22 replies to this topic

[Eve]

🎉Hooray! 🎉 We are now the proud owners of 17.89 acres of grass, clover, dock, nettles, brambles, miles of hedges and a stream!
First plans are to move our current yard to the small 4.5 paddock, which won't be included (at least initially) in our business plans. Then we need to create a paddock for our 4 lambs, a chicken paddock (struggling with that one) and start to prepare some pig paddocks... I'd like to get that done in the next 12 weeks, then figure out what next!
Not relishing the task of over 1000 metres of fencing by hand, so trying to find a friendly farmer to help!
Has anyone created a chicken paddock?... I was thinking 1/2 acre, fenced with 6' chicken wire/welded fence/small stock fence with chicken wire at 45 degree angle at the top and buried at the bottom. We currently have a flock of 12 (lost 5 to the fox last week 😡), so are very wary of not having a completely fox proof pen, but money is tight! Xx

[respectedponydriver]

Hi Eve,

 

Pony here,congrats to you for buying your land.

 

Keep us updated with your plans.

 

Good luck

 

 

Pony

[tonydockers]

congratulations, 

 

chickens....my advice for what it is worth is small is better as you will need to move and rest the land, some say every 6 months some say 12, i have purchased 50meter electric fence net kits complette with energiser from hotline, make sure it has hot gate included they are about £195.00 plus car battery

 

to date no fox has attempted to go under or over although we know they are close by as local hunters shot a few and weve seen a few

 

in 1 compound of net we are currently housing 3 houses, 1 small 1 with 7 bantam chicks

1 large shed for 50 birds but we only have 34 in it and a medium hutch with 13 meat birds growing

 

still plenty of room

 

we have a second net kit set up for our 40 9 week old turkeys fgrowing for xmas

 

when its time to move them it will be pain free

[tonydockers]

Fencing

 

i found chectnut 4inch round 6ft long with bark on are by far the best posts and cheapest

 

we got our high tensile wire from a uk manufacturer UNIWIRE

 

local farm charged us £3.00  meter to fit all

 

worked out £5.00 a meter all in and we did a 1000 meters, he did it in 3 days

[j and H]

well done Eve….its life changing..hard work and great fun….just enjoy every minute, even the bad ones,

soak up everything that happens, 

 

best wishes

j and h 

[adrian007]

Chickens

 

We decided to have two zones 20m x 10m next to each other - permanent - in our orchard. 5.6 inch fence, electric top and bottom, chicken wire buried flat in the ground.

 

At the end of each zone is a 10 x 5 run with 7 foot fence with netting over the roof, electric wire and buried chicken wire at the base.

 

We have a chicken house (notionally 50 bird, reality 25), on skids, with doors at both ends.

 

By opening one door, or the other, the chickens can be let out in either half of the 2 10 x 5 runs.

 

When we are there, which will be almost all of the time, the chickens can be also let into the orchard zone, attached to the run they are using. We will rotate the runs as needed. We have space for another two runs + zones if necessary. We'll see how it goes.

 

Does that make sense?

[Eve]

Thanks everyone, your ideas and experience is invaluable.
Adrian - your chicken set up sounds similar to the plans we currently have (our plans keep changing!).
125m (about 1/4 acre) of 2m welded wire fencing, buried chicken wire, 2x 8x6 hen houses (converted sheds!)(on skids), fruit trees ready to start the orchard and the room to split and rest as needed.... Was thinking of adding a duck house... Only looking at around 50 birds, but hopefully room to expand if needed.
Having issues finding chesnut posts near me (beds/bucks), phoning a few companies tomorrow to see if delivery is possible and not extortionate!
Petrol earth augers - does anyone have any experience, we were hoping it might help if we have to do it ourselves (looking likely!) xx

[Sunnysouthdevon]

Eve do you have a tractor or anybody you are in contact with have a tractor? You can get post bangers at farm sales for a couple hundred £ and it will save you so much time , effort and aching arms

[adrian007]

SSD is correct about the tractor. We don't have one :-)

 

For amusement, we sometimes dig out the 'early plans' for the land.

 

Yours will change too. My experience says 'alot'!

 

Petrol augers - cost a lot and apparently are 'bad' when they 'catch'. We are going the 'manual route' - it's not so bad, money restricts us more than physical ability.

[j and H]

to be honest, the petrol augar isn't that bad…the newer ones have a clutch if they hit rock…ours have been working a treat and at 150 pound…paid for its self already, that with a post knocker..manual..gives you a good work out…not as quick as a tractor ..but i wouldn't drive a tractor on my slope lol

 

biggest tip i was given..make sure you tamp the post in  well 

[tottenham]

My makita is a real bas....d wouldn't even think about using it on my own when it catches takes you round with it.

 

I designed  a fantastic hole punch for 3-4" posts using a jcb beaver hydraulic breaker. i had welded to the chisle point a cone shaped tubular pipe 2" at the bottom opening to 3" at the top 18"long the reason its tapped is to collect the spoil when you remove it from the hole. As the pipe is 18" long you have a ready made depth gauge and the posts go in straight and level. so easy to use and a lovely fence  very quick as well. 

[Greenbeast]

i love my £150 petrol auger!!!

 

I also love my tractor mounted post knocker, but wish i'd bought a bigger one

[Sunnysouthdevon]

If I had the choice i go tractor any day over manual auger and post knocker , for the money spent on a new auger and knocker you could get a secondhand tractor knocker.... Why spend 2 months out in the rain banging posts when you you could do the same job in 2 weeks in your tractor pushing levers

[adrian007]

yep, me too.

 

Key words being 'if I had the choice...'

 

Eve - give yourself the choice if you can - allocate £2k to a tractor and a post knocker.

 

The tractor will be invaluable for other stuff too I expect...

[Eve]

Now to find £2k
We started our land search nearly 4 years ago with an absolute max budget of £100k, we spent £200k (with no fees etc)... Land here is expensive and very hard to come by, we decided to own something with no money rather than miss the opportunity to own anything... So when we had a very healthy £50-100k to set up the business we had great plans, now we have to scale our plans right back, things will take longer and be very frustrating, but hopefully we'll get there!
Some how I've got to make £15k stretch...

[adrian007]

ahh, similar situation to us, albeit with bigger numbers. We had about £15k, maybe £20k.

 

£15k will not go far, spend it really wisely. 

 

You'll have certain 'can't do without' priorities - electric/water I guess are the 1st 2.

 

You'll have certain high priorities that you can afford out of income - fence posts possibly are cheaper in bulk, but maybe better bought gradually.

 

You'll have certain things that if you don't buy now, you'll never manage to afford - a tractor may be one, but I suspect there will be more important things on the list than that.

 

You won't be able to afford everything, just get what you can't do without.

 

I rather wish we'd been able to start generating some farm income earlier, but we had an 'order of works' and certain things had to follow certain other things.

 

Good luck, be patient.

[Sunnysouthdevon]

A contractor I no bought a compact tractor and post banger for 2k, it's great bit of kit,fits on a trailer for transport and tucks away at night in the corner of his yard under an old cattle box top haha

[j and H]

i have had to think differently than most, especially with a slope….yes i have a digger, but once the work is done, she will be resold...

the quad has been worth its weight in gold, as has the BCS two wheeled tractor, even though she now has four wheels ….twin with spacer, 

 

what i like about using the Auger is…you don't break the posts where as the post knocker will still keep banging if you hit rock….well thats my excuse 

[Groundhog]

join NFU open account with jewsons you get 50% off hire rates hire a 1.5t machine with a post auger on for about £200 for 7 days get job done ! no worries about slopes as you level yourself with the blade and can get into corners and reach accross  as well

[Greenbeast]

We've gone through about £17k since getting the land at the beginning of march.

This was our first month of selling pork and have sold 10 pigs worth of meat.

 

Our tractor and post knocker were £2500 (plus ~£700 on tractor parts and oils to get it running well)