The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: harefarm on January 29, 2013, 07:53:25 pm
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Hi. Took the first steps toward our dream a few months ago and bought a smallholding, something we have wanted to do for years. Going mainly down the poultry route with maybe a couple of pigs at a later stage. Our goal is to become fairly self sufficient. Any advice is welcome. :excited:
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Hello and welcome from Carnoustie :wave:
Our aim is to produce as much of our food as possible and sell the surplus. Have a read through the articles on the website for our experiences :)
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Hi there :wave: Welcome to TAS :)
Wherabouts in Hampshire are you?
Jess
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:wave: Hi and welcome from Shropshire. I'm a back garden smallholderwith goats, veg beds and fruit trees.
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Thank you for your comments. I have looked into a few things using the Acciental Smallholder website and found it really helpful. I look forward to looking through everything on the forum.
We are on the edge of Winchester.
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Welcome! I'm not very far ahead of you having moved in last May but we've already got the fruit and veg well under way as well as the chickens, ducks and geese. Bees are coming the in the spring. Not yet up to pigs (who would destroy my beautiful grass) or sheep (who seem to need a little more close attention than I have time to give at the moment).
We've got family and friends down your way - in fact we'll be over near you this weekend. And if you do think about geese, we got our pair of West of England geese from some lovely breeders in the New Forest. They're lovely, lovely geese and very rare so worth breeding (although quite slow growing so not sure they'd be great for just growing on for meat). Brilliant for grass control though.
Hester (in Kent)
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Hi Hester
Yes we have already contacted the man about the West of England geese. We are planning on a dozen or so, some for eggs and a pair or trio for breeding.
Just need to sort the ducks which I have heard mixed things about. I am looking at Khaki Campbells as people in the local village really want duck eggs.
I have breed a few quail in my old place and that is something else I will be doing. How I would love to have them free range as well, but I personally don't think it is worth the risk. I may just make sure the cages are the right size for me to lift out onto the grass on nice days. The will still have plenty of space.
The locals have asked me to think about turkeys aswell.
It looks as though I will have a real mix here but I am looking forward to it with all the different types and temperaments.
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Hi from just down the road.. :wave:
The goose person....is that the one near Ringwood?
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Hi from just down the road.. :wave:
The goose person....is that the one near Ringwood?
No he is the other side of Dorset
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Ah - there's a lady just outside Ringwood who breeds them.
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Hi there from Worcestershire :wave: Good luck with everything :fc:
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Thank you all for your kind replies. Lots of things to sort out before actually ordering the first lot of birds.
Just a quick question. I don't know if I should put it in this post but someone suggested producing turkey eggs to sell off the gate. Does anyone have any experience of this and how much would you charge?
Thanks again
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Hello and welcome from durham :wave:
Still dreaming about owning somewhere we can have more than a couple of hens, fruit and veg. It sounds like you are well known already with locals so a good start for any gate selling :thumbsup:
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I've never even thought about buying Turkey eggs but it would certainly be something a bit different...try it and see?
SteveHants, the lady outside Ringwood is the breeder I got my geese from. Sue Chase (and Geoff).
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I'm not altogether sure Turkeys lay that many eggs....
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Thank you for your replies. It was just something someone said as they were passing. I am not convinced it would be a profitable way to go. But the locals definitely want turkeys for christmas!
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Hi Harefarm and welcome.
We set off with the same plan as you just 2 years ago.
Although I had an allotement in the UK I had no skills and little knowledge about keeping animals etc. This site is a great help and gave me confidence to take things on.
We are now pretty much suffiecient in food and the real challenge is preserving, storing and processing all we produce. We freeze our pork, ducks and rabbits and are dry curing and smoking too. Fruit and root veg is in the store and we sedate ourselves with our own cider. Felling trees for firewood at the moment ( snow permitting)
Good luck and hope you notch up the new skills and get as much help from reading others exploits as I did. Cheers from the Limousin France
Martin
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Hi Harefarm
I'm from Hants too Down on south coast in Lymington :wave: