The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: wales01man on April 13, 2012, 11:53:12 pm
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I have this posted on other forums I live in the Bicester area of oOfordshire and are looking for a small plot of land and a building to keep and breed a few chickens.i cant afford much rent but i would be willing to offer my skills as a carpenter and general builder in lieu of payment.
I would if nothing is available be willing to help out on a small holding offering the same deal as now retired i have time on my hands if i could keep some of my own poultry,i have tried several forums but no luck as of yet although i have somme very good responses and encouragement.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Steve
Thanks for looking any offers will be looked at heres hoping
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Pity you don't live in Devon :( I would love someone to share my few acres with me.
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wales01man,
Sorry nothing to offer you in Oxfordshire but if you decide to come to Wales (sounds like it might be your roots) then I wuld be only too happy for you to use some land.
Sally
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Hello Bionic i did live in wales but moved i was in Llandysul tried this post there no luck i move here and get a reply from wales ?
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I'm amazed Wales01man. Thought you would be innundated with offers. Trade skills don't come cheap and you are offering them free simply to offset rent. Could do with you living nearby when we move to France!
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chrismahon
Had no offers in over 2 years i hear what they charge daywork nowadays i would be on a good earner if i was still in the game but that is no more ive retired earl and now look after my disabled wife but still have some spare time and the skills i will never lose i hope on my travels i have seen so many run down smallholdings and property with land i feel so frustrated.im sure somewhere near me there is someone needing what i offer in exchange for what i want ill keep on trying.Good luck in france
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same here....shame you're not in our neck of the woods....always plenty to do and plenty of scope
Good luck :thumbsup:
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Try on here, have a browse through what's available or post a wanted highlighting your barter I would have thought you will be snapped up!
http://www.spareground.co.uk/ (http://www.spareground.co.uk/)
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looked at spareground website most ads are for parking spaces i will keep looking and hoping something comes up
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Where abouts in France are you moving to, chrismahon? We are in the Dordogne...great place!!
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It look like id have more luck in france but id have to get up to early to feed the chickens
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I'm in France too and could really do with some help - I have loads of timber to replace a floor in the barn and want to put some ship-lap kind of thing on the wall above a utility room. I could offer free accommodation, wine and beer for a week plus all the eggs you can eat and probably a few duck meals!! near Limoge so cheap flights.
hope you find somewhere in your area for the chickens.
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mak, could you wait till the summer hols to get the work done??
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yes - why - fancy a trip?
I thought of doing that WOOFE thing when people come and help on smallholdings or farms.
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http://wwoof.org/ (http://wwoof.org/)
WWOOFers are great. Last year we had a French girl and a German couple. They worked really hard.
At the end of it DH was absolutely exhausted as he had to go out and work with them ;D ;D
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I always get my WOOfs wrong - WWOOF as you say Suzie.
I just think it a great idea - my daughter graduates in July and I have booked her in for some work with me and house sitting whilst we go to the UK for wedding, She will be looking for WWOOF after leaving us. That said I may book her in for some apple picking on the large orchards then get her to stick around to harvest all the walnuts and chestnuts - I'm sure there is a few quid we can make on the nuts or just feed them to the pigs again.
There is an idea- mail order walnuts for takers on the TAS ;D
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yes mak, i could be very interested in taking you up on that offer, im a qualified and time served chippy. pm me some more details of what you want doing and we'll sort something out. i could bring back some walnuts for tasers!
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Will do when the light fades - back to plasterboarding a ceiling ( by myself !! :o)
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make a couple of props!!
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.........could do with you living nearby when we move to France!
When and which part are you moving to?
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We're going for September, inbetween the Olympics. Renting in Soth Dordogne near Sarlat OhLaLa and taking our chickens with us. Being planned with military precision.
MAK and Mistryer must be near neighbours. Both near Limoge.
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Sarlat is about 240 Km from us ( 2.5 hours) so not far by French distances.
Hope you like eating duck Chris as nearly every menu has it there. Great place on summer nights with all the street theatre.
not long now for you - good luck with moving the chickens.
Martin
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Thanks Martin, but I don't think we will be eating out as our budget is tight until we draw the UK state pensions in 10 years time! Complex chicken move, but I won't bore you with the details.
So we'll have 10 years to buy a small place and rebuild it before we retire properly. I'd be quite happy just building chicken coops and filling them.
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Oh how i wish i could up sticks to france or somewhere so i can keep chickens but we are resigned to stay here will leave only in a box when time comes had the dream went to wales it all went tits up so back in england older poorer no wiser and less healthy good luck to all of you living the life you want ive tried and failed
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Dave, bring me back some walnuts please :) :)
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Walnuts - funny you should say that as I was thinking of investigating postal costs and offering a mail order service to the UK. I have few months to cost postage but last year we just fed the walnuts to the pigs ( horrible noise when they eat them).
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i found it nigh on impossible to buy english walnuts last christmas, im sure there would be a market for them, even if they are french!!!
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Oh how i wish i could up sticks to france or somewhere so i can keep chickens but we are resigned to stay here will leave only in a box when time comes had the dream went to wales it all went tits up so back in england older poorer no wiser and less healthy good luck to all of you living the life you want ive tried and failed
How very sad....what went wrong in Wales? Don't give up - perhaps there are other ways of doing what you want to do.
chismahon - Sarlat is about an hour from us, so that would make us neighbours, in French distance! If you enjoy making chicken coops, I'm sure you'd have a market for them round here. Lots of people keeping poultry and always on lookout for well made, reasonably priced housing. Glad you are able to make the move - really glad we did.
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Hi Mistryer. Everyone wants well made reasonably priced coops. Most people buy cheap and regret it 12 months later. But reasonably priced usually means too cheap for me as a well made coop with hand driven nails, pilot drilled screwed assembly, timber treated and carefully selected during assembly (no big knots or warped sections) and finished internally and externally to quality colours is too expensive for most. Perhaps I could do a self-paint budget range though ?
Perhaps we'll meet up when we get over there?
Wales01man, chin up and keep trying. These are changing and soon to be challenging times for all and tradesman skills will always survive. Tried horsey people? Loads of land hardly used and fences and sheds always needing fixing. Adverts in local feed suppliers or agri-merchants?
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thanks again to you all i will try ads in feed and agricultral places round here just need to draft an ad that says it all in a few sentences as for wales we went in 2000 started to set up poultry enterprise then foot and mouth came stopped all progress could not buy or sell very easy gave up and started a business online did well for 4 years sales rising until our suppliesr put prices to us up and sold themselfs online carried on hoping then borrowed to get a retail business growing well the recession came sales dropped by nearley 50% walked away from both with massive debts and got lovely smallholding repossed to top it all wife crippled in car accident both our healths tha=en failed managed to get social housing and eventually came back here with exchange getting life back now retired and wife on disability not much money but enough happy and with time on our hands and an ambition to raise chickens
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OMG....can't believe the crap life can throw sometimes!! How awful for you both! At least you still have each other, and just please please keep that dream of chickens - it WILL happen. Come on guys - someone must know of a bit of land somewhere!!
chrismahon - let me know when you are over. Have you a house and land already?
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Hi Wales01man, sorry to hear of past bad luck - everything crossed that you get what you desire soon. Have you tried landshare? http://www.landshare.net/listings/9321 (http://www.landshare.net/listings/9321)/ nothing listed in your area at mo, but you can put a request up there too. All the best to you and yours, Fi
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Thanks for support have posted on landshare and replied to offers but no replies unlike the forums like this where i get lots of replies and lots of support its always nice to know there are people who care in this country so full of im all right jacks who only care for themselves my feelings are we need to all get together as one
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That's a terrible tale Wales01Man. Get those adverts in the local stores.
Mistryer -renting initially. Very small 'gite' with plenty of storage space for all our stuff (artic full), 55acres mainly woodland, temporary area for all our chickens. Then will spend time looking to buy. Small place to rennovate with large barn and outbuildings and enough good land with water supply.
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......everyone wants well made reasonably priced coops. Most people buy cheap and regret it 12 months later. But reasonably priced usually means too cheap for me as a well made coop with hand driven nails, pilot drilled screwed assembly, timber treated and carefully selected during assembly (no big knots or warped sections) and finished internally and externally to quality colours is too expensive for most. Perhaps I could do a self-paint budget range though ?
One thing you must keep in mind re selling anything in France - no-one has any money! Cheap is the order of the day, very few will buy more expensive/better quality as they just don't have the funds. Plus you will need to register as a business if you intend to work for yourself - this means complicated French paperwork and high taxes.
:farmer:
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Renting good, as will give you chance to look at the area and make sure you are happy there, before you buy. Also, if you can, bring loads of materials from uk with you - coop construction materials are not cheap here!!
OhLaLa....agree no-one has much money to waste, everything has to be cost effective, but not easy as materials are not cheap here to start with. As for working here, it depends what you want to do. If you are only anticipating a modest income, selling a few coops and hens etc, and maybe doing some odd jobs here and there, it's not that complicated to register, and it's good to be on the system. You can't not register if you need to earn an income. It's more complicated for trades such as builders, carpenters, painters and decorators etc that are time served, as you have to provide documentation of time served, or serve appropriate time with professional person here. Costs and insurances are very high so needs a lot of thinking about.
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Sounds like I will be popping back over here quite often to get materials then Mistryer. Don't want to earn a living, just a few Euros here and there for luxuries like food and clothing! I'd like to register as a 'general semi-retired handyman'. Have my portfolio of varied work undertaken plus I am a qualified plumber (and Engineer). Hopefully that will be sufficient. Don't want too much hassle -sure there will be enough problems anyway. I'm trying to escape 'paid' work anyway. Think trading is the way to go. -'I'll build you a coop if you fix my van' type arrangement. Bit like Wales01man's plan, an exchange of skilled labour for use of a small piece of land.
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In that case, I'm sure you'll do ok here cm. We are registered to work here, but find swopsys are also very popular. It's a good arrangement if you are not in need of hard euros. See you soon!!
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Chris - although I don't work I agree with Ohlala and Mistryer registering for trade work is complicated and thereafter very competitive.it is very different in rural France - people live very close to the land. their homes are simple and their food rustic. There is not a lot of surplus money around here and people grow and breed their own or exchange for things - eg. wood for chickens.
From "location" on the map It looks like that Mistryer lives near us in the Limousin - The Dordogne near Sarlat is so VERY expensive. From what you say above there are plenty of fermettes in La Creuse that tick your boxes and these are probably amongst the cheapest in France. That said La Cruise population has fallen more than other areas and they have more elderly than other departments. So getting work would be tough even though there ar 8000 brits in the Limousin.
Swapping is definitely a great way to be part of the community and save ( make ) money.We give veg,fruit,meat,eggs to our neighbours and get wood,labour,sttraw, fruit CAKES etc in return. What goes around comes around. This can be worth a lot of money.
Just be a bit carefull Chris I am not sure that many will buy chicken sheds, rare breed eggs etc - rural life here is very different to that in the UK - the rich do not choose to live like a peasant here and a pig is a pig, chicken a chicken and a peasant a peasant - chickens and peoples homes are often cobbled together..
You are welcome to pop in on your way down to Sarlat.
BW martin
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Thanks Martin. Chicken coops and chickens are a hobby. They are all reasonable dual purpose Utility breeds which will keep us in meat and eggs forever -and they are very pretty as well. If we sell some, great. if I build the odd coop, great. If we do the odd job, great. We have no ambition beyond that. It will be fantastic to sit on our own doorstep and have a drink and a smoke without worrying about being attacked by an insanely jealous neighbour! I'll bore you with that story when I see you. Then we have the excitement of discovering a whole new culture and language. We won't be living near Sarlat for long, its just a rental that takes chickens. Plan to move about an hour South or South East into Lot, our first choice. Puts us closer to friends in Albi as well. Less work available, if any, but that's not why we are going. Can't afford to buy anything with land over here and this is our only chance to live with animals in a run-down shack of our choosing. There is no work over here either, I earned £68 last month, better than the month before when I earned nothing!
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wales01man - I'm so sorry to hear of the strife you've had. I've also been looking for somewhere to keep some of my chooks and, like you, have found nowhere. I've never known a lack of grazing/land as bad as it seems to be at the moment. I really hope you find somewhere soon as it gets very demoralising after a while.
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THANKS ALL OF YOU
Still searching now my 4 year old granson is becoming obssesed with chickens as well as trains he likes the things i like even wants to eat want i want hope find something ready made help i think
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Thanks to everyone who read or answered my post i would like some more help does anyone know of any other forums where i can put the post this forum has given the most response maybe by spreading the post around i might get a result
Thanks
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Do you have allotments near you? Some will allow poultry, some won't. Could post on www.poultrykeeperforum.com (http://www.poultrykeeperforum.com) . You might get someone, but there are not that many members and they don't have lots of land generally. Any nearby County Estates? They always need work doing and around here have walled gardens doing nothing. Could drive around and ask people. Ad in a Country Post Office -if there are any left!
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Chrismahon Have a post on thepoultryforum
Cannot see myself talking to lords of the manor round here
just about to start putting ads locally still listing where to place them
thanks for ideas every little helps as they say
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imho, lords of the manor are generally more than glad of the chance to offer some help. my life changed when i got the balls up to ask to rent some space from the local landed gentry, i now work for them, live in one of their houses and consider them friends.
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Wales01man, if you get any opportunity, lords of the manor or otherwise, just go for it. What have you got to lose? Loads more to win if you get lucky. Good luck
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Try your local allotment society they may have members who find their plot too much. If you have national trust local to you they sometimes have bits of land.
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Fowlman
I alreadyb have an allotmant veg only dont allow poultry mores the pity too public an area anyway nearby allotment that allows livestock is full and in area in general vacant plots are rare the sites i see have on livestock i need somewhere a bit secure will keep looking
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Oh ye sorry wales01man. ::) Had you been closer you could have put a few on my land.
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Hi W01man, Sorry for your woes but hang in there. I work for a housing association and we have a scheme where a tenant agrees to look after a garden for another tenant who cannot manage their garden. In suitable gardens hens are allowed but NOT cockerels - some of the old rural properties have huge gardens. It is all written up formally so both parties agree what can be done and it can be terminated by either party. Have a word with your housing officer and don't let them fob you off. Good luck :hshoe:
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I could not see my housing association doing anything like garden sharing enough hassle getting permission to build a shed 4 visits in all and 2 letters although your idea has giving me an idea when i advertise i might see if anyone with a large garden might want help up to now ive only thought of acricultral land or similar like allotments
thanks for the idea
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We too have help via HelpX...most workers are great but a bit short on skills so laboring jobs work well
Good job Ive got lots of muck to move!
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Try asking at the local day care centre. I lot of older folk now manage to stay in their own home with 'carers' visiting :-\ but looking after the garden is always a problem... :thumbsup:.
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Thanks Bramblecot just given me another idea when i advertise i shall offer help in exchange for use of part of a large garden up to now i thought only of agrucultral or similar places
Thanks for the idea
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Through a friend found a disused poultry shed looked hopeful then the let down land was sold for development for very large sum never mind but still looking and hoping
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Oh, what a shame but I am sure you will find something eventually. Good luck
Sally
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Still looking