bj taylor
Garden Ornament
I like the one and done too
Piglets helping clean up garden waste. (video)Added set up pics, BJ
- Thread starter Stubbornhillfarm
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #12
Stubbornhillfarm
Attractive To Bees
Thanks ya'll! Yes, for us the one and done method is going to work great.
They are funny little ladies. (just by chance we got all girls this time around) And journey, I am glad we could give a visual of "slop!" haha
BJ, I will try and get a picture of our full set up for them when I get home to share with you. In my opinion, they are the easiest animals to take care of. Well out of cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys and dogs anyway.
I don't worry a thing about them. They actually kind of self regulate the food. We always have grain available for them. When you toss in some fresh veggies, fruit or weeds there is a feeding frenzy for a moment, but a lot of times, I'll go back out later and there is still food on the ground. We put them where we either don't care how much excavation they do to the ground or where we want them to dig up rocks and stumps. Call it FREE Labor! I can see if they were allowed to get very big and very friendly they could become dangerous.
The plan was to butcher 2 ourselves and send off 2 so that we can sell the meat. We did 4 last year ourselves with another guy helping. It was a all day event and it was not bad. But we had many people asking to buy and legally, we can't sell if we process ourselves. So who knows, we might just be lazy this year and send all 4 to the butcher.
They are funny little ladies. (just by chance we got all girls this time around) And journey, I am glad we could give a visual of "slop!" haha
BJ, I will try and get a picture of our full set up for them when I get home to share with you. In my opinion, they are the easiest animals to take care of. Well out of cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys and dogs anyway.
I don't worry a thing about them. They actually kind of self regulate the food. We always have grain available for them. When you toss in some fresh veggies, fruit or weeds there is a feeding frenzy for a moment, but a lot of times, I'll go back out later and there is still food on the ground. We put them where we either don't care how much excavation they do to the ground or where we want them to dig up rocks and stumps. Call it FREE Labor! I can see if they were allowed to get very big and very friendly they could become dangerous. The plan was to butcher 2 ourselves and send off 2 so that we can sell the meat. We did 4 last year ourselves with another guy helping. It was a all day event and it was not bad. But we had many people asking to buy and legally, we can't sell if we process ourselves. So who knows, we might just be lazy this year and send all 4 to the butcher.
- Thread starter
- #13
Stubbornhillfarm
Attractive To Bees
We keep things pretty simple around here. Cattle panels with one strand of hot wire around the bottom (about 2 inches out from the cattle panel). We have a hut for them that last year they slept in. We put hay in there and they loved it. This year we had some junk round bales, so we put one in the pen to give them something to do. So far, they just burry into the hay and sleep outside of the hut.
You can see where they have dug up rocks, sticks and roots. Please keep in mind this was freshly excavated land, so it was already loosened up. They are just rooting and bringing it to the surface.
We have a feeder that the farmer made at his day job. And the waterer is a 55 gal drum with a nipple on it.
They pick an area out for their rest room and we clean in once a week when they are small. When they get bigger, probably twice a week.
That's it! They are happy, we are happy, life is good!
You can see where they have dug up rocks, sticks and roots. Please keep in mind this was freshly excavated land, so it was already loosened up. They are just rooting and bringing it to the surface.
We have a feeder that the farmer made at his day job. And the waterer is a 55 gal drum with a nipple on it.
They pick an area out for their rest room and we clean in once a week when they are small. When they get bigger, probably twice a week.
That's it! They are happy, we are happy, life is good!
bj taylor
Garden Ornament
that looks great stubbornhill! how many pigs can happily live in an area like that? if there were established trees in there - would they kill them by rooting?
I've never used hot wire really. are you always having to work on it? I really like just putting a round bale in there.
how long do you keep your pigs before they go to the freezer? do you buy them or have breeding pairs?
I've never used hot wire really. are you always having to work on it? I really like just putting a round bale in there.
how long do you keep your pigs before they go to the freezer? do you buy them or have breeding pairs?
- Thread starter
- #15
Stubbornhillfarm
Attractive To Bees
Boy...I am no pig expert by far! We have 4 in there. The area is pretty big. I'm guessing you could put up to 10 in there. I wouldn't want to, we like them to have room. But I think you could.bj taylor said:
Last year we had some big trees in the pig pen area (different area from this year) they dug around the roots and I think eventually the trees probably would have died. Certainly smaller ones would I believe. That is actually what I have heard some people do. Cut down the trees but leave the stumps. Then take corn and put some around the stump, keep doing this and eventually the pigs will dig up the roots and stump trying to get to the corn. I have never done this myself, but that is the word on the street anyhow!
No on the hot wire. We have one charger for all of the hot wire. We have three strands around the cattle and this one strand around the pigs. Very rarely do you ever have to do anything to it. (maybe twice a year?) Especially for the pigs. Believe me...It takes them about 2 minutes to figure out its there and then they don't mess with it. Every now and again you might hear a "oink!!!", but that is because someone has accidentally got their snout too close or backed into it on accident.
The hay is working out great!
Currently we buy the piglets, but have tossed around the idea of getting a breeding pair. We have one that has an especially nice looking long body (more bacon!) We may decide to keep her and get a boar, but we are not totally committed.
I think that we kept them for about 14 weeks last year and that was a couple weeks too long really. This is one of the things that we like about turkeys, meat birds and pigs. It is a short term commitment. We always have the cows and laying hens, but the added work of the other things is welcome to leave after a short time frame.
bj taylor
Garden Ornament
thanks stubbornhill! really great info. that will help us figure out IF we want to raise pigs.
