Growers pen

The growers have settled into their new accommodation well. All nine are now putting themselves to roost in the house at night, although we still have to drive the 2 miles each evening to shut them in. Hopefully this will all change when they move to the other side of the pen and we can fix an automatic shutting device to the pop hole door.

We still have a lot to do but are making progress. As you can see from the photo the rotten beam on the wheel frame still needs replacing and the second pen on the left needs fencing. Both areas need reseeding in time. The side the growers are in now will be done as soon as the boars have gone, the other side as soon as these birds have gone.

Today we made a start on renovating the 'new' pig ark.We removed the two end panels, as they were very rusty. This still left us with three sections ( the same size as our other ark). Six inches of iron was removed from the bottom edge on either side, again because of rust. The inside was painted with metal primer. We also made the wooden frame on which the ark will stand, giving it the height lost by removing the bottom 6 inches.

Tomorrow we will hopefully, weather permitting, give it a second coat of primer, fix it to the frame and make and attach the end panels.

One step closer to being able to seperate the boars from the gilts.