Have any of you done the whole breeding pigs for food thing?

[FatFreddysCat]

Having watched a rerun of Jimmys farm and read in the papers that people are keeping pigs in their yards/gardens for future slaughter i'm interested to know if any of you have done it, and is it worth it financially? Or even have you got a pig and failed to kill it? I know Admin eats hedgehogs and any roadkill he can get his hands on so he is excluded from this thread ;).

[FatFreddysCat]

I must admit i dont expect too many relies to this one ::).

[finnster01]

I didn't expect a thread about my ex-wife either Mr Freddy

And yes:
1) I did fail to kill it
2) It was definitely not worth it, in fact I am still paying for it

[Tom]

Dang it, I missed doing that. I don't know what to do with myself now.  ::)

[YankeeJim]

Freddy, you wouldn't get tanked and mistake the thing for a bird, would ya?  :o

[YankeeJim]

I did chickens once. The egg were nice for a while but got old after a bit. When it was all said & done I had a lot of expensive eggs and some real tough chicken. Whole lot less work to go down & buy a dozen eggs and some packaged chicken.

I will say that the bushes I planted in the are where the chicken coop was have done quite well.

[clintclintdeuce]

We used to know these people who bred and sold Buffalo and whatever else you wanted really. Great stuff and cheap prices. I guess they had a good amount of profit in it for them as well, but they would charge $3 per pound for Strips and Filets. They did pork, chicken, baby cows and regular cows too.

Its better to go hunting for Deer though... but the cost of the hunt doesnt make it cheap.

[clintclintdeuce]

I hear breeding your own beer is much better to do though

[tjl]

When i first moved to the rock the guy next door keep pigs and as we got friendly we gave him all our food waste peelings ect on the promise of a  joint at killing time, it was a waste of time as he was so soft he sent his grown pigs to Guernsey to his brother for the deadly deed and we got no joint, His wife told me later that he keep the pigs for company,and as he is long gone i can't pass his widow without thinking his time was better spent looking at the pigs, he was too soft to send to market.

[FC Silver Fox]

I kept 2 kids once. Spent years fattening them up but they buggered off to university before I could eat them. The closest I've ever got to the original question? I once hit a pheasant when driving at 85mph on the motorway (that speed is legal here). I saw it went spinning off onto the hard shoulder, so I stopped, slung it in the boot and made a very nice pheasant paté that evening.

Going off on a tangent, in the States you can buy roadkill bbq sauce

http://www.roadkillbbqsauce.com/

They even have a roadkill steak house. You take it along and they'll cook it for you.

http://www.vgg.com/otr/roadkill.html

[KCat]

Very good Frenchie !!

there is a man down the road who has a black pot-bellied pig that he takes around on a lead, he was going to have it for Christmas but the butchers costs were excessive..............so he got rid of the dog instead 

Freddy,  Bantams are the way forward the eggs are small ( good for the diet) and when the neighbours complain  (because they will) you can say  they are endangered and you cannot  get rid of them.  You don't have to kill' em, there is  good money in selling them on :)

http://www.poultry.allotment.org.uk/poultry-suppliers/bantams-for-sale.php

[FatFreddysCat]

I thought you was meant to hang a pheasant Frenchie till they were rotten wwith maggots. I must agree with that French fella who said to the king that "the pheasants are revolting" ::). Did you see that programme about some nutter in England who spent his whole time collecting roadkill, he had freezers full of badger, fox, crow etc.

[FatFreddysCat]

I didn't expect a thread about my ex-wife either Mr Freddy

And yes:
1) I did fail to kill it
2) It was definitely not worth it, in fact I am still paying for it

I trust she wont be recieving a valentines card today then Finny? ::)

[FatFreddysCat]

This thread prompted me to have my first ever attempt and cooking a pork joint, and if i say so myself i made the best crackling i've ever had 8), but the pork itself was slightly overdone. My slim like Jim weight could be quite bad friday :(.

[Jimpav]

I thought you was meant to hang a pheasant Frenchie till they were rotten wwith maggots. I must agree with that French fella who said to the king that "the pheasants are revolting" ::). Did you see that programme about some nutter in England who spent his whole time collecting roadkill, he had freezers full of badger, fox, crow etc.

I remember watching that. Was very interesting but the poor bloke didn't half get some grief!

[NogoodBoyo]

We have 14 katahdin sheep (hair sheep that you don't have to sheer).  We've already slaughtered two ram lambs - one of which did the business in November with our 9 ewes before we slaughtered him.  Very tasty.
We get our pasture-raised pork from a big bellied pony-tail called John Boo.  He started out on eggs and chicken and now has a thriving business selling pasture-raised product to wealthy foodies in farmers' markets just north of New York.  It's becoming quite a big business over here.
Nogood "backyard farming" Boyo

[FatFreddysCat]

A Welshman with sheep, who'd have thought it ;) ::) ;D?