Although around 10,000 specimens are raised annually at Granja Torres, the tradition of the squid chicken, an emblematic bird of El Prat de Llobregat, is in danger. Beyond professional breeding, which is not without difficulties, there are very few producers left. The old farmhouses are disappearing and that image of women raising in the backyard the animal that the family will eat at Christmas is now a rare bird.
So much so that the City Council is devising a project to try to preserve the custom of raising blue-legged chickens. “It's something like sponsoring a pota blava,” defines the mayor, Lluís Mijoler.
Probably through a foundation, it is about individuals, companies, school groups or associations contributing to parenting. “Like urban gardens,” says the town's mayor, but with the help of experts. The physical space, of about 400 square meters, is now ready. The breeders association has an increasingly higher average age and “a replacement is needed.” “We cannot let it pass, the pota blava is our sign of identity,” reasons the mayor of El Prat.
The project, which they hope will begin in 2025, will be presented this weekend at the Fira Avícola, which reaches its 50th edition. Fifty celebrations of an exhibition that years ago stopped being a pota blava chicken contest to become the municipality's main winter festival.
Now it takes place in the renovated Ricarda farm, but the first precedent, although not in a format comparable to the current one, dates back to 1921 in the Plaza de la Vila, organized by the Mancomunitat de Catalunya. There were breaks, some sporadic editions and since 1975 it has been carried out uninterruptedly.
To commemorate the anniversary, in addition to an exhibition with information and photographs like the one that illustrates this report, the Association of Gastronomy and Tourism (AGT) of the Baix Llobregat has produced a documentary that collects the history and reflects on the future of the fair and the blue paw
