[Ideation]

Hey,

My name is Jai, I live in rural South Wales. I grew up around sheep, with my folks running a small herd, of about 100 ewes. I now work as a game keeper, looking after a few thousand pheasant and partridge. I've always lived partly off the land, with a good veg garden, a couple of pigs, few chickens, and lots of wild game and fish (curtesy of my ferrets, dogs and rod). I've recently bought a few acres of rough ground, that borders the place that I keeper, and am starting to turn it into a bit of a model, eco, small holding (at least that's the plan). At the moment, i'm just clearing the ground with pigs, and starting to do the fencing and make space for a barn to go up.

This site has been handy over the years and so thought I would finally join.

 

[Brucklay]

Hi Jai - sounds great - good luck with all your plans and I'll look forward to reading about them 

[bigchicken]

Sounds like you have it sorted welcome from the bigchicken up here in Fife.

[Ideation]

Cheers both!

Spent five happy years in Scotland. I hope i'll live there again in the future  Beautiful country 

[Lesley Silvester]

  and welcome from a back garden smallholder in Shropshire.

[Ideation]

Cheers!

Another nice part of the world! I do a fair amount of ferreting etc around that area.

I'm planning on a couple of meat goats in the not too distant future, so maybe i'll be picking your brains!

[Daisys Mum]

Hi and welcome from the Scottish Borders.

[Bionic]

Hi Jai and welcome to the forum from a very wet Carmarthenshire 

[Rosemary]

Hello and welcome from Carnoustie 

[kelly58]

Hi from Caithness 

[Somewhere_by_the_river]

Hello from Carmarthenshire 

Interesting to hear about the game side of things, OH will be particularly interested. We've got 2 Japanese green pheasants (not for release) with plans on rearing more game birds (amongst other things). No game birds around here at the mo, it's odd not having them around. Are they English or French partridge you have?

[Ideation]

Hello There!

We mainly rear and release French Red legs, but I have a keen interest in the Grey (English) from a conservation stand point, they are fantastic native birds, like the English grouse. At the moment i like game birds. . . . as i'm pretty well rested, but come July, i'm out at about 4.30 am for the start of my rounds, and am coming in from my evening round as it's getting dark around 9-10 pm . . . . . . . seven days a week! Haha. So then my enthusiasm for them begins to wane somewhat!

I'm actually planning to have a bit of an experiment with some ornimental game birds myself.

[Somewhere_by_the_river]

We raised and released Greys where we used to live, but having moved here last July didn't get chance to do anything game bird wise last year. Not sure where in South Wales you are, but PM me if you'd like (and have time, from what you say as we head towards the 'active' season!) - OH is fanatical about pheasants and we both love grouse, so we'd certainly have lots to talk about. You'd be welcome to see the Japanese greens, then hen looks like she might lay soon too...

[Steph Hen]

Another welcome from angus. Used to keep ferrets, but not just at the moment.