The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: pottsie on January 26, 2010, 12:03:38 pm
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Hi everyone,
just found the site and have already found some great tips! I got my place with 1.6 acres last year, started with no animals or pets, moving in from a town centre. I'm now up to 1 cat, 2 dogs, 2 ducks, 18 chickens, 2 goats and 2 sheep, but the goats and sheep are due to go soon. Most of my fruit and veg products have started ok, but i think thats due to stupid determination and good reading rather than skill. Still repairing the greenhouse after the wind picked it up and smashed all the glass? Probably going to look at pigs next (if i can persuade the wife, or the stork will bring them) but determined to know more about there keeping than i have with soe of the other animals ( jumping in with both feet, before looking!) If there is anyone out there in the Durham area who would like to share info, swap products, or even just tell a beginner what he is doing wrong please reply.
Thanks Rob
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Hi and welcome! Sounds like you're having a lot of fun - you'll get lots of help here - we're a very friendly bunch!
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Hello and welcome Rob. :)
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Hi welcome, if you can read through all the postings in the pig section here, and read Andy Case's Starting with Pigs and Rare Breed Pig Keeping edited by Richard Lutwyche. (Or I could lend you Hilary who "wrote the books on pig keeping and is an acknowledged expert :pig: :pig: :pig:)
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hello and welcome.
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Hi Rob, why you getting rid of the sheep and goats?
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Thanks for the welcome, i have checked the article about the pigs and it helped a lot, think i've managed to get some time with a local rare breeds farmer who is going to sell me a couple and hopefullly keep me right after, the goats and sheep are going for the buthchers so looking forward to my first self reared animals.
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What is Goat meat like ??? :goat:
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Hello and welcome, lovely place is Hamsterley. We used to live in Co Durham but moved abroad to start a new life on a smallhollding.
Hope you find all the info you need here.
Goat's meat is lovely and eaten quite often here in Bulgaria.
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Helllllllllllllllloooooooooo and welcome :D Goat meat is yummy :P
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Hi Rob..good to hear from you and welcome. You're not tooo far away from us, we're in Prudhoe, Tynedale area and are in the process of starting up and are looking at getting our first pigs and chickens soon but concentrating on getting the polytunnel up first and some crops in the ground. Having said that I fancy getting some pigs fairly soon to help clear the ground where we've got loads of scrub/young woodland. Be interesting to hear how you get on and like you say share info and any experiences. We're thinking of booking onto a pig course before we get going and was wondering about the course at Yearle Tamworths further up into Northumberland.
keep us up with how things are going.
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Hi all thanks for the replys, well i got introduced to goat meat a couple of years ago the wife is originally from India so when i was eating mutton i found out it was actually goat. Its really tastey and especially tastes nice in a curry. These are my first goats so looking forward to getting to eat them. Had a bit of a problem this week though, my goats got over my new fencing (now i see what people meen about keeping them in) and it looks like they have eaten something which made them ill. Had the vet out on friday and they he gave them a shot of pain killer and some b vit which i've had to inject over the weekend. I now have one goat who is getting its cheekiness back and one who is still a bit sad with it self, but looking better! I'm hopeing that he is going to pick up even more over the next couple of days, he was eating a bit of sugarbeat and drinking well last night so things are looking up.
Thanks Rob.
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Hi Micko,
I thought i was going to be growing orientated at first but due to other things didn't get started with the planting till late last year, still managed to get loads out and still eating potatoes, garlic, onions, carrots, beetroot, leeks, cabbage and quite a few other bits and bobs so did alright in the end. My main problem was i didn't get my pollytunnel or greenhouse up, when i eventually got the greeenhouse up and some of the glass in we had a really bad storm which picked it up and moved it a few feet, smashing all the glass, even though it was attached to a concrete base? i'm now looking at attachin the base to the paving slab base i put in. Had a look at the Yearle Tamworth pig course but unfortunately i'm working that wekend so will have to wait for a new one, it does sound perfect for what i need though.
Thanks Rob.
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Should get yourself booked on the Yearle course Rob. Just been on it this weekend and was great. Loads of really good advice and some hands on with injecting some poor little ginger piglets.
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Your just trying to make me jealous Micko, really fancied the course but as usual work stops play, i've even looked at the next course in may but can't get the time of? Looks like i will do it the hard way again read, read again and if i have any probs speak to the experienced, to be fair it's worked ok up to now, but i will do it the easy way one year? Looks like ginger pigs coming next week (Yipee)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rob ;D.
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Lucky buggers!!! Can't wait to get some....where you getting them from??
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Looks like ginger pigs coming next week (Yipee)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rob ;D.
:pig: :pig: Congratulations :pig: :pig:
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The pigs (Tamworths) eventually turned up two weeks ago, the wife thought it was funny that they sounded like sheep, that was until she found out that an old couple who let me do a couple of days work on the farm, had dropped of two sheep (for my hard work) for me as well as the pigs. The pigs are no bother, wish i had them sooner. Been working with a local bee keeper and getting my hive soon, at least this time i've had some training first.
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Alright Rob...how's things going? Hope the Tamworths are settling in OK. We're getting 4 possibly this weekend to add to our collection of 2 tam/Oxford crosses, 4 Lops and 3 Oxfords. Going to try getting hold of some boars to start breeding soon as well which we can't wait for.
The gingers dead mischevious then?? Our tam/oxford crosses are smashing and no bother but will be taking the trip before too long....not looking forward to that.
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Micko, now is the time to start to desensitive yourself for the event, start looking at them with a view to what you will do with the carcasses. Are the hams big enough for your needs, how much bacon will they produce, and weather permitting which bits are you going to barbeque after the butchering? It does help honestly.
Not that it is ever easy, but then you wouldnt be a caring smallholder if it was :D
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Hi Micko, i can't believe you have managed to get so many pigs already, i bet your looking forward to the meat if not the experience, it only makes you a decent person really. I managed to get the Tamworths for £40 in the end so give me a shout if your paying more they are good breeders i get them from. Did you manage to get the polly tunel up? i put up my greenhouse which was then picked up and the glass smashed in a storm, looking for plastic sheets now. Managed to get loads of other stuff in though, the dumpy bags have worked well again.
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It's not me you must understand Hilarysmum....its the Mrs!
Rob...we're getting the Tams from Sarah Dodds at Yearle (castrated males) but it will definitely be hard to see the current ones go. Hard not to get attached to them and their ways. After all these months the polytunnel is just about up...only now needs the poly putting over and of course we've done very well to miss the season so will no doubt use some of it for storage for the time being. Looks an impressive structure though and good and secure (shouldn't speak too soon!). How have used the dumpy bags cos we've got tons of them through our landscape business (been hoarding as much junk as I can)?
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It's not me you must understand Hilarysmum....its the Mrs!
Thats what my OH says as well :D
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Hi and welcome Pottsie. I'm over in Cumbria, not really a smallholder but gardener with chickens looking to get pigs if i can persuade the farmer out the back to part with a little bit of land. Keep us informed how you get on with the pigs.
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I have a public footpath that skirts my back paddock so i've used the dumpy bags as a border, filled them with a manure compost mix and they couldn't have worked much better, i've got everything from potatoes to salad to garlic to parsnips in again this year. They work so well that i put 12 in last year and i've now started filling the gaps. I have been warned that they only last a few years but they have all been going a year and a half now with no probs. The pigs love the perpetual spinach and chard which i planted last year and have swamped some of the bags.
Rob. ;D
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Good idea with the dumpy ags Rob. Due to the mad growth of weeds at our place reckon I'm going to cut them up and use them as a weed membrane....see how it works anyway.
Haven't been able to get a good enough connection to get onto the forum for ages as we're living in our caravan on the land here in Prudhoe and reception is an absolute disaster. Reckon we're going to have to go down the line of the new satellite broadband type of thing....but with the added complication of only having a 12v supply.
The new Tamworths from Yearle are great so far....except we got lasses instead! Not complaining as we may keep 1 or 2 for breeding....so may come back to you Rob about where you got yours from as we'll possibily need a boar. Also looking at the possibility of some large blacks but funds are getting tight and getting knackered building new arks each time...and then there's the fencing so drive in.....great fun.
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Hi Micko,
Back to me and my recycling, instead of buying a pig arc i spoke to the local guy who comes out and fits new oil tanks when the old ones are leaking. The old types that are getting replaced are single skin and are made from exactly the same thick plastic as the field shelters you buy (about £400 pound worth), he dropped me three off for free and i gave him a bottle of whisky seemed like a fair swap? It only took a bit of work with a jigsaw and a power wash and it is perfect. Good luck with the internet!