The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: bloomer on August 06, 2013, 04:10:21 pm
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I have been to visit Darkbrowneggs and have lots of beautiful chicks that are coming to scotland, if you ordered them I'll be in touch tomorrow to arrange delivery!
Fleecewife if you see this expect a call about 8 to come meet me to collect yours!!!
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Bloomer, I would love to see your car full of the chicks :)
I am sure everyone will love what you have for them.
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Brilliant Bloomer - we'll be there :chook: :chook: :chook: :chook: :excited:
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Great news. Keeping my fingers crossed too ;D
Wishing you a safe and not too noisy journey :sunshine:
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Great news. Keeping my fingers crossed too ;D
Wishing you a safe and not too noisy journey :sunshine:
What? with four kids and David in the car? What a hope Natalie has of it being quiet! :roflanim:
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I once gave a young cockerel to friends you took it back from Scotland to the south-east coast of England in a box. It crowed all the way back and they were getting funny looks from other drivers. :roflanim:
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I once gave a young cockerel to friends you took it back from Scotland to the south-east coast of England in a box. It crowed all the way back and they were getting funny looks from other drivers. :roflanim:
Try a goat in season, if you have to stop at a petrol station! Especially if you are using a white van for your goat-travel....
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Safe journey
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I met up with Bloomer at Abington services on the M74. The car was very well packed with children and chicks ;D
We are now the proud owners of four little chicks, which are safely tucked under the broody, who is purring to them. She doesn't seem to have noticed that her new brood appeared out of thin air, as there were no eggs under her ::)
Thank you thank you thank you Bloomer - and the whole family :wave:
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All stock safely in scotland small chicks travel well in cat carriers!
Need sleep now, very long day!!!
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I'm glad you have all got home safely after your epic journey :thumbsup:
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Glad you are all tucked up safely at home :thumbsup: well done bloomer family :sunshine:
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:excited: :excited: :excited: :excited: :excited:
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Nice to meet you all yesterday. What a lovely family.
Good luck with the chooks, hope I have weeded out as many cockerels as possible but it is difficult with the Marans and also most folk are saying it is a cockerel year, but fingers crossed for you all :fc:
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Just fantastic we need this stock for next spring and have dark brown eggs for sale that will make the trip worth while glad all went well.
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they are all in the big grass pen this morning (after all escaping in my kitchen and running riot this morning) they took one look at the grass and ran to the safety of their house!!!
the CL boy we brought up is a bit bigger than the chicks i guess 4-6 weeks older and he's trying to shepherd 20 crazy chicks its very cute to watch!!!
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Our broody is teaching her chicks how to peck at food.....sshh...I think they know already :D
Thank you darkbrowneggs for this great opportunity to get some of your stock to Scotland. I now have two black marans and two CL so I'm delighted. I hope your sexing worked :chook: I hope too that the house sale and your road trip go successfully.
Bloomer - it sounds as if that's a very motherly cockerel there ;D or a chick with responsibilities beyond his years :tired:
(sorry about the big type - don't know where that came from and can't change it ??? )
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If HE really is a HE he is very very cute. He was quite perturbed when teh chicks all went through the cage bars and round to the back of the pen :excited:.
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HE ;) is happily penned up with them and showing them how to eat and drink - like a good big brother! - He would normally have been put in a different pen due to his size but they all seem rather attached and he seems quite carefull and not bullying them
Bloomer thanks for your efforts and nice to meet you today
DBE - thanks also for keeping them for the scottish run
cheers
BL
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Sorry, I missed you BL, and David didn't catch me early enough to take the Maran cockerels over. He will be here Friday if you are available. I'm not confident they are all males anyway - wish Stu could come and have a look They are all welcome to stay anyway till they start crowing or David needs the rat cage whichever is sooner.
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Hi Doganjo is the time in the pm okay for friday evening?
thanks BL
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Afternoon is fine, I think David is coming over in the morning. I want hens not cockerels so if by any chance you get a hen - I'd like to know I can swap it if there's a cockerel left, but I assume you'd feel the same? :eyelashes:
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No problem, i'm looking for a cockerel otherwise no chicks from the ones from bloomer, they certainly all looked like cockerels in the pictures but till i see them in the flesh im only 90% on that
Can hopefully sort you out with some free hatching eggs next year if there is no hens, if that sounds like a plan?
By pm in the last message i meant the time in the personal message which hopefully you got rather than pm - afternoon - apologies for the double meaning last message
I can see you on the map but can you PM me your postcode / address
thanks BL
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Isn't it lovely to put faces to names? :excited: Just met Big Light when he came to pick up a Maran cockerel and took two. He confirmed our suspicions that they are all males - sods law! :rant: However, the other three have homes promised (Fifesmallholder, Happy Hippy and Moregin) and Jack has offered me a hen next year in return, so with two of those cute babies from Sue to come in due course, I'll be at full strength, and the quail can have a pen all for themselves.
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In other news we lost 1 baby last night it was the smallest of the marans, guess it was a ll a bit much moving so far :-(
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Aww wee soul :'( :'( :'(
Who gets what now then - if there's a shortage of Marans, one will be fine with me and I can get one from Jack next year.
A very big big thank you to Sue (DARKBROWNEGGS) for all our chickbabies, and to Kevin and Elaine(Langfauld easycare) for my ever so cute quail girls.
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In other news we lost 1 baby last night it was the smallest of the marans, guess it was a ll a bit much moving so far :-(
Oh that's a shame :( One of our Maran chicks was a bit huddled and miserable when we got her home, but by morning a good warming under the broody had brought her back to life so we couldn't tell which one had been poorly. They all love their mum :thumbsup:
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The one we lost was looking fine yesterday but was by far the smallest, so who knows...
I have a plan Annie don't worry you will get yours :-)
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I suspect a breeding enclave being developed? :innocent:
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Hope they all do well for all the new keepers up there and that there are lots of Marans girls in the batch.
That little CL male sounds a good one, remember not to make too much of a pet of him as once the hormones kick in properly sometimes the Leghorn in their ancestry comes out and they can be overprotective of their females.
If he does get a bit uppity and you take a firm stance at the beginning he should be fine, and I have specifically been trying to breed for more even tempered males, but its better to be forewarned than end up with a cockerel you can't get in the pen with.
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Thanks DBE will keep him in check
Cheers BL
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Hope he's Ok with the Maran boy.
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Kept them separate just now whilst settling in i will probably run them together when they are older
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If you are intending to run them together with hens then I would put the two cockerels in together now. I have found boys reared together will normally be fine when put with a group of girls, but if they have not been penned together they can fight. Also putting them in together when they are both strange to the place works better than if one has established a territory. Obviously keep an eye that there is not serious bullying, but that is not normal when they are youngsters.
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Will do
just like to keep new lots brought in isolated for a week or 2 as Husbandary disease prevention ( not that i think any of them have diseases or are showing symtoms of same)
cheers
Bl
PS just seen you picture what a fabulous place
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Yes of course, isolation for a couple of weeks is always a good idea. Generally then I move the biggest into the smaller ones pen as it gives the smaller one a bit of "owners rights" or move them both into a new pen at the same time
This years batch of CL cockerels seem to be turning out very pleasant personalities so far.
Someone came last night for everything that was left, and can't collect till Sat morning, so to save work I thought I would just mix everything it together so some nearly grown CL boys went in with some just off heat chicks, and they were calling them all over for food and being really nice to them almost instantly.
I popped back up to the barns after an hour or so just to check all was calm and everyone was lying in a heap having a dust bath :) :) :)
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Very happy with him so far, i guess the proofs in him filling the eggs next spring
Hopefully the empty pens will not be too much of a shock for you come saturday night
Give us a shout if you do manage your tour of Scotland and you can see how they are getting on
:0)
cheers BL
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If Sue gets up here we will have a big TAS party in her honour! :excited:
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Im up for that are eney of you going to the growers next month .
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Sounds great - just waiting for the house to sell now, though its not really been advertised as yet. If anyone has any advice as the best place to advertise or contacts who might get me a bit of free publicity that would be great
I used the main big rooms for showrooms for my antique furniture and it all has commercial permission. I thought it would make a terrific wedding venue but there doesn't seem to be anywhere to advertise something like that.
It totals around 900 m2 so its pretty big downstairs, but less bedroom space though they are very pretty rooms. I want to take more photos and the camera batteries were flat so bought some new ones and have lost them. I am fairly certain I dropped them when I was putting some food in the freezer :o
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I reckon a high end estate agent who deals in country properties would be best if you want to maximise the price - it would cost more but I bet you would recoup that. You really need that if you are going to advertise nationwide - the people who would take this on will be few and far between but they will be waiting for somewhere like yours to come up
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Sorry missed your reply for some reason.
Yes I feel a nit wit for not thinking clearly when I was choosing an agent. I may have to change. I hate doing that sort of thing, but they are making a terrible job of everything at present. The photos were taken on a mobile phone, and the disability scooter I used was still parked in front of the door, and I moved it and presumed they had taken another photo, but no, there it was in full view on the main picture of the house....... !!!!
I have been asking everyone who calls what they think of the place etc, and one of the suggestions was that it might be worth more as a residential than part commercial part residential, and that I should get a planning consultant to sort things out. Not really certain as to how to proceed with this one
Any thoughts anyone?
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If you have stables and paddocks I see no reason to change the description, any new owners may wish to retain a business side - you could however investigate the costs and implications of changing to residential only. I believe Planning Consultants are expensive but they may do the same as lawyers and give the first half hour free. Certainly worth contacting one.
And I would definitely ditch your estate agent - mobile phone photos are cheapskate work, regardless of whether they did them right or not - indicates a cheapskate organisation!
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I would find an estimate for the potential change of use and advertise it as it stands with that information for anyone that would want to go purely residential. Otherwise you could pay a fee and someone else buy and want to change it back..
Definitely change agent if they're not doing a good job, if phone photos are good enough then market it yourself with your own, you're paying thousands for a service you couldn't do better yourself.. not one you could have been twice as competent at with no training or expertise whatsoever!
Look at the agencies used for similar properties in your area - here it would be CKD Galbraith, Savills, Condies, Strutt & Parker, Hayes Macfarlane, Retties, Knight Frank, Bell Ingram.. a few others if it were more farm oriented but these all do equivalent and most are nationals I think, just don't know which aren't.
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Thanks - I will probably go with Knight Frank - I can't be bothered to get that many out as I think they are all pretty much the same when it comes down to it
I found out a couple of days ago that the guy who called originally has just sold out, so I shant feel that guilty about not going with them
I havent signed anything to say I would so I will just let things dift, get the photos organised, maybe speak to a planning consultant and then start again with KF
The guy who bought my car yesterday thought it was worth about 1.5 the house that is, not the car :D
So I may try putting it on high which gives me a chance to drop :fc:
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Your lovely property deserves really good marketing - Savills, Knight Frank, Symonds & Sampson for starters. They should do you a glossy brochure, and advertise in the weekend broadsheet papers and high quality magazines - Country Life and your County magazine. Also, if you don't feel like dealing with the visitors, they should do all the house viewings themselves. Make them work for their money ;)
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Hi,
As a quick note Knight Frank have some top people, if you ask them they will advise you, you don't need a separate planning consultant, Savills the same.
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I have had the local branch of KF out and will probably go with them if only for the reason they were the most pushy, but I deffo got the impression that the 1.5+vat commision did not include any extras, which would be suitbably (and heavily) charged for. To be fair it was them who gave me the idea of using a planning consultant, and via them that I have had some photos of the house taken - which I am holding out high hopes for - we will see. But as I arranged these myself they will be £150 and I am fairly certain the figures being bandied around wer £275 + so the are obviously not content with their 1.5 % of everything - not that I would think for one minute that any of the other agents are any different ::)
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not that I would think for one minute that any of the other agents are any different ::)
You'd be surprised - they DO actually differ a lot and it is worth haggling if you feel up to it.
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Feeling slightly under par just now - probably tooth, but if I feel a bit better perhaps I will try to haggle them down a bit on pricing.
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If you get percentage fee quotes from a few others by email that will help - just basic stuff, they don't need to see the property at that stage.
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Thanks - I might just do that. You can see by the amount of post I have made today that I am enjoying practicing on the new PC The radio mouse has arrived also. Just plugged in the little doopha at the side and it installed itself. I think maybe new technology has turned the corner :D
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Plug n play! :excited:
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Don't you just love it :thumbsup: