Toulouse. For nearly 60 years, a huge breeding of parakeets animated this district of the city
By Toulouse editorial staff
Published on
the Buscaparakeet paradise Toulouse. For more than 60 years, the neighborhood has echoed with the rustle of wings and vocalizations of these birds bred by the Maison Bastide Frères. “The company raises tens of thousands of green and yellow budgies, between 30,000 and 100,000 at the peak of its production.
The first, the ordinary, cost five francs. The second, rarer yellow topaz, sold for 25 francs in 1922. The latter, locked in small boxes fitted with a wire mesh to provide food during long journeys, were exported throughout Europe, mainly in England and Germany”, specifies Charles Marion, the president of the association “Le Busca, notre quartier”.
An adventure that began in 1874
The entrepreneurial adventure began in 1874. Philip Bastide, who was offered several parakeets from Australia by a friend, decides to start breeding them. The success was such that he bought several pieces of land in the following years to operate new aviaries, first at 10, 13 and 19 avenue Frizac, then at 18 and 32 rue Saint-Luc, finally at 52, chemin du Busca (today avenue Segoffin). All of these sites, pompously called “garden of acclimatization” on business cards, indicate an area of more than one hectare.
A thriving and diverse business
At the beginning of the XXe century, his four children Felix, Adrien, Henri and Marie represent the case. The first, who wanted to reduce transport costs as much as possible, co-founded the “Compagnie générale de Navigation Fluviale Océan-Méditerranée” in January 1911.
At the same time, the company is diversifying. She creates, rue Saint-Luc, a workshop for grafting American vine plants to replace French vines ravaged by Phylloxera (vine disease caused by devastating aphids, coming from the eastern United States), which employs a hundred workers. Despite the vicissitudes linked to the Great War and the shortage of grain for the birds (the supply came from the banks of the Danube in Romania and from Morocco), the Bastide Frères House continue its development.
Fish farming at Mirail
During the 1920s and 1930s, while continuing the family breeding business, René, one of the grandsons, brilliantly launched into fish farming at Mirail, earning medals here and there at the various local agricultural competitions. At the same period, thePastor Instituteparticularly interested in the robustness of these Toulouse birds (and their resistance to diseases such as psittacosis, an infection transmitted by infected birds) obtains supplies from the Bastide Brothers to continue his experiments.
From aviaries to homes
Without anyone knowing the reason, the adventure ended in July 1939.
Nevertheless, the breeding of parakeets continued in Busca until the 1960s, when the last aviaries gave way to dwellings.
Matthew Arnal
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