gerjan

Makes sense that pigs without constant water become saltier to me. Been told that pigs can't sweat so all salt in their body has to go through kidneys and blatter wich won't work properly without water. The pigs I'm getting are raised on grass, scraps, corns and grains so they haven't eaten pig pellets. Pellet feed often contains an high percentage of salt. For this reason I won't even worry about feeding small amounts of kidney. Last time I also been given calf tongue, had to boil it for 2-3 hours before it was soft enough for the buggers to eat. In my opinion the tongue and hearth are good

Was given it before but it wasn't much pork, chopped it up and mixed with beef organs. I believe total was 10kg. This time I'll be getting it from 6 pigs and probably 2 cows, might get fewer liver because some people want it as part of their half pig deal. I'm lucky not many people eat organs here. Cutting up the lungs was pretty awkward.. started tearing them after a few because it felt real weird cutting them blood filled spunges up. At first they are big and squishy, after you put the knife in it makes an creepy sound, deflates and squirts blood/fluid all over the counter top and walls...

I've gof an opportunity to get fresh heart, liver lungs and kidneys from a few pigs. As they're not preserved would it be save to feed? If not I'll tell the guy I only take his cow organs.

Do you want to see pics of the plucker I already made? Hope you don't, if I put pics of it online people might start questioning my workmanship. Basic al I did was drill some holes through an 2" piece of pvc, put rubber through and stuff it in hole saw. Was planning to make it nice but found out the pvc fitted the hole saw perfectly.

Take a look at the homemade drill bit pluckers on the web. I've made myself 1 some years ago, didn't have real plucker fingers so used pieces of rubber foil like the stuff they use for roofs and ponds. Looked real ghetto but worked like a charm and didn't cost anything. Still in operation today. Mailman brought me 100 real plucker fingers last week. Came from China for only €0.35 each. Mooched an electric motor, pulleys and belt and got an good deal on 1" square steel. Planning on building an dry plucker, but first got to build an bigger brooder, jap quail grow out cages, escape proof

If you decide to buy one feel free to ask my help if you need to. Easier to gather information, spare parts and such here because they're made and used a lot here. My younger brother actually learned how to use them in school... I'll advice to have an spare belt laying around at all times, probably don't gonna need it but belts obviously always wear out in the middle of the most important batch of eggs of your season.

I use an ms50 auto turned cabinet incubator and an smaller type ms50 for hatching. The auto uses an rotating bar fan for ventilation, it's an perfect system, humidity is easy to maintain and there are no cold spots in the machine. Use it since last spring, had multiple 90% hatches, even with quail and 3 weeks old bad stored bantams eggs. Important thing to know is eggs tend to hatch an day earlier in an rotating bar machine. The machines are made here in Holland so they're not as expensive like in UK and lot of second hand ones here. You can look at their website wi h is also available i

Well it's hard to start ferreting. Finding permission is harder than I taught because almost all land is already permission of shooters or the landowner just won't believe ferreting is even legal. Back in the day only poachers ferreted, probably because legal hunters used to be elite and looked down on ferreting. Right now I've only got my grandfather's farm, it's more like a machine graveyard actually. Hard to find burrows, always underneath some broken down piece of farm equipment. Lots of rabbits from time to time but the poachers notice that to... I'm lucky if they leave 1 to bolt, so

Thanks for all your replies. Chicken man, I meant like from 1 of the only surviving working lines. Ferreting was very commom in the 19th and early 20th century here. Most of the ferreters poached because of poverty. When the economy grew after the war ferreting moved to the background, ferrets became pets instead of providers and people only bred them on size, the bigger the better... To bad I need an vasectomised hob.. Vets here aren't really used to ferrets at all, do not provide Jill jabs to get them out of season and do not vasectomate ferrets only remove their entire testicles.

Hi, Got my first ferrets early last summier. My jills came from one of the original Dutch working lines. (According to the seller). They weigh an evarage of 600 grams. Hob is probably cross between pet ferret and wild Euro polecat, he weighs around 1500 grams. Planning of breeding 1 of the jills to my hob and the other 2 to an chemically neutered hob at my brothers school to get them out of season. I wondered if it's safe to breed quite a large hob to an small Jill? Ain't really worried he'll squash of break her but can't his ofspring be to large for her to carrie? Heard a stor

Yes they made them until the 80's, I saw some for sale in the Middle East that looked brand new a couple of years ago In the town in live an animal supplies salesman still sells them brandnew, €35 each. My brother worked there for a while, told me he's got an loft full of 'em

RIP lad..

kale