Chapter Eight: Tame or Hunt and Fish
Animal, my brother by Béatrice Arnac
(Animal, BA GS 7. Disc distributed by G. Savaret—18, rue Vignon, Paris 9th)
… Chicks, calves and rabbits trample fences
Run from these places of torture, places called battery cages
Prepare to leave your cages tomorrow
The knife already waits to kill you
Up! Who says the name of what law!
One kills, one assassinates, one eats the innocent
To feed oneself?
That’s false! One does very well—Even better,
collecting the fruits of the earth.
Guilty. Man is to blame
No mitigating circumstance: Man is guilty.
Today, I undertake, against all odds
To defend you, my friends, my brothers and sisters, my children
I cannot take it anymore—to see you suffer so much
I declare myself totally at your service
Now, Tomorrow …
until my last breath
This is an oath that no one will ever break.
8.1: Domesticated animals and their habitat
The chicken and the chicken coop
To fulfill his own needs, man has halted the evolution of a number of animals, including the majority of domesticated animals. And even if he has not succeeded in stupefying the ass and the chicken, these animals have not entirely escaped!
The time has come to assume this reflection by Chatillon, “Man is the last stage in evolution that is observable to our senses. This grade confers upon Man, not being autocratically brutal in the world, but a responsibility toward all universal forms less evolved.”
Our friend Jacques Dufilho, the great comedian, sometimes goes to enjoy the stillness of the monastery in Gascony, where he recovers with his wife and also a mare to whom he shows great affection and with whom he eats breakfast at a table. He is also happy to be acquainted with several hens, who all have names, including Paulette, Hortensia, Jacqueline …
We don’t miss the chance to encounter a tamed, charming, and tender hen: she literally jumps into your arms to receive some cuddling; she giggles with joy in seeing us enjoy her near-daily egg laid in the immense studio of the great potter, Cauville, who has given her asylum.
A superb and thick rooster whom friends of ours saved from the pot came every morning to knock on our window. He flew some ten meters high and sometimes even hundreds of meters high; the peasants in the region called him The Cock and were very devoted to having him fertilize their hens, at the detriment of their own cocks …
We have honeybees without harming them; leaves and fruit from wild plants without nursing them; the eggs from ducks and some birds without preventing their hatching; milk from goats, sheep, and cows without killing their offspring. It doesn’t harm us that our hens die of old age in our hutches when they give more abundance in leaving their plumage.
It is therefore very important to our survival—and that of the hens—to make a coop that will give them asylum. We therefore avenge all the tortures of these shameful breeding farms.
One can classify the coop into one of two categories:
It is made of sawn and nailed boards that have been painted with creosote beforehand. It is a shelter with nests, accessible from the outside. A screened area serves as feeders full of seeds and refreshments. It is easily moved thanks to two handles protruding from each side. It can now be moved from one field to the other or to allow the chickens to frolic and search for their wild nourishment (grass, worms, insects, seeds).
Make 50-cm-high cement walls (or 30 cm in mud) and sustain these fences with iron rafters. The majority of the interior will be shelter with nest boxes—boxes filled with straw and elevated off the ground a few centimeters—and perches and feed and water containers. The rest of the coop is an open pit with a mesh roof.
It is good to let a chicken have a lot of freedom, but if we do not want to run after her eggs, it is a good idea to not open the coop before noon—at which time the egg-laying is normally finished.
In good weather, grasslands provide their forage and a handful of grains per hen is enough. In cold countries, not spoiled by the Sun, one must feed the chickens soy flour, beans or fish. Wheat, barley and corn remain their preferred nutrients.
Absolutely necessary if we want chicks. Without a rooster, fertilized eggs will not hatch.
Note: To encourage hens to lay eggs, it is good to put a plaster egg in their laying box.
The ground must be impermeable (concrete cement plaster) to allow the flow of urine and keep the litter very dry. It should also be slightly sloping; the channels should be slightly open for frequent cleaning and arranged well to sweep the liquids toward the manure pit.
THE OPENINGS Just as with the sheep, an area of 2.5 m2 for ten cows is sufficient. An air current in the upper portion of the stable to avoid excess humidity is necessary. An excellent system is to drill a small cylindrical opening, 6 to 7 cm in diameter, through the habitation walls and at the height of the ceiling, near each window.
The temperature in the barn can vary between 14° C and 17° C. The walls and the ceiling are covered with smooth spackling. The hay reserve is in the attic, separated from the cattle by a well-sealed ceiling. Manure removal takes place every day at regular times.
FURNISHING Feed fence and hayrack. One might also plant spades, to which the cows are tied.
In the prairies, the water troughs should be filled constantly. In general, it is necessary to count on about 50 liters of water per head and per day. The water must be the same temperature as the barn. Fill the troughs twice daily.
To ensure maintenance and production needs, the daily ration in winter is from 13 kg of hay or its equivalent. For each fraction of 4.5 liters of milk, give 1.6 kg of concentrated feed composed of barley, oats, and cattle cakes.
A good half-ton of decent hay is equal to 375 kg of very good hay, 2,000 kg of curly cabbage or other greens, 2,500 kg of fodder beet. Raising livestock is mostly a matter of observation; dairy control every ten to fifteen days helps to precisely meter the ration.
In the summer, milk cows are mainly nourished in the prairies; one can supplement nourishment by distributing concentrated feed throughout the stable, if the production of milk is low.
During the first two weeks, the calf feeds on maternal milk or colostrum. At the end of this period, the calf will receive skim milk: mix 60 grams of manioc flour per liter of milk.
The substitution of whole milk for skimmed milk supplemented with manioc flour can be carried out abruptly. The number of meals should not exceed three per day. The daily ration is 15 liters.
At the end of six weeks, increase the portion of flour to 80 grams per liter. Toward the end of the third month, the ration is reduced to ten liters of milk daily because the calf is now capable of digesting raw starch (manioc chips).
The switch from milk to ordinary foraging should be done slowly in order to avoid digestive trouble.
An excellent work animal and the company of another steer will urge it on more than any other goading.
An example of a ration for a 900 kg steer (during winter): 24 kg of rutabaga + 21 kg of foraged kale + 7.5 kg of French honeysuckle + 4 kg of oat hay.
This ration, without concentrated feed, is very economical: the ration can be increased according to the work the beast must provide.
Cannot be presented to the cow until she is in heat—every twenty-one days for about eighteen hours. Avoid driving the servicing of heifers who have not attained two years old to avoid delaying their development.
The bull is ready for reproduction from the twentieth month but it is often recommended to avoid keeping males after a certain age because they become naughty. A breeder may yet, through patience and gentleness, make them docile, thus ensuring their productivity until age fourteen. The cows’ procreative functions stop around the ages of ten to twelve years. This age is generally indicated by the state of their teeth. Incisors move in the sockets. The animal can no longer eat freely and the reproductive functions are reduced.
The cow milks twice daily at an interval of twelve hours; carefully wash the udder and teats together with the hindquarters; then dry them with a cloth and replace the water and the cloth every two or three cows. Sit on the animal’s right side with a bucket between one’s legs—rest one’s head on the animal’s flank. The cow can then lick happily—don’t be afraid! Circle the top of the teat between the thumb and index finger (the milk cannot therefore move back up into the udder), then encircle the rest of the teat from top to bottom with the other fingers. The milk flows out. Repeat the operation.
Gandhi’s reflection may incite us not to consider animals as animals of production but as respectable brothers and sisters who kindly share their production with us. Maybe then we will discover ourselves in the sacred sense.
Cow protection is to me one of the most wonderful phenomena in human evolution. It takes the human being beyond this species. The cow to me means the entire sub-human world. Man through the cow is enjoined to realize his identity with all that lives. Why the cow was selected for apotheosis is obvious to me. The cow was in India the best companion. She was the giver of plenty. Not only did she give milk, but she also made agriculture possible. The cow is a poem of pity. One reads pity in the gentle animal. In India, the cow is the mother to millions. Protection of the cow means protection of all of God’s speechless creation.
Patience dressed
from flesh and bones
Oh cow!
Good, dear mother
Sweet, little sister
giving your breasts
and your faithful labor
Avoid openings on the sides due to direct east-west winds on the east and south sides.
For each animal, the surface is 2 m2; count a volume of air per goat at 5 to 6 m3.
In order to have 1 volume of air from 100 m3, a goat farm of 40 m2 should have a ceiling height of at least 2.5 meters. To ensure a proper ventilation system, install ventilation shafts and mobile shutters. The internal temperature will be maintained at 10°–15° C.
For good illumination, lay down a transparent surface equal to one-twentieth of the soil surface, which must be permeable, preferably clay.
Measured by hygiene, the development of a treatment area is desirable. Install a 50 to 70 cm wooden platform, equipped on either side with a ramp: the goats climb it one at a time and the milker sits front stage to milk without bending.
The furniture is composed of:
The feeding troughs: the bottom should be 30–40 cm, above the litter and flat to avoid spillage.
The headlock: destined to immobilize the animal during rest or milking. It consists of moveable bars. Between the two battens, the animal is able to move its head and requires a range of 15–22 cm. In the headlock, the animal is between the bars that are 9 cm apart. The distance between two goats is 45 cm.
The goat consumes three to eight liters of water per day. The water must be clear and lukewarm, and don’t forget that the goat drinks on the drinking surface. Distribute water to the goats at fixed hours (three times per day) in containers such as tanks or ordinary buckets. Add a quantity of hot water sufficient to obtain a water temperature of 20° C; clean them after each use.
Place a salt block inside the stable so the animals can use it at their leisure.
The pasture diet is the most favorable. The herd then chooses the goats’ paths. Their exits and entrances determine their appetites.
The goat is a difficult animal to please. No doubt the adjective “capricious” used to describe them is derived from their Latin name. They sometimes even prefer to attack tree bark rather than eat freshly prepared food. Avoid offering the goat a dish it has refused twice; the goat has its reasons. Taste, to the goat, is a very developed sense, and it is good to let the goat satisfy that sense!
An example of a ration for the current maintenance and production needs of a goat weighing 60 kg and giving three liters of milk per day is .5 kg of hay + 7 kg of whole rye per 600 to 650 grams of a mixture of grains (barley, oats, corn).
During winter, one resorts to using the foods that one can stock (hay, roots, tubers): 1.5 kg of hay + 2.5 kg of foraged beets + 650 grams of a mixture of grains.
Their food needs often vary in accordance with their weight and their milk production. The goat herder attentive to their fluctuation will regulate their portions accordingly (these are the only features that truly help to feed these beasts).
DESCRIPTION OF THE UDDER The most valued shape is that of a half sphere, largely fixed to the abdomen and hanging a bit. It comprises two separate parts, each containing: a gland, which makes milk; connective tissue inside the gland; a web of nerves and blood vessels. The milk is discharged by way of the teat (the extremity of the nipple).
ITS OPERATION The goat udder develops during gestation and grows during lactation; this is stimulated by the kids’ head, milking, and the environment. 70% of milk found in tanks and large channels is contained in the gland. Milk is available to the teat, the rest is located in smaller channels and is not flowing under the influence of one hormone: oxytocin (from the pituitary gland). Its secretion is not triggered unless the goat is ready to give her milk. For this, a quiet, trusting place is needed.
All change in habits (schedule, excitement, noise) disturbs the animal and causes the increase of another hormone: adrenaline (from adrenal glands). Its onset generates the activation of oxytocin and stops the arrival of milk to the teats. The activity of oxytocin is very short (two to three minutes), which necessitates rapid milking.
Milk is secreted for around sixteen hours; three milkings per day allows for the maximum obtainment of milk. Indeed, the better prepared the nipple, the more easily oxytocin discharges during the third milking and allows the complete emptying of the udder. On the other hand, prolonged milkings are to be avoided as they may irritate the tissue.
The nipple is also a favorable environment for the growth of microbes and it is very easily irritated. The strictest standards of cleanliness and hygiene is required.
CONDITIONS FOR A GOOD MILKING Large breasts usually give the most milk provided, however, that the proportion of conductive tissue is not too important. Emptied of its milk, a good udder should be limp. The teats, when vertical, should be inclined forward. Their large orifices and elastic muscles should ensure closure. The udder’s morphological characters are irritable and a rigorous, first-class selection is desirable.
The goat is a sensitive animal, probably the only one of our domesticated animals to have conserved its character and independence. This little wild stock will give the best of herself if she knows she is surrounded by the presence of goodness—one must first think of her for what she is in order to appreciate what she gives.
Such is the perspective of Alphonse Daudet: How beautiful was M. Seguin’s little goat! How pretty she was with her sweet eyes, with her goatee of a non-commissioned officer! Her shiny black hooves, her zebra horns, her great cloak of long white hairs. And then, her docile, affectionate, giving of milk without moving, without setting a foot in the feeding bowl! Such love from a sweet goat.
TWO WAYS TO MILK It takes between one and two-and-a-half minutes to milk. The milkmaid can work either squatting or seated on a small stool or else kneeling on a litter. One can milk from the side or from the rear.
In an alternating movement from top to bottom, slide the teat between the thumb and index finger.
Milking the goat
Grasp the teat high enough between the thumb and index finger and, with the other three fingers, press the bottom part of the teat against the palm of the hand.
We see, from birth, among the young males, the beginning of sexual behavior. Since time immemorial, the goat has always been the symbol of lust because of its inexhaustible genetic potentiality. But do not forget that famous sleeping pig in every man (a fallacious comparison, however, for the morality of the pig is higher than that of man).
The female goat has retained her natural sexual behavior; her kids are born at the moment most favorable to their survival, springtime! Their oestrous cycle is around Hallowmas.
The Billy goat is ready from seven months of age and he generally loses his procreative faculties around the eighth year, like the female.
It is a big rectangular area. Any material can be used for its construction. The ground level is made of hard material but the rise can be made of wood—sheep do not destroy their homes. There should not be an attic. The fold therefore must forage nearby. The chimney openings atop the roofs ensure good ventilation. The temperature in the sheep pen can be lowered to 12° C.
OPENINGS The door is big and wide and opens like two wings, so the shepherd can easily sort the sheep. At the sheep pen exit, the animals often find themselves enclosed between the wall and the door, so replace the corners of walls with rounded walls.
Place glaze on the same plane as the inside wall (to avoid edges); the locking system should be simple and solid and work from the inside. The preference for the frame is metal, because wood swells. Avoid air that falls directly on the animals’ backs.
As a guide, a surface area of .50 m2 is sufficient for ten sheep. A surface of 1 m2 per animal is desired.
FURNITURE The feeder and the manger or rack (one above the other).
The feeder is a rectangular tray mounted on four legs whose shelf is 25 or 30 cm to permit the sheep to eat without causing the neck to twist. The feeder’s bottom board is 25 to 30 cm wide. The legs are placed near the wall to allow these big pillars to exceed the rack and ensure the durability of the furniture.
The rack is shaped like a shell and is used to deposit hay and straw. The bars (iron or wood) are 40 to 50 cm apart and the parallel bars are 10 to 15 cm apart. This is placed in an inclined position above the feeder. Its outer ramp is parallel and at the same level as the inner shelf. The racks are such of moveable partitions. One might easily modify the location and replace the sheep pen’s surface compartments according to the needs of the fold.
Water should be refreshed often. It is therefore useful to have, in the interior of the sheep pen, a water station or a faucet in each compartment. The container should be washed daily and located at the same height as the manger to prevent the sheep from having to bend down to drink.
Sheep feed mainly on grass and fields where there is found: wheat, oat, rye, barley, legumes (clover, alfalfa), the foraged vegetables (corn, buckwheat, millet, rye). The most aromatic and nutritious hay comes from grass cuttings at the time of blossoming which are then dried by nice weather. The roots (beets, rutabagas, carrots, turnips) are the foundation of winter nutrition. The residues from mills, the oilcakes, are also greatly appreciated. Grain straw or legumes are also very popular. The grain straw or the legumes are habitually distributed in the sheep pen.
Here is an example of a ration for the best lambs: 3.5 kg of beet pulp + .3 kg of wheat balls (balls are wrapped in the ears of corn on the cob) + .850 kg of alfalfa regrowth (the regrowth is the grass which regrows after a mowing) + .05 kg of oats + .025 kg of linseed cakes.
For a mother sheep, one increases the quantities by adding .12 kg of wheat bran; the rams will have more of the alfalfa regrowth without the addition of concentrated feed such as oilcakes, oats or wheat bran. Of course, these given rations are simply indicative, but precise nutritional needs will vary specifically by weight, the animal’s behavior, and the potential supply of breeder. Salt is also indispensible for the sheep. Put a permanent salt block in the rack so the sheep will have the pleasure of licking it.
The ewe has two teats between both thighs and the midlines of the abdomen; for a good milking, the teats should be fully developed, long and articulate.
With ewes and the lambs, the udders are reduced almost to the teats; with the first pregnancy, they grow and then decrease again at the end of weaning, but regardless retain a slight development; dairy breeds of course have more well-developed breasts.
Milking takes place during five consecutive months (from July to December), twice per day at fixed times. Milk thoroughly to retain all the fatty matter and maintain good quality milk. The milkmaid will sit behind the sheep, grab the teat between the thumb and index finger and pull each teat alternately.
To completely drain the nipple, practice sub-thrashing: this is accomplished by giving little taps to the udder’s entire surface, mimicking the movements of the suckling that, to better receive the mother’s milk, gives the udder a tap with its head.
The duration of milking varies from three to five minutes. After five months of milking, it is only done once per day, then once per two days until the milk has disappeared.
The ram’s role in the herd is of primary importance: if the ewe only gives one lamb per year, the ram himself is the father of all the sheep. He will be active and vigorous, muscular and not overweight. At eighteen months old, he has reached his full force and can fight without weakening.
Ewes should also be in full force at the time of birth of the lambs. Heat occurs at six or seven months but it is advised to wait for the twentieth month to present them to the rams so she will be in better form to raise her lambs.
The ram’s prolificacy is very big. As an adult, he can impregnate sixty ewes. After three seasons of work, the ram is weakened. To avoid inbreeding, another ram must be brought in.
At around seven or eight years, sheep and rams are unable to reproduce.
The Donkey, the Horse and the Stable
The place should be clean, bright and airy without moisture or drafts. An area of grazing for ten animals is necessary. The temperature must be 7° C more than the outside temperature.
The walls are cemented and lined with wood up to breast height; grouting soil on fine mesh; feeders of a slight striking surface to prevent slipping; to facilitate the flow of urine, gauge it so that the animal’s location will be gently sloping.
The stable door should be large, 1.5 m: it is preferred that it be two superimposed doors (the frames opening as door) so the horse can take air through the top leaf left opened.
The furniture will be composed of the feeder and the rack: use litter made of wheat straw, which should be tidy and comfortable.
To avoid all the unnecessary projection, handles and latches on the doors will be placed on the outside. Also, a hook on the sides of the outer walls will prevent the wings from folding by wind.
BASIC DEFINITIONS The mule comes from the union of a donkey and a mare; the hinny, that of the horse and the female donkey. The males are unproductive and the females have limited fertilization.
The donkey belongs to the order of mares, the family of equine, the genre of Equus and the species of Asinus.
Railliet gives the following characters to the ass: the asinine equine or donkey shapes have a short tail, ending with a bunch of hairs; its united dress almost always reveals a longitudinal strip down the back, often crossed by a vertical line. The ears are fairly long. The thin mane is short and erect.
SOME PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS From age 2.5 years, the jackass and the hinny are ready to reproduce. The hinny’s gestation lasts 364 days. After having birthed her offspring, she can again receive the jackass, who projects eight to ten times per day for five months of the year. The end of this period of aptitude for reproduction is toward their tenth year.
The ass is a prudent animal. If he refuses to mount on order, it is not due to stupid stubbornness but (contrarily) after careful consideration. Only imbeciles obey unjust rules. The animal is not there to serve us, but the inverse is true, although we consider ourselves more intelligent!
The donkey is extraordinarily patient and sober-minded, qualities that man often wants. In a group, the donkey rarely squabbles with its companions and only kicks if severely mistreated. The donkey is highly submissive and gives all its energy to any work encumbered. If the donkey kicks, it is surely after a harsh suffering.
How does man manage to make this tender and generous beast irritated? Simply by his stupid anthropomorphism … if man would, instead of giving lessons to the donkey, accept to receive them from him, there would be no slaves or irritations but rather associates.
Henri Bosco describes the donkey only too well: He raises his head to look at me. I will never forget that look, the most serious look from an animal that wants to rise up to me. No more resignation or somber patience, or melancholy coming from the depths of a millennium of slavery. Instead, a kind and dignified animal with humble awareness and no resentment. No longer the look of a submissive beast, but a look of a free animal. And in the shade of this great apple tree, more power is gifted. Suddenly, floating as if a memory, the soft layers of the prairie, the spirit of Luzerne, the clover and sainfoin enchanting the donkey, who normally sleeps in the poor stable, with delight. The most vivid colors pass to reflect the just-blossoming sage, the tender purple of the spring thyme; the blood red of chewed roots, and, finally, the golden of the Spanish Genets impetuously charged by the young bees. The donkey was near me. It watched me.
The donkey must be cleaned once per day, combed without violence all over the body with an iron instrument made with small, serrated blades, in order to remove from the skin the epidermal productions which become irritants. Then use the chiendent brush, then the horsehair brush. End with sliding a sponge over all of the natural openings.
In October, if the fleece is very abundant, cut it—this way, one regularizes the function of the skin.
The donkey cannot be shoed until age three.
There is an ensemble of equipment and harnesses that allow one to contain or direct the animals.
WORK HARNESS These include both the support equipment and the equipment for governing called a bridle.
The bridle is composed of the mount, the bit and the reins. The bit is a strip of round iron that is placed in the mouth, mounted on the branches, to which the reins (long strips of leather used to drive the animal) are attached. The result of the bridle is the guiding of the animal. Again, this has nothing to do with violence but with an understanding that in order to obtain the benefits of this apparatus, the donkey must feel “in good hands.” It is important the bridle fits the animal perfectly.
The support equipment is the bolster used when the donkey is employed as a tensioner—it is a saddle, fixed to the back of the animal by a strap around the donkey’s belly. The part on the animal’s back is designed to support the vehicle’s shafts and a belt at the back of the saddle prevents it from sliding forward.
When the donkey is employed as a carrier, this has to do with a packsaddle, which is a large saddle the sides of which are hanging baskets.
THE RESTRAINT HARNESS This serves to keep the donkey in place. One uses the halter.
This is composed of large straps passing over the neck to the forehead and applied to the cheeks. From another strap, the noseband, supported by mount circling the chamfer (the part which goes from ears to nasal) and jawbone.
This equipment is very efficient because it cradles the whole head.
Precaution: The harness must be tight while light. It should be healthily maintained, the leather washed and oiled often. A wrongly placed harness can, in effect, be the cause of various skin diseases.
The donkey must drink a lot. Install a water container for fifty liters of water. The donkey prefers water from streams and rivers, harvested rainwater or else well water.
The donkey’s maintenance needs are provided by the forages (straw from the prairie) or the various straw. Its spending due to work is satisfied by the distribution of richer food (barley, corn, oat). Per day and in three meals, one can give a donkey, for example, 300 to 500 kg; 3 kg of foraged; 2 kg of straw, 3 kg of oats.
Material: a bush, a silk brush, a comb, a sponge, a cloth.
The grooming consists of an excellent massage and stimulates the circulation. A big part of waste is eliminated by perspiration, which is indispensible.
To begin with, using a cloth soaked in warm water, clean around the eyes, nostrils and the anus, behind the ears and on the neck; making a circular motion, brush the animals toward the tail to get rid of the dirt; then brush in the direction of the hair.
Soak a cloth in hot water and rub the donkey’s body, use the silk brush (to clean and to scratch with the comb). Use the other brush on the neckline, the shoulders and the hips. To finish, brush the mane and tail with the silk brush.
No feet, no horse.
The horseshoe protects the group of little bones that form the foot—one must give the foot constant care; the horseshoe must be oiled each day.
This oil is made like this: mix equal portions of horse oil and Norway tar; melt them together and add a tablespoon of salt per kilo.
The horseshoe is very important: the iron must be adjusted to the foot and not the inverse! It is worn on the periphery of the hoof wall. Before putting on the iron, scrape the foot to remove excessive corns.
Shoeing is, above all, the work of an artisan, the smith. The sound of the anvil on the iron is heard less and less in the country.
MATERIAL The collar, the bridle, the splints (strips of metal or wood), the breeching (piece of the harness fixed to the shaft and descending behind the horse’s thighs), the fifth, the cinch (a belt fixed to the harness and passing under the animal’s belly).
HARNESS Bring the horse to the harnessing place led by the reins, put on the collar (strips of leather going around the neck and under the throat); upside down, under the head, taking the horse by the nostrils, fix the splints to the collar; thread the bridle; to move the jaw, slide the finger on the side of the mouth; put the harness in and close the straps of the cinch, making sure not to hinder the animal’s respiration; place the breeching (consisting of large, solid straps applied to the animal’s buttocks and supported by two other straps passing over the rump); the breeching’s front end can be attached by small chains to the stretcher; attach a belt to the hind part of the breeching; the belt, which lines the back, is divided at the root of the tail and is placed just behind the breeching.
HITCH Fix the harness (leather straps) to the splints of the collar; make the animal back up between the vehicle’s shafts; the belt of the harness is fixed to the stretcher as well as to the advance moderating speed; a cinch passes from one arm of the stretcher to the other, not allowing the latter to rise because of the weight that is drawn.
The horse has mobile lips, especially the top lip. With this lip, it introduces tufts of grass between the incisors and tears it with a sudden movement of the head. Horses, such as ruminants, are not able at birth to absorb cellulosic material; distribution of hay and straw, too soon, compromises the animal’s health.
Feeding the young from their first year will aid development as well as develop their skills. The passage from maternal milk to normal food must be accomplished in stages, in progressive increases in the rations of food rich in cellulose.
FEEDING THE FOALS For three months the foals nurse from the mother then, at the beginning of four months, the foal begins to try oats and sample rations in the feeders. The foals separated from their mothers are kept in stables and some concentrate feed (oats, corn) is distributed there.
FEEDING THE HORSE The grass is their natural food. So that the horse can graze as it does naturally, it needs a pasture in good condition. For this, let the horse graze before cattle, as the latter does not graze the grass as rare as horses. In summer, the horse can be nourished exclusively there.
BARN DIET
Distribute water every day before the ration.
Nourish the horse in small quantities and often.
Nourish as often as the work demands—too much food causes colic.
Meal times will be regular.
Never feed just before or after hard work.
The quantity of hay and of oats is established in relation to the abundance of work and of the size of the animal.
Here are some indicative figures:
A horse 1.22 m tall: 4.5 to 5.5 kg (hay and other substitutes)
A horse from 1.22 m—1.32 m: 5.5 kg—6.3 kg
A horse from 1.32 m—1.42 m: 6.3—7.2 kg
A horse from 1.42 m—1.52 m: 7.2—9 kg
A horse from 1.52—1.62 m: 9—13.5 kg
A horse + than 1.62 m: 13.5—14.3 kg
But the horse also needs more concentrated grains such as: barley, corn flakes (in small quantities, mixed with oat and bran). For this, one can prepare a mash: pour boiling water over bran, cover it with a dishcloth, let soak and add carrots or potatoes to it. A salt block should be left permanently in the stable.
When the animal is resting, an herbal tea is advised: mix 100 grams of linseed, 200 to 250 grams of bran, and three or four liters of oats, poured over seven liters of boiling water, then portion it out at the temperature of the stable.
The age most favorable to the foal is spring. For the mare, several ovulations happen during this season—this is the moment to present her to the stallion. If she is not receptive, she might kick him and, to avoid any useless accident, pay close attention to her behavior.
The end of their reproductive ability is at the end of their eighteenth year.
Most often, it is made of a paved courtyard enclosed by a solid wall 1.5 m—2 m high. It can be inside a hard building or in a moveable pen (corrugated sheet metal nailed onto wooden posts covered with wire mesh screen) that is solidly covered, featuring different compartments in which live the pigs.
The feeder is the main furniture. A sectional will be reserved for the breeding boar (male pig). In each animal location, regularly changed straw constitutes the litter. The temperature there is maintained at around 16° C.
The pig’s true ancestor is the wild boar, from the Latin singularis (who lives alone). Domesticated pigs inherited quite formidable teeth—a section of triangular teeth that have had no time to grow.
Their young, the piglets, are adorable little beasts all dressed in pink; they have a carefree and clumsy gait. As adults, their snout is extremely sensitive and remarkably strong. In fallow fields, they do not hesitate to till the soil in search of a few critters, which are all good for them: larvae, amphibians, reptiles, wasps’ nests; plus they possess an incredible flair for unearthing truffles from hard winter ground.
In his natural histories, Jules Renard pays tribute to the pig: “He does not choose fine herbs, he attacks whatever first comes his way, whatever randomly shoots before his tireless snout. He only deals with the roundness of his belly. He never worries about the weather . . . He does not lose a mouthful. He does not move but with the ease of his tail. Riddled with hailstones, he barely growls—even their pearls are dirty.”
The pig feeds on barley, corn, potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, fodder beets, turnips, soybeans, peanut meal. In the fall, the pig enjoys any fruit fallen to the ground: chestnuts, acorns.
Each day the pig receives 1 kg of concentrated feed per day (crushed barley).
The boar is very fond of oats.
Piglets consume the milk from their mother during the first three weeks, then they get rations, including whey butter and skim milk, which generally makes up the basis. Then, we might let them eat only their rations of concentrated feed.
Check the weight. From 45 kg, it is time to ration them. To adjust the amount to be distributed, stick to what they eat in a quarter of an hour. Feed twice a day.
From age one, the male pig or the boar is able to reproduce. Sows are ready to receive the boar at the same time. To know when they are in heat, allow the boar to visit each of them in their lodge. If he growls and insists on entering the compartment, then the female is ready to be fertilized. Their procreative functions end around four or five years.
SHELTER The turkey needs space, loving to perch for a nap and for the night. In confinement, it will need solid perches.
Adult turkeys deal well with the cold. It is suggested to allow them to spend the night on a perch. Simply shelter with a roof to avoid moisture and rain.
The young are more fragile; they must be enclosed during the night in a very dry lodge. Turkeys need air and sun. They fear moisture.
NUTRITION The turkey must find food in the stubble, the woods (oak for acorns, berries, insect larvae) and fields. Turkeys eat an amount commensurate with their weight. Soybean meal, beans or fish; wheat, barley, corn. Only in large spaces will the turkey find natural food and this helps economically.
REPRODUCTION The male turkey is taller than the female. The male has highly developed wattles and a tuft of coarse hair on the chest. One male is enough for ten females. Turkeys break few eggs, even if they are given those of chickens or pheasants.
Jules Renard tells us this: “All of the turkey’s feathers are starched and the tips of the wings scratch the ground as if to trace the route the turkey follows. The turkey only advances. The turkey struts in such a way that no one ever sees the turkey’s legs. On the path, here is the academy of the turkey. Every day, whatever the weather, they are walking. They don’t even fear the rain, no one rolls up better than turkey, not even the Sun. A turkey never goes without an umbrella.”
Burdened by domestication, the goose became incapable of flight. Contrary to legend, the goose is smart. Day and night, she sounds the alert at the slightest incident. Geese saved Rome by giving warning when the Gauls arrived by foot at the city walls.
NUTRITION Geese are foremost herbivores. People who grow asparagus must raise geese—they despise this plant and rid the plantation of any “bad plant.”
HABITAT Geese need space and grassy ground. A troupe of four geese needs a thousand square meters. It is good to provide, for their disposal, a shelter filled with litter.
If one desires copious eggs, one must collect the eggs every day.
Every day, geese spend a long time waterproofing their feathers. The uropygial gland (oil gland) secretes an oily, waterproofing liquid, which only develops with the growth of new feathers. Goslings get this product from their mother’s feathers. If a (turkey) hen raises the gosling, the gosling can drown if it gets wet.
The goose egg hatches in thirty days.
Excellent sailors, in spite of their laborious takeoffs and landings. The duckling must wait to have acquired the size of an adult duck before flying.
NUTRITION The duck’s beak is rimmed with a horny gill, which allows for filtering water and mud in order to remove animalcules and similar substances. The adult duck will venture far away to find food. We should provide a supplement in the form of grains (all cereals, especially oats), and pots of boiled vegetables.
Ducks have a pressing need: greenery. The duck forages every day. Ducks wet their food to swallow it. Give them wet mash—put the watering troughs next to the feeders. The water should be changed daily.
LIFESTYLE AND MANNERISM Eggs collected daily are as healthy as chicken eggs. They hatch after twenty-eight days.
Chickens or turkeys can raise ducklings but, as in the case of geese, only the mother duck can coat them with protective oil. In the absence thereof, the ducklings must be protected from moisture.
At the country home of a friend, we had the pleasure of witnessing the reunion of a duck with her little ones. Each night they were separated due to the presence of owls, who made just two or three mouthfuls of the newborns. The ducklings ran out of the henhouse and caught sight of their mother across the pond. They threw themselves into the water and swam with all the might of their little feet. The mother duck, busy grooming, does not see her little ones until the last minute. When she does, she cries out so hard with pleasure that it chokes her! She spreads her large wings and all the peeping ducklings take shelter in her feathered arms, which she closes around them.
Boxes mounted on legs, whose cover will serve as the door after being screened, can serve as hutches.
They live in monitored freedom. They can live in large, covered enclosures with access to a courtyard enclosed with screens. Mother rabbits are kept in boxes because they need to be warm to give birth. The mesh of the enclosure must sink into the soil up to 20 cm to prevent rabbits from making tunnels.
Rabbits eat all kinds of plants cut from a meadow or gathered from the roadsides and carried back in fabric, knotted with the four corners. One might add cabbage leaves, bread crust, grain or any milled cereal. Most important is to prevent them from eating moist vegetables because they could die of “big belly.”
They are fun little fellows, making all kinds of funny faces and gnawing on all kinds of things. They are also prolific and adapt well to a new region.
The bee, the hive, and the honey
The so-called primitive hives are of simple designs. Wild bees often establish their colonies in the hollows of old tree trunks. The first beekeepers used a hollowed tree trunk with boards at the ends.
Some used clay (Arabic hive), others simply used wooden crates, and still others made theirs with straw or interlaced twigs. Most of these hives were covered with a straw top, which protected the hive from the elements and excessive fluctuations in temperature: they were mounted in order to provide shelter from predators.
Harvesting honey by smoking (or sulfur) is a barbaric method and should absolutely be avoided: it kills the whole swarm. The best use for a common hive is the transfer of a swarm to another hive—remove the removable bottoms of the two joining hives and leave the full one above. The swarm falls into the lower hive, which, in turn, fills up after closing. This operation requires some practice, a little straw, a veil, gloves and a smoker.
About twenty of these inexpensive hives can ensure a good harvest, but do not forget that love and care from a beekeeper are more important than the most beautifully packaged hive. The care given to a hive is manifold and great: it is best to do an internship with a good beekeeper or read excellent books.
The Hive with a Wooden Top or Straw
As Bonnier described it (Cours d’Apiculture, Ed. Générale de l’Enseignment; 4, rue Dante, Paris): the lower part of the hive should have a volume of 40–50 liters and be formed by a crate board, 3 cm thick.
So the bees can build their combs parallel to each other, one makes the ceiling of the hive’s body with strips of batten.
Based on what we’ve seen while studying the bee’s building, these battens must be made and arranged in the following way: each batten is 28 mm wide by one cm thick and the midpoint of two successive battens should be spaced at 38 mm apart, leaving a one cm gap between the battens. To force the bees to build in the direction of the battens, it helps to take pieces of old combs from dead hives and glue them below these battens.
The ceiling is pierced with a large opening onto which the cap is placed. While the cap is not on, this opening is covered with a board.
One may, at the time of strong honey production, remove this board and replace the cap.
The cap is like a second, smaller hive and must have a volume of 15–25 liters. It helps to glue some strips under the cap’s battens or slats in order to invite the bees upward. When the cap is full of honey, it is removed, and replaced by another if the harvest continues. At the season’s end, it is removed and a lid replaces it—only the body of the hive remains through the winter.
There are many other models. For example, a hive whose body simply possesses a hole at the top—it is through this hole, uncovered when the cap is used, that the bees climb into.
But it is recognized that the bees have a harder time climbing into the cap through this opening compared to the method previously described, the one using the battens or slats.
Due to the industrialization of agriculture, pollution, and urbanization, the wild bee has, we can say, ceased to exist, and it will be easier for you to get a primary swarm from a beekeeper. However, we give you here the instructions for capturing a wild swarm from Gaston Bonnier:
Remember: it is at a temperature of barely 20° C and from 10 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon that the swarm generally leaves.
When a swarm is notified, this is the time for collecting. (The necessary objects for this operation are: a hat with a veil, a smoker, an ordinary empty hive, a sheet, and sometimes, a small broom and a ladder made of sticks.) With the veil and smoker, you take the sprinkler head with you. You can also shoot a gunshot or splash on sunlight through the reflection of a mirror but, as with the uproar often made in the countryside or in striking kitchen gadgets, there is no use.
Supposing the swarm is hanging below a branch: with one hand, take the overturned hive just below where the bees are grouped and, with the other hand, shake the branch aggressively. The whole swarm falls into the hive.
Take care to have a sheet on the ground; gently return the hive with this sheet, handled in its ordinary position, taking care to lift it a little from the side, using a little wedge. The collected swarm then falls onto the sheet, first remaining inside the hive; we see a few bees flying about while many others fly out from underneath the hive as if to leave en masse; but suddenly the swarm stops and returns to the hive.
We can then see the bees making a “call to arms,” as they say. Indeed, the beating of the wings is a general signal that all of the workers perceive; they then gather to return to the hive. Workers who make the call raise their abdomens in the air instead of lowering them as if to fan. At this point start to smoke out the bees that can no longer stay on the branch and are thus committed to join the others. A little while later, a large number of bees is assembled in the hive. To prevent the swarm from leaving again, one must cover the hive with some fabric and occasionally wet it. We then leave it until sunset before installing it in the hive frame.
The Swarm’s Introduction through the Top of a Framed Hive
An operation that Bonnier saw as very simple: One may also introduce the swarm through the top of a hive. This is done in the following manner …
Put ten to twelve frames in the hive and, with one yank, make the bees fall from the basket into the empty part of the hive. Cover the hive quickly with a canvas to prevent the bees from flying, and then, with the help of a smoker, lance the smoke onto the canvas by placing it onto the side of the empty space, into which one makes the bees fall and which therefore forces the remaining bees to go onto the frames. One then opens the door located on the side frames and lets the other close. The next day, make sure the frames were not disturbed during the operation.
Note: Don’t forget that in addition to the wonderful products (honey, royal jelly, pollen, wax …) she produces, the little bee assures the fertilization of nearly half of the plants in existence. Protect her with all the love she deserves!
Harvesting, Extraction, Maturation and Conditioning
Here are excerpts from our work (Les Plantes mellifères, L’Abeille et ses produit, Lechevalier) with some suggestions for these various operations:
In good years, from good maintenance of the hive, the friendly beekeeper gets about 1/3 of the total harvest. In bad years, it can actually be nothing, and the beekeeper must nourish the bees without receiving anything in return.
a. One generally harvests honey while the honeydew fills ¾ of the comb. In the south of France, harvesting may take place several times from April to November. In other regions, harvest begins in late November.
b. In the collection of the completed harvest, which takes place in an enclosed area or with a temperature of at least 25° C:
The first operation is the uncapping, which is done with a knife, a plane or a spike strip.
Then the frames are stripped of their waxy envelope. They are left to drain on wicker trays or are subjected to very slight heating (white honey). The remaining honey is still subject to a stronger heating or is expressed by pressure (yellow honey); the waxy residue is squeezed out, decanted and skimmed, and will be the third best quality (brown honey).
The extraction operates mechanically also through a centrifuge with the help of tangential or radial extractors.
c. Filter (twice)—retains most residue
d. The honey falls into the soaker, where it stays for two to eight days to release its latest impurities and the air bubbles retained in its mass.
e. It is then put into pots.
Note: One avoids the operations (pasteurization, homogenization) to which the current honey trade is subjected, which can never produce a product that claims to be “unheated.” In order to keep the scent unchanging during the long storage, if one is wise enough to consume and to sell honey in combs, then one avoids all of these operations which, even if slight, remove all vitality.
The birth—or farrowing—of animals possesses analogous characters for all mammals.
We notice a swelling under the belly in front of the udder that hardens and swells; a yellowish liquid flows out which, coagulating, closes the holes. The vulva swells and mucus flows from it (whitish and sticky materials secreted by mucous membranes). On either side of the tail, the ligaments relax; it is said that the animal breaks.
The appearance of the little one
After some time, the vulva’s lips separate and, with each of the animal’s expulsive efforts, we see an increasingly large and dark-shaded growth appearing; this is the water sac; this bag will split, and the viscous liquid will run to facilitate the little one’s exit. In the normal position, the forelegs appear, then the head and the rest of the body slide onto the mother’s knees—still connected by the umbilical cord.
When farrowing is long, it is because of bad positioning; the fetus, before any exit, must be turned to a normal position:
Bent hind limbs, one or both: With a finger, drive the folded limb back
Head bent to the side: Push the animal back into the womb in order to reposition the head between the forelegs
Positioning, back first: The animal can exit alone
Positioning, back first with folded legs: Push the animal into the womb and raise the hind legs to facilitate the animal’s exit
To avoid all infection, disinfect the cord area; move 1 cm or more over the abdomen and cut to 1 cm ligature.
Get the little one near the mother—she will be able to lick the newborn and dry it. One may then clean the newborn and gently rub it with wool cloths, placing the animal in a box with a good litter. It can nurse from birth and thus absorb, for the first few days, the colostrum, which is rich in vitamins and antibodies. It is incorrect to introduce an herbivorous diet too quickly in order to save the milk; it suffices to cut down on the milk and to share it with the newborn.
Weaning (separation of mother from her little one) must naturally occur, as the mother is tired from nursing and milk production decreases. Three hours after birth, the mother must expel the fetal sac (never break the cord). If there is a delay in the expulsion of the envelope then it must be removed manually in order to release the placenta.
Allow the mother to rest and give her light food for forty-eight hours. During breastfeeding, her work will be moderate.
Gestation times:
Cow—9 months
Mare—11 months
Jenny-ass—12 months (364 days)
Sheep—5 months (152 or 153 days)
Goat—5 months
We mentioned above some rules of hygiene with respect to the inside of a living area; to avoid any infectious disease, here are two more important recommendations.
a. For the first fifteen days after the arrival of new animals, separate them from the rest of the flock. To do this, isolate the animal in a compartment and allow them to mix with the others after there are no signs of contagious disease.
b. Disinfect the premises—this should be done once a year and after each epidemic. Remove the litter (this must be done frequently), spray a disinfectant solution, scrape the ground and pour on an antiseptic solution (bleach, formaldehyde, caustic soda). Clean walls, ceilings, windows, with plenty of water containing sodium hydroxide. Finally, if possible, whitewash the walls. It is best to leave the premises unoccupied for some time.
DONKEYS Pulse is 45–50 times per minute; breathing (10 breaths per minute) is regular.
SHEEP Pulse is 110–130 times per minute; breathing is often irregular (26–30 breaths per minute) but the number can increase if the sheep is quickly out of breath. Body temperature is between 30° C and 39.5° C.
GOAT Pulse is 70–85 times per minute; breathing is regular (12–45 breaths per minute). Body temperature is between 39° C and 40° C.
A bad state of health results in an elevation of the temperature, an acceleration of cardiac impulses and respiratory movements, lack of appetite, weight loss, and/or the cessation of growth.
GLANDERS A disease specific to the equines. This is an infectious disease and transmissible to humans. It attacks the respiratory system, resulting in a continuous purulent discharge from the nostrils. The animal may have a cough. From the first signs, isolate the sick and call the veterinarian.
SCABIES This is an infectious disease caused by an insect that lives in the thickness of the skin; infected animals are tormented with itching.
Treatment: Begin by shearing the animal (burn off the residue from the shearing products), soap with warm water, use a brush, rinse the whole body with warm water. Then pour 250 grams of potassium sulfide into a liter of water. Rub the whole body with this product and a brush. You can also apply tobacco juice lotion.
MASTITIS The udder is hot and painful to the animal, the skin is red and tight; the milk is a yellowish, lumpy liquid.
Treatment: Decrease food and water for a few days; massage the udder and the coat with soothing ointments.
For preventative treatment, disinfect the insides of the teats after each milking.
FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE Illness specific to the ruminants. It is contagious; manifests as canker sores on the oral mucosa and within the hooves; the animals infected are weak. The younger animals catch it easily.
Treatment: Isolate the infected; the animal’s blood, sufficiently rich in anti-FMD antibodies, heals this infection and can act as a protective serum, but no treatment exists.
ANTHRAX This is an infectious disease caused by a microbe that lives in the ground; it penetrates the blood; the animal’s spleen swells and their blood becomes anti-coagulated with a blackish appearance.
There is no specific treatment if the anti-anthrax vaccine developed by Pasteur is not administered.
BRUCELLA MELITENSIS An illness specific to sheep and goats. An infectious disease; it manifests in pregnant females, causing abortions. Their milk can pass the infection on to man. Every instance of infected herd must be reported.
STRONGYLOSIS An illness specific to sheep and goats. The condition is due to small worms living in the digestive tract or in the lungs of infected animals; the animals lose their appetite and lose weight.
Treatment: Avoid driving the herd to wet pastures or to the same place for more than five successive days (the eggs discharged in the feces might be ingested).
In the case of the sheep, the treatment is to give each sheep 5 grams of areca nut (the fruit of the Areca catechu) per day for ten successive days; for goats, different products exist.
SHEEP POX Disease specific to sheep. It is transmitted by an outbreak of pimples on the skin; to combat it, one periodically conducts vaccinations.
BRUCELLA Disease specific to the goat. It is caused by the pathogenic agent Brucella; it can contaminate man and cause Maltese Fever. The only solution is to kill the infected animal; contact a health protection organization.
The law oversees communicable diseases—it is obligatory to report the following: Anthrax, Scabies, Foot and Mouth Disease, Melitococcie, Rabies, Brucella.
“How can you buy or sell the sky, the earth’s heat? The idea seems strange. If we don’t possess fresh air and sparkling water, how can we buy it? White man treats his mother, Earth, and his son, Sky, as if they were things to buy, steal, sell … His appetite will devour the earth and leave nothing behind but desert … Air is precious to the red man because all things share the same breath—beast, tree, man—they all share the same breath … What is man without beasts? If all the animals disappear, man will die from a deep loneliness of spirit. Because whatever happens to animals eventually happens to man … all things are connected. We know this, at least: Earth does not belong to man, man belongs to Earth. This we know …
Where is the thicket? Disappeared.
Where is the eagle? Disappeared.
It is the end of life and the beginning of survival.”
These lines are extracts from a speech by Chief Seattle addressing Governor Stevens, asking him to free the Indians’ land.
It is certain that the white man’s anthropomorphism includes the notion that we can have the infinite, which Einstein himself only realized in the face of human stupidity. Perhaps it is time to understand that we cannot command and that we are not on this Earth to enslave, but to serve.
One day we were thinking of a brave peasant from Périgord who also tortured animals; he gored geese. “But if we do not kill the beast, there will be more. What do they serve?” With a smile, our daughter, Bianca, replied, “We made good reserves for the lions, the antelopes and the monkeys, why not also for the chicken of the pot, the rabbit of the dish, the Christmas turkeys?”
Why not consider poultry or game like the others, as beings that might become charming animals? For those that do not feed us their products make up for it in the affection they give us. And what about creating retirement homes for animals?
This other reflection is even more common, “Why have the animals been created if not for you to eat?” One can effectively believe, like Walt Disney, that the otters were only made to be filmed sliding on ice with an air of the polka!
Everything is there to serve us, but would it not be fair, if this is true, to begin with reciprocity? Contrary to the Darwinian concept, life is not made of fighting but of complicity, of exchange, a method of survival that is much more harmonious than theft and murder.
We wait, like Michel Simon, “For the man to finally let loose a more humane cry than that of a stuck pig.”
8.2: The so-called wild animal
Child, look around you
The animal awaits your caress
The animal awaits your smile
The animal awaits your support
Love him, Love her, Love the animals
They will make you well
Child, you must teach the adults—those who have forgotten
what they lost, what they’ve pushed away …
Teach them, teach them—they will bless you
Child, look around you
The animal is like you
The animal has character, don’t deform the animal
Love the animal as the animal is—in return, the animal will respect you
Child, look around you
Earth is our heritage
She has nourished your father like she will nourish you
Love her, love her, because she will reward you
Child, build your world
The world will become what you make it
Immense and magnificent in your image
Love it, love it, it looks like you
Child, life fulfills you
If you look around you
Look at the birds and look at the sky
Love them, love them, yes you are like me
because you are made for them as they are made for you.
— Béatrice Arnac (Animal)
A tiger has savagely attacked a man—this is a good title and therefore rarely occurs.
Mister President Duschmoll participates in hunting for sport and, thanks to his skill and his cold-bloodedness, three new tiger skins will become the pride of his residence.
Commonplace, a small echo of a mundane topic … unless there is some important fact in the news to minimize it!
Designations are controlled. On one side, assassination, a sporting event, on the other. Hence, to kill to satisfy hunger is one thing, to kill to satisfy pleasure is another.
The egoism, subjectivity, inconsistency of men only amplifies every day and their stupidity becomes fatal. There have been, however, over the last twenty-five centuries, prime examples of humans who have sufficiently demonstrated that it is better to give than to take, better to die than to kill … that this must be accomplished or life will be uninteresting!
One can keep to oneself as the will to survive a dead world—a world dead to the essential: the joy of the passing of time, the gift of self, love … “Without which,” repeated Saint Paul endlessly, “we are nothing, less than nothing.” Without love, one is nothing at all, nothing at all … popularly sung, more recently, by Edith Piaf.
To prevent hatred, to recognize our inability to love … these remain our only vehicle to one another. We continue to sow seeds of genocide with ambition, bigotry, jealousy, and the taste for worldly power, raping childbirth to deliver, in color, their revolutions, wars, famine, exodus, tortures … at every point on the globe.
There are more men than words to try to conceal their inability to live, to become individually liable, their penchant for murder, under false ideologies. Not content to mutually disappear, it seems necessary to them to cause the loss of everything around them: dozens and dozens of animal and plant species have disappeared or are disappearing, and it took barely three or four decades! We predict, without a doubt, that a million more will be gone within twenty years.
Unable to mutually serve us, we blindly serve ourselves all of Nature. Each year in their research centers the Chantereau laboratories use nearly 15,000 mice, and 5,000 rats, guinea pigs, pigs, and dogs, for their experiments.
To put a balm on our self-inflicted wounds, we justify all the suffering we inflict on other species by saying: so you prefer the life of a lab rat over that of a child whose life these experiments can perhaps save?
This question is sophism. Illness is not the result of an accident: almost all of us are born healthy, but the disease is a debt—that of our violation of the laws of life. With material means, we can certainly treat, but not cure it, and the pain inflicted by force on others is certainly not born of our bliss. Kant greatly emphasizes the responsibility of man toward the lower, so-called inferior, kingdom: we must always consider all beings as ends that are justified in themselves. As such, find one’s own goal within and never consider a living being a means to satisfy one’s desires. We must respect the intrinsic value of other beings and never for our personal sacrifice—when we kill animals we violate the laws of the highest morality.
If we violate these laws of highest morality, we are no longer anything, because it is through them that man exists as man. As with an animal, there is actually nothing he wants and if he refuses humanity, what remains? To disappear … and this what we actually use all of the time. When civilization only lives in appearances, under the domination of politics and money, its time has come.
Animals and plants are not actually for our usage but if we respect their own goals as they respect ours, we can live symbiotically, in a kind of trade. One can drink the milk of animals without killing their offspring for it, taste the honey from bees without destroying any hive, eat the fruits from the trees and the leaves from the stems without hindering the growth of either the tree or the stem. Since one can live without killing, why kill to live?
Joy Adamson, for one, cannot. The animal traffickers whose commerce she disturbed came to assassinate her. Adamson and her husband worked on a reserve in Kenya. They lived this patient existence, as related in their book, Vivre Libre. They sacrificed three years of their lives to return a tamed lioness to the jungle to live out the rest of her life. They were forced to leave Kenya to return to England. This jungle, where the protected reserve was, seemed to have, above all, turned into a reserve for more and more profit for the traffickers. Here is an excerpt from an article by F. Ramade (Courrier de la Nature, No. 64, page 7):
Even in the Samburu National Park, where the game is deemed to be the most abundant, a Grévy zebra is hardly seen, alone or in a group of a few heads—absolutely abnormal for this species. The distance these animals have fled leaves us to imagine the intensity of the poaching in the interior of the same park.
The skin of the Grévy zebra is actually worth $2,000 for exportation! Last year, just one curiosity shop in Nairobi possessed 2% of the world stock of this species (with the owner’s promise to obtain other skins quickly if the client wished!).
Even the more abundant or common species are subject to this shameless exploitation, so much so that these species could collapse in the very near future. Two traffickers were stopped in 1977 carrying, in vegetable oil cans, some 30,000 horns of the dik-dik (a small antelope of the genus Madoqua). This corresponds to the destruction of 23,000 individual females and other mortally wounded animals.
One is frightened before this endless abyss of human bestiality, while with the animal, the plant being cared for, there is only tenderness and love. Only men are beasts, by Jules Renard, sounds the death knell of our fallen humanity. This can be seen in a listing of a few treatments imposed on our brothers for profit:
The molted or striped felines, having become so rare, are so very dear—the animals are killed by piercing the body from the anus to the lungs with a hot iron rod. Thus their skin is not damaged and the only evidence of their murder is seen in the few hairs singed around the anus.
Lambs of the karakul sheep provide two kinds of fur: the astrakhan lamb comes from the fur of a newborn lamb, murdered just hours after birth; the breitschwanz fur comes from an unborn lamb—the fetus is torn from the (also murdered) mother’s body. All of this for the locks of these pelts, to provide you with the consistency you want.
What remains of the wild animal, that is to say, the vibrant and alive wild animal, is subject to jaws of steel torture traps, wherein they struggle for endless days and nights in agony.
Everyone now knows the seal pup’s fate. But, in spite of international protestations, they continue to be stunned briefly, then skinned alive in the presence of their mothers.
Even our friendly pets—not even dogs and cats escape the fur madness. In some cases they are hanged and savagely beaten because, this way, their hair straightens and obtains the gloss that the sweat of their agony provides.
We cannot forget the excellent recipe for Vietnamese duck: “Pluck a live duck, place it on a hot plate, when the duck stops running it is well done.”
There are an enormous number of recipes calling for torturing or murdering animals and very few recipes for saving them. All of these species are disappearing, but we can individually preserve them: many of us have a second home in the country where it would be easy to use leisure and holiday weekends on a piece of land to preserve or protect a particular animal or plant species.
BUILD SMALL NESTING BOXES OF EARTH OR WOOD FOR SMALL BIRDS You can make one from a flowerpot attached to the wall, with part of the bottom removed.
SMALL BOTTLE Always have a small bottle on hand, of the type offered to breastfeed small abandoned mammals (kittens, puppies, field mice …); bitch milk is preferred to cow’s milk.
FEEDERS, FAT BREADS, AND SEEDS FOR SMALL ANIMALS In the winter when the tree branches are black and the snow covers the icy ground, the small birds need help to subsist.
Fat breads: Melt unsalted butter, mix crushed sunflower seeds and millet; at lukewarm temperature, pour this mixture into a cardboard yogurt container with a bent wire at the bottom of the container so that the fat bread slips around it; unmold and hang from a tree branch.
A LITTLE POND Dig a cuboid hole (preferably in a shady place); put 2 cm of sod at the bottom with 2 cm of clay, 1 cm of sand, add water and populate.
RAPTOR’S NEST This is made with a wooden stake 2.5 m high and 7 cm in diameter on top of which a wooden bar, 7 cm in diameter, is attached.
Push a third of the height of the T into the ground and firmly pack the ground around it.
A DEER RACK Often in the winter, especially if it is very severe, the stags, does, and bucks need a supply of food. It is good to build a solid feed rack and shelter from rain for them between two trees. A trough is added and filled with salts and minerals (gray salt).
The model shown is of German inspiration and is used in the forests of Chambord and Cheverny.
THE CHICK FALLEN FROM THE NEST If the chick on the side of the road looks alone and abandoned, it has perhaps not fallen out of the nest but been pushed before learning to fly as some species (blackbird, owl) do.
Our presence can prevent the parents from approaching—one or both continues to feed the chick. In this case, get the chick away from the road by simply placing it in a branch or thicket. If the chick is distressed, save it by placing it on a bed of cotton with a tissue over it, quietly protected from drafts and light.
The chick eats very little, but very often. You must feed it every twenty minutes. Place a very little amount of food on a little wooden pallet. And gently sink a bit in the chick’s mouth each time it opens its beak wide.
For sparrows, make a mixture of bread or brioche, hard boiled egg, and a little milk; preparation in small amount for fresh food; flies, worms, caterpillars, etc. … With the help of a dropper, pour into the chick’s throat the water containing a few drops of freshly squeezed pulp. For larger birds (blackbird, thrush …) use the same food but in larger quantities.
For the much larger birds (magpie, jay …) brown rice cooked with minced carrot will be a good paté; live food (worms, caterpillar …) is very important. Raptors (owls, buzzards …) will eat small squares of meat and dog or goat hairs, chicken feathers, mice, dead chicks. Do not give them rats or other animals found dead and perhaps poisoned by insecticide, which is equally harmful to birds.
To teach it how to live freely in the wild, you must bring the bird into the area where it will be released, several times, and place living prey by it (such as worms) so it can learn to hunt its own food.
If you do not think you will be able to do this, it is better to just leave the bird to its fate.
THE BIRD STUCK IN OIL When the bird falls in oil, the wings are glue and no longer possess the air mattress that exists between the bird’s skin and feathers, which allows the bird to swim or to fly; exhausted, suffering from cold, underfed, the bird ends up stranded on a beach.
If it is serious, the first line of business is to clean the bird—a long and delicate process that is better accomplished with two people. Never use detergent (alcohol, etc.) but another fat (vegetable oil) or a gentle shampoo. To clean the oil from the bird, hold it over a bowl of warm water and use the product, rub each feather between the fingers in the direction of its implantation while the water is rinsed until clear, and dry the bird with towels or hair dryer. Then place the bird in a box packed with paper and put it in the shade, near a heat source because, without his plume (natural fat), the bird finds himself naked. Trying to clean himself with his beak, it often absorbs the oil, so make him swallow a spoonful of vegetable oil.
A very fragile bird must be fed by force if necessary.
Seagulls, gulls, eat anything: ducks, boiled meat, or fish; penguins, puffins. Cormorants appreciate very fresh, small fish.
Once the bird seems to have recovered its strength, here is a little test you can do to make sure before releasing it. Place the bird in a small bowl of water; if it has trouble staying afloat, it is better to keep it a while longer.
If a bird has only been lightly coated with oil, release it as soon as possible after it has been cleaned. It will find food when it wants to.
“From a primitive tree branch to a modern fishing pole. The shape has not changed, only the material underwent successive improvements. And as for the shape, the goal was reached when first tried with a sapling willow, hazelnut branch or reeds growing near water. No cane is better spun, more perfectly waning, than a natural pole and this truth is so palpable that nature is who we will ask for our scions, the most delicate part and the only one we cannot imitate—from one concentric piece, descending gradually while maintaining strength, flexibility and elasticity.
We have mentioned the three qualities a cane must possess, depending largely on nature, which shapes it, but also for the manner in which the cane is assembled.”
— M. de la Blanchere, Nouveau Dictionnaire Général Des Pêches
THE CANE This is made of the thick part that the fisherperson holds in the hand, and the slender part is the shoot.
The simplest models are reeds with bamboo shoots. The bamboo is light, responsive, recommended for cutting fish and for fishing the strongest freshwater fish.
The modern fishing rods are made of many pieces fitted together that facilitate transport.
THE REEL Allows give or take on the fishing pole line. If a pull is too hard, one can unwind the line to regain the feeling that one can relax one’s efforts.
The reel is attached to the end of the rod, slightly below the handle. There are two types of reels:
The rotating spool: Used for all fisheries not requiring large throws. Rotating the drum rewinds the line. A jack (brake) prevents the line’s free escape.
The fixed spool: The spool is fixed and the line is wound around a rotating intermediary piece (pick-up or basket-handle, according to its shape) and dispatches in a uniform manner over the height of coil. Such a process can free the wire to the desired speed. An adjustable brake absorbs the shock the fish can give to the line. This reel is used by all of those who fish by throwing it at a certain distance (a pond carp, a lively pike).
The rings, spaced along the lower part of the cane, get closer together as we move toward the shoot, guiding the wire out of the reel.
1. Loop knot 2. Approach knot 3. Coupling knot 4. Half tight knot 5. Loose line knot 6. Double knot 7. Loop knot 8. Loop knot
THE LINE Divided into two parts—the body of the line is wound around the reel or simply attached to the tip of the fishing rod, and the lower part of the line, or lead, to which the hook is attached.
The body of the line once was silk or horsehair, but currently there is hardly more than nylon used. The only complaint one might have is that it is difficult to establish due to its flexibility. The following knots help:
Line knots—to extend or repair a line:
FLOATS A certain number of models are cork, while others are feather. Floats inform the fisherman of the keys and rules of the depth to which you want to fish—the upper part must be clearly visible.
SINKERS The sinkers used to ballast the lines are not different than buck shots because they are split in order to be set on the line.
HOOKS If you do without weights or floats, it is more difficult to pass off the hook. The hook is steel. The quality of the steel is primary in order to prevent the hook from breaking, stretching, being so compact that the fish’s mouth cannot hold it. The steel should therefore be neither too malleable or too dry or rusted.
1. Steel needle 2. Detachment of the dart 3. Sharpening the dart 4. Mold the bend 5. Finished hook
HAMPER This is a reservoir of tinned iron wire with a throttled neck so the fish cannot get out; it’s immersed in water for the duration of fishing—this allows the fish to stay alive.
PROBE This is to allow one to learn the depth of the water at the location where one is fishing. It is a hollow olive that pinches the hook. By trial and error, one raises and lowers the floaters to determine the depth.
SCOOP A mess bag held by a metal frame (round, square or triangular) and fitted on a support (often bamboo). The most durable line is tanned hemp.
SPOUT The simplest consists of a small fork with two steel teeth, which allows the retrieval of the hook after the fish has swallowed it. In advance, place a spout at the intersection of the two forks and follow the line to the moment where one arrives at the hook that rips out the entrails but doesn’t break.
SEAT It is not always possible to sit on the ground on the bank; so, the fisherman should bring a folding chair.
FISHING KIT In a washable, easily transportable solid bag, put lines, sinkers, hooks, floaters, scoops and flies if fly fishing; boxes containing lures and bait; a probe; pliers, knife, razor blade, string.
Buy solid and preserve.
It is important to know the different bait and fish to use. First, observe the region, its cultures, the insects that live there. Fish are wary of the new—at least, that is what this story by Raoul Renault, a journalist specializing in fish, suggests: “I found myself in the village Poitou, where the river was full of little fish; we saw whole troops lounging in clear water—I began fishing with wheat but without a bite, and after fifteen days, the grains I had planted on the bottom. A peasant advised me to try the red and green larvae. It was a success. Why? There were grain fields on the riverbanks, but not a single field of wheat, and fish mistrust an unknown grain.”
EARTHWORM Allolobophora lumbricus herculeus; Lumbricus friendi; Lumbricus terrestris. These Latin names identify the varieties of earthworms that one finds in nearly all French soil. They are of different colors according to the variety or even the nature of the land in which they live.
The way to put the worm on the hook
Worms from the ground are dark brown or purplish red; the tail is flattened into a spearhead. They are very muscular. The species found in the meadows is a more slender animal with a black head.
It is advisable to make them fast before using them for fishing in order to make them more restless (let them disgorge in the froth). Then put them on a hook (prick once some millimeters from the head). Avoid killing or emptying them. They should be changed often as they die pretty quickly.
There are different processes to flush out an earthworm:
Paw the wet ground for about ten minutes in the same place. Wait for the worms to be completely out of their hole. As they fear light, they return to their homes when the vibrations cease.
An Indian trick consists of planting a stake along which deep notches are traced. Rub a stick against the notches—it invites the worms out.
A wet bag or carton lying on the grass can encourage some worms to come stay in such a shelter.
Whenever we return to the land of the garden, we can make provisions for earthworms—care is taken such as using the rakes or spades rather than shovels, which cut worms.
To store them, the best is to take up the necessary earth where they are harvested. Put this soil in wooden boxes of around thirty liters and fill them to half. Cover the soil with dead leaves, dry grass, straw … and with everything the worms find on the ground and which is good for their nourishment.
Think about maintaining humidity by watering the litter without excess so that there is no mud at the bottom of the container (manure, useful for compost, kills earthworms).
LEECHES Live long in the water, their natural environment. They are kept between layers of damp moss.
MAGGOTS Are larvae born out of flies spawning in meat. Here’s how to make them: hang small dried fish, a sheep head, or horse liver in the heat over an earthen pot. Flies come and lay their eggs. Once the eggs hatch, we feed the worms on fresh fish, bloody, raw meat, or melted cheese. When the weather is stormy, put the maggots in a cool place to prevent them from forming a chrysalis.
The worm is attached to the hook by the tail (the big end) to prevent the worm from emptying. Change it often because it does not live long.
For the big fish (barbell, tench, carp …) the maggot is mounted on the hook, making sure to leave the barb uncovered.
MYRIAD INSECTS At each instant, at the surface of a pond, in the very early morning or in the evening, a fish surges through the water and snaps up many flying mosquitoes or mayflies. The insect is the fish’s preferred dish.
Beetles: These insects have four wings. Some live in water: the adult water beetle (also called whirligig beetle) with the dark blue back lives in the calm waters; the elmis live hooked to the submerged branches.
Others live out of the water: the Melolonthinae live in lilac, linden, chestnut trees (for an ample harvest, just shake the trees in springtime); the matte green-colored dune tiger beetle revels in sandy places; the ladybug abounds in meadows; the golden beetle lives in all fields.
The dipteran: This includes practically all flies. The housefly must be taken alive in a special bottle and not with sticky paper. If all flies are excellent bait, it is, above all else, their larvae that the fisherman seeks.
The Hemipteras: This term covers all of the Pentatomidae, the Cicadoidea and the Aphids with the biting and sucking mouth parts. The best-known is the cicada that lives in the Mediterranean regions. There are a variety of small ones found on alder that fish show a fondness toward, such as the spittle bug.
The Hymenopteras: Only some species are used for fishing.
The hornet lives in hollow trees, old walls. To use them, the best way to capture them is by dazing them with a swat of a cloth and pulling out the sting.
The brown and black, wild ants belong to the same family. Choose those with wings.
The Lepidoptera: Also called butterflies. They are all good for fishing. They are stored in dry jars. For use, soften by hanging them in gauze over a pan of boiling water. It is the same for drying all other insects.
Mayflies: There are hundreds of species. The most often used are: the mayfly, the large mayfly, caddisfly, alderfly, the giant ants.
The Orthoptera: Also called, grasshoppers, cockroaches, crickets. The grasshoppers are found in summer in any wheat field. The green grasshopper, that one chooses young and soft, is the most common. The cricket is smaller with more mass. The earwigs, the cockroaches, the praying mantis, the mole cricket are also used as popular bait. The crickets are easy to maintain in captivity as they are fed salad or milk-soaked bread.
ARACHNIDS The most common spiders are the cross-bearers found everywhere in the hedges, fields, cellars, vineyards. In the French countryside, there is also the trombidium, commonly called mite or chigger.
THE LITTLE FISH One must choose a fish with tender flesh and without outer spines.
In ponds, the best live fish are small tench, carp, bream and goldfish. In rivers, they are studs, roach and chub. A minimum length is set by law.
One catches the fish live with a scoop, storing them in a tank of fountain water (that is to say, without disinfectant) and protected from the weather. Feed the live fish with bloodworms and red worms and drain the tank from time to time in order to remove any rubbish that may be a risk for stagnating.
FROGS AND TADPOLES The live frog is very resistant and very restless.
SMALL CRUSTACEAN We note that the louse which lives in the dark, damp places, and the freshwater shrimp, which abounds in fresh water sources, are highly appreciated by some voracious fish including perch.
BLOOD AND GUTS Clotted blood is very good bait. Collect the blood; add salt to it and some pieces of divided, cotton wool; pour the blood into a canvas bag and press it against rocks in order to express all the blood serum; this operation finished, the clots will hold fast to the hook, thanks to the fibers of the cotton wool taken in bulk; cut them into small cubes.
The bowels are also very good bait. Pork bacon in strips, poultry guts, the raw spinal cord of butchered animals are too.
CHEESE AND DAIRY PRODUCTS Cheese, well-pressed curd from which all the serum is removed, makes excellent bait.
COOKED GRAINS You can use wheat, corn, barley, rice.
To prepare the wheat: allow to soak for twenty-four hours, boil on low heat for approximately three hours after having covered with water; let cool.
The corn is prepared in the same way except that it must soak for several days.
For the barley, let it soak for forty-eight hours and let it cook in well-closed pot, without letting it boil. While the grains become ¾ of the thickness desired, take them out of the water, rinse with new warm water to remove the gluten; throw out this second water and add cold water into which the grains should bathe; then boil gently until they break (add hazelnut potash to soften them).
Cook the rice for ten minutes.
VARIOUS FRUITS AND VEGETABLES Specifically beans (cooked like wheat and stored in a damp cloth) and all carbohydrates are excellent bait.
Carp and big fish will bite well on melon, pear, banana, as well as chestnuts stripped of their shells and half-cooked in brine.
PASTA A mixture of ingredients with flour, breadcrumbs or potato, etc., as a base.
Each fisherman finds his/her own recipe. However, a “base” recipe is to add bean curd or crushed garlic or cream cheese or anise oil, etc., to soaking breadcrumbs.
A TASTE OF THE BAIT Priming: The goal of priming is designed to attract fish and get them to stay.
Primers are chosen according to fish species and the place where you fish (the calm waters of a lake, or a river). One primes for several days in the same place so that the fish get into the habit of finding their food.
Primers designed to remain on the bottom of the fishing place consists of two elements: starchy materials (bread, cooked wheat, grains) and clay, sand, or bran that is heavy enough to sink to the bottom. These elements must be immediately linked through mixing. One makes balls the size of an orange, a cherry or a prune. One can prepare them in advance and roll them in bran so they don’t stick together.
For fishing on the surface, thin particles are used: crushed wheat, worm pieces, maggots. Hanging a cow or lamb stomach from a tree to be reflected in the water is an ideal priming. The maggots, just formed, fall into the water.
The majority of manure types make excellent primers: fresh horse manure for tench, cow dung and human excrement for chub.
SEDENTARY FISHING OR “AD HOC” FISHERY This is a fishing of calm waters or a tranquil fisherman. One has, thanks to the nutrient priming, collected the fish. This fishery is open to non-voracious species, whitefish for the most part (carp, tench, bream, gudgeon…).
The material consists of a thin line whose view and vibrations do not alert the guests, a sinker proportional to the speed of the current and to the buoyancy of the float (their relative balance must be such that the fish doesn’t sense any resistance while it seizes the bait) and the floater offers the minimum resistance to the hook.
AMBULATORY FISHERY This fishery consists of going to look in all the corners favorable to white, sedentary fish or some voracious fish (trout, perch, pike).
It uses the same material and the same bait as the “ad hoc” fishery but it does not have any priming.
CAST FISHING One hunts fish in the original sense of the word. From a distance, one “pulls” the lure toward where one supposes a voracious fish waits, looking for prey.
The species concerned are particularly “noble” species: trout, salmon, bull trout and river graylings.
Lures are of different materials: metal, wood, plastic, rotating or swaying (fake fish spinning on themselves or on a fixed axis), crankbaits (fake wriggling fish), rotating or rolling spoons.
These lures are intended less for the voracity of fish and their taste of the game as for their “despotism,” as they are angry against the intruder who enters their reserved domain.
The sportiest type of fishing is fly fishing. Indeed, fish feed on mayflies born of aquatic larvae and all species of land insects that accidentally fall in the water. So one presents an imitation of these gnats, which are on the water’s surface (the dry fly fishing), or that walk on the water (the drowned fly fishing).
Fly fishing is the most difficult of the methods, the finest.
Introduction to some freshwater fish
GENERAL EXTERNAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FISH (Excerpt from Quel est ce poisson? by G. Prioux)
To recognize these fish, one must be aware that:
All fish do not have exposed teeth, and do have a single dorsal fin located in the body’s mid region, ventral fins in back of the pectorals, forked tails, and are in the Cyprinidae family.
All fish with two somewhat close dorsal fins, the first of which is thorny, having two or three spines at the beginning of the anal fin, one or more spines at the tip of the operculum, and visible scales, often hard to the touch, are a Percoidei (under this name, the next two closest families are the Percidae and Centrarchidae).
All fish without barbs, but who do have a small adipose stump at the rear of two dorsals, are members of the salmonidae family.
TENCH (TINCA TINCA—CYPRINIDA) Especially notable because of two gray barbs, very short and downwardly directed at the corners of the mouth. It has a stocky body, small eyes with bright yellow irises, slimy scales, and a caudal fin at the slightly indented back end in the shape of what looks like a beater.
There must be a calm and even dead water in which aquatic plants abound if the tench are to reproduce. Cold water does not suit the tench. It does not go beyond 1,000 meters. It feeds intensely during the summer season in order to cease nearly all activity when the water gets cold.
The tench is raised for consumption and restocking.
CHUB (LEUCISCUS CEPHALUS—CYPRINIDA) Is the most widespread of white fish throughout Europe. It is found in all basins, often awash because it searches for light.
It likes the clear and running water. The clearest identification is the fine black border that highlights its scales. The fleshy lips of the mouth meet, in profile, the front edge of the eye.
This is one of the most omnivorous of the Cyprinidae. It is, and that is its greatest value, an excellent brisk winter pike.
ROACH (GARDONUS RUTILUS—CYPRINIDA) This silvery belly fish with a greenish back does not exceed 25 cm long, and is distinguished from the rudd by the relative position of its fins. Indeed, the dorsal fin presents a double feature: it begins at the base of the ventrals and ends before the base of the beginning of the anal fin.
The roach is the most common in northern, central, and eastern French waters. A calm water fish, fearing too much cold water, it is especially herbivorous. The roach, due to its fertility, is considerably important to the maintenance of predator to prey fish as it provides food at all cost. It is the species for restocking slow-moving, grassy and temperate waters that pollution disturbed. By all means, one must be prepared and protect spawning sites.
PERCH (PERCA FLUVIATILIS—PERCOIDES) The fish’s sides are remarkable because of the presence of seven to nine vertical stripes and a dark streaking dress. Two dorsal fins are contiguous and the first one has a black spot on the backside.
The perch is 15 to 25 cm long, but there are also countless colonies of dwarf perch, discolored and ravenous.
Most lakes are abundant in perch. The perch loves crowded refuges and fears neither brackish water nor altitudes above 1,000 meters.
Perch are carnivorous and hunters; all fins are bristling. It pursues the minnow for its highly appreciated flesh.
PIKE PERCH (SANDER LUCIS PERCA—PERCOIDES) The clearest characteristic is on the head, which holds a mouth carrying four large canines on the upper jaw and two on the lower. The eyes are large and protruding. This fish has a greenish back, a yellowish-green side, and nine to eleven dark vertical stripes.
It can reach to 1 meter long. The dorsal and caudal fins are marked with many aligned, block dots. This fish comes from central Europe and the acclimation was made in the lower Rhome, the Saone and the Doubs.
Largely nocturnal, carnivore. An excellent fish food.
BROWN TROUT (SALMO FARIO—SALMONIDES) One finds the trout in all the non-polluted waters, rich in the oxygen of which the trout is a major consumer. It likes altitudes of 2,200 meters. The trout is capable of climbing up strong currents.
This trout fears the light and nearly always lives hidden. It is voracious and only eats primarily meaty and living prey, including the alevin of its own species. This trout hunts with ardor then seems to disappear until the next feeding outing.
SALMON (SALMO SALAR—SALMONIDES) When one distinguishes a salmon from a big trout, there are several characteristics to consider: the salmon’s caudal fin has a concave outer edge; the mouth closes on a row of strong teeth namely one row on each jaw, two on the palate, and two on the tongue.
The body of the salmon, longer than the trout’s, is a perfect spindle, obviously designed for swimming and jumping. Highly migratory, the salmon lives in the ocean and travels to freshwater sources to reproduce.
In spite of its progressive disappearance, the salmon is once again present in the coastal waterways of Brittany and Normandy. Salmon do not eat in fresh water during their travel. In the majority of cases, it dies of physiological distress after spawning. The small salmon live like trout from years one to three under the name of “parr” then they return to the sea.
GRAYLING (SALMO THYMALLUS—SALMONIDES) The first of the grayling’s dorsal fins has these characteristics: very big, very tall, is shaped like a flag. A light green fish that is not longer than 35 cm.
The grayling derives its name and characteristics from the lower reaches of the clear and common rivers in which the temperature does not exceed 20° C in the summer and does not fall below 6° C in the winter. It cannot bear any pollution, which explains its scarcity.
It feeds on land or aquatic insects, worms, small crustaceans and mollusks—all prey in relation to its relatively small mouth.
Its flesh is very delicate and does not keep.
PIKE (ESOX LUCIUS) The pike does not belong to any of the very classic families defined earlier.
It is a snakelike fish (rarely exceeding one meter) with a very long head, and a beak like a duck. This fish’s mouth is very wide, and is lined with hundreds of spiky, thorn-like teeth. It is one of the largest predators of temperate waters. It likes calm, grassy waters. It is more common in the north than in the south. Nowadays, without being rare, it has become precious.
This fish is sought-after for its flesh. Being more voracious than suspicious, it is a relatively easy fish to fish.
This calendar gives you the best times to fish each species of fish, although there are no set rules (variations occur according to the region). Nevertheless, there are some general guidelines:
JANUARY Living in a state of near-hibernation, many species sleep and hardly eat. But some predators continue to hunt: chub, perch, pike. At this time, fish for the chub with blood and earthworms, the perch and the pike with live bait.
FEBRUARY The best corners for fishing are in shallow waters heated by the slightest rays of sunlight. The pike and the perch bite quickly on live bait (better than in January).
MARCH All species are in search of prey that will allow them to fill their bellies, which are hollow after a long fast. The most favorable moment is between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Carp, tench, eel return from their hibernation; the big perch bite on earthworms as long as they have swallowed the worm and the hook, and they try to hide in their shelter—this needs to be avoided, so don’t assist them and they will come out with a slow, continuous pull. The chub, the roach bite on red worms. The trout bites on artificial, yellowish grey flies.
APRIL The weather allows all-day fishing. Trout takes all the primers the fisherman presents to him. Big chub bite on clotted blood and eels on worms. Fish bite very badly in water coming from melting snow.
MAY In rivers, all fish bite. In ponds, many species spawn and bite poorly. Trout bite well on artificial flies.
JUNE Only the tench spawn. All other species, at this time, are anxious to get back together and they bite perfectly on all bait. It’s particularly noticeable that the big roach and the chub bite on the small crickets and the artificial fly, while the chafer and the perch bite on frog flesh and poultry guts.
JULY Under the influence of heat, some fish hide in the grasses, under the banks, in the depths where they do not leave except at night. For this reason, the best moments for fishing are at dawn and at the end of the afternoon. The fisheries with surface primers embedded with natural insects are most suitable.
AUGUST The best conditions to fish are during the coolest hours and all species will bite.
SEPTEMBER The temperature drops and the fish bite better than the previous months. It is the beginning of the true season of the pike for those who fish with live bait.
OCTOBER Many species prepare for hibernation. Pike and perch still bite well with live bait or dead fish.
NOVEMBER Many fish enter into hibernation in the deep waters. Only the predators retain their appetite, especially the pike.
DECEMBER Fishing becomes very difficult.
A FISH TRAP Near the shore, put down stakes (rushes, spruce) to four feet deep.
HARPOON TRAP At one end of the branch of a fir tree, split in two; sculpt the teeth on the two internal parts of the slot; keep it open with the help of a little piece of wood; touched by the fish, this piece of wood breaks and the clamp closes on him.
TWO LUCKY HOOKS
—With the spine of hawthorn
—With a small piece of sharpened wood at both ends; one can also shod with the scavenger birds such as gulls and crows.
FROGGING To capture them, one uses a net, a light or … torches!
The pocket is used as a net to take the frogs from shallow ditches. Fishing with a line is practiced with a rise of the pole, often with a thin string ending with a hook. We use silk thread or red wool. As bait we sometimes use a grasshopper or cricket. When the Sun heats pleasantly, frogs bask on the surface of ponds. The fisherman dances his hook into the water, flushing it with water, in front of the frog. It jumps and the hook takes the frog up immediately.
Fishing by torch is practiced at night, after a hot, sunny day. One gently enters into the water to the knees and a dull lantern is lit. Frogs approach if we remain silent and motionless. It suffices to have another person pick up the frogs and put them into the bag.
The combined influence of the Sun and the Moon puts into movement, four times per day, our globe’s mass of saltwater, determining the tides. During a day of twenty-four hours, there are two high tides and two low tides. During twenty-eight days (one lunar month), there are four periods of tides in which two are spring tides where the sea rises to the highest levels, and two are neap tides. Spring tides attain their culminating point two days after the new Moon and two days after the full Moon. The neap tides return two days after the Moon’s first quarter and two days after the Moon’s last quarter.
From one lunar Moon to the other, the tides return at around the same time. Every day they undergo a shift of a little less than an hour (twenty-four hours for twenty-eight days).
The propagation of the tides, the length of our continent, moves from west to east: if the ocean is high at twelve o’clock in Brest, the ocean will be high only toward 6 p.m. in Havre.
The behavior of fish is intimately aligned to the movement of the tides, in the sense that fish expect their food to come from the currents that brew in the sea and the majority of currents are created specifically by the tides.
On the sides, fish are more active when the tide is rising and at the beginning of the ebb, while in the offing, fish bite better at the end of the ebb and at the beginning of the rising tide. Tides at night or morning are more favorable than evening tides. Fishing during neap is less favorable than fishing in the days preceding or following the spring tides.
On foot at the waterfront, we can hardly catch anything except for one hour before low tide is complete and one hour after the tide has begun to rise.
The flow “prevents” the lift: the sea ceases to be spread out and begins very slowly its upward movement; its surface is covered around the edges with a yellowish foam. From this moment, and according to the strength of the tide and the direction of the wind, the fisherman has about an hour to work.
Clothing: Cover yourself in a large-enough wool suit; do not fish without wearing a hat; wear old leather shoes, buskins if possible (especially avoid low shoes); bring a watch … at least to have a sense of the time in case of tides.
Accessories: This depends on the kind of fish one fishes. The main ones are:
THE LARGE, TIGHT NET USED TO FISH IN A CLUSTER OR FOR PRAWNS
Different mesh nets
Used for gray shrimp.
Stretch the net out parallel to the cross-section. It can be mounted directly on the crossing, by a wire. You can either mount it directly on the crossing, that is to say, support it by using a long stainless steel wire, stretched to 2 mm below the crossbar and attached by jumpers nailed every 10 cm (the crossing measures between 1 meter and 1.5 meters). On either side of the mounts, the nest must be flaccid, relative to the half-circle frames; these features exceed the arch by a good hand length; it is essential that the lower part of the net is parallel to the cross and exceeds the lower part of the bow by 20 to 30 cm. Indeed, fishing is always performed on rocky bottoms and always with more or less long, dense seaweed and kelp. The lower horizontal lines allow for fast peeling away of sea grass, immediately identifying the schools.
THE LARGE, FOLDED NET
The structure consists of two posts crossed over each other, lengthwise in the lower part and folded on themselves. These two posts open like scissors, holding a solid single that acts by crossing and wherein the net is mounted. The net is secured on either side by two arms after mounting on a long wire. A leather apron can be attached to the middle of the lower section between the two posts. The fisherman wears this apron on the stomach and pushes the net, hands-free. Thus, as this movement continues, the previously taken shrimp are recovered. Peeling consists of throwing out the strands of kelp, shellfish debris and the shrimp that are too small.
THE HAVENET Also called the little havenet, to distinguish from the scoop net. It is used to fish the school.
It consists of a fine mesh net with edges attached to a wire frame of stainless steel wire. To lift the havenet, the net must bind to the stainless steel wire attached to the circle.
THE HOOK A wooden handle at the end of which fits an iron rod bent into a hook. It can lift large stones, set the wild oyster attached to a rock loose, or knock down a stubborn conger. The usual length is one that fits between the right hand and the fisherman standing at ground level.
THE SPEAR OR TRIDENT A kind of wrought iron spear with two flexible parallel teeth capable of supporting a distance and a length of 15 to 29 cm. This harpoon is mounted on a very long wooden handle both strong and flexible. Used to catch lobsters and conger eels from holes.
THE RAKE Intended to scrape the sand to pick cockles and clams. Preferably use a rake with at least twelve teeth and a short handle so as to be manipulated while in the squatting position, the best for fishing clams.
THE RAMASSOIR It is made of somewhat thick wood, secured in its middle, with a small neck of 40 cm long. It serves to reduce the heap lapwings that were taken out of the sand and thus prevents the mollusks from returning to their cottage.
THE BASKET A most practical container regardless of species fished. This is a wicker basket (a potbellied basket from Granvillais used by fishermen in the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel, known as a file).
One can compartmentalize it in order to not bring in crabs and schools in bulk.
Note: For repeat fishing, wash the harpoon, rakes, baskets in plenty of water. Seawater is terribly powerful and an oxidant. For this reason, the fisherman will benefit from oiling the various iron instruments—brush with used car oil.
CARIDEAN SHRIMP (CRANGON VULGARIS) Especially found along very sandy coasts, where we find the most beautiful samples, these shrimp sink into the sand as the tide goes out. Fishing can be done in large quantities at the mouths of the brooks that meander through the banks to reach the sea, particularly when, at low tide, they lead to a cove or a small sandy bay.
In the absence of special cottages, we fish by pushing the net along a line parallel to the shore and in 30 cm of water. The shrimp, furthermore, come out of the sand when the water is lukewarm or in stormy weather, and you will fish these crustaceans better in the summer and winter, and in afternoon tides (over those of the morning). Shrimp live in colonies and the fisherman will surely move the net several times to places where it will, from the first lift, prove effective.
PRAWN (PALAEMON SERRATUS) Three times larger than shrimp with a harder shell. Alive, the prawn is a yellowish gray. Always fished around seaweed- or algae-lined rocks (never on bare rocks). It is good to remember the three colors of kelp dear to the prawn in order to easily find them: very short kelp, reddish or greenish-brown tufts, or thin strips of very long kelp, dark brown, almost black.
One will win by fishing one hour and a half before low tide has fully crested and finish fishing one hour after, max. The rate of incoming tides is accelerated very quickly and you never fish prawn in flowing water. There are two ways to fish prawn during a storm: work in large areas of at least one hundred square meters or else push one’s net along the line you have established along the shore.
THE VELVET CRAB (PORTUNUS PUBER) A crab with a trapezoidal shell, toothed on the front with a hairy shell, a light to darker brown, shimmering back and a cream white, bluish belly; the ends of the legs are flattened into a spearhead and fringed with hairs. The size varies between 6 and 8 cm.
Found at low, spring tides, an hour before the slack of low tides, under rocks, in the holes in the rocks, along ditches, on rockeries’ plateaus, in banded brown algae. One can fish with a small harpoon but picking them by hand is preferred as the hook often lifts the stones.
THE BROWN CRAB (CANCER PAGURUS) A crab with a toothed shell that is rounded at the front. It has very strong, black claws, a light brown back that is dark and slightly reddish, a tan belly. Its size varies between 20 and 30 cm, its weight between 4 and 5 kg.
It is found under rocks and in crevices in kelp-dense areas. They are collected like the velvet crabs, using the hook, but the biggest ones are gathered into wire baskets and in the offing. Best time is one hour and a half before a low tide, just after a large spring tide during the spring equinox, and especially during the fall equinox when these crabs are often found together in colonies and buried in sandy ditches lined with kelp-covered rocks. This crab’s pinch is strong.
HERMIT CRAB (PAGURUS BERNHARDUS) This shell-deprived crustacean is a squatter: it lives in the empty shells of dead animals. Its fondness is toward the wavy whelk but if it cannot find a solid habitat it can cover itself with four sea anemones. It is the size of a small crawfish, its abdomen is yellowish-orange; it has reddish tan legs and claws. It is picked up by hand from the plateaus of large rocks in seaweed-rich zones only during spring tides.
LOBSTER (HOMARUS VULGARIS) This is a big crustacean from 35 to 60 cm, with a powerful pair of claws, one sharper than the other, which is used as a fork-knife while the stronger claw holds the prey. It is blue marbled white and yellow but, in the off season, it is often gray as it is covered with parasitic secretions. On the coast, it is found in holes or rocks only in high spring tides and in deeper water on the chaotic bottom where one fishes with the wire trap. We gather them on foot with a pitchfork that has two 20-cm-long teeth to avoid hurting the lobster. Patient operations! Avoid getting pinched or swatted by the animal by holding the animal on its back at the base of the back of its head and tying its legs as soon as possible. If it is to be enclosed with other crustaceans, cut with a knife the tendons in the claws.
Note: Renard, in his perky book, La peche à la Mer (Albin Michel), reported that he rarely caught a lobster on some coasts in Normandy or Brittany without the presence of a conger eel (Conger conger) in the same cave—a beautiful animal from one and a half to two meters long.
THE COMMON WHELK (BUCCINUM UNDATUM) This is a big snail with an elongated shell, twisted into four or five descending whitish-gray spirals, roughly 5 to 12 cm long.
Unlike the periwinkle, it detaches very readily by hand from the rocks where it lives in colonies. They are abundant at the end of the descending of the high tides in the whitewater of large areas of seaweed and they are never in sandy corridors near the edges of rocky plateaus.
PERIWINKLE (LITTORINE LITTOREA, TROCHOCOCHLEA CRASS) It has a tiny, curved mollusk shell, greenish or bluish-gray otherwise; typically spiraling and closed by a rather hard (seal) membrane which allows the animal to retreat into its shell. After cooking in salt water, take it out with help from a pin.
The size does not exceed 2.5 cm. One gathers them on most rocky coasts during the ebbing tide.
MUSSELS (MYTILUS EDULIS) This is one of the most well-known and widely consumed bivalves, whose size varies from 4 to 9 cm.
Unlike oysters, the season for mussels determines their thickness and tastiness—this extends from May to August. Mussels are found in colonies on rocks and on the coasts during the low, spring tides, and on rocks surrounded by the muddy alluvial of small coastal rivers.
They attach to rocks by their small filaments (byssus), and can be detached with a jerk of the hand. Avoid taking all mussels from the same place (as with mushrooms, lawless picking has depopulated our Earth) and let the small ones (less than 4 cm) grow!
Note: Like oysters, mussels are delicious raw.
OYSTER OR “HORSE FOOT” (OSTREA PLICAT) This has a big, flat, rough, bivalve shell often covered with algae-encrusted filaments. Its shape evokes that of a horse’s foot. The “picking” size is 5 to 12 cm. This is the only oyster that can be found wild on our shores as the others are raised. It is barely discernible on the large rocks, which it adheres to. Only found during very high tides.
COCKLE (CARDIUM EDUL) Has a bulging, 2 to 6 cm shell whose valves make a symmetrical heart; if you look at its profile, it is gray, pink, yellowish or whitish with darker stripes on its creases.
You can gather them using a rake with flat teeth and by scraping the sand, muddied by the ebbs’ overdrafts. The cockle burrows into the sandy/muddy estuaries and bays, flowered with the sand of the descending tides.
Disgorge for two hours in the salt water to get rid of the sand it contains.
Note: The hull is also removed with a tablespoon. One finds them on the beaches by two small, black, 1 mm holes spaced 1 cm apart and during the low tides of dawn or evening.
CLAM (TAPES DECUSSATUS) A bivalve shell of 3.5 to 6 cm, the outer sides show concentric and radial striations; its color varies from whitish gray to yellowish and is sometimes dotted with brown or black.
We gather them with a tablespoon, child shovels, or rake them on the sandy-muddy estuaries and the floors of the bays where the clams are buried 5 cm from the surface, indicated by the presence of two very small holes. It is also found in the corridors between the rocks, on the bottoms of gravel mixed with mud.
PECTEN (PECTEN VARIUS) A bivalve shell from 4 to 7 cm, convex elongated valves and rounded at the base. Very exposed edges make it look like the Saint-Jacques shell, which differs only by its very unequal, lateral ears. Its color varies from purplish-brown to yellow, white, or pink.
These are found on the grassy and muddy bottoms where, under the simple pressure of the foot, its presence is shown pissing in the air, and in the muddy, gravel corridors where one will gather them just like with mussels.
RAZOR FISH (SOLEN VAGINA AND SOLEN ENSIS—WITH ARCHED VALVES) A very long, tubular shell, 15 cm long, brown or whitish-yellow—the two valves unite suggesting the handle of a knife.
Found vertically, plunged down, in colonies, in sandy banks located at the edges of low water spring tides; they sink up to 50 cm deep, leaving the upper part of their valves showing until the sea begins to cover them.
They are gathered during low tides after the high tides on sandy beaches, and can be identified by the following signs: on wet sand—two holes the size of a lentil, separated by a bit of sand; on dry sand—blunt holes, 12 to 15 mm long, and strangled in its environment. We can get them ourselves with the help from galvanized wire of 60 cm which is folded at the ends to make 8-mm-long triangles—gently push the hook into each hole. From the first resistance, push harder, rotating the rod a quarter of the hole; then extract the razor fish—it is often pierced unless you have a lot of practice.
We also fish these razor fish out by dropping a few grains of salt on their holes and pouring water over it to dissolve the salt—the fish appear believing the sea has returned; one then catches the fish between two fingers, palm turned upward.
BEAN CLAM (DONAX ANATINUM) A shell of 3 to 4 cm, valves equally long as wide, slightly curved, serrated inner rims, fine concentric grooves, grayish color, yellowish, olive or purplish.
They are found somewhat buried, on somewhat dense shores, sandy or soft beaches, in low, neap tides.
You can extract them simply by raking them with a child’s rake.
Note: All mollusks are either eaten raw or cooked, but some need to be disgorged for one or two hours in salted water to be rid of the sand they contain—like with the razor fish, for example. All can be used as bait for fishing.
