Hello from the Midlands

[ina]

Sorry Ina (and all Shetlanders) my geography's rubbish.

Don't worry - mine is useless for anything south of the border! Quite a big country, isn't it...

[witch way?]

Hi Red. Firstly I would say that if we can do it, anybody can. We knew nothing about pigs at all. (My partners favourite quote is 'how hard can it be'), The sty is just a 3m x 3m breezeblock and wriggly tin building with an opening. Fenced off area is about 30m x 20m, I don't know but I think thats big. We put them under the horse chestnut tree so they didnt get sunburn and apart from feeding them twice a day and making sure they always had water, thats about it. The first year we had 2 and overfed them on high carbohydrate cereals and ended up with very fatty meat. Second year we had 6 and fed more protein and the meat was much better. I wouldnt have 6 again as I felt uncomfortable going in to feed them. They are so greedy and when they got really big could easily have knocked me over so would only have 4 next time. Maybe we have just been lucky but ours were so easy and trouble free to keep, I would recommend it, especially if you like to make ham, bacon etc., You do need really good fencing however, our runt kept getting out and they cause devastation. Good Luck, W.

[red]

thanks for that W
the area we have in mind is 70sqM so sounds ok,and we are lucky in that we have a old piggery building that we are can use part of for the housing bit

me and my OH, we are always saying (with a certain amount of optimism/sarcasm) 'how hard can it be?' and 'what can possibly go wrong'

[Annpan]

Welcome to 'ish WW

me and my OH, we are always saying (with a certain amount of optimism/sarcasm) 'how hard can it be?' and 'what can possibly go wrong'

Us too... last time said by myself while OH was standing on a tower of 5 breeze blocks, with a stanley knife trying to cut some silicone off of the top of the glass roof of the greenhouse we are dismantling... 'what could possibly go wrong'

[ina]

Us too... last time said by myself while OH was standing on a tower of 5 breeze blocks, with a stanley knife trying to cut some silicone off of the top of the glass roof of the greenhouse we are dismantling... 'what could possibly go wrong'

Well - I'd have a few ideas about that! Hope nothing did go wrong, though.

[witch way?]

Welcome to 'ish WW

Us too... last time said by myself while OH was standing on a tower of 5 breeze blocks, with a stanley knife trying to cut some silicone off of the top of the glass roof of the greenhouse we are dismantling... 'what could possibly go wrong'

My own saying is usually 'whats the worst that could happen'. However in your case I probably wouldn't want to think about it. Trust OH is still OK? Thanks for welcome. W.

[gigglybug]

Hello and welcome witch way? !!

Amanda

[kiwirach]

hi witch way....i like your measure of success....its something i aspire to. i'm just starting out...quite literally...planted my first seeds at the weekend!!.
welcome by the way!!

[witch way?]

Hi Amanda, love the picture, she's just beautiful.

Hi Kiwirach. Sowing the seeds is the first step. Good Luck. Due to family commitments I only just sowed my own first tray of seeds today. Lets hope for a good Spring and Summer. W.

[dudley]

Hi Witch Way

We have only have a couple of sows and use AI.

But now the food has shot up, I think we should just buy in weeners as we want them but I love breeding animals.

All the best.

[Silver Ether]

Hi ya ow bin ya .... yep another one from Dudley ... dounds like you have plenty to keep you busy ...

[witch way?]

Hiya Dudley. Thx for the welcome. We are fair weather pig keepers. Dont fancy feeding in all that winter mud and rain or the responsibility of a breeding sow. If you do keep your breeding sow let us know for next year as we will be looking for weaners next spring. What other animals do you breed?

Hiya SE. Like to be busy. Also like the 'make your own stuff' i.e., lemon curd, soft fruit syrups, ways to hoard produce really. and then there's the knitting, sowing, stuff. Am I the only one who gets a kick out of darning socks?

[dudley]

Hi Witch Way and Silver Ether.
Yes plenty to keep me/us busy.
We have 13 Dexter’s, three of them are our original stock the others are coming on for meat or future breeding. We did hand milk two of the girls but have not done so since we went over to Goats milk.
We also have a few Geese, Chickens both for eggs and meat.
We did 24 turkeys at xmas for the first time and will do them again.
Also filled two 55 gal x whiskey barrels with apple juice in November so cannot wait to pop in my siphon tube when its ready. but cant wait the 18months
And have 40 gals of different wines on the go.
We make our own yoghurt and soft cheeses and jams from the hedgerows.
My stepson and I are looking for a cream separator so we can go all the way with our milk.
Oh yes we make our own soap from fat we get back when we kill a cow.

[dudley]

Sorry I forgot. I make my own sausages; my local butcher is very helpful by supplying me small quantity of natural skins. Well we used to supply him pigs when we were still in it commercially. And although I have tried curing our hams it has not really worked, too salty! so we let him do that for us too.

[Thurston Garden]

Ahoy witch way!