The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: Clansman on February 04, 2014, 02:46:01 pm
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Well it looks like between myself and a couple of friends we will shortly be the owners of a few Kune Kune pigs! :thumbsup:
The plan is to eat them although between us we will have some proven breeding stock so keeping the options open on that for now.
One friend has a very large area of land which needs cleared and it looks like they will be put to use there first before being split and going to their new homes.
All very exciting ;D
Pics to follow as and when things start moving
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:thumbsup: We loved the KKs last year and have more ordered for this year. We had roast pork on Sunday and it was delicious :yum:
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I am picking up two castrated Kunes on Sunday from a lady who cant look after them anymore through illness.
There names a Marley and Humbug, they are 2 1/2. One black and white, one all black with red bits.
They are spoilt to bits and will continue to be so :hug: :pig: cant wait, counting the days :excited:
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Great stuff :thumbsup:
Be sure to join the BKKPS so you can register your stock and be kept up to date with all developments (and there will hopefully be a few now that I'm representing the Scottish BKKPS members ;)) Plus it's only £14 a year - great value :innocent:
Can't wait for the photo's :excited:
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Already have last week :thumbsup: the lady who has the Kunes told me about it . Seen your posts on there. :pig:
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Hi I bred Marley and Humbug, so glad they have found a new home!!! We still have Roxy the mum and their dad Boris was PTS a couple of weeks ago :'(
It was Roxys first litter if I remember right so I can send you lots of baby pics if you want :excited:
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Hi so sorry to hear about loosing Boris :hug: That would be lovely if you could send me pics, thank you :excited:
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no probs, will have a look for you
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Sorry for interupting your post :innocent: :)
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Fab, will watch with interest.
Quite fancy a couple myself, just need to persuade hubby :innocent: :fc:
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Good luck with them Clansman. If you still have the ducks they'll love dabbling in the wallow and getting all the worms out which will help entertain your porkers :fc:
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Still got them :)
4 of the 6 ducklings made it, three of them are ducks and have all started laying.
almost an egg a day each just now ;)
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CPH number arrived today! :thumbsup:
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:excited: :excited: :excited:
How long 'til the pigs arrive ?
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Waiting on a friend getting their CPH then we're good to go, they applied before us :thumbsup:
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::) Isn't that always the way of it !
If they've not heard anything by Monday it might be worth giving the office a phone - just in case it's waylaid.
Of course, you could always move them all onto your holding and in 3 weeks time move the ones who need to, to your friends (they're bound to have the CPH through by then) if you're really desperate to get them ;D (I know what it's like, I'm the most impatient person in the world :innocent:)
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Yeah us too! ;D
We could take them all at a push but there is 9 of them including a boar, 2 sows (mothers) and 6 piglets.
Four of the piglets (6 months) are castrated boys but two are girls and we don't really have another place to keep them split up.
If it needed doing we could manage but would rather wait till we can get them all at once and split them.
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Found another young boar locally!
Kune Kune OCD!! :thumbsup:
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Oh be warned....... they're completely addictive ;D :innocent:
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Thursday is the day! :thumbsup:
quick question re picking them up.
The two sows are running with 6 x 7 month piglets quite happily.
The boar is currently kept in the next pen so they do sniff and touch each other without getting full contact.
We plan to put the boar in with the sows at our place so should they be ok to put in the trailer all together or would it be worth making two trips?
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Unless you've got a dividing gate for the trailer I'd make two trips - safer for all concerned :thumbsup:
The younger pigs.......are any of them intact boars? If they are you need to separate them from the gilts asap, though it might already be too late :-\
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All four young boys are castrated, only the boar is intact. :thumbsup:
I think I've managed to borrow a large horse trailer with three partitions so I'm hoping this will let me do them in one trip, (the trip is a good two hours each way)
Boar in one partition, rest split between the other two?
I also had a look at some links after I posted this and regulations say sexually mature pigs of different sex must be kept separate for transportation?
Thats what I plan to do now anyway but is it law or just a recommendation?
Wouldn't fancy the boar getting jiggy with the ladies whilst i'm driving down the motorway!! :innocent:
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If we're transporting our boar it's only ever just him so I'm not 100% sure on whether it's an enforceable recommendation.......but it's not a good idea - he could try and mount them and get hurt, he could catch them with his tusks and they could get hurt, the sows could turn on him........whatever way you look at it - better for him to be on his own for the journey ;)
I'd keep sows together, young stock together and boar on his own - good luck with them and remember, plenty of hay on the ramp for loading (though kunekune normally just follow the bucket and don't give you too much of a runaround :innocent:
Ooooooh exciting :excited:
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They're here! :thumbsup:
on the advice of the previous owner we stuck them all together in the horse trailer and they were no bother whatsoever, everyone just laid down together when we got underway :thumbsup:
all nine trooped happily up the ramp in a line following a bucket of pellets and did the same again when unloading :thumbsup:
So easy this pig keeping, I don't know what all the fuss is about! :innocent: (we were very lucky, I know!)
We did however end up with all nine of them when a last minute "intervention" by our friend's wife changed his pig keeping plans! ::)
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I always think once you've had kunekunes you're wasted for anything else :innocent:
I've not met another breed of pig in all my time, that's so easy and willing to follow you/a bucket - it's like taking a dog for a walk :thumbsup:
We did a bit of swapping around tonight in the shed (piglets to wean and mammys to move) and it was all done and dusted in no time - none of the silly antics that we've found with the bigger breeds ;)
PHOTOS REQUIRED :excited:
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I'll get some more pics up soon :thumbsup:
Bruce the boar got it on with one of the ladies yesterday evening (same mother to the older piglets), so hopefully if everything works and my calculations are correct for the 116 days we should have piglets for the 4th of July :thumbsup:
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Bruce ? Your boar's called BRUCE ? That's my OH's name :roflanim: :roflanim: :roflanim:
He looks a nice pig :thumbsup:
Are they registered ? If you have details could you email me on kkjmckay@aol.com please ?
Because the breed is so limited it's nice to know what bloodlines are where and when piglets are due/boars are available for stud duties and in my 'role' as BKKPS Scottish rep I should be able to point potential customers in your direction :thumbsup:
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I have no idea if they have ever been registered or really what it means :innocent: Is it for the pedigree?
The country park/petting farm we got them from didn't know either so I'm guessing they aren't.
I do know he came from Halifax area and could probably get the previous owner details if that would help or can they not be registered later?
p.s. Bruce was the name the country park gave him (he answers to it) ;D
He'll be 4 in July and the sows will be 3 in July.
***EDIT***
Karen, the two girls apparently came from a breeder "near Muirkirk", could it be you?? lol
from memory they think the lady they dealt with, worked or was from a large estate near Hurlford
They went to Dean Castle country park in Kilmarnock but they haven't got any more details.. :innocent:
Here they are.
(http://i60.tinypic.com/118oyeb.jpg)
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Lovely girls :thumbsup:
I don't think I'd be classed as 'near Muirkirk'......but maybe I am :thinking:
Have a look at their ears and see if they have ear tags - if they do, try and get a note of the numbers - if they are pedigree and registered I'll be able to trace them from that - any breeding gilts I've sold have always been tagged - but just because they don't have tags, it's not to say they've never had them - they might have had them and ripped them out. Without either a tag, a pedigree certificate or a clear 'previous owner history' it's going to be almost impossible to find out though.
If the adult pigs haven't been registered then you'll not be able to birth notify or register any of their offspring (or advertise them on the BKKPS website). So it's worth trying to find out :thumbsup:
HTH
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The ear tags have what I assume is the Dean Castle numbers at present, does that help? :innocent:
Boar is - AA0798 10
sows are - AA0798 8 and AA0798 9
I assume from that we "should" be able to trace back via ScotEID and find the breeders?
Would they pass that info on to us?
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Hiya, sorry for the delayed response !
If they've not got BKKPS tags on it's highly unlikely they've been registered. Even if they'd been birth notified (before 40 days old) they're too old now to register as pedigree pigs unfortunately - the BKKPS don't allow registrations for pigs older than 18 months.
What that means for you is that you won't be able to sell any of the offspring as pedigree Kunekunes - it comes back to the "without the paperwork, it's just a pig" situation unfortunately. It won't make any difference if you're raising them for pork, but if you'd hoped to sell breeding stock it effectively scuppers your plans :(
It's such a shame there are so many pigs that haven't been birth notified and registered because the bloodlines aren't huge and every one not registered/birth notified is 'lost' from the potential breeding pool (and this is true for all pigs, not just Kunekune) it's why the BKKPS keep the costs of membership and registrations low, so as not to discourage people from pedigree breeding. Sorry, this isn't aimed at you directly, it's just a general observation and makes me so :rant: because there are so many people who are disappointed when they find out they've been sold what they thought was a pedigree pig when it's not AND the registered herd numbers across all breeds are falling, if people were registering piglets the rare breeds might not be in the dire straits that they are :'( (sorry ! It's my soap box subject :-[ I'll get back in my box now ;) :innocent:)
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but if there's anything else I can help you with just give me a shout :wave:
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Thats perfect Karen thanks, answers all the questions we had. :thumbsup:
We are keeping them purely for pork, we weren't planning on selling at all.
Ideally if they had been pedigree we could have added to the national pedigree stock but we may well buy some pedigree Kunes in the future with that in mind.
Cost is the main factor here for us, we are trying to produce home grown food, (not just pork) as cost effectively as we can and at the end of the day we have picked up 9 pigs for £70 (not counting diesel costs) which came with about a months supply of food so we can't complain :innocent:
I suspect we would have possibly paid more than that for one pedigree Kune?
Kunes are perfect for us, i looked at many different breeds but felt most were too large and ate too much for what we actually need.
We have the boar in with the the two sows and he's been getting on with the job in hand this last week so hopefully that will be next years pork supply already on the way. :thumbsup:
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You'll be expecting litters in early July then :excited: better get reading up and sorting out heat lamps, farrowing kit etc. ;) :thumbsup:
You could potentially end up with quite a few pigs though - each sow might have anything up to 17 piglets, (though 10 is more 'the norm') :o especially if you plan on weaning the July litters and getting them back in pig straight away - that would mean another 2 litters in January sometime. Do you have somewhere to overwinter them next year ? Hard standing is a good idea to save them from being belly deep in cold mud and really trashing your ground - and you'll need to make a separate pen (if you haven't already) so you can separate the younger gilts from the boar - he won't be able to stay with them once they get to around 6 months old, or you really will be over run :innocent: We have a very sturdy boar pen to confine Big Red when his services aren't required - it's as much to keep the gilts and sows out as it is to keep him in ::) It's soooooo handy !
They're lovely looking pigs though - I'm certain you'll be really happy with them :thumbsup:
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Watching this thread with interest :)
I'm liking the idea of a couple of girls & kune kunes have been my preference so far, were just past Ayr so not too far. We would also be looking to use them for meat as first timers it would be super handy to have someone close to keep us straight/ possibly deal with/ transport for slaughter etc (just thinking/ typing out loud)
Good luck with your new additions & the coming months/ litters.
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A hard day in the sun! :thumbsup:
(http://i60.tinypic.com/358dxld.jpg)
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Watching this thread with interest :)
I'm liking the idea of a couple of girls & kune kunes have been my preference so far, were just past Ayr so not too far. We would also be looking to use them for meat as first timers it would be super handy to have someone close to keep us straight/ possibly deal with/ transport for slaughter etc (just thinking/ typing out loud)
Good luck with your new additions & the coming months/ litters.
Didn't realise you were so close, i'm just North of Kilmarnock :thumbsup:
We're planning on home slaughter/butcher/consumption only, no trips to abattoir etc and have been researching it pretty extensively for the last few months.
Its amazing how difficult it is to find information sometimes when people don't want you to find it!
Anyway we're nearly there with the legislation etc and are all sorted for overwintering/separate pens etc, just getting the killing/butchery equipment set up at the moment as we have 6 piglets nearly 8 months so hopefully in a another few months we can make a start and actually eat a few :thumbsup:
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We're between Maybole & Minishant.....if your looking for some cockerels in a few weeks I've a few :-J
http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=42439.msg407341#msg407341 (http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=42439.msg407341#msg407341)