Nearing completion

We have had the pigs for fourteen weeks.  They are getting big now and are very near to their finishing weight.
They get feed pig meal, barley and mostly fruit and vegetables (waste from the fruit&veg shop), they are better fed than me!
This week they will have their ears tagged and they will have our herd number slapped onto them.  This is being done in preparation for being moved to the abbatoir.
We are looking forward to tasting the end product with the knowledge is that we know everything that went into them!

Pigs

The pigs arrived four days ago and already they are a fixture.  They are twelve weeks old and are a cross between a saddleback and a black pig.  I was sort of delighted that they were black as I wasn't looking forward to rubbing in suntan lotion into them.  Also pigs are fast how would I have caught them?  Anyways there was great fun getting them into their house for the first time but now they go into it themselves. 

They are now trusting me a bit more everyday.  Today they followed me to the trough without being skittish and running. 

My Girls

Introducing "my girls". The redder hen is older than the paler chicken.  Don't ask how I know I was told,  I was also told that the younger hen wouldn't start laying for a few weeks. But the day after the picture of the egg  on the left is from that said hen!!  So maybe the upset of moving house moved things along!!  We have "the girls" now for five days now and we have had an egg of each of them every day!  And they are the best eggs I have ever tasted. But hey I am biased! 
All weekend my other-half with the help of his brothers fenced the area for the pigs and moved the pig house into place.  Tomorrow the official from the Department of Agriculture will come and inspect the area. All's in place except the electric fence, which my husband is reading the instruction manual as I type! 

Nearly there....

Apologies have not posted anything of interest as late.  The weather for the last two weeks has been gorgeous so there has been a lot of garden action. Planting, weeding, watering etc. Today was entirely taken up by the Royal Wedding which was totally gorgeous! Tonight I took delivery of two point-of-lay hens.  They were delivered in the dark so looking forward to the morning to see how they are.  The cat was certainly interested in the new delivery, hopefully not too interested! I also have to clip the wings of one of the hens just in case they fly out of the coup.  God only knows how I will manage that one.

Meanwhile the herd number forms have been sent and recieved by the dept. of agriculture and my other half has been clearing and fencing the area for the pigs.

Removal Day

It was a lovely day today and the recycling lorry came to pick up the scrapped cars that were discovered after the fire.  Almost four tonnes in weight.  All set now to construct the fence for the piggies and what ever else! Woohoo!

Weather issues!

Due to the heavy rain last night the scrapped cars could not be removed from the bottom of the field, basically the loader/lorry would of got stuck.  So we have to wait till the weekend.  On a brighter note, I have one strawberry flower emerging, may even whip up some cream in anticipation!

The Beginning!

Just starting this new venture, well basically hobby, of raising two pigs for fattening!

We have a bit of space and with the help of an accidental garden fire that the space has been cleared, we will be putting in two pigs to rear. In amongst the garden scrub there is six scrapped cars (I kid you not!) Anyway the recycling van is coming tomorrow to take them away and hopefully give us a bit of money for them.  That will pay for the fire-crew that was called to put out the fire!

So phase one is tomorrow - scrapped cars removed.  We have already recieved the forms from the department of agriculture to apply for the herd number for the pigs.  With the help of friends who have experience in this we will fill out the forms and get them sent off.

Phase two - fence off the area
Phase three - build a pig arc/house.
Phase four - wait for the department of agriculture official to inspect the area.
Phase five - get the piglets.
Phase six - rear and fatten the pigs.
Phase seven - send the pigs to slaughter (could be hard!)
Phase eight - fill the freezer!

Sounds straight-forward, well keep with me and see if it is!