Mumsnet Talk

we are wanting to get pigs (just a couple piglets to grow to slaughter weight to begin with)

and I want to incubate and love some chicks and then keep them forever and love them

I have had chickens before but not done it from eggs, is it possible? and what do I need?

dp has had pigs before but on someones farm he was renting the space from so we were wanting to found somewhere to find out about rules and regulations about having them in your garden with neighbours and near roads
licensing etc..

thanks in advance

pretty please

This came up in conversation this week, what I remember of the conversation was

2 pigs - one to sell and one to eat, that will mean they pay for themselves.

You need to contact enviromental health and let them know you want to keep pigs, they will check that your arrangment for keeping pigs is up to standard.

thanks ivykaty, I have no idea how to contact environmental health but google is my friend

ok let me look and see how you do it?

www.chichester.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleID=4108

tis district council, so google your own district council and it should pop up somewhere on the webpage. I would contact the district council and make a general enquiry that you want to keep pigs and can they send you the detaisl of the rules they set out.

www.direct.gov.uk/en/Environmentandgreenerliving/Smallholders/DG_189284

last link has all details of licences and phone number to contact etc

oh you are wonderful, i was coming up with nothing

google may be my friend but I can still be useless at using it

thankyou

wow plenty of things to read through there

phew I'm confused already lol

can't seem to find the rule about the amount of space you need to have legally for them

I'll keep trying lol

ideally half an acre for two pigs

www.defra.gov.uk/publications/files/pb7950-pig-code-030228.pdf

talks about indoor pigs and slated area

more important is temperature as pigs can't sweat easy - which makes the saying sweating like a pig a bit silly

Hi there,

We are getting 2 pigs for the first time at the end of this month too . We are in Scotland so rules probably different.
We found a really good leaflet on line from the soil association called Pig Ignorant (found it very helpful and funny; my OH is a farm animal vet but has never kept pigs only treated them)
www.soilassociation.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=wHA6qvWcNLU=&tabid=204
or try the accidental smallholder blog; I've found it has lots of good advice and friendly forum too.

Pig keeper here. The soil association "pig ignorant" booklet recommended above is very good, probably the best place for you to start. The first and most important thing for you to do is register with Defra- you need a CPH number ( usually called a holding number) - now, Defra are spectacularly, mind-bogglingly useless and inefficient and this could take you months and hours on the phone... or you could be lucky and get it within the week, there is no way of knowing! Once you have a CPH number you need to apply for a pig herd number. Once you have these, you are legally allowed to have pigs on your land. You'll be sent a load of information about welfare requirements, the laws on moving livestock etc with your herd number paperwork.

Pigs are great! Personally I have found them more fun and less hassle than poultry , but then we do have a separate field for them, and very secure fencing!

I used to look after indoor and outdoor pigs on my Dads farm. Good advice here

Out of interest how are you getting them to market, having them slaughtered?

Small slaughter houses are hard to find and home slaughter is nearly impossible nowadays. We used to slaughter our own for freezer but it just is so heavily regulated now.

Tips:-

More space the better. Securely fenced too!

Don't keep pigs and chickens together

Make sure you have all the right paperwork in place to move livestock around.

Also, lift piglets by their back legs. They are ticklish so if you lift them round their middles they squeal

REminder that you need to fill in the papers before slaughter - some abbattoirs allow you to do this on-line but smaller ones the food chain paperwork needs to go with the pig.

Pigs are great but they wreck everything! Everything has to be covered and bomb proof, I've had them dig through the wall, rip water pipes off wall, plough up fields and very stubbon!!!

You must have a facility to weigh them (bought ours 99p on e-bay old but worked) you must know the weght to feed them the correct amount of food per day - I always gave them scapes too from the kitchen. and get the spot on weight for kill you dont want skinny pork chops nor over fat which happened to us with some middle whites. a cross is better than a pedigree for newbie as pedigrees need strict feeding.

Find a direct feed supplier not bags from shops. A lot cheaper and advice for free. they usually do 25kg bags much cheaper than the nuts. you need to have a trailer to be able to pick them up and take to market.

Its not a cheap business either!

Kiery, we are in Scotland too

Wow thanks everyone, lots of fantastic advice here