It's been a long time...

since I've posted. We are still looking for that perfect home for Doris. Gretel and two of the piglets are also still for sale. We have decided to keep Alexander as a companion for Hans when he has to leave his girls from June until November to avoid the girls having piglets in the middle of winter.
There is still no sign of Ulla being in pig although she is 1.5 years old now. I wonder if she is unable to have piglets. This would actually be great as she is related to Hans. We wouldn't have to separate them.

Hans and Ulla with their mum and litter mates.

Retirement

After long and careful consideration we decided that it is not fair on Doris to keep her with the herd. We are looking for a forever home for her where she can retire and spend the rest of her days snoozing in the sun or cuddling up with a companion in a lovely warm house.

Sniff....

..poor little Barney didn't make it neither...

Day 4

Whilst mum is having her breakfast Barney takes a nap in the sun....

Barney is a dinosaur....

Or so he thinks.... just over 24 hours old he follows mum outside and explores the world... suppose he feels a little lonely in the house as his brother didn't make it... :-(

Goats have settled in well

Goats are happily browsing around their field, enjoying the sunshine and are wondering what that white thing is on the other side of the fence...

Surprise of the day !

 

I did wonder why Doris wasn't coming out for her dinner...

And there she was with 2 tiny piglets !

Happy Piglets

The remaining piglets from our "A" litter, Alexander, Andrew and Amy have moved up into the field together with Angy. Getting them up to the field was quite a task as they kept running back to the horse box. Unfortunately Angy is still a little skittish and the three kept following her as she is bigger and "must know better". But we got there in the end and they happily munched their dinner and explored their new home whilst the chickens enjoyed a little extra entertainment.

The Goat Whisperer

Ann has spent a lot of time with the goats.
First we couldn't get anywhere near them.... and now....

Pygmy Goats

Our latest additions:

Angy is here

Finally Angy has arrived.
She didn't like being in the crate and tried to dismantle it for most of the journey.

Finally out of the crate, getting lost in the green stuff.

Look, I found water, dad.

Dad, she's not sharing her food with me !

Angy got accepted quickly and joined the line of piled up piglets.

Piglet Videos - Day 10

Piglet Videos - Day 8

Piglet Videos - Day 6

Piglet Videos - Day 5

Piglet Videos - Day 4

Cute, cuter, the cutest...

Piglet Videos - Day 3

Piglet Videos - Day 2

Piglet Videos - Day 1

Gretel's first litter

Last night Gretel had her first litter of beautiful little piglets. She had eight but one did not make it. The remaining seven all seem fine, wriggling about like little worms.

A wife for Hans

I have been looking for a nice ginger girl for our registered boar Hans. Although we have 2 girls for him it seemed a shame not to be able to register any of the offspring.
Thankfully a nice lady in Yorkshire has decided to let me have a perfect little gilt that she was going to keep herself. She was named Angy and we will be able to pick her up on the 12th of June...

Rain, rain and more rain....

The weather has been grubby for several days and it's not looking any better. At least I don't have to water anything.
Gretel has moved into the horsebox as she looks heavily pregnant. Maybe we will finally get some piglets this year ?
The rats have worked out a cunning way to get to the barley and I had to build a feed store inside the caravan and move half a tonne of barley from the outhouse into the caravan.
I have ordered 4 automatic door openers from Germany and 3 new electric poultry fences from Mole Valley Farmers.
Chicks are hatching everywhere and half of the hens are broody, so egg sales are way down.

This week I am planning to get a tonne of stock feed tatties (potatoes) for the pigs to reduce the feed bill and get a hand baler built by next week.

Papas Baum

Baby chicks 2011

Here are some pictures of some of the baby chicks we have hatched so far...

Happy piggies

Ann's been cutting the lawn and rather than adding the grass to the compost heap we decided to feed it to the pigs. As Kune Kune's are grazing pigs they loved it and it will be part of their diet all through the summer.

Highland Cows

Two fields down the road...

Growing everyday....

The weather has been really nice and everything is sprouting like mad....whilst I am running around watering like mad...

Ash (Esche)

Alder, planted this year (Erle, dieses Jahr gepflanzt)

Alder, planted last year (Erle, letztes Jahr gepflanzt)