The NEWBIE team of Business Incubator – Gotse Delchev completed the last 2 inspiring videos (out of 10 totally) for Bulgarian new entrants into farming at the end of the summer.
Although they are in different parts of Bulgaria, different small farms, with different products it is easy to find common ground between them – the inspiration to start their business comes from books, and the dedication to what they do is obvious at first glance.
Bistra Poyukliyska has a mountainous apiary above the village of Trigrad and combines the responsibilities of a veterinarian in the beautiful but hard to access mountain area with the production of high quality honey and pollen. She is brave, she had to anesthetize a bear to protect both the wild animal and the attacked farm. She is also sweet-spoken. She could speak for hours her story when she was a student she began to study bees, to admire the effective organization of a hive, the successive steps of a bee to build skills and contribute to the overall development of the swarm. Then, in her practice as a veterinarian, she decided that “examining and treating bees is the same as keeping them” and set about starting her own small farm. Well, she realized that it was not the same, but she continued to learn and develop, and she believed that each hive was a separate universe, each bee had a perfect system of communication.
The video could be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3R47KctQnQ
How do legal education and experience in the legal system help you deal with the complex, bureaucratic and often contradictory legislation in Bulgarian animal husbandry? The father and son Anton and Yordan Dimitrovi from the farm “Porco and Polo”, village of Verinsko tell about their journey of the small family poultry farm of free-range hens, started with 100 -120 hens, for the production of high quality eggs and broilers, for the orientation towards a “boutique” market yet, but with increasing demand for pasture products, their own brand and logo, even the used colors are protected. They tell about the overcome challenges such as fire and floods. And although the most difficult thing for a breeder is bureaucracy, they are gradually evolving and moving forward. The son is a student now. What he learns at the agricultural university he tries to apply in what he does in the farm. And working on a farm helps him to better understand learning.
The video could be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26o6dz8Z0kc
For both the farms personal contacts, sharing knowledge and experience in the professional community and forums are crucial. They are ready to share their knowledge and experience with any new entrant or established farmer who needs it.
