Photo from open sources
Massimo Rapella, 48, living in northern Italy, grows in the picturesque alpine forest there are many hens and roosters. First turn – for the sake of egg production, although today such an impromptu chicken farming gives him a purely aesthetic pleasure. Birds walk freely in nature and make nests there, and the owner the farm comes daily and takes as many eggs as he necessary.
In 2008, the financial crisis forced Massimo and his wife leave the city and move to a small hillside village Berninsky Alps. The couple began to breed in a small amount hens and soon noticed something interesting. The birds sought to leave walking in the chestnut forest nearby.
A photo from open sources
Having thought a little, spouses, instead of building fence around his chicken coop and thereby block the birds from the forest, on the contrary, began to let the laying hens and roosters out into nature. Today, over 2100 people live here on an area of over two hectares. domestic birds (according to conservative estimates by Massimo Rapella). They are feed on seeds and fruits of plants, worms and insects. Birds multiply intensively, arranging nests between the roots of trees and in fallen branches.
The couple Rapella very quickly realized that such a free life definitely chickens benefit. Feathered began to look where healthier and more energetic, and their eggs acquired a rich, very pleasant taste and color. Nowadays Massimo sells “forest eggs” as he calls them in the market, and also uses them at home. More he also delivers them to local restaurants whose administration pays decent money for this, given the high quality of the eggs. Every morning, the Italian and his two assistants gather an average of one and a half thousand eggs!
A photo from open sources
The man says that the number of eggs laid affects time of year and, what is also important, the health of chickens. Paradoxically, the happier the birds, the worse they rush. Rapella, however, is convinced that this is how it should be real farming: happy birds, they say, pass their positive energy in the eggs, and this is the most important thing. The proof of Chet’s words is at least the fact that his products is in great demand.
A photo from open sources
An inquisitive reader probably already wondered: what about predators? After all, hens and roosters, alas, are unable to take off trees to escape from the teeth of badgers, foxes, ermines and other animals that do not mind eating chicken. Besides Moreover, in the forest, the eggs themselves are always exposed to danger. Massimo he took care of this: he fenced the territory with his chicken farm reserve strong metal mesh and brought two Maremma-Abruzzi Shepherds, so that they guard the birds.
Some businessmen offer to create an Italian today. similar forest farms elsewhere, given his experience and love for birds, however, our hero refuses. According to him, he is attached exclusively to this piece of wood near your own home. Moreover, today he has enough of what his current chicken gives nursery, both in terms of finances, and in meeting their some kind of inner, spiritual needs …
Birds
