The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: ellied on September 23, 2010, 06:45:30 pm
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Hi, just joined here as I've been running a part time smallholding and stud on a very haphazard basis for years but am finally leaving the day job next week and need the land to be a little more sustaining than a weekend hobby now so will be looking for lots of information on how to do better!
Luckily I have a mature orchard overflowing with plums and apples, and I have built up 4 veg beds in there over the past 5-6 years so have a load of beans of various types, herbs, salad leaves etc quite reliably and have tried onions, leeks, beetroot, brassicas and various other things at different points, tho I'm not terribly good with brassicas..
This year I have grown sweetcorn for the first time and there are cobs which I am amazed at, but I'm not sure entirely when/how to harvest so am planning to pick one and have a look before I wreck my unexpected success!
I have a cupboard full of plum jam, chutney and pickled cabbage from previous years and a freezer and a half full of rhubarb and soup and such, all the easy things, but I'm hoping to get some ideas of things to do with them that won't tax my brain too much but give me a little variety.
I'm vegetarian so would love chickens for egg production but am amazed at the price of hen houses as they make "free" eggs pretty expensive as far as I can see! And I'd like a few sheep (I love coloured breeds particularly Shetlands but am beside a main road so don't want a wandering breed, just very easy to do docile pet types to keep the grass tidy after the ponies).
Well that's me, I look forward to all the wisdom of experienced smallholders on here.
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Welcoem from Fife :wave:
good luck with your project, hope everything goes well
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Hello and welcome from North Yorkshire 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
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Welcoem from Fife :wave:
good luck with your project, hope everything goes well
I'm in Fife too, thanks :)
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Hello and welcome from North Yorkshire 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
Aha, and that is where I was born, tho only before pre 1974 boundaries ::)
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its not difficult to sort out a budget hen house that will last for years if you can use a screwdriver you can probably sort one out in a day for £150 and it will house many chickens for many years.
hi and welcome from warwickshire
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Hi and welcome from North Yorkshire. :wave:
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Welcome from the middle of Scotland - buy a garden shed from a diy store for your chooks - £100!
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Hi from windy Carnoustie :wave:
Coloured Ryelands - loveliest sheep you'll get IMHO. Non-escapee - if they do they only go as far as the next patch of grass.
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Hi and welcome from the Scottish Borders :wave: I have shetlands and yes they do escape if your fences are not secure but with good fencing they are fine.
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Hi, can I put a good word in for Shetlands - mine have (so far) not escaped, and will stay happily behind even not so good fences... although today I brought back my tup ans his wether friends, as someone had put some females into the field next to him... and the fences are quite bad and its not my field anyway... just thought they would be able to tell if their Jacob girls were popping shetland type tails next spring...
Funny thing though, when I called them (with a bucket of food) the sheep next field also decided to come and ran alongside the fence...
So a good fence of sheep netting with electric top wire (preferably) will be ok next to a road... as long as no cars crash into it... and if you already keep horses on it you should be fine.
If you don't plan to eat your sheep/lambs you might just want to have a bunch of wethers for keeping the grass short?
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Hello and welcome, fellow veggie!! Don't think there's many of us on this site at the moment. Fresh eggs are great, but I know what you mean when it comes to the price of the hen houses. We have two. One purchased second hand for £50 out of the paper and another small new one which we picked up for a bargain price off ebay, which OH has adapted into a much bigger shed by paneling in the attached run with the remains of an old garden shed. No point in buying anything too posh. If its weather proof and fox proof and can be cleaned out easily it will do. The chickens don't mind what it looks like. When I purchased some ex-batts a few years ago, they were being kept in a small garden shed with perches added. Look forward to hearing your progress on the smallholding.
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hello and welcome :wave:
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Hello and welcome,
Its possible to put up a hen house yourself, made from bits and pieces. Pallets are great for building projects.
Good luck!
Beth
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Welcome from herefordshire :wave:
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:wave:Hi from clacks
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Wow thanks for all that, I'll keep my eyes open for a garden shed but have sourced a possible henhouse online for £160-180 ready made - if I could find the link again I'd post it to see if anyone has tried one but I didn't bookmark it ::)
Coloured Ryelands I've not come across, I do love Shetlands and 2 of the paddocks have elec top wire round 3 of 4 fences excluding the garden boundary, but the one onto the main road is elec top wire and a wall under but no ryelock, and the other 2 have 2 wire lines and none respectively tho they are fully ryelock fenced.
I will no doubt let you know how I get on once I really get going.. I was hoping to move house at this point but of course now I've no salary I can't get a mortgage and may have difficulty remortgaging/repaying the place I have to raise capital against the equity, tho I can afford repayments at the current rate/level..
Ah well, have to start with what I got and make the most of the benefits, like the orchard..
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I dont think Shetlands are as bad next to a road escaping wise as they tend to escape into fields with more grass, tarmac not so tempting. Or at least thats been my experience to date, Ive learned to move my Shetlands before they start to complain about the meal sizes....
If you are in a gentle climate then a more lowland breed might be less likely to roam. But if you are in rough or exposed ground then Shetlands would be a good option.
And they taste delicious :-))
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Hello and welcome from North Yorkshire 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
Aha, and that is where I was born, tho only before pre 1974 boundaries ::)
I'm not an original Yorkie. :) Was born in Oldham. Lancashire lad originally. Been up here for around ten years & love it 8) 8) 8) 8)
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Good luck with your venture. I too was surprised at how expensive it would be to get a hen house, I think Im going to adapt a bit of my existing shed. I have lots of pallets and wood and am quite into DIY, will let you know how I get on! Highlands are lovely, know quite a lot of folk who keep them,
Jane :)
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Good luck and welcome from Fife
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I bought a pre owned shed and loved the fact that I can clean it easily, I also have a hen hut that I do use but mine is hard to clean, I joined it onto a home made run that has stood the test of time. Anyway, I think make do and mend can be f un, the main problem is transporting stuff like sheds!!! keep us posted!
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Where abouts in fife are you?
I am stay in the middle of the triangle Cupar St.Andrews
Leven
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Hi & welcome from another Fifer, nr St.Andrews :wave: :cat: :dog: :chook:
There was a post I read on here today in Poultry about hen coops with a link to website. thought they looked very good value, one was only £99, you might want to check that out.
If it all gets too much & you need a holiday (?what's a holiday??) check out my website ;)
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Where abouts in fife are you?
I am stay in the middle of the triangle Cupar St.Andrews
Leven
t'other side of Cupar - my triangle would be Newburgh/Muchty/Cupar ;)
Geebee that was my post - am thinking about one of the off the ground ones with a pen attached but cheaper range as a first attempt. I have a poultry net of about 50m to extend the run and if I put it in the middle of the orchard I can rearrange the net to get most bits of it weeded over a period of time before having to move the house.. and if I can't move it myself then I'm delighted to find a few Fife/Clacks/P&K members on here tho they may not be delighted to get invited to help shift it! ;D
As for a holiday, if someone wants to visit a self catering but not posh enough to be marketable place in North Fife for a couple of weeks (or a month!) and is willing/able to take on both animal care and veg tending... then I would love to go away :D
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Where abouts in fife are you?
I am stay in the middle of the triangle Cupar St.Andrews
Leven
t'other side of Cupar - my triangle would be Newburgh/Muchty/Cupar ;)
Geebee that was my post - am thinking about one of the off the ground ones with a pen attached but cheaper range as a first attempt. I have a poultry net of about 50m to extend the run and if I put it in the middle of the orchard I can rearrange the net to get most bits of it weeded over a period of time before having to move the house.. and if I can't move it myself then I'm delighted to find a few Fife/Clacks/P&K members on here tho they may not be delighted to get invited to help shift it! ;D
As for a holiday, if someone wants to visit a self catering but not posh enough to be marketable place in North Fife for a couple of weeks (or a month!) and is willing/able to take on both animal care and veg tending... then I would love to go away :D
Yes just noticed that was your own post ::)!
I'm sure you'd get a few helpers when you need to move your netting evryone on here seems very friendly & helpful.
If you were seriously i wanting to get away I would certainly do it...for a fee! tho not possible till next year. On here you might find someone who'd do it for free, a change is as good as a rest they say!
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any joy with a hen house yet www.woodlandproductsfife.com have a look!
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No joy so far and with winter coming in I decided to wait til spring..
Actually at the moment I feel like giving up, selling off all the animals and spending winter somewhere warm, Bali perhaps ::) but no doubt I'll forget all this when things start growing green again ;)
Your henhouses look good but there are no prices mentioned so I tend to assume it's beyond my range ;)
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hi and welcome from moray, we made a temp hen house out off a potato box we put a pitched roof on it and the hens love it :wave: :wave:
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Welcome on here, Ellie! Jane told me that it is actually you ;D ;D
I would ask on freecycle for a hen house or you can convert any old shed. If you've ever been to Whinnibank Cat Sanctuary you know I really mean any old shed! There are some lovely post on here from quite some time ago, showing home made nesting boxes. Have you considered ducks? As much as I love my chooks the ducks are my favourites - sorry chooks :chook: - and easy to keep, they also seem less delicate in their health. :&>
Ellie, would you want to come over maybe on Boxing day for coffee and cake? Christmas might not mean much spiritually for us but it is family and friend time and quite sad to be all alone. I won't be able to give you your massage then because my mum is going to sleep in the treatment/practice room. Sure we will find a good day eventually.
Love, Kerstin
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Hi and welcome and the best of luck from the bigchicken, local yellow paper or Scot adds for your chook hut seen them as low as £30 for a 6x4 I also have Shetlands and have a few spare wedders that I could let you have for free my only stipulation is they don't go for meat but you are a veggie so that should be OK They are OK with fences and have not jumped out. I have a field which also borders the road with a stone dyke and a single strand of barber wire had no escapees don't like the road much I think. Could also help you out with layers. I am also in Fife.
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where abouts are you? and what kind of money you looking to pay?
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Potato box - ingenious! If I can get the motivation going again I'll see what I can find on freecycle in the way of huts etc in spring.
Kerstin, I'd no idea you were on here or that Jane had connection on here either :o Coffee and cake is about my favourite thing to do if the roads are ok, has to be daylight tho, let me know where you are (you have my and let's get a date arranged. Don't worry about the massage (well I'd definitely be up for one sometime but no pressure on you at all please!). I have a table here if you wanted to try my cafetiere at some point on a return visit ;)
Sadly tho I love ducks I'm not keen on duck eggs, dad loved them but they were too strong for me and put me right off.
BC I am looking forward to meeting you in a couple of weeks with your chainsaw and hope you have ropes/ladders etc as I have one single aluminium ladder tall enough but nothing safe to saw from. I'm not a great cook and veggie too which can be sacrilege amongst farmers and smallholders ;) but I can do soups, baked tatties, quiches and the like or simple pasta things and as for a blether, you may need to be careful what you ask for as I barely see people from one week to the next and can be a wee bit of a motormouth when I do ::) ;D
Might well take the wethers too if you're serious, but will have to get through winter and sell some of these ponies first now as 16 of them on 10 acres through winter (snow or mud ::) ) is too overstocked to want more livestock on there just now and I haven't found any alternative land to lease when I lose the hill in 3 weeks or less :( I definitely wouldn't be eating them but if I couldn't manage then I might offer them back or pass them on if that's ok with you, I'd hate to make a mess of their lives or cause their deaths through ignorance or putting too many animals in too small a space and something getting injured :-\
My goodness, this forum I found accidentally has really proved to be a pleasant surprise in so many ways, thanks :D :wave:
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Hi what hight are the trees so I can bring ropes etc. Veggie is great with me,
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oh, I just asked Jane if you have horses and could be on this forum - it's a small world! All I knew was that you live around here somewhere!
I agree - this is the best forum I've come across! Although there are members from all over the world, it is a brilliant local community, too, and I've made so many new friends in the area (thanks Dan and Rosemary). We must plan another get together in the spring, a topic for another thread ;D
Looking forward to having you round soon, Ellie. Weather permitting we can keep Boxing day on the menu?
;D :&>