Olivier Joly - Eleveurs de volailles de Bresse

Son of farmers, I returned since 2017 to the Grange Renaud, the farm of my childhood. I chose to create a farm that respects the tradition of Bresse chicken, and turned to ecological practices.

On my farm, the chicks arrive from their first day, directly from the hatchery of Béchanne which is 6km away. After 5 weeks in the warmth, they have access to the open air to scratch the ground, eat grass, insects, worms, small stones, in order to build their skeleton and make muscle. Each chicken has 10 to 20 square meters to glean its meal and exercise during the day. When night falls, the chickens return to their hut, where they will pass to limit the greed of predators. I supplement their diet with corn and wheat from Bresse, as well as whey from the village cheese factory (which makes the meat softer). The cereals are guaranteed without GMO and I do not give antibiotics.

In Bresse, the chicken takes its time to grow and mature: it takes at least 120 days to obtain a chicken. This is the secret of the inimitable taste and texture of Bresse chicken, the "queen of poultry" as Brillat-Savarin called it.
At the same time, I am trying to improve my practices towards more ecology: planting hedges and trees (the chickens love it), no treatment of crops or chemical fertilizers, setting up plant cover in the fields to limit erosion and enrich the soil. I am also going to train myself in homeopathy and phytotherapy in order to treat my chickens in accordance with my convictions.