Finally - water in sight

After much searching we finally located somebody who sells second hand IBC's locally. We picked one up and now have to decide where to put it and how to connect it. It holds 1000L and as soon as it's placed we can start filling it with tap water from the house until it's connected to the rainwater system.

Not sure if I want to put it underground or else how to hide it, as I really don't like the sight of it. Also the water will turn green if it stays out in the sun. Decisions...decisions....

First outside chick of the year

Finally our broodies have managed to hatch a chick.

After climbing all over his mummies he was allowed out today for the first time.

It's a big wide world.

Two mommies....aren't I special ??

(Shhhh, don't tell any of the three that they aren't even related. The egg came from our group of laying hens.)

Rearing pens

We have chicks everywhere and are running out of space to house them. Thankfully we have some pallets that are lightweight and not much use for anything else.

The pallets are put together like a tent. Two strips of timber are nailed to the bottom to determine width, then the top is simply screwed together.

After that screws are added to the bottom of the pallets to hold the netting in place.

The netting (fruit cage netting) is stretched over all sides and held in place with screws. Nails would do the same job.

A branch adds some interest to the rearing pen. Job done. Note that an extra piece of timber at the back keeps the sawdust inside the sleeping box.

The chicks are happy in their temporary runs.

Piglets

Our weaners have arrived. Hans (coloured) and Ulla (black) came up from Brora and are both birth registered. They are 8 weeks old and although they are friendly enough they are a tiny bit vary of people.
Gretel came from Stoke-on-Trent and at 3 month old she is bigger than Hans and Ulla. Gretel is the most relaxed piglet you can think of. She doesn't mind being touched at all and has a very laid back character.

More pig arcs

I have been away for a couple of weeks and on my return we are busier than ever. We have two piglets arriving this weekend and another one hopefully the weekend after.
More pallets have been taken apart by Dawn (helpx) and Ann (host) and I am building another pig arc from the materials for the weaners.