from one of his 200 cows. A splendid taste, but more or less completely unavailable for the rest of us not having our own cows. Norwegian farmers aren’t allowed to sell unpasteurised milk because it’s dangerous, while cigarettes and liquor are sold all across the country. Well satisfied, after having eaten a pie with strawberries and coffee, it was time to have a look at the chickens.

The poultry farm was located a short distance from the farmer’s house. Runar, the farmer, is raising 7500 chickens at a time together with a few roosters. The chickens are producing eggs from arrival at the farm at the age of 14-16 weeks until they are 75 weeks, that is, a little less than one and a half year. Then, all the chickens are finished off, the poultry farm is cleaned, and a new group of chickens is bought from a company called Bjørk Hansen at Askim in the county of Østfold. The young chickens are laying small and delicious eggs for 2-3 weeks before they start laying normally-sized eggs. Changing a group of chickens leads to a period of about 2 months with no production of eggs. The chickens are eating organic fodder, purchased from a company called Norgesfôr (Norway fodder), consisting of wheat, rye and maize. The fodder is supplemented with some cereals from the farmer’s own harvest.

20/06/2010