A Year in Pigs...

A mixed year for the Redborne school farm pigs with regards to the weather but rain or shine we tried our best!

Suffolk Show is always our first stop in the showing season and by this point we hope to have the young pigs trained and our show coats washed and ironed ready to go but as soon as we hit Suffolk we realised we we're in for wet and windy weather. 

Our class was an inter-breed September Gilt class and we gained a 3rd and 4th place rosette and this qualified our 3rd place gilt to go in to the best of breed class.

On the second day due to high winds and the sheer amount of rain we had had, the show cancelled.  So we had to decide what to do about the qualifying rounds, we decided to continue showing inside the pig tent in our wellies and now not so white show coats, and, to our delight we gained the Best Saddleback pig in show rosette.

East of England show was another wet one but every body kept their spirits up and although we were showing in a very muddy show ring we gained a 2nd place rosette, which is not bad considering the breeder of the 1st place Saddleback has been breeding these pigs for sixty five years!

Hatfield show was a scorcher and by this point in the show season our show pigs had decided that they would rather act like greyhounds and run around the ring, not good in that heat! But in a massive class of nearly 20 Saddleback pigs we came 8th so we can't complain too much!

Over all we had a great season and have already chosen the pigs for next years show season!

Ferret Kits...

Not strictly a farmed animal but we keep ferrets at our farm anyway. As well as helping us keep down the population of unwanted pests they are a great way of introducing students to handling and caring for small animals...

We have three adult ferrets; Scratch who is a gill (Female) and two brothers called Max and Paddy (Male ferrets are called hobs). Ferrets are obligate reproducers meaning that when a gill is fertile or in season she must mate otherwise she will remain in season and become susceptible to infections. As Max and his brother Paddy are getting on a bit they tend to go through the motions but have not produced a litter with Scratch in a long time. That is until recently. Scratch had an unexpected litter of four healthy and very adorable ferret kits.

When born ferret kits have no fur and are completely blind. They stay with mum slowly growing for about 6 weeks when they are weaned and take solid food...

Mangalitsa Journey...

Our Mangalitsa pigs came to us in May and we expected them to be with us for quite a while but lots of pasture and plenty of love and care have seen them grow up very fast. Thay are definitely a breed we can recommend keeping...

The Mangalitsa has been called the Kobe beef of pork, this suggests that we will be in for a real treat and having put so much care into the rearing of our stock we put a lot of thought into how we treat the products. Because the Mangalitsa is an extreme fat breed (meaning that it has a higher fat content than usual) it lends itself to curing and is extremely full of flavour. Equally Mangalitsa fat is very high in unsaturated fats due to the grass grazed upon. This unsaturated fat is much better for us than some other types of fat...

We'll dry cure the belly, wet cure the legs for ham and leave the shoulder and loin as natural as possible to celebrate this wonderful animal...

Definitely more to follow...

Hatching Chicks...

Hatching eggs is surprisingly easy with a good incubator and little bit of patience...

Quail take 17-18 days
Chickens 21 Days
Ducks (Except Muscovy) 28 Days
Muscovy Ducks and Geese 35 Days

We have had 18 chicken eggs in the incubator now for 21 days...

The incubator has been kept at 37.5 degrees Celsius and 55% humidity and now they are starting to hatch...

The young chick breaks free from the egg...

The chick is left in the incubator for a short period of time to dry out...

Now dry and fluffy the chicks are placed in a heated brood box with fresh water and chick crumbs

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Try our Tasty Sausages...

At Redborne our primary aim is education, but we also produce some very tasty products. these include, a range of pork and lamb products such as our very tasty sausages. Currently we are selling Sweet Chilli sausages and Lemon and Herb sausages...

Here are a couple of tasty serving suggestions...

Sweet Chilli Sausages with Fresh Pea Shoots, Spinach and Butter Bean Puree

Lemon and Herb Sausages with Homemade Coleslaw

Perfect for those summer days we are all hoping arrive soon...

Pig News...

It's been a busy time of it lately when it comes to pigs...

With two more beautiful litters of Saddleback piglets, we're busy tending to their every need.

Our Managlitsas have lots of fresh new grass to eat and root through and a new extension to their paddock...

Our two September gilts have been very successful at the Suffolk Show, winning best Saddleback and gaining 3rd and 4th overall amongst all the breeds in the rare breed category...

Liam in the ring...

Despite the attrocious weather, team work prevailed and the show pigs did us proud...

First Time Swarm Control and Top Bar Hives...

Our friends at Cardona and Sons asked if we would like some bees to fill our Top Bar Hive. The only catch was...

That we had to help catch our own swarm...

The Swarm decided on a somewhat unusual temporary home...

The swarm was found on a traffic island right in the middle of a major junction and was in such a worrying position we even had our very own police escort. I don't think it was their usual call out...

It was 8pm and getting cold so the swarm was collected together for the night and there was a low chance of leaving any stragglers. Having sprayed them with a little sugar solution to encourage them to wake up a little, we collected the swarm into a frameless Nuc box and gently wrapped them in a sheet...

The Swarm was taken back to the school and gently tipped into the newly prepared Top Bar Hive. We tipped them at the end farthest from the entrance so that they were warmer and left them some fondant to get them started...

The top bar hive is different from a national or commercial hive in that it does not have frames but allows the bees to build their own combs in a more natural way. It also allows inspection of the hive with only a small amount of exposure to the colony. That said it does have it's limitations in that standard frames cannot fit into the hive and you can't just keep adding supers on top...

The Top Bar Hive...