Backyard poultry farming and its importance in the small-scale rural economy
The video begins with a long shot of a hen, alarmed by the presence of an intruder, who gradually calms down and resumes caring—ever vigilant—for 13 chicks on their third day of life. This is followed by a testimony from Carmela Pavan (1937-2019), a resident of Sant'Angelo sul Sile TV since birth. Language spoken: Venetian dialect of Treviso. Transcription in Italian.
"01:20 Crescent moon... they all hatch in one day. It took them a day to hatch.
And now how long do you keep them incubating?
It took 21 days to incubate them, then little by little, in one day, they hatched.
How long will it take for these chicks to become independent?
40 days. She accompanies them for 40 days, then she abandons them and goes on her own, but for 40 days she is with them. [...]
How many eggs did you lay?
Fifteen. Two were eaten by mice... 13 hatched.
Breed?
Local, because the rooster was born last year to T., also from a hen.
What do you mean by local breed?
Local breed? Born at home! From our hens.
I mean, do they have a special name?
Local is the one you raise at home, otherwise they're farmed, chicks hatched with machines, with this, with that.
They look promising, what do you think?
Yes, they're eating, they're already starting to "peck." Their mother digs out crumbs, puts them on the floor, then calls them and they peck. They pecked right away, the first day: on the first day they hatched, on the second day they immediately started eating.
Treatments, what do you do?
Nothing, because there's no more "the drop." We used to give them "the drop," when my mother was still around, to make their lives better. Now [the drop] isn't there... it's only for breeding, you have to take a lot, and it's not worth it for 13 chicks.
Where did you learn this art?
Still from my grandmother, poor old woman. And when we went to get the chickens under the hedge? No, to get the chicks under the hedge because the "ciòche" [hens] would go and hatch them on their own, in the hedges, here and there.
03:45 Question to Guido! At one in the morning we would go and get them from the trees, from the hedge. Don't you remember?
What, to get them?
There was the hen, not just one hen, who built their own nests, raised their own eggs; they came out [born] and were fed, just like that, completely free. At the back, on the lawn, there was that big hedge, and they [the chickens] went to roost where they were born, and we'd go and get them from the trees. But we're talking about 65 years ago now [...]
Under the trees, not above!
No, on the branches. There was a low hedge, low brush, not acacias. On the lawn was the "boschéta," and they went up there. And we'd go up at night "chièti" [slowly] with the ladder, grab them by the legs, and pull them down; we had to take the ladder, though. Besides being local, they were also wild, those [...]
They [also] came to eat here, but they went to roost where they were born. This is the truth, things I'd seen, done.
And on top of that, you had the broods at home.
Yes, there were 7-8 in the cellar, underneath [...] Then the "dindie" and the "piòti" [turkeys] with lots of eggs; plus the geese.
In total, how many people were there in our family?
There were 12-13 of us when I was little.
How many broods?
Always 6-7, from May when the first broods began, until September [...] which you then ate and sold [...]
05:57 - Where did you go to sell them?
At the market, with a shopping bag, on a bicycle. At the poultry market, which no longer exists. Do you know where it was?
Here was the vegetable market. Before [Porta] San Tomaso, wasn't there a poultry market?
On the walls of Treviso.
Along the walls. Before that, there was the vegetable market, and further on, the poultry market.
Was there trade?
Yes, yes. We brought chickens, chickens, eggs, ducks, rabbits; whatever we had. It used to be like this: we lived off our own belongings. Because with a rabbit you could buy, say, a kilo of meat, because back then you didn't slaughter cows, like now when they slaughter a cow and it lasts six months.
Her husband, Guido Marini (Canizzano, 1934 - Sant'Angelo, 2018), intervenes
06:42 He doesn't tell you he went to Ferruccio's shop with eggs.
We went to school through the fields. In one hand, the schoolbag and in the other, the bag with 10, 15, 20 eggs, which we used to get sugar.
Husband -- He brought home cheese, cod, or whatever was needed [...]
Before school, you brought the eggs...
I went to school with the bag and everything. I left [my bag] in front of Ferruccio's shop, which was always open at that time, and afterward, when I came back, I did the shopping, brought home what I needed, and around 1:15 we were home.
That's life: on foot, in the fields, calm."
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Video taken on May 5, 2012 with a Nikon Coolpix S3100 camera